Microsoft has been "donating" to non-profits for years. It's actually a quite cynical process whereby they seed the market to gain market share. In my opinion they really should not get the tax breaks that come to them from these "donations." But this one is laughable because receiving Windows 8 or its decendents is going to benefit precisely no one.

What about curl!!!?

My thoughts exactly. The whold tablet market is way too much about controlling the end user. Open them up and sel! No one wants your bloody windows rt!!

I've got at least one customer that won't ever upgrade one software package because the new version doesn't do all that the old version does. Developers are sometimes quite removed from their end users and don't always know nor care what features of their software have become mission critical to some customers. Consequently they use their own flawed judgment to axe this or that feature, because "nobody ever uses that" leaving a segment of their users out in the cold.

That's an answer that seems to work within the materialistic worldview. But interactive, supernaturalistic theism has a different answer. For us, bi-directional communication with the higher power is the source of purpose. Inherent purpose cannot arise from materialism -- only self-constructed purpose. And especially for the mentally ill, that which is merely self-constructed is not trustworthy. But if you sense that what you are is guided from on high, the unknown future becomes bearable and hope, which was formerly non-existent, becomes possible. And in the presence of hope, mental illness weakens and therapy is a thing that one can work through to a reachable goal. This seems to portray a scenario in which the materialists are the strong selfmade mental nobility, who need no crutch, looking down with mixed contempt and pity on the unwashed theistic masses. To which I can only say that pity is also due the blind.

Rudyard Kipling was an imperialist. So he's out of fashion. Orson, you're in good company.

Exactly. Just the same way that atheists on slashdot get all insulted when someone disagrees with their religion. It's a complete waste of your time to argue with them over their "Facts".

So gamble, gamble, gamble and maybe one of your kids might be telepathic...?

http://www.mavericklsa.com/ It's a car that converts to something like an ultralight.

Ask Watson this: "What will we do when the energy of all the suns runs down...?"

I'm just glad that sometimes conflicting data is presented. There's no excuse for the way dissenting opinion is pilloried on slashdot sometimes. "Climate change deniers," Creationists and ID'ers are labeled and dismissed as anti-science no-minds, with a bigoted fervor that would make the Spanish Inquisition proud. But we're all people and we all have reasons for our ideas and opinions. Sometimes the data takes a turn we might not have guessed. For the record, I would put myself in all three of the aforementioned pariah camps. Denier, because I've lived long enough to disbelieve anything governments, scientists and news media unite to get their knickers in a knot about. It just has the odor of social manipulation towards an end goal. Someones attempt at psycho-history or sim-earth. Seen it before, figure there must be someone at the back of it raking in the dough from the hysteria. Creationist because someone who has experienced God as I have can't really be anything else -- even though the data I'm privy to is not acceptable to someone on the other side of the debate, I must accept it. ID'er because there's just so much ordered complexity obvious to those who have an open mind to see it. Also for the record, I applaud the effort and technology that conserves energy and protects the environment, for the reason that this world is given to us to steward well, not to rape.

We are heading for MULTIVAC...

As long as we don't also bring in a Canadian DMCA, I'm all for it.