1) What does "not necessarily the case" mean, to you? To me, it means that the equipment is available, but it's not something that one carries around with oneself all the time.

I'll give you the point on digital broadcast radio; a copy of the bitstream should be easy to record. I tend to forget about its existence, since I don't have a receiver.

2) It's fine for non-audiophiles. Digital radio is transmitted at 48-128kbit/s in the U.S.using lossy compression anyhow, and it would still outperform FM, which is more than likely playing from digital audio sources anyhow, even for the analog transmissions.

Vinyl's a non sequitur here. How many people would be able to record to vinyl anyhow? And if they've got their own higher-quality recording of the music, then they aren't going to be listening to it on the radio (let alone recording it from there), so it's a moot point.

You failed to learn multiplication in grade school, I take it. A large number of people times a small cost per person can still be a large cost, especially if you're looking at some of the advertising-only services, where the company's paying a tiny price for bandwidth, but also getting a tiny income from the ad sales. Old radio didn't have that particular extra cost.

Each extra listener increases bandwidth costs, which old radio didn't. This is a trade-off for all the demographic info that the publishers get, so it's a direct cost paid for some marketing information.

I'd disagree with that. On Spotify et al, I've got my recording+processing equipment built into my listening equipment. That's not necessarily the case with radio, and the best I could hope for is a 2nd-gen analog copy anyhow.

Change is risk, and big business is vehemently opposed to risk. Better the enemy you know than the one you don't.

Irrelevant. With my Toyota, I can buy standard parts, jack the car up, and do the work myself if I choose. Changing the oil or other fluids, changing filters, and other things that comprise regular maintenance aren't that hard to do.

It's the same with my laptop (Sager in a Clevo case). I can replace the RAM, CPU, storage, optical drive, and GPU. The battery is removable and replaceable. What I'm expected to do or not doesn't really matter to me; what I can do matters a great deal. Soldered-on parts would've meant that my laptop would have been replaced several years ago. Instead, I bought new standard parts and upgraded the sucker. If I had an older Mac where the drive, RAM, and battery were still removable, I would've upgraded it too. Years ago, I helped a friend do the same with an iBook. It was a pain in the ass, but it was doable. Not anymore.

Computer science isn't "research skills"? It isn't math? Well, that's news to me...Now, if you were talking about a master's degree in software engineering, then maybe you'd have a point.

Python's great for throwing data around, and implementing all the glue code that holds a program together. All the interesting parts of the program are in libraries written in C, though. I feel the same way about OSX. It's wonderful, clean, and smooth for everyday desktop use, but if you want to start doing something a little "off the beaten track", it's more hassle to get things working, partly because the culture of "it just works" discourages tinkering and customization. Similarly, Python's culture seems to frown on getting down into the nitty-gritty of how things work.

Having homogenous hardware facilitates learning the "how" of getting something to work, but that's only important in the short term. Long term, I think it's much more important to learn the "why" of the functionality. Linux forces you to find out *why* it matters that the other person's setup is different. It's more work, but I see value in it.

Standards are good, but being able to depart from them, if you choose to do so, is even better.

The Raspberry Pi version isn't released yet, but it's likely to bear some similarities to the Intel Galileo version that has had a preview release of the OS, since they're being released under the same "Internet of Things" development program. On that platform, it's serial-only with no graphics output. In the preview version, it's mostly just a host for C/C++ projects using a Wiring-style library to access the GPIO on that board (although I think that support for .Net and "universal apps" is planned for the official release).

I could be wrong, but I don't see the RasPi2 version of Windows 10 being remotely similar to the PC release of the OS. The evidence implies that it won't be.

I see that repeated over and over, but I've never had trouble finding a job. I've worked (remotely) with contractors from Slovenia, China, and India, and the pattern that I've seen is that they generate more work for me fixing their broken code than they take away from me by doing the initial implementation. I'll worry when I stop seeing a coder with 10 years of experience making mistakes that I learned to avoid while I was still in school. Until that time, I can successfully compete on quality.

Because hardware manufacturers are going to go after the largest part of the market possible, not cater to the fussy long tail of malcontents that need uncommon features like the ability to load their own OS. We've finally gotten to the point where I don't need to be incredibly picky over the hardware that I buy to ensure that it'll run Linux acceptably. I don't want to have to research through user forums for anecdotal evidence that some particular piece of hardware was mislabeled as not being locked down, and I don't really want hardware that I might have to break the warranty on to do something that I do with all of my hardware as a matter of course (shrink the Windows partition and throw Linux on the sucker). That is why I care about what the unconcerned masses are running.

As a last resort? OK, if it's the only way to get the hardware that I need. As a first choice of solution? I'd rather not.

I'll admit that the culture is puritanical and backwards in some ways. In some parts of the country, there's a higher rate of religious zealotry than I see out here in California. However, my wife goes out and alone uncovered and without fear. I can go into a sex shop and buy a strap-on, riding crop, and cock rings. I can go out in public and yell "Jesus Christ sucks Satan's cock and is a son of a whore! God doesn't exist, and the prophets were dangerously deranged madmen!" What will happen? Nothing.

All that isn't denying the fact that I'd feel unsafe taking my wife and mixed-race son into some parts of the South, but that doesn't have much to do with puritanism or religion.

Common? No. Possible? Well....maybe, if the planets align properly and you buy some clunky Clevo case?

I've got a number of commercially-produced games with Linux versions. They work beautifully =) However, I've also got the other 85% of my games catalog, which will only run on Windows, assuming that I don't want to spend the time fiddling with Wine to get them working. I *have* in the past...but I've got less time now than I used to, and streaming from Steam on my Windows computer over to Steam on my Linux laptop works pretty well.

It isn't, obviously. The point is to act as a deterrent for the same behavior happening again, without ruining someone's life. The solution doesn't have to be based on money, as you've noted. Requiring driving school would be an appropriate consequence, in at least some situations.

The death penalty can only be applied once; it's not going to act as a deterrent to the individual in the future. And, again, it depends on what kind of equality you're going for. Equality of deterrence sounds like a better idea to me than a strict numerical equality.

If X is enough to ruin one person's life, but not another's, then what is equal about that outcome? It sounds like something worthy of a legal system, but not of a justice system.

It depends on how you measure "differently". Maybe for me, a $100 fine is no problem, but for my friend a $100 fine means that they aren't going to be able to make their rent payment on time this month. So, I get mildly inconvenienced (gotta transfer $100 into my checking account), but my friend gets evicted. I think there's something fundamentally wrong with that outcome.