I just need a quick bit of clarification: you are speaking about ChromeOS and not all flavors of Windows, yes?

Microsoft will never Opensource XP. Mostly because it would be a major liability with no benefit to them. Yes, liability. If you have your programmers going through the code and find a module that obviously didn't work like it was supposed to, and exposed the machines to a 0-day hack, your lawyers would race to file law suites against Microsoft to compensate for the companies losses. Or lets say you figure out what ALL the settings in the registry do, including the ones for exclusive use of the FBI/NSA/Microsoft. Now you know that they were fully able to bypass the Microsoft supplied firewalls, and grab whatever info they wanted. And you would spill that knowledge all over the net.

Where is Microsoft's benefit in all this? It's just not there.

The only project to Opensource XP that I've heard of is ReactOS, and it is STILL in Alpha stage, even after all these years. I suppose if the demand for it is there, some companies could be encouraged to donate time/money and accelerate the project, for their own benefit.

This is exactly one of the attack vectors used by China when they went after Google. They slipped some backdoors into the firmware code at the manufacturers facility in Korea. Even if the Google office was running SELinux, all it took was a port knocking to have full access to the machine, totally bypassing the high level security.

Study that a bit more. More eagles drop dead of heart attacks than die from windmills. They are used to dodging moving objects. Windmills don't make a ton of noise, either. The industrial sized ones are fairly dangerously tall, though. And the people building them are whining about how they can't get anyone to risk their life climbing and servicing them for only $20/hr. That's about $0.10/ft of height above ground. Back when I used to climb, the going rate was $1.00/ft, because of the danger.

I hate to say it, but some people can't think even if forced to at gun point or with the promise of vast wealth. I (as an adult learner) was in a class of high school students learning CNC and manual machining. I told them about my father, a CNC programmer of over 40 years experience, and how his tax refund was almost always more than I made for any given year. The instructor backed me up, stating that he made a lot of his yearly income doing side projects and contract work during the summer.

I couldn't believe it. Some of these kids had "squirrel brains", as one so eloquently put it. Many of them dropped out of the class to become welders. It really was the best they could do. I was shocked at the demonstrated lack of (talent/drive/intelligence - pick one).

Give some people tools to build great cities with, and all they can do is use them to crack walnuts. I don't think I've been surprised by stupidity since those classes. Even the average Vo-tech student was smarter than the average high school student, due to additional filtering.

Like possibly, a pacemaker?

So you're blaming an economic system for retarding technical development? Odd... I was taught that technical development is a major driver of economic competitiveness. That's why a major indicator of a declining company is if they cut their R&D budget.

I would think that you might assign blame to the individual decision makers. Just because someone is ostensibly playing the same game, doesn't mean that they have the same end-goals. Some people want to build a company to create income for the owner/s, some want to LOSE money as a tax write-off for the parent company, and some are to affect the market in some manner and their individual profit is meaningless.

An improper warrant results in dismissal of the evidence it produces. It's called "fruit of the poisoned tree". I'm not a lawyer, but our lawyer used it in court once to keep my brother out. When police raid a house without a warrant, everyone walks. When police get evidence without a proper warrant, it is removed with prejudice. A proper warrant is a vital requirement for the collection of evidence.

This is basically accepting someone else's word, their records about you, as evidence. It is now legally acceptable for the government to enter "hearsay" as evidence against you. You aren't even allowed to challenge it, like you can any other evidence. It basically boils down to, "You're guilty because we say you are. Now take it like a bitch!"

Did you even read the parent post? He said Physical access to customers is monopolized... by government regulation, paid for by industry through their highly paid lobbyists. You can start an ISP, if you can pony up a couple million to buy a lobbyist, and more millions for equipment, lawyers, employees, and then more millions for finally getting to tap into a backbone for bandwidth...

Artificially imposed monopolies throw a monkey wrench into the theory of free enterprise competition and technology improvement driving down costs of goods.

Wow. For an Anonymous Coward, you sure sound like a paid shill.

Yes.

Wear? As in "strapped or clipped onto their person"? Just about everyone that has a smartphone. What did you think they were?

They were part of my introduction to computers, and almost part of my exit.

I thought those were called "travel trailers", or "mobile homes"?

"Retirement is happiness... plan for it."

Oh. My. God.

It's too bad I can't get full retirement until I'm 72, then. Right? I'll only get to "be happy" for a few years until it's estimated I kick the bucket. I'm 46 now, and if I'm happy doing what I like NOW, then I'll get an estimated extra 26 years of "happiness". I'm sorry, but your point of view is just so depressing that I had to respond. It honestly sounds like you hate your life, and could go suicidal/homicidal at the drop of a hat. If you're equating not having to perform your career anymore as "happiness", then you may be in the wrong career.