As an engineer, I use math for field work all the time. I usually have a laptop with me that I use matlab on. Though I wouldn't use a graphing calculator now, it was a good middle point in building up to using matlab when I was in school.
Perhaps rather than make powerful calculators, TI and HP should make powerful apps for tablets. Much more useful for buyers, and cheaper to make for TI and HP. It should make everyone happy.
which has exceeded 3 trillion dollars. I'd gladly trade the money spent on war for a stable power grid that doesn't go down at the drop of a leaf
... and you'd have a lot more bombs going off at home, which would probably exceed the cost of fighting it. When someone is shooting at you, sitting and taking it isn't an option. You may not like the war on terror, but ignoring it isn't an option. There isn't a single politician who claims that ignoring it is a good idea.
As far as energy goes, the cost of defending myself from getting blown up by someone that hates me isn't comparable to energy costs.
Research data should be made available to the public for the sake of peer review. Emails and other communication should not be because that would that create a biased opinion for those that read the emails, and emails need freedom to make conjecture without being held to those conjectures for final theories.
There's always someone on Slashdot that wants to ignore the facts
It is completely inappropriate to WANT a hurricane to devastate a state just to delay a few people you don't like. Grow up.
Even more common than fact checking on web is "incorrectly" fact checking. I don't know how many times I've read one fact on an article just to read another article that claims the opposite is true. Think about reading forums on Slashdot, how many times is a statement corrected, to then be corrected by someone else, to then be corrected, and so on
Capitalism does not preclude altruism. Charity work has always flourished in capitalistic societies.
Let companies serve who they want to serve. Those who cater to everyone will probably do better. It's the basis of freedom and market competition.
There are endless numbers of companies who can process credit cards, and many of them will pay Wikileaks. Use the companies you like and don't use the companies you don't like. It's much more effective then taking them to court to force them to take your money.
Global warming has not increased the temperature by 15 degrees in one year. This is a heat wave, not the new normal. At best you could predict they will happen more often.
Bill Gates main focus has been philanthropy and education for a long time. That includes research on how to best improve education. You may not like it, but his opinion is informed and should be taken into account when buying educational technology.
It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one.
