MS language is potentially worse than the default. And there is room for litigation to surprise us.

And further flies at altitudes that will be visible and audible to vast swaths of the population, flies at altitudes that include buildings, towers and uncontrolled landing zones.

As well as other important issues.

Yep, gotta get on this right away. It's more important to be first than right. While the FAA could likely move a bit faster, my sympathies simply don't pour out to Amazon. And it's perfectly OK to work on this sort of technology away from busy population centers. Like we've pretty much always done in aviation.

Yes. The last stuff I wrote that I couldn't compile today was in "Promal" or "Paradox". My C and C++ code from 1980 still builds and runs.

All of my web development is on Ruby on Rails. That environment has had a lot of development and I've had to port to new versions. So old code for RoR would not quite run out of the box, but it's close.

Popular computing languages do not in general have only one Open Source implementation, and do not get abandoned.

Development with a proprietary language is ultimately harmful to your own interests, whether you make proprietary software for a profit or Free software.

The one thing every business needs is control. When you make it possible for another company to block your business, you lose control. Your options become limited. Solving business problems potentially becomes very costly, involving a complete rewrite.

The one thing that should be abundantly clear to everyone by now is that making your business dependent on Microsoft anything is ultimately a losing proposition. They have a long history of deprecating their own products after customers have built products upon them.

All Open Source licenses come with an implicit patent grant, it's an exhaustion doctrine in equitable law.

The problem is not patent holders who contribute to the code, you're protected from them. It's trolls who make no contribution and then sue.

Of course these same trolls sue regarding proprietary code as well.

Cowbell.

I think it was Sears and, in fact, it appears to be active today. Although likely ignored by pretty much all.

Perhaps Amazon has more reach - it certainly has more cachet - but I don't see this as terribly effective. For one thing, standardized prices imply consistent quality. That might happen when you're making widgets. For labor with any degree of skill - I'm rather doubtful that this is the case.

Don't conflate intelligence (or, in the case of TFA, certain aspects of learning and higher order function) with social success. Politics is more emotional than technical. It is abundantly clear that intelligence (whatever the hell that actually happens to be), the ability to learn, the ability to think have only a modest bearing on what happens to an individual throughout their lives.

Besides, the actual magnitude of the effect in TFA seems rather small - there are likely a number of other factors involved to determine if you are fated to be Steve Woz or Idi Amin.

So there will finally be a financial benefit to using Slashdot after all?

Apparently you don't interact with my family - it is a sad, strange world out there.

I presume that the panel systems you stare at were not launched out of a deep gravity well.... Satellites need to be both robust and light weight. And simple. And redundant. And cost effective.

It's rocket science! It ain't easy.

Physics.

Right. And exactly how is WhatsApp supposed to monetize you and data-mine you if your messages are encrypted? I'm of the opinion that this is a marketing gimmick with Whatsapp sitting as the man in the middle.