How on earth am I going to get a 600GB SSD into a MacBook Air, and how much is that going to cost?

There is more than one factor here. It's completely disingenuous to say that the problem is the cost not the small size; the problem is the cost per unit of size, which means there is a tradeoff to be made. One tradeoff which you are rejecting is to buy a smaller SSD (or live with what you get in an MBA, which you can't change easily) and compress files that aren't frequently used. It's a perfectly valid tradeoff. It saves money, at the cost of making infrequently accessed files slightly more expensive to access. The fact that they are stored on an SSD doesn't make it any less valid to compress them. The fact that it takes 10 milliseconds to compress a megabyte of data with reasonable algorithm is a perfectly fine tradeoff to make.

What makes you think I have OS X on my Macbook?

Did you read beyond my semicolon, or was it too much text for you?

When you have a single device with only SSD storage, how do you store compressible files belonging to the OS?

Me, I use filesystem compression on them. Not because it's fast or slow; but because that's the solution to the actual problem.

Riiiight, so I drag around an ugly mechanical drive every time I need to use my laptop, sure. That's exactly why I spent extra money on getting a small and light machine.

I mean, I even have ZFS compression enabled on my NAS - saves me a good 30%, which turns out to be a fair amount of money when you have 8 drives in a redundant configuration. Going above 8 drives is an expensive proposition, needing a new SATA controller, a new case, etc. Going with bigger drives, to get the benefit, will mean buying 8 new drives. Either way, you're looking at 500-1000 USD to add decent performing redundant storage.

How will I get that into my Macbook Air?

SSD = very expensive small storage; mobility = no space for extra storage

They do it almost wholly because it's a cheap way of creating tension. There isn't a conspiracy here.

Probably the biggest cause of wear and tear is snow and ice (freeze-thaw, expanding cracks), and after that hydraulic action (wet weather + tyres). If you have temperate weather and roads with good drainage and a solid foundation, I don't think you should see a whole lot of damage. But the potholes really come out after a cold snap.

2500W / 240V is well under 13A; those are the relevant figures for the UK, Ireland etc. Rest of Europe you might assume 220V, but still under 13A, much less 16A for normal earthed sockets on the continent. But such high power is far from unusual; for example, ordinary kitchen kettles are plugged straight into a normal socket and generally draw 2200 watts.

What you are not understanding is that the law is not a machine, nor is it like mathematics. The law relates to humans and human conceptions of the world. It's irrelevant to human conceptions of patents and algorithms that programming is inherently reducible to mathematics; what is important is the law as it is understood by humans, and how that law is interpreted to apply to any given situation. If most people consider an algorithm to not to come under the mathematical exception, then, for the purposes of the law, it doesn't come under the mathematical exception. Trying to argue using mathematical reductions is irrelevant; all you will succeed in doing by that line of argument is causing politicians to alter and/or remove the mathematical exception so that it no longer applies to algorithms, in this hypothetically convinced state.

I can guarantee you that countries with border controls don't like it when you evade those border controls; moreover, Iran requires American citizens to be escorted when in the country. Crossing a border checkpoint on a road on a bike is a long, long way from doing it in the mountains.

But you're right. It's either stupidity or spookery. But then, spooks can be stupid too.

Being to Iran - going through official channels, visa, border control etc. - is very different, as I see it, and I understand Americans need to be escorted. There isn't a war on in Iran. Playing around the Iran/Iraq border isn't a simple tourism trip, and is at best pretty stupid.

I mean, I'm Irish, and for a long time there was low level conflict going on in the north of the island. But you could visit the Republic in particular any time you liked, and as long as you weren't very close to the border, you'd never even notice. But hang around the wrong areas of Derry or Belfast, and you'd know all about it pretty sharpish.

I guess you're right - they're innocent by association! ;)

Three hikers on the border between Iraq and Iran, in a time of war, insecurity and bellicose politics? You seriously believe they're just hikers?

They may just be hikers, but the circumstantial evidence makes me doubt it.

My rectangle isn't empty; I don't use it to preview links, I use it to monitor the status of my plugins. It's the status bar, not the link preview bar.