I'm not really sure why you think Blue Laws are designed to protect incumbents. Why outlaw sales on certain days when it's much easier to keep existing dealers in power by establishing franchise laws instead?

I have a plex server running on my headless linux server, and I'm not exactly sure that I'd call it a resource hog. I use it to watch TV and movies that I've ripped from BluRay, as well as some downloaded shows. I'm incredibly happy with it. I run it on a machine with a web server, mongodb database, and obviously my sftp server. I never really notice massive performance hits on the machine.

Sync is a bit of a pain to deal with, but once you figure out how it works (it's a 3 step process and the client never tells you what step you're on) it's manageable. I usually queue 4 things to sync, let it run overnight, and in the morning I'm good to go. Online content (Daily Show, Conan, etc.) can sync, but sometimes it's not supported so that's a bit frustrating. Syncing 6 movies to your iPad for a long flight is a huge improvement over the memory cards I was using for my Vita before.

The big thing, which apparently they're finally working on, is that it doesn't support music playlists in the client. I've never seen such a thing. How do you have a music player without playlists? It's my biggest complaint about Plex. But as I said, they're working on it....slowly...should be here by 2020. I'm using the music player that came with my phone in the meantime.

Maybe I missed it, but what does re-adding ext2/3/4 support to chrome OS have to do with SD Card support on Android?

I just bought a brand new Asus Ultrabook and installed gentoo with few if any problems. Lots of documentation on the Arch Linux and Ubuntu sites related to my laptop model were really helpful. The boot was a small pain but really only took a few hours to sort. If you're not willing to spend a few hours sorting something out, Linux on the desktop probably isn't for you anyways. I had it fully up and running in about a week with no tinkering for Suspend/Resume, Touchscreen support, or Audio, which were pain points in the past. I did spend a lot of time on the Intel wireless (I had to download the firmware manually and really it was more learning about Systemd and NetworkManager) and the Intel video chipset because the kernel parameters were customized. Also ACPI support for the backlight and function keys was a bit...messy. Still haven't gotten wireless printing working, and I'm fighting with Plymouth still.

FWIW, I have a linux NAS box I custom built using a Gigabyte motherboard about 3 years ago and had no problems with it either. It did have UEFI, but Windows 8 wasn't out yet so I don't know if that complicates things. More recently I built a couple of LTC miners using MSI motherboards with few problems. Those definitely had UEFI and weren't a big deal. The biggest problem was getting the ATI drivers to like my 4 video cards.

I'd add in my phillips hue lights and nest thermostat.

Really, this sounds like the miner's fault for not realizing it earlier. My pools have an app that updates me in realtime what they see as my balance and my hash rate. If you've been re-directed to an invalid pool, you'd think your hash rate and earnings would drop to 0 over time and you'd pick up on that and try to correct the issue. I would probably notice within 15 minutes if this happened.

I know Quicktime is a little long in the tooth, but I didn't know it was THAT old.

I've flown a few times since the ban was lifted. Airlines are pretty clear during the stewardess briefings what is allowed and not allowed. You can use your phone but only in airplane mode. They've updated their safety videos to include it as well in some cases.

The international flights are fun as some countries haven't lifted the ban so you never know what they're going to do. The ones I've flown don't allow it when taking off in another country, but do allow it when taking off in the US.

While I agree in principle that publisher's are a bit superfluous to the publishing equation, acting solely as a middle man, you did leave out one major point regarding their value add. They provide substantial marketing muscle that it's not clear Amazon would provide to an individual author alone. They arrange book and media tours as well, especially for up and coming authors. Established authors obviously have their own agents or PR people who could help with this, but new authors have neither the resources nor the experience to participate in this critical marketing tool.

As a corollary - look at the Apple or Android app stores. Obviously the larger apps have marketing muscle behind them (in the form of publishers, of course), but the day that the individual could make a lot of money is few and far between. I would argue that the window for indie developer success lasted about 6 months after the app store launched. After that, you were just one person shouting in a crowd and had no chance to break even without marketing saavy or dumb luck.

Yep, E17 got me through grad school 8 years ago. I was running gentoo with ~x86 by default and it was an exciting time configuring that laptop. Nowadays I just don't have the energy to keep up so I just run windows on my desktop at home. I still configure my windows menus and desktop to match my old linux environment as much as possible - no desktop icons, quick launch icons, etc.

You don't get anything with basic cable these days. Most sports channels and the decent cable channels require a premium subscription. I looked at DirectTV, Dish, and Verizon before cutting the cord completely. There was no way I could keep my wife and my favorite channels like ESPN 2, NBC Sports, Bravo, etc. without spending a minimum of $70 just for the cable alone, not including boxes and remotes which they charge extra for.

Agreed - I was paying a $200 cable/internet/phone/HBO bill a few months ago and my wife and I decided to cut costs. We got rid of cable, the whole-house DVR, and the phone and now just have the internet and Hulu and Netflix. Add in 3 chromecasts and converting my NAS to a plex server, and that dropped our monthly bill to $75, and we still get all of our shows except my wife's Bravo and my sports, which I've found various shady ways of watching on my own with no problem. It's been great, and I'd gladly pay $10 a month to keep watching their original series and movies.

I figure the only way to change the way we watch TV is for people to keep cutting the cord and forcing the broadcasters to adapt.

You cant call for a yellow cab in NYC, unless they come from a large private garage. But no one I know has ever done it.

This app wont work well in Manhattan anyways, since there are so many cabs. And in the outer boroughs, most people know which street to go to to hail a cab trying to go back to Manhattan.

I thought it was clear? Maybe missing the word TV?

However, the Justice Department rejected the agreement between the two groups to allow Verizon to market cable services in its stores in markets where it also offers FIOS service