I was salaried working for a big consulting company and they tried to get me to work for free. Sure, I can work Saturday, I'll just take Monday off. They didn't like it, but I didn't care. Take it or leave it. Too many people kowtow, or hey they need to support their large cable tv subscription and payments on their best buy credit card for that new 4K TV they had to have.

I worked as a high level IT engineer for several large enterprises. At the last one we got outsourced to Perot Systems. I managed a team but I still worked on all the hard stuff. I left and went to work for a local small consulting firm, and after a year or two there I started my own.

11 years later and I'm burned out. I want to sell the business. We just sold our house and moved on to a sailboat and plan on cruising for a while, and I'm torn if I want to try and run the business remotely or find somebody to buy it, which isn't easy either.

I finally got screwed by ebay/paypal this year. Bought some cables to connect up some solar panels and the seller gave a tracking number that said delivered, even though I was home all that day, have video of the package not being delivered, but too bad so sad you are SOL.

So I lost $130, but just imagine what happens when the software says you did it when you didn't.

People will pay because people are stupid. Meanwhile the internet in your car will also provide detailed tracking as to what you do, when you do it, and who you do it with. All of this information will be used to control you and keep you a happy consumer. Another advantage is the easy "DrivePay" system so you can pay tolls and mileage taxes very easy. In 3 years you won't be able to find a strip bar not named "The board room", "The office", "The convention center", or "The Dry Cleaners". Don't worry jealous partners, there's an app for that 6 months later for $4.99 on itunes or play store.

What about AMVER? What happens when somebody needs help at sea? Are their screens going to be able to pick out a small [relatively speaking] sailboat? Or one in distress? What happens when somebody hails the tanker to discuss which side they are going to pass on? Or they see a life raft in the water? This thing is going to stream a 360 HD view to somewhere else in realtime so they can keep a watch?

Any helmsman worth his salt would have noticed a change in the direction of the swell, the sun, moon, stars, compass, so I would say the crew was not standing a good watch if they weren't properly observing their environment.

I remember an old DOS app called Flicker Free, where the screen would scroll smoother and you could change colors... maybe it needs an update!

What would you do if suddenly your uncle bernie was reanimated like a zombie. You'd blow his head off I'm sure! I side with the sparrows! Death to cyborg zombies!

Since you got all this info about guns posting on /., maybe you should try asking the tech question on a gun site? Let me know if you need an IT guy with sailing experience to help set it all up and go along and maintain it. (It would be cheaper to bring me along vs. fly me in)

I applaud them for taking care of themselves, and not looking for or expecting a handout. I think we should have free hand outs on mars. Load up a rocket with all the people who want free handouts, then top it off with lawyers, and fire them off at Mars. When that call comes "Earth, this is mars 1. Do you copy?" We just have to go "Kssschhhhssss Mar 1 kssscchhhhh break-shhhhhhh up"

I think Twitter has Google + beat soundly based on ONE feature I can sign up for Twitter, but Google + is not open for new accounts. I think that's the most important feature in ANY online service.

What happens when nature evolves a new predator to eat this abundance of protein? Maybe aliens gave cavemen this technology just to watch the t-rex's go to town?

I cut the cord years ago. The few shows I like I watch online, and like others say, if they start charging or making it too much of a pain to watch, I will just go without. Most of the time when I'm at a friends house that has cable/sat, I surf through and find nothing of interest on. So when I'm bored it just means I have to find something more productive and fulfilling to do then sit on the couch and watch whatever crap the media companies are trying to shovel down my throat this week. I like hulu a lot, and noticed they started taking back episodes offline. It's a shame because sometimes I show somebody a show they haven't seen before (like 30 rock) and can't show them more because of network greed. I think that now that anybody can host a TV show on the internet, their empire is falling, and they're going to try and squeeze every last drop out of it before it falls.