"A space probe that takes 9 years to go from earth to Pluto would take over 100,000 years to get to even our closest neighbor, a mere 4.2 light years away."

Your major point that stars are really really far away is an important one. Stross or Scalzi blogged about that a while back.

However, I'm going to nitpick your sentence quoted above,and suggest that your conclusion may be wrong as well.

Talking about a space probe that takes 9 years to go to pluto is like talking about how long a snail would take to go to hawaii. In snail terms, it's too far. But I've been to hawaii and back. Also, I think you used a linear projection. But spacecraft don't usually travel linearly. Assuming some sort of fuel or propulsive mechanism, (a problematic assumption, i know) they keep accelerating to turn-around point. Speed of spacecraft increases by exponential factors, sort of a moore's law of spaceships. Within 100 years, some kind of fusion drive or other advanced technology should be doable. Make yourself into a software simulation, on a piece of hardware that can withstand 20 g's and weighs a gram, and has a fusion drive first stage to get it started,and you shave a lot of time off the trip. How to slow down at the other end I don't have a solution for yet.

the best touch screen based system i've seen, designed for ease of use by non-computer users, was the PLATO-IV system.
in 1982.

thanks. i wasn't sure if endor and endore were the same person. endore wrote the screenplay for that peter lorre movie where he gets transplanted hands from a murderer. also wrote other horror-type screenplays.

found it, with help from redditt
http://www.scribbleandshutter.com/2007/writing/daybeaver/daydragon01.htm

there's a wonderful story in some sf anthology i read back in the dim ages. a scientist does an operation on some alligators to restore the 4chambered heart, and the alligators then grow wings, become dragons, and conquer the world.

story as submitted says "this week". but now it's been sitting there for a week, should read last week. it used to take about two days for my submissions to get accepted or rejected. now they sit until they are no longer relevant,and eventually get rejected. don't know what that's about.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/1970-09-01/Dandelion-Wine.aspx
yours is a good plan tho.

there is some editing. the posted text is different from the stories as submitted. sometimes better sometimes worse.

why's it always got to be about race with you guys? can't we just get along?

1.4 billion project, to produce enough electricity for 140,000 homes, if i'm doing the math right, works out to about $10,000 per home. that seems like a reasonable payback. if google has a 12% share, that's around 17,000 homes. how many employees does google have? more than 20,000.
so, if they throw in a bit of conservation, google is buying solar power for its workforce's homes, at about $10,000 each. Seems like they break even on the investment while getting decent pr out of it. If it costs $1.4 billion to build, does that make it an easy target for terrorists (from, say, redmond) to hit with a dirty bomb?

Re-read the post. It's not about out of print fiction, it's about "out of work fiction."
"14erCleaner writes "US Circuit Judge Denny Chin has rejected a $125 million settlement between Google Books and the author's guild that would have allowed Google to publish all out-of-work fiction online. Chin has previously ruled more favorably on this case.'"
As you know, slashdot is infallible,and Timothy wouldn't have made such a glaring error. Not that I've RTFA, but it must be about out of work fiction.

mod parent up; AC is correct that the headline was wrong. maybe we're just used to that here.