Netflix uses USPS extensively. There are also certain legal matters that for the moment require the physical exchange of documents (anything that requires a notary for a very simple example). Many of them go through FedEx/UPS of course, but for some non-urgent ones USPS makes complete sense.

The USPS may be fading, but there is still a need for the immediate future and ending saturday delivery is a very logical way to make up some of its revenue gap.

It depends. When we are talking about desktop applications (whether consumer or purely in-house), then there should certainly be a user friendly install package for everyone's sake. It makes it easier for the front-line help-desk, easier for the user, and saves the developer time. For complex server packages, I would be much more tolerant of not creating a simple install package. For something like that, creating a simple install package might be very difficult and might loose the ability to customize each install for that particular server. Such packages are not installed frequently and there is often good reason the installation is complex. With that said, the install process should at least be well documented. If it is not well documented, then you can run into problems if (when) you loose that particular developer.

First, I would pick a distro, that makes it a lot easier to sell. I unhesitatingly recommend Ubuntu for someone that wants Linux on the desktop.

But as for what needs to be done, while I use Ubuntu I also still use Windows. Windows really is a pretty good OS, IMHO. But more than that, there are several important programs that have no Linux counterparts. There are few AAA games on Linux. Also, as much as I love LibreOffice, MS Office is sometimes an absolute requirement.

He was a great and impressive man. Still, I hate daylight savings time.

#2 is murky. Clearly the box and physical items are goods, and interactive online access is a service. But it is not clear that a license should be needed for software. While there is now some case law on EULA's it is far from clear yet. After all, I do not need a license to read a book. Why should I need a license to use software I purchased? And even the cases that say a EULA is enforceable generally view it as a contract of adhesion, which means it is subject to scrutiny for what the company can put in it and so those contours are very unclear. And you mention copyrights and patents, but I only need to worry about copyrights and patents if I am doing something which is protected by those. It is fairly clear that most uses of most software (even software that in some way invokes a patent) are *not* covered by patents. Most uses of software do involve some sort of copying, but that kind of transient copying which is necessary to make any use of the purchased software at all would almost certainly fall under fair use. So, #2 is extremely murky. And there are plenty of software cases that don't implicate 1 or 3 and some of those are murky. Do I buy anything when I use GoodOldGames.com (great site incidentally), or am I licensing it? Is it a sale of a good or a service or neither?

I think any progress in nuclear power is probably a good thing for the environment and economy.

There are a fair number of people without fingerprints though. There is a genetic condition that will cause it as well as certain occupations/hobbies that will effectively sand them away (bricklaying is one amoungst several).

Cutting them down and using them for anything other than burning them (or letting them decay) would sequester the carbon they had captured for relatively long periods of time. That does actually include burying them as long as it is in a way that would deter natural decay (many of the bacteria involved release CO2).

COPPA of course. COPPA made it almost impossible for a non-specialized provider like Google to provide services to children under 13 in a legal fashion in a way that is cost effective and profitable. In a situation like that, of course Google's way to comply is to ban accounts for users under 13.

Now, the question is, is it a good thing for COPPA to essentially force non-specialized interactive services to not deal with children?

I am strongly of the opinion that it should be the parents responsibility to guide, gaurd, and teach their children and that COPPA should not exist. But I also understand the counterargument that it is hard for parents to do that without some restrainints on corporations as well.

I'm not certain that is always true. I often throw things on dropbox for convenient synching without really caring about them, yet I am reasonably confident that it will get backed up effectively. And even if you care, your average user doesn't know how to do proper backups, certainly not as well as many cloud providers do.

With that said, it is generally possible to use limited trust with any cloud provider. I love dropbox for its convenience and it has always been reliable. But I also backup my dropbox folder to my NAS at 2AM every morning. I think dropbox is reasonably secure, yet anytime I post anything more sensitive than my next homework assignment it goes into the Truecrypt file I store on dropbox rather than into my main folder.

As others have said, the best option is to find a local gaming or comic shop and ask around or join their Encounters session if you like D&D.

But if, like me, you have a hard time finding large blocks of time to play with friends, you could consider Play-By-Email (PBEM). It goes much slower than a face to face game, but you can play in small chunks of time at your convenience. I average around 10-15 minutes per day at the time most convenient for me instead of trying to coordinate schedules. If you are upfront with the gm/moderator that you are new many will go far out of their way to help you. Many PBEM games emphasize the role playing and downplay or streamline combat just to help keep things moving, whether or not that is a good thing depends ont he style you like.

I think it depends on how you define "good support". Many free (both libre and gratis) applications are very well supported by the community, this includes both Python and R. If you do not like community support, most major free applications have companies that will happily sell support contracts. Red Hat is the obvious example with Linux. Logilab and ActiveState will sell support contracts for Python.

As for the open source part, you are technically right that there is a difference beween "open source" and "libre" or "gratis". But unless they specifically say otherwise at some point, most people that say open source are looking for something that is both libre and gratis, not just that there is some way to acquire the source code.

I second the suggestion of R. I have only dabbled with it, but it is quite powerful and has a great community. You might also want to consider something a little more general purpose though. Python with the NumPy and SciPy packages can handle just about any statistical problem you want to consider and it has the versatility to do a whole lot more, such as handle any intermediate steps. It is completely free and you can download an excellent complete package at http://code.google.com/p/pythonxy/wiki/Welcome

I cannot agree more. I have an IPAD and a Netbook. They supplement my PC, not replace it. While a truly post-PC era *might* be coming, proclaiming it is here now is certainly an exaggeration.

You are right, and it is sad but true. Still, I incredibly detest glossy monitors and I at least try to find the matte ones when I go to buy a new one. With some things like smart phones it doesn't seem to even be an option though. I would happily pay more for a matte screen for my smart phone.