Continuum is not available (yet). My tablet running Windows 10 thinks it is a desktop.

But you can change a setting to get the Start screen back instead of the Start menu.

To be fair, common sense can easily be forgotten during emergencies.

Fight-or-flight instincts don't let us know that seats are useful flotation devices, but flight attendants remind us each time so it will be more fresh on our minds.

Agreed. Using a good password quality algorithm, and requiring a minimum level of strength, would be a much better tool than restricting input.

I worked at a Chick-fil-A about 15 years ago. A man walked up to me and asked for the corporate office number.

Me:

Him, holding up a table-top display:

I'm pretty sure I started laughing, until I noticed the guy was completely straight-faced.

IE 6 should be illegal.

Those who believe in the right to fling feces will vote Republican.

Dead chimps and chimps being bused in from other zoos will vote Democrat.

This seems odd, but they do it on purpose for driver compatibility.

It seemed more like the following, to me:

Let's create a version of Windows that is aimed aggressively at tablets. None of this Windows 7 Tablet PC edition, rather something that really embraces new hardware and technology. Full pane applications and home screen, with application lifecycle management and an app store, just like other tablet operating systems.

Oh and for added value, let's allow Windows desktop apps to run on it. Users can plug in mice and keyboards and it becomes like a small desktop.

Microsoft had already designed the Start screen, but it turns out telemetry data suggests the Start menu isn't of huge importance. And Fitts's Law suggests the Start screen might actually be better in some ways.

Of course, all that is true, and is great for a tablet-first OS. But then they branded it Windows 8 (not Windows Tablet or something like that) and marketed it as the successor to Windows 7. So, in my mind, it's a marketing screw-up and Windows 9 was always in the backs of their minds as the true successor to 7.

I rarely pin apps to the taskbar.

I also attended the first BUILD, in September 2011, and have the Samsung slate right beside me.

Samsung agrees with me.

The first BUILD conference was in 2011.

I want to be able to code this to make a game:

int main(int argc, const char* argv[])
{
        CreateGameThatIsSortOfLikeAngryBirdsAndMakeMeMillionsOfDollarsOvernight();
}

Anything else is too hard.

I haven't tried, so really I don't know, but I suspect that at least 75% of the total border length (that is not on an ocean or country border) could be drawn using latitude and longitude lines, with the rest using straight angled lines.

I don't see any great reason to attempt to make land area or population equal. Our political system accounts for inequality in these areas (although it could do better, and I'm certain we could get rid of the electoral college before we could redraw the states).

But the population center argument makes a lot of sense for reasons you specified. However, this philosophy may require adjustments in the future as population centers change over time.

In any case... it seems the only way this will happen is if the US collapses, and from what most post-apocalyptic TV shows indicates, the way to do that is to permanently kill our ability to create and use electricity.

Well, ok, and I'd gladly do anything to get Auburn out of the state. :)

Actually the Florida panhandle, in my opinion, makes so much more sense as part of Alabama. The residents, their political leaning, and the general culture are closer to southern Alabama than to the rest of Florida.

But I don't really understand why the boundaries are curved. Natural features still make more sense in my opinion, but ignoring that, why not focus more on lines of longitude and latitude? Perhaps some straight diagonals.

But I agree that the northeast does make more sense (border shapes excluded) than the current arrangement.

I'd like to see this map, but with 8 or 16 states (hey let's make it a power of 2 while we're at it) and straight borders.

I've seen that map and I hate it. If for no other reason than my state would now be called "Talladego".