I am seriously worried about the future of desktop computers. If the economies of scale shift too drastically, the hobbyist computer and computer gamer will be out of luck. While I think the current shift towards mobile is making computers more approachable to more people, for those of use that use computer for work rather than play, it's detrimental.

ahh sneakernet... god I love wifi.

Yes on every part of that. Even the signature.

I got a virgin mobile 3g/4g hotspot. I got the 2GB for $35/mo, which comes with unlimited wimax. Now, after 10GB/mo they will throttle you to 2mb/s, so it won't compare to Google Fiber, FIOS, or anything of that nature. In my experience it's more reliable and better speeds than Clear. So what I did was take my service-less Android, set up Google Voice, and downloaded Groove IP for Android. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gvoip&hl=en . So now I can make outbound and take inbound calls using Google Voice, carry the wireless hotspot in my pocket, disable 4g mode, and basically have phone and internet for $35/mo. As a single guy, this is pretty sweet. The virgin mobile is a little hard to activate, but the investment in terms of effort is worth it.

someone hasn't read their Asimov.

I was taught this at a young age. It should actually be taught in schools, considering.

so we're going to file the discussion in a FIFO stack?

I would stop doing business in countries that don't seem to understand the difference between a search engine that indexes the internet and the original site that hosted the material. Screw them.

oxygen production. plankton are the foundation of the ocean ecosystem. i'm a lefty, but this seems like a win win. change will happen. but no more than when we make hydroelectric dams that drastically change the water temperature so all of the indigenous fish die and have to be replaced with colder water species. and these types of changes are justified every day. I really don't see a problem with this. let's do a study to see what happens when we offer fish more food. you get more fish.

Um, a kid shouldn't be able to walk in and see a spent fuel pool. Not cool.

I was there. I saw it.

Having been an avid scifi fan since 5th grade, Ray Bradbury was up there with my favorites of Heinlein, Herbert, and Asimov. Everytime I hear "Major Tom", I think of a short story by Ray Bradbury.

Not sure this is any better. If someone can guess the password, they can read the captcha. That is, unless the captcha is somehow stored on the local machine, which makes the file inaccessible except from that terminal.

Here's a solution. Once this passes, everyone cancel their internet service. All of it. Use work internet because we don't pay for it, but cancel all of our residential internet. Instead of blacking out the internet, we just quit the internet. An internet not worth browsing is marginally different than no internet.

HE IS AN ASTROPHYSICIST. That's a good start. Second, he's not the only, he's only the most celebrated on the Internet. Hence all the "We've got a badass here..." memes.