Seems to me that this only works if Comcast pays something now with the promise of more after the vote. -- which may be the case.

Can they? "Staying bought" assumes some level of integrity, which leads one to a contradiction. It seems to me that if politicians can be bought at all, in all probability they can be bought multiple times.

'Yes, we have invented a way to unboil a hen egg,

Let me know when they can unboil a rooster egg. Now that will be something.

I think you're right, they're at maximum heel. I wonder at what point the sails touch the water. Or has this already happened?

> Despite all the bashing, Microsoft has done a decent job with server operating systems lately

Well, at least up until October 26, 2012. (Wow, was it really that long ago?)

> So if you will not be able to upgrade the OS and MS eventually stops providing updates to that OS will they at least release the keys to install something else?

No of course not. And the reason is, if you continue using your Surface RT, regardless of what OS you're running, you aren't buying some other Microsoft product. I think the expected behavior is to throw your RT away and buy a "real" Surface. So hop to it.

Which might have happened.

dodged that bullet.

Hence "speed of light in a vacuum".

Yeah, for a second I thought "space drive!" and then "wait a minute, surely you'd want to *increase* the speed of light". Serves me right for reading Slashdot before coffee.

Shocked, I tell you. That Microsoft would release a non-real-windows-compatible, promote it, and then leave users out in the cold. This has never ever happened before Windows CE. Sorry, I mean, Windows Alpha. Sorry sorry sorry, I mean Windows RT.

I should also have said, I agree with you on anxiety disorders - my daughter has a panic disorder and it's really been difficult for all of us to deal with. But sister demonstrably doesn't really have the disorder she claims to have. Test by: Although she tells the social worker she's incapable of driving, due to be terrified of the open spaces, so that the social worker has to do her grocery shopping, she has no trouble driving her 4x4 in the desert or taking her RV to the coast. (My understanding is that she tells them that a friend drives the RV and she stays inside the entire trip -- demonstrably untrue by anyone who knows her.)

My sister lives two states away from me. I'm not going to lie to any official who asks me about her, (I'd be happy to tell them she's faking her afflictions) but I'm not the welfare police and I don't see where it's my place to engage the government in order to rat on her. I just try to keep her out of my life and minimize the damage she causes to the rest of the family. Besides, she's known to be sue-happy, and getting on her bad side is not conducive to my financial health.

I actually don't know where she got the money. She got a lot of things by signing up to make payments and then... not making the payments. I'm not sure whether the vehicles fall into that category or whether they had some other source. I do note that neither her nor her husband worked a day after the mid 1990s, that they were both receiving disability and other forms of assistance, and that they also got a chunk of money from the lawsuit. I've tried to stay out of her drama otherwise.

Ok, here's a hard one. From the same novel, finish this quote: "A difference that makes no difference,"

It was actually not a bad novel, from a decent author (James Blish). Too bad about the title.