I very much enjoyed "A New Kind of Science" -- thank you. Despite the criticisms (in some cases fair), it is an astounding achievement. In it, you write that you believe that the methods developed in your book could lead to a fundamental theory of the Universe. Has your opinion on this subject changed and has there been any progress (of which you're aware) along these lines?

Very much the same -- that's why the number of abortions and the number of castrations are virtually equal, every single year!

Well, both this and the submitted article are about WiFi issues (surprisingly) on big-name platforms. Just different platforms.

Maybe this is a good time to complain about my WiFi issues with the Microsoft Surface Pro 3. When it wakes up, I always have to disconnect and reconnect from the access point. When I go between home and work, I expect it to automatically connect to the appropriate access point, but I always have to do it manually

Apparently, these are known issues. I love my Surface Pro 3, but it would be great if this was addressed.

Wrong? I expressed my aversion to a particular spelling. I don't think that I am "wrong." It really does bother me. I even wrote "please" to indicate that I wasn't on some grammatical high horse.

"Mice", please! "Mouses" [shudder] is just painful to read.

In addition, he was quite funny in "Murder by Death" playing a blind butler.

First of all, I love Python. I get to program in Python all day.

However, I often wonder if Python's assignment methodology confuses students that move on to other languages.

In Python, an assignment is actually a naming operation, and not an assignment. On the surface, this seems to be the same thing, but it really is different. The other languages, with which I'm familar, do not operate like this.

I'm guessing (truly!) that last function call should be "except" and not "expect".

Well, not exactly lip service. Compared to their counterparts, even though they still spend excessively, Republican congressmen apparently propose far less spending. I can't find the reference, but a few years back I remember a story that compared the average Republican congressman to the average Democrat. The average Democrat was attached to proposed legislation (as in sponsor) with costs something like four times that of the Republican (if passed).

Exactly. Came here to post just this.

The reason that the Space Exploration budget is shrinking as a percentage is simply because of the explosion in entitlement spending.

"... giving up control is anthem to them."

For future reference, that should be "anathema".

-- Bjarne Stroustrup

Augustus St. Cloud, for one.