Grandparent is basically correct, although a little overmotivated. Does make you wonder where he works, even if he is correct.

How much cash are they making off the free reference doc app on my android phone? Negative. The title in the play store is "PFRPG RD". Well I do buy adventures from them, so I guess they make a lot of money, yet indirectly as you say.

Can't make money anymore selling the ideas of "calculus". Can make money selling "calculus" textbooks and workbooks.

I wouldn't be surprised if Ron Paul has an "accident", or a "tragic heart attack". He's fairly old, no one will be too surprised.

Why would they have to kill him, since his price has obviously already been met.

I feel pretty bad for all the young people who really thought Ron Paul was something special, something different. He turned out to have his hand out like every other politician. Mitt Romney bought him off with the political equivalent of a little flattery and a promise to look out for his developmentally-disabled son, Aqua Buddha.

Actually I have read a couple of studies on how such fabrics behave under intense sunlight. The performance is better than you would expect.

My point was that I don't believe a country should base its energy policy on a culture that covers its women from head to toe.

Maybe the reason why we are not ok with it is because it is not Cisco's equipment but our own? I mean, we did pay for it right?

Setting aside all the arguments about privacy, anonymity, and you dont-have-anything-to-fear-if-you-have-nothing-to-hide crap we can at least agree that if you own something... you know... maybe you should own it?

I guess you don't give a fuck if you walk into your house, or business, and you find somebody standing there inspecting or modifying your equipment just because they sold it to you. That's sounds perfectly reasonable.

I would like to see this debated.

No, I don't really believe you would.

I think you'd like to see everyone agree with you that Iran would not kill "countless innocent Muslim civilians" and that we should somehow take comfort in the fact that Ahmadinejad "is no Hitler and no Stalin". I'm sure that late neighboring buffoon, Saddam Hussein, was "no Hitler and no Stalin" but he had no compunctions about killing "countless innocent Muslim civilians". In fact, just about every time I look at the news I see muslims killing "countless innocent Muslim civilians", and more often than not, it's thanks to some "buffoon" who's "no Hitler and no Stalin". So pardon me if your assurances about Ahmadinejad do not really convince.

I have seen news that Israel is about to perform a preemptive strike against Iran, and this is horrible.

We have seen this news since about 2002. Every six months or so, a parade of neoconservatives who have failed at foreign policy (Ledeen, Wolfowitz, Bolton, Podhoretz, etc) shows up at the right-wing talk shows with breaking news that Israel is going to launch a strike against Iran "within 60 days". No joke, this is as regular as Autumn follows Summer. If you tune into any of the Salem Radio talkers, Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, you will hear these predictions at least once a week. The funny thing is that not one of them has ever mentioned their own long string of failed predictions.

I don't know if Israel is going to launch a strike on Iran, and I don't know if Israel wants to launch a strike on Iran, but I know for sure that Israel doesn't want to launch a strike anywhere near as badly as this string of former foreign policy advisers to Republican administrations. And this act has been going on since at least the 1970s.

Oh, and the good news? Mitt Romney has already stated that he's going to hire all these same psychopaths to advise his administration on foreign policy. He's putting the pro-war band back together, and this time with an extra helping of St John's Revelations, LDS-style.

but even Saudi Arabia wants to build nuclear power stations

They also want their women to wear black blankets over their head in a sunny, hot climate, so I'm not sure what "Saudi Arabia wants" is worth considering.

Personally, I find what "German wants" more compelling than what "Saudi Arabia wants".

Since the OP is supposedly looking for a machine for his sister, he should start there and ask what she wants it to do. In all likelihood, she will never want to customise it, so he should be looking at the simplest or most reliable way of fitting the tool to the job. Sure, there might be issues like bulk or styling to take into account, but again that needs her input. Enough with the patronising.

And the comment you linked to runs contrary to my experience.

The real business grade laptops - not just from a manufacturer's business line, but the ones that are considered high-end - tend to be built from more durable materials, tend to be designed for easier service, tend to be documented better, and tend to have better support.

Workstation-class, and one step down as far as position in the model range (which often shares hardware with the workstation class, but often with a dual-core and either integrated graphics or a low-end GPU), tend to count as those.

I kind of see your point, but you are being a little bit simplistic. Perhaps that is why you are being modded troll.

In just about any kind of renewal energy design, that is based on variable power sources, they are using energy storage to provide a constant amount of energy. Obviously the peak energy that can produced will be during daylight hours, and during the parts of the year where there is more sun.

Storing energy in molten sodium is not a new concept. On a smaller point source scale I have seen designs using flywheels and conventional batteries.

If you are going to go renewable, the sources should be multiple, and energy storage is usually a given.

IMO, you don't need to go fully renewable right away. If Germany can produce 1/3rd of its daily energy needs (especially during peak hours) from renewable sources that is valuable progress.

Ok, if we both get to be competitors, I'll let you keep nearly all the market share, and you let me keep the profits. Deal?

If we get to be competitors, I'll shoot myself in the head.