You got lucky is all. Many of these computers were dumped on teachers. Not on just science or math teachers, not even only on high school teachers. So after a 10+ hour day getting the very basics done, how many of those teachers are going to spend more time trying to figure out what to do with the paper weight they were given and how to integrate it into the curriculum? And how many of those are going to be able to do more than just have some simple programs that students can run when they want? If additional software makes them useful then who pays for that when there's no budget? And chances are you don't get the very expensive floppy drive given to you with the computer.

Wrong attitude. One may grow a thick skin naturally due to the harshness of the environment, however it should never be a requirement to grow a thick skin to get on the internet, or join a video game's forums, or to become a free software developer. And why should being a free software develooper be such a difficult job when you don't need to grow a thick skin to be a proprietary software developer? If someone wants to spend their own time and their own money to make a product better why should they have to grow a thick skin first? If someone wants to go to a conference and learn more about some computing technology they shouldn't have to grow a thick skin first.

And why aren't pansies allowed to be free software developers? I'm not saying Martin is, but we shouldn't restrict people from contributing or scaring them away because they're too nice. Everyone body should be joining in here, not just just the rude people and those with swagger.

The very premise of "grow a skin" or "grow a pair" is wrong headed.

This isn't censorship anyway. It's his personal blog. Censorship is something that someone in power does, like governments or corporate bosses, or people who act as gatekeepers of information, such as letters to the editor of a newspaper. The trolling opinions are not being squelched, they can be spoken loudly and clearly on their own blog if they like, or on KDE mailing lists, and so forth.

And thus the RT can be made to suck even more!

Schools are just never going to have up to date computers, they don't even have budget to hire enough teachers.

Personally I think it's all wasted money anyway. Kids to not need to use computers in elementary schools. The Apple ][ was welcomed at the time because there was a lot of fear at the time that no one could learn computers unless they learned it at a very early age and Apple played off of those fears. There was hype about computer based education, and 40 years later it still doesn't exist in any reasonable form. The truth is that you can learn how to use computer in college without being handicapped, and many kids already have access to computers at home anyway. Stick a few in the library for those kids who don't have access to one, but you don't need them in the class room.

The kids are really not learning anything from having access to the computers anyway. Sure they aren't scared of the mouse like grandma is but that's not because the computer is in the school.

There's always "impractical". Given how difficult it is to tear down these Surface tablets to get to the electronics, it's impractical to hack the flash or boot loader electronically. Now maybe someone will crack the key signing process (and the root certificate gets published by the NY Times) but that may be a wait. Ultimately though, these tablets are going to schools, and I just do not see schools making it part of their official stance to break the DMCA and root the tablets before use.

All executables on Windows 8 RT must be signed before they're allowed to run. You won't even get an "are you sure" dialog box. Thus no software is possible without prior permission from Microsoft. Sure you may have some nice byte code emulator but it's useless if you can't get it signed.

Because you have the make-for-windows tablet for only $199, or your principal buys it and hands it to you and tells you to use it. Thus you need to put a reasonable OS on it to make it usable. Remember these RTs dont come with Windows 8, they come with Windows 8 RT, which means metro-only except for some extremely limited desktop, and all apps must be signed and approved (ie, Microsoft Store ONLY). Thus they ship as unusable devices by default.

Was it affordable? It was vastly out of reach for me though. The TRS80 was more affordable.

Many of those Apple computers ended up being unused. It was all part of the hype of "if your child doesn't learn about computers today then they will end up jobless in the future!" Remember that stupid Apple commercial about the kid dropping out of college and returning home dejected to his parents who failed to buy him an Apple II?

My father was an elementary school teacher at the time and said the ones he had didn't do much. No one knew how to use them, they didn't fit into any educational plan, they were just paper weights that were occasionally used for games.

What's a zelda map? Looks a bit like an ultima map to me.

The cost of broadband is too high even for many middle class. $50+ a month is stupid for internet. And in most places you get a choice of only cable if you want it to be fast, or else you're stuck with spotty DSL service. Dialup is still common because it's affordable.

You're lucky is all.

And "move to the city" doesn't work out in practice. Even in the big cities there are huge areas with poor infrastructure, there are sometimes even unpaved roads near downtowns. Poor people in cities don't get these benefits, and they're worse off than many rural poor. Moving to the city often means moving into poverty. Meanwhile the rich kids going out to clubs every night and streaming video because they're too cool for TV are naive to think that the entire city lives as they do.

One of the conditions to granting Bell systems a monopoly was that they'd have to provide universal service. At the time, rural political power was higher than it is now and it was acknowledged that phone companies were doing a miserable job in providing rural service.

Such a plan could work today, except that we have a government too scared to stand up to corporations and too wary to approach anything resembling regulation or interfering in the market.

Personally, I think 3-6Mbps is great, most rural areas don't have anything resembling that fast. It's even rare in many cities unless you're on cable. For those not on cable, it's difficult to get better than basic ADSL. The reason people whine about 3-6Mbps being too slow is because they're trying to push the idea of video over internet, but that speed is more than adequate for the average person browsing the net. As far as the government's interest in providing access to all citizens, the ability to stay informed is the most imporant, and ability to stream video all day long is very low. So get that 3-6Mbps to all regions of the country as the first step, and a prerequisite before worrying about whether video startups will survive. Plus get an infrastructure that does not depend upon private media companies.

Maybe this is part of the problem. Defendants don't know this stuff, and the dissenting opinions in this case bring up this point too. Not everyone is trained in the law and it shouldn't be a burden on them to know if this is pre-miranda vs post-miranda or that there's some obscure new rule that you have to state your intention to exercise a right.