Because satellites suck. High latency, low bandwidth & high price. Maintenance costs along with laws of physics for a geosynchronous orbit and limited RF spectrum won't ever change those constraints. Their 1 advantage is the mobility within their footprint. Satellite TV still is very viable because the latency is a non-issue & the broadcast nature makes very efficient use of the RF spectrum.

The U.S. government calls that SIPRnet, it's where all the classified data lives, other even more secure networks are required to process Top Secret data. As far as being unhackable just because it's not connected to the internet? Just ask Pvt. Bradley Manning how impenetrable that made it (SIPR was where he got the data from), or the Iranians how robust that strategy was at protecting their Natanz nuclear facility (Stuxnet).

Non-internet connectivness is a massive hurdle to overcome & keeps out most attackers, except for the inside threat & the massively determined APT, but it is not the end all be all answer.

http://www.mini-lathe.com/

All the info you need to get you started. All those 7x10, 7x12, 7x16, etc. lathes come out of the Sieg factory in China then resold as Harbor Freight, Grizzle, Jet, and many other brand names. Slightly different motors & trim levels, but the same basic machine. Great starter machines that are pretty capable. Not as robust as industrial machines, but very capable none the less.

Sieg also makes some mills and lathe mill combo units. Good little starter equipment with a robust community around them.

Personally I'm restoring a Atlas/Craftsman 6x18 lathe that is older than I am... Half the fun is getting the machine restored as actually using it. You can get some pretty nice old lathes & mills for under $1k that work great after a little TLC.

First? I support the MILSTAR satellites, & they were designed decades ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milstar The military stuff may be cool, but it's more often than not very old rather than cutting edge, especially with satellites.

And most if not all of the Predators in Afghanistan are controlled from stateside air force bases, Las Vegas, Arizona & a few others I think.

No, there were some efficiency issues, but it did not compromise it's expected on-orbit lifespan.

"Finally, it speaks to the size and age of the U.S. space arsenal that the Air Force felt it had no choice but to rescue AEHF-1 instead of replace it with a back-up spacecraft. “The asset inventory is getting so tight that they spent months limping the heap to its proper orbit,” the insider lamented. "

Translation:

We spent tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands, heck maybe even a couple million on labor to save a $2,000,000,000 dollar satellite rather than build another 2 billion dollar satellite. You probably don't need a MBA to figure out the cost-benefit analysis on that one.

Yes, it used the same fuel source. There were some efficiency issues, but it did not alter the expected lifespan of the satellite on orbit.

I just finished rolling out my Windows Media Center with a InfiniTV 4 & the CableCard setup as well, it rocks. I haven't turned in my DVR & Cable Box yet, probably in a few weeks, but it will end up saving me $30+ a month, enough to pay off the InfiniTV 4 card & other parts in under a year.

I'm using a free Xbox360 as a media center extender, which works well. The thing that pisses me off is Microsoft requires me to spend $60 a year or something on an Xbox Live Gold account if I want to watch Netflix, onto of the Netflix account I already pay for. Netflix is great on my Media Center already, I just refuse to be gouged to watch it on a different device.

I believe you are talking about Datamancer's steampunk laptop. http://www.datamancer.net/steampunklaptop/steampunklaptop.htm

I wonder what this will finally do to the worthless security theater at our airports. Maybe they will finally realize corralling thousands of people together to go through useless screenings makes for a bigger juicer target than the airplanes on the other side. Dam bureaucrats always trying to put on a show about the last attack and not thinking about the next attack.