He also said he found that approach so distasteful that he only used it a few times, even though it worked.

From my point of view, porn is more honorable, and less harmful. I considered matters, and decided I didn't need to try the approach Feynman mentioned. (Forget who suggested it to him.) I could tell ahead of time that I wouldn't like the results. (A couple of times I slipped into an analogous position by accident, and it was always something that would have been better avoided.)

Please understand, I'm not saying that it is an inherently unethical or immoral approach. If used honestly, it escapes those problems. But it's still something better avoided, because of it's effects on *you*.

That was my experience too. Of course, I identified several causes that made things worse, and which were, at the time, unusual. Moving every 2-3 years while growing up didn't help at all, e.g. Funny thing, that seems to have become more common.

So quite possibly teenagers are now less socially apt than they were. I don't know. But there are many reasons why this might well be so.

That said, it's quite possible that computer games render recovery more difficult. (Recovery? But what better word is there?) This doesn't make them the proximate cause. I'd be more willing to blame parents keeping their children locked in their homes "for safety's sake". Or moving around more. Or loss of neighborhood schools. Or... Please note that each one of these "possible causative factors" has it's own separate reasons for happening. So fixing the problem isn't simple, and fixing the problem would only help the next generation, not the current one.

Did you confuse Jung and Adler? If not, authority figures don't play a major role in Jung's theories. (OTOH, the definitely do in Adler's.)

Or possibly the teacher just has a large class. I really doubt that currently a computer can really replace a teacher, but I can easily believe that they could replace a lecturer, with LOTS of improvement. Computer programs may not be as flexibly interactive as a one-on-one teacher, but they can be a lot more interactive than a lecturer can. If a teacher has to handle a class of 30, some of whom really don't want to be there, then the computer can probably teach those who *do* want to be there better than that teacher can. If the class size is 300, then I'm certain of it. But if the class size is 15 or smaller, then if the computer is better, then the teacher is probably incompetent. Today. This isn't talking about three years from now.

A flat rate package is essentially impossible. OTOH, billing by minutes connected is something that will only work in a monopoly environment. Billing by megabytes downloaded is reasonable in concept, but I have my doubts that it would be fairly implemented.

FWIW, *because* I don't trust the regulators to make things better, I'm opposed to any suggested change. It's not that I don't think that change is needed, it's that I don't trust the monopolies and their "regulators".

P.S.: This is independent of which party gets in. They *both* are savagely anti-citizen, in many different ways. And this is one of the ways in which they appear to be equally bad.

It sounds good, but the coffee grounds aren't the new part. That's a couple of years old. The new part is mixing it with cables, which is probably a bit trickier than it sounds like.

FWIW, I suspect that coffee grounds aren't a particularly good choice, outside of being cheap, and gleaning lots of PR. But when they're dry enough they aren't all that heavy. And they don't like to pack tightly, which is fairly important. But I think something sturdier would be better. Say hollow aluminum marbles. (They'd need to be sturdy enough not do dent in use, though. But coffee grounds turn into dust, which is also a bad thing.)

Still, for demonstration projects, coffee grounds is possibly the best choice. Sand is too heavy. Flour tends to pack. etc.

Perhaps I don't understand how Vector Linux works, but when the site is advertising version 7.0 for download, I end up with a strong suspicion that version 6.0 is deprecated, and that support (security fixes) will soon be ending. (This is increased by the announcement that the current verison of Vector Linux 6.0 is the final realease of the series.)

If I wanted an ultralight window manager, Debian would provide lots of options. That's not what I'm after. I'm after a maximally usable one, for a desktop system. With one screen. And no fancy graphics cards.

P.S.: I *have* considered running an old version of Debian in a virtual machine. In fact I do that kind of thing to keep old games working. But that kind of indirection isn't acceptable for major uses, even though it's the only way to keep non-supported systems relatively safe. And if that's what I wanted to do, I could run an old version of Debian.

If Vector Linux were actively supporting KDE3, then I would be extremely interested. But that's not what it sounds like is happening. Moving to a version that's being obsoleted isn't all that attractive a proposition, even if it does run the desktop I want. (I spent several years distro hopping, but it really interferes with getting much else done. Now when I switch distros, I want the new one to be one I can plan to stay with.)

Thanks. I'll give it a look.

OK. I gave it a look. All the purchase options make specific mention of KDE4, and *NO* mention of KDE3. I didn't see anything that indicated support of KDE3. So my expectation is that it will soon go away in an update, if it isn't already gone.

If you've ever called my ISP, you understand why most people will put up with very poor service rather than call and complain. One time it took me three days to get through. One time it took finding the local service center and parking in their driveway until a tech would talk to us. And it took HER over an hour to get through. (That was after 6 months of paying for DSL and getting a 20 hours/month dial-up.) Well, that was when they were rolling out DSL in the area, and I presume that things aren't quite that bad now, but as long as it's working at all, I'd rather not call and try to deal with them... but if my wife could keep her e-mail address we'd have switched to a different carrier.

I can accept that you already find KDE4 quite good. I don't. Kiosk, e.g., means nothing to me. (At one point it would have, but that isn't now.)

But this is what I mean about choice being good. I'd *prefer* to choose KDE3. Maybe I eventually will have that option. In the meantime there are usable options...but those usable options don't include Gnome3 or Unity, and KDE4 is inferior (in my use case) to other existing choices. That these other choices are, themselves, inferior to Gnome2 and KDE3 doesn't matter, as those choices are no longer viable. (Unless Pearson finally gets Trinity into Debian.)

N.B.: If I had access to plenty of spare systems to test on, and plenty of bandwidth to download on, Trinity might already be usable. But installing it on my current system would require removing things that might break things horribly. So I've been avoiding that, just as I avoid upgrading Vala for the same reason.