First off, you're talking about a group of people that probably have more money than they know what to do with anyway. They're likely impatient and aren't accustomed to having to wait for anything.

What they likely don't realize is that they paid for something that, essentially, didn't exist yet. Would you rather they rush and blow you up? Or wait a bit and have a relatively safe ride? (Yes, I say relatively...it is inherently risky after all) They jumped at the chance to be first so they could rub it in their friends' noses.

Me? I'll never be able to afford it, unfortunately. But if I could, I'd wait until it had gone a few times. Let the bugs get worked out.

I have no honest idea how long my CFL bulbs have lasted, but I've been happy overall. I've generally had better luck with better brands though. I had some cheaper ones that burned out fairly quickly. I'd like to try out an LED bulb in a couple places, but am willing to wait until the price comes down some more.

I preface my answer by saying that I have worked in a K-12 school district as the lone IT guy.

The most honest answer I have (unfortunately) to your question is: "tough sh**". Too often, school funding comes with so many flipping strings attached it's sickening.

i.e. "We can't afford to fix the AC because that budget is dry, but the XYZ funding is overflowing, even though we don't need new XYZ this year. But we're not allowed to move money from the XYZ fund to the maintenance fund due to funding rules. But if we don't spend the XYZ money the state may not even give us that money next year, so we'll blow the money on XYZ anyway because we have little choice"

Oh Blackberry...what ever were you thinking? It looks like a phone and a tablet had a child. Too big for a phone, but too small for a functional tablet. Looks too big to comfortably fit in a pocket too. The screen will be full of wasted space. Apps have been designed to fit vertically or horizontally on a widescreen type device. Is anything designed for a square screen?

There just seem to be so many misfires on this one. I applaud their effort for trying something different, but they don't rule the roost anymore. People have moved on to Android and iOS devices. People (to my knowledge) aren't objected to having two different sized devices, smaller for phone and larger for regular use.

There are a couple things that come to mind in regards to this upgrade.

1. These planes are older than the flight crews and maintenance staffs upkeeping them and flying them. Last ones entered service in the early 60's. Pushing 90 years old by the time of retirement! That's simply insane.
2. There are good and bad to upgrades like this. Yes, it makes you more efficient, but you lose the skills of being able to do it by hand. Also, old systems are damn near impossible to hack, unlike newer, shiny systems.

I'm an I.T. hardware tech/purchaser. I'm good. I'm the centralized purchaser of computer hardware for a couple hundred stores. I'm also one of the hardware support people for the call center my office is in. Now do we have needless people at my company? Oh I know we do.

Should friendly aliens visit tomorrow, the puny humans on this planet would quickly split into a few groups.

1. Those that are truly honored and would welcome the visitors.
2. Those that want to cover the whole thing up.
3. Those that want to convert them to their particular religion.
4. Those that want to blow them up because the aliens aren't of their religion.
5. Those that would want to blow them up because "they ain't white".

And I haven't even figured in your "young Earth" groups, crazy militias, and those whose heads would implode from the sudden realization that our little rock isn't so very special.

For me it's a bit of a toss between 4 and 5.

I think we can all admit though, all 6 of the movies are flawed to some degree. Yes, even the beloved 4, 5, and 6. You can take a farm kid, drop him into a military grade ship, and he flies circles around the "vets"? Armored ground troops are beaten by teddy bears with sticks? Our ships are being fried by a giant moon sized laser? Hmm, I wonder if we should fly around to the backside of that moon where the laser isn't. Artoo can fly? Oh wait, now he can't.

And here in KS your rates get raised if you use too much, so they need the funds to "build capacity". Use too little and your rates get raised because of "budget shortfalls". Water, electric...doesn't matter. Happens either way.

It's the polite way of saying they told the show to F off while they all walked out the door.

"We are a school district! We are above the law!"

I'm fine with my car storing data up to a point. It shouldn't be accessible to anyone short of some "black box" data in the event of an accident. Beyond that, what would anyone truly need the data for?

It actually seems reasonable enough. Electronic computers are less than 100 years old. We've gone from a house sized machine that was a glorified basic calculator, to having reasonably powerful computers the size of a pack of gum. (the raspberry pi is what was coming to mind) 2029 is 15 years off, a lot of progress and breakthroughs may come by then. Granted, yes, there are plenty of things about "thinking" we just have no clue about. But all it takes is one "Eureka!" moment and the world can change.

You're right, that definitely smells like a crap ton of money was on the line and the USOC was happy to cash the check regardless of complaints. But I have to wonder if some piece of it is what I like to call "Dumbo's feather". Never needed the feather, but it kept his head in place. They think they'll skate better, but it feels different with the vent, so it messes with their head and suddenly they've screwed themselves up, not the suit messing with them. Get their head in the game and they'd skate just fine. Although I still can't figure why a vent is even needed, just use heat/water wicking fabric if that's the intent.

I donate mine. Once in a while I get a bag that lets me ship them off to be reused for military purposes or for abuse victims.