USB 3.0 supports a MAXIMUM throughput of 5.0Gbit/sec, and even at that insane rate it would take one hour (with 10% protocol overhead) to read or write two terabytes. We're lucky though; at USB 2.0's best rate it would take over 10 hours, with Full Speed USB 1.0 it would take 2½ weeks, and good old Original USB would literally take from now until late evening of January 14, 2012. Nostalgic for floppies? Using a fast backup program, you could do the job in 3½ years with 1.39 million 1.44MB coasters. Watch out for fridge magnets though!

Yep, the OP was made with bits of real statistics, so you know it's good.

Unless there's some unforeseen (by the general public) future setback in technology, there will come a point in the next few years when you won't be able to legally drive on a public street without this kind of technology--probably always on to take over when you speed, tailgate or just drive too aggressively. What possibilities would then exist for gaming the system? Not myself, of course, but others...

I assume that the firmware on these systems will be DRM'ed to prevent aftermarket adjustments. Some of the basic functionality (speed limits, etc.) would require a GPS signal; perhaps intermittent GPS jamming would cause the system to revert to full manual control. Any other ideas?

Actually, the massive magnetic field is the dynamo for trapping ionizing solar radiation and generating synchrotron radiation. That's why the Europa mission electronics have to be radiation-hardened beyond anything ever sent into space, and why your hypothetical Na'vi would never develop past an interesting self-perpetuating chemical reaction in some Jovian moon's primordial clays. Where's a hyperintelligent, near-omnipotent monolith when you need one?

Also known as the poor man's basilisk.

I'm starting to think that a social graph is going to be the 21st century version of the fingerprint, except it will describe WHAT you are rather than WHO you are. Botnet, AI, Muslim, Baptist, college-educated straight Irish-American middle-child female... Who'd like to guess what the total annual budget is already for this kind of research? How much money and manpower would the Department Homeland Security be willing to invest to keep Facebook et al popular with their target audience, so the cheap social graph data keeps flowing?

Respectfully, I beg to differ. I'm running a password manager to keep track of all my passwords, online and otherwise. I'll never go back, and neither should you.

Except for my password to the app itself (which is absurdly long but memorized and periodically changed), all my passwords are unique, cryptographically secure random printable-character strings of the maximum length allowed by each system or 255 characters, whichever is shorter. I keep three deeply-encrypted copies stored remotely, so unless we lose North America, I'll never have a problem getting back into my Slashdot account.

Once I've entered my master password I only have to hit a system key combo to enter my credentials into any site, so after initial setup it's much more convenient than even using the same password everywhere. Yes, there are always potential security holes, but I believe that I'm managing them quite well, thank you.

I didn't realize how many sites I had login credentials for (well into the triple digits) until I set up this app. Most of them used one of a very small handful of passwords. What's worse, I sometimes tried several of those passwords before I got logged into a site, so a malicious site could easily keep track of those attempts and have the passwords for many of my other sites. Not any more. Changing a password isn't a chore anymore, because I don't have to re-memorize anything. I simply generate a password of the maximum allowed length and complexity, swap it out and move on. Finally, I don't have a photographic memory either, so it's good that I don't have to remember all the sites where I used the same password as I did on the current Hacked Site of the Day.

Your statement that the debate is closed assumes that debate on /. is subject to the referenced parliamentary procedure, which it most certainly is not. Guess what this logical fallacy is called?

If irony were strawberries, we'd both be drinking smoothies right now.

Sounds pretty draconian--do you live in the California Nebula?

In my galaxy they just check positron emissions. My probabilistic engine has been using about a quark a month for eons and they just keep letting it slide.

Outstandingly informative post. Thanks for taking the time to share your invaluable knowledge and experience!