"upgradable" was the wrong word. Most Java applications should run on the newest version of the VM without problems, right out of the box.

Actually, the one practically undisputed big selling point of Java is backwards compatibility. In fact, most experienced developers I know would cite that Java's stringent backwards compatibility policy is one of the things that has been holding the platform back, impeding progress. As an experienced Java developer myself, I would claim that 95% of Java applications should be upgradable to the most recent version without any issues at all.

It's all a question of psychology and what you are used to. I also shudder at the thought of eating insects, but if I engage in a little self-critique I think of the fact that I love eating prawns which objectively look just as "disgusting" as your average insect. The only real difference is that I grew up eating prawns.

It obviously depends on how much you use your phone. I own a prepaid 10€ stupidphone good enough for being reachable and making emergency calls. I buy a new 25€ credit about once in four months. As a matter of fact, I can't even remember the last time I payed cash.

Maybe I'm the exception (and I'm a man so I don't need to have hourly chats with my friends every day). But I'm connected to the Internet all the time at work and at home 24/7. People say PC's are dying because of Smartphones and Tablets. For me it's the other way around. I feel I don't need a Smartphone or Tablet because I always have a PC with Internet nearby. And when I'm commuting, or going for a walk, or sitting in the park I'm quite thankful for not having any high tech around to distract me from nature, my thoughts or a good book.

You must be fun at parties.

I wonder why instead of making the "screen" only that small area at the top right of your vision, they don't make traditional-looking glasses with an entire field-of-view screen in 3D.

The simulation is not very realistic because in reality your head would be pushed down, facing the ground and fastened by a wooden block, so you could hardly move. If you looked up with your eyes you would maybe see the crowd in front of you, but you would never see the blade coming.

Most exoplanets are much bigger and closer to the sun than Earth is... incidentally, these are the kind of planets that are most easily detected.

'nuff said.

It's a huge subsidy, but it also has a crucial strategic value. Without the subsidies, farming in the EU would steadily decline into irrelevance and you become ever more dependent on imports. But food is even more critical than oil. What if there is a drought in the future? Import restrictions? Huge price increases? Shit, suddenly the EU can't feed its own citizens anymore. Other countries can use the EU's dependence on its food imports to exert diplomatic influence, essentially up to the point of blackmail. Take Russia for example. The only reason why it gets away with its subjugation of democracy and freedom of speech is because Europe is hugely dependent on energy imports from Russia. If Europe is not self-sufficient in its food requirements, it opens up another attack vector.

"ironically because the outside world has embraced the technology which is so unpopular in Europe, realizing this is the only way to achieve sustainable agriculture"

What kind of propaganda-soaked, bullshit statement is that? So for the past 4000 years humanity has been performing natural, "unsustainable" agriculture? The whole article reeks so much of bundles of pharmaceutical 100 dollar bills that it stinks.

Windows 7 comes with a built-in XP mode, so you don't even need VMWare.

True. I suppose a third of the people with Java installed don't really need Java. Another third probably don't want or need the browser plugin. It should be an optional part of the installation. The final third are the professional or educated users who know what they are doing, probably need Java and are savvy enough to disable the browser plugin, if they don't need it.

The main problem of IT security is always that most users just don't know better.

I'm getting tired of this Java bashing in the media due to security issues. Java isn't inherently more insecure than any other platform. On the contrary, it has a sophisticated, built-in security system that most other platforms lack. But of course there are bugs and holes, just like with any other software. The only reason why Java is being exploited and making headlines so much recently is because Java is so widely adopted now that it makes a big target. It's what hackers have their sights on at the moment, just like they had their sights on Flash or Acrobat Reader a while back. If enough people switched to a different platform because Java is so insecure, the only result would be that in a couple of years hackers would be targeting the new platform, because it's the new prime target. Then all of its security holes will gradually be uncovered and the switchers will be just as exposed or even more so than if they had sticked with Java in the first place.

How am I insulting Nazi victims? Do you think that Jewish people have some kind of exclusive right to having suffered the worst, ever and forever? And that nobody may 'insult' them by taking this away from them? Get your head out of your ass!

Life in North Korea is worse than 1984. Entire families of people in North Korean concentration camps are living through hell on earth. The treatment of prisoners there sounds worse than what the Nazis did. I wonder if we should take North Korea's war mongering as a pretext to launch a massive, pre-emptive attack and finally free the North Korean population from their oppressors.

I know that it's not going to happen. But if you read up on Wikipedia and other sources of witness accounts of NK concentration camps, it kind of makes you wish that it would.