This made me wonder what the reaction would be if Microsoft bought Wired.com.

Forever Peace, by Joe Haldeman, is, in part, about connecting people with an interface that could be like the gaming interface of the future. Forget about joy stick controllers, Wii tennis, and other mechanical apparatus. Why not just connect people directly through their nervous systems? If we all shared our thoughts this way, what would be the implications?

I found the first season to be really boring and when one summarizes the plot, I think that might become clear. I found the second to be unrelentingly depressing since not a single character had any substantial redeeming qualities.

I think this is a big deal. Who really believes that outsourcing technology operations to India and China does not have a long-term consequence? With time, India and China will become innovators -- if they have not already. Reportedly, China has already built the world's second-fastest supercomputer, and is fabricating its own chips (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/science/01compute.html).

Imagine, now, young people thoughout the world writing software. What platform would they choose? If I was growing up in India and had an accessible computer for $35, I probably would not want to pay a whole lot more for a Windows computer.

Maybe this tablet does not quite have it right, technologically. But it is a step forward and an indication of intention on the part of the Indian government.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought it was legal precedent that copyright protections did not apply to satire.

Nessus provides and interesting example. The software itself is free, but you can buy knowledge modules.

So, Suppose a particular free package supports knowledge modules. These could be simple tables, scripts, whatever. A package like Nessus could even support its own programming language, perhaps even to the extent of LISP on Emacs. One can purchase them, and when purchasing them, they can buy a susbcription for updates. (For that matter, one could even purchase anti-virus signatures that destroy computers, but that is another story.)

So, the software is free, but the data isn't. Would scripts that run within a particular package constitute software that, by imnplication, would be free, or data that one would pay for?

How are cybersecurity experts really trained? In universities? Private industry is on the cutting edge of computing, not academia.

So, what about private industry? Would anyone really want their son, daughter, nephew or niece to to go into any field that would prepare them to be cybersecurity experts? Outside of jobs that require security clearances, it seems that there is a pretty good chance of getting offshored or at least oursourced. Who wants that kind of job security?

Funny, despite all the comments universities, when earning an "advanced" degree in computer science (where many of the students could not program their way out of a wet paper bag), the US government gave me no tax breaks whatsoever with the hefty tuition. In my case, I did not overly care, but in general, the incentives for earning academic credentials in computer science seem somewhat limited.