Those quadcopter things are fairly reliable. There's even designs out there for 6 or 8 redundant rotors. These things can survive a fairly hard landing especially if the rotors are shrouded, whereas a helicopter is a lot more damage-prone. A running helicopter that falls on its side will most likely need some serious repair work before it'll fly again. A damaged quadcopter can be fixed with duct tape in most cases.

They exist. If I recall correctly, Model Airplane News even published plans for a fairly hefty gas-powered one (might have been another magazine).

Is this a gun, as in a fully functional and useful tool? No. But it's not proof of any kind that 3d guns are impractical in principle (as that Register article claims); quite the contrary. The Liberator proved that it's possible to print a gun that can be fired (unreliably) on a printer, without blowing up. The Lulz version proves it is possible to create one that can be fired repeatedly, and can be created on a consumer grade printer. From here on in the reliability will improve, and perhaps someone will come up with a double barreled one or a six-shooter even.

This development is not interesting for gun enthusiasts. It may be interesting for people who need to smuggle a gun past security (you still need to get the metal parts + cartridges through the detector). It's not that interesting for people with the skills, tools and smarts to build their own gun, nor is it for criminals who can (in most countries) quite simply acquire a gun from an illegal source. But it is very interesting for people who want to acquire a gun illegally, not necessarily because they want to use it for criminal purposes, but in case they want one to defend themselves but the gov't doesn't let them have one.

And for that purpose, you wouldn't really need something that can reliably fire 10.000 rounds. 6 reliable shots would already be a vast improvement over nothing at all. And given the progress already made on these printers, I'd say that printing and assembling such a gun by anyone may well be viable in a few years.

Despite it no longer being a "3d printed gun", it would still be a game changer in the sense that this would be a functional multi-shot gun that can be manufactured by pretty much anyone with access to a crappy consumer-grade printer, without requiring any gunsmithing, metal working or other mechanical skills. If you can assemble a simple Lego kit, you can put together such a gun.

Wow, I'd like a 35% tax rate; ours in NL starts at around that percentage, and goes up to 52%... with that upper bracket kicking in real fast at around €55.000 taxable income. Then there's 21% VAT, municipal taxes (increasing faster than our significant yearly inflation), road tax and the tax on petrol (2/3rds of the price at the pump is tax), the list goes on... Kind of sucks though that here the same thing applies to businesses as well: the large ones can negotiate a low rate, the small ones get stiffed. My business gets taxed at 20%, and on what I take out I pay an additional 25% dividend tax. The big guys? They pay little, it's for good reason that so many international corporations set up their Euro HQ in the Netherlands. And guys like Bono (U2) are doing the same thing.

I suppose it is the same all over: poor people or businesses have little money to tax, and the rich/large ones make sure their interests are mobile: tax them too much and they'll up and leave. It's the ones in the middle who get screwed.

I feel the same way about other reboots as well. Like Batman and Bond. The new ones are good movies in their own right, but they are not real Batman or 007 movies, with a campy, over the top superhero or a politically incorrect, suave secret agent.

Wolfram Alpha converts 45cm/h to 0.7516 furlongs per fortnight. You're welcome.

2 weeks is nice. In the Netherlands it is up to 2 years.

I'm not suggesting that we do away with these safety nets. It's about striking a good balance. You want companies to pay taxes and not be able to fire people on a whim. But those companies also need some flexibility in their labour force, and security against the financial risks that come with these safety nets. Place too large a burden on companies, and they may up and leave or go out of business. But indulge them just to keep them in your country, and you'll start a race to the social security bottom.

I like the social security we have in my country (NL). But we could do with more flexible labour laws.

Those social protections are part of the problem, or rather, the way some countries implement them. In some EU countries, government has pushed the cost and risk of social measus to employers. An employee falls ill or is injured? Company is obliged to pay for their wages, sometimes for over a year. Need to fire someone? You can't, or you spend a goodly sum getting rid of him/her. Or you have someone off on maternity leave, with the obligation to keep paying her wages, just a few weeks after she joined the company. Yes, it happens, and by law you cannot refuse someone on that ground or even ask about it in a job interview.

That's all fine and dandy for the worker, and for corporations who can easily absorb the average costs incurred in a large group of employees. But in small startups, having to pay a worker who is unproductive one way or another for a long period of time can kill the company. You can insure against that, but the premiums are unbelievable.

So what? No one is asking you to kiss his backside because of his good deeds. If his cash helps find a cure for his disease, good for him, and we'll benefit as well. Better than spending it on another butt-ugly yacht.

It's not even sure yet if 8.1 will include the start menu and boot to desktop. By the way, I (and many, many others) installed a little thingy to bring back those features. Wouldn't it be a laugh if MS, instead of giving in to the complaints, broke the desktop/start menu applets to force people to Metro?

Now is a great time to go. The tourist areas are about as safe before, and nothing much has changed for visitors... except that things are less crowded and cheaper, what with so many scared tourists staying away. Stick to the main tourist centers and don't wander off alone at night, and you'll be a-ok.

Agreed. And it's not just useful for interaction with coders or other IT folks; most of the better knowledge workers know a bit of coding to make it easier to process and manage information for their own job. Some macros, VBA in Excel, life hacking, ITTT, or even setting up a little Access database (yes) can make ones life a lot easier than if one has to ask someone else for help on these tools. Because in a lot of cases (especially MS Access), if you have to ask for it, you won't get it.

If you just want to try the software or use it once, $20 is a pretty sweet deal. For people who use the software on a daily basis, it's easy to see how the Cloud deal is more expensive. And even for casual users, $20/month could mean $20/use for them, which quickly adds up to being more expensive than the one-off purchase. Guess which kind of users are prevalent?