If only words like "geeks" and "technocrats" actually meant something other than a diverse group of people who *identify* with science and technology... For many people "science" is simply a matter of faith -- they have zero knowledge or understanding, Naturally, it also complicates matters quite a lot that "science" is a term which covers a lot of conflicting/divergent schools of though. IOW, TFA reads like something written by a 12 year old who recently decid he's "a geek".

What if Spartacus had had a Piper Cub?

Sounds like you're seriously underestimating a toddler's resourcefulness, frankly...

Considering how much more capable even an average person's brain is than any computer we can build today, this is a bit silly. Enhancing the brain by waking some of the ~90% which is unused would almost certainly yield more practical results. Consider the numerous, very complicated instructions the brain is able to run just to walk, ride a bike, or breathe. If we can gain conscious control over that kind of functionality, we'd be formidable.

No, just you.

I have one friend who's as non-technically-inclined as they come, using Ubuntu on a Dell laptop for over four years now without incident. The original install from 2008 is now current, and only twice in those four years was I called in to correct minor stuff broken/changed by updates. In those two cases, she still had the use of the laptop and OS, we're talking *little* things like links in email stopped bringing up the browser. She has needed far less help than my windows-using friends in the past four years, so as I said, sir -- your info is out of date. :)

Check out Mint LXDE, starting with version 11. I still prefer Debian, but Mint LXDE is absolutely amazing for it's incredible ease of install. Nearly any modern common hardware will Just Work with that distro, and it can easily be installed, configured, and maintained by the most clueless of newbs. Your info is definitely out of date. There will occasionally be need for an expert no matter what OS a person chooses, but I'd say at this point Mint is rigt u there with OS X for being an idiot-proof system that Just Works. Really slaughters Windows in that regard, as well as on the security front. I know you know a lot about windows, and I respect your choice, but if you're talking ease of security for non-technical users you simply cannot beat Mint.

While there is a lot of truth to what you say, at this time, nost popular Linux distos are by far the easiest to secure and to run securely without having to be a super expert technical user. Windows can be just as secure in the right hands, but ironically requires a much higher level of expertise to do so. I'm no windows expert, so I feel usafe to the point I would never put any bankig or other critical info ito a windows machine, I do it in Linux and BSD all the time though, because I know enough to do it securely. I'm sure you're knowledgeable enough with windows to be safe, but I want my non-tech users on Mint or Ubuntu. Not to mentio that whole slew of issues that comes up with "microsoft" amd "trust", DRM -- I had to reformat my mp3player once after big foolish enough to let WMP access it -- it decided a bunch of indie music was "pirated" and wouldn't let those files play! It also hogged about have the flash drive creatig unnecessary database files. Nasty stuff, that WMP.

In before all the stupid replies that Linux cannot be hacked. :)

I suppose there could be some people stupid enough to say that, but I haven't seen much of it (unless you count obvious troll posts). In fact, a misconfigured linux system is one of the easiest to hack -- but we're discussing malware, not hacking. Since most linux distros are using repositories for all the third-party software (vs non-tech users zooming around the web downloading "10,000 similies!") malware for linux is pretty darned rare -- much more so than windows or os x. Unless, of course, one counts all the android trojans -- I don't because to me android is a completely unique OS that happens to use some linux code.

It doesn't really matter -- twitter is cutting their own throat allowing this kind of slimy stuff. It's just a matter of time til everyone knows twitter is for suckers that want to read a bunch of really short astroturf. Plus this kind of behavior is practically eternal. "Caveat Emptor", "a fool and his money are soon parted". It's just real life continuing to spread on the internet.

You are correct -- the value of this is the discovery that when an organ is diseased it may be a symptom of a greater problem. It actually seems pretty obvious when you think about it.

But apparently it's ok because as TFS says "[not collecting sales tax] has drawn fire from state governments facing budget shortfalls and from traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, who say online sellers essentially give customers an automatic discount when they donâ(TM)t collect taxes. Combs has estimated the state loses $60 million a year from untaxed online sales." That got me thinking... How much is it costing me to not be a thief? Hmmm.

Considering that belief is the opposite of thinking

That's an interesting belief you've got there...
The fact is, whether you're an Appalachian snake handler or a CS PHd, you have many beliefs and not all of them are rational. Now, would you like me to fetch you a stepladder, so you can climb down from that high horse? :)

So it's more "Brasil" than "The Strength of Stones" then? That's disappointing,,,

My god, that's appallingly bad! When Ubuntu came out in 2004 its niche was clear -- Debian for people who couldn't install or configure Debian. A year or two later, Debian became just as easy to install and configure as Ubuntu, so now what purpose does it really serve? Plus Ubuntu-ites are frequently the annoying Mac fanbois of the linux world, and the number of incorrect, broken "howtos" for Ubuntu is simply staggering. The net effect has been that now we have as many clueless lusers as Mac and Windows. Thanks, Mark!