This isn't complicated. They stay with old unsupported crap because they know that the people who set it up are gone, and they aren't sure how to make it work again. They lost the recipe. They would rather saddle their support organizations with bugs that were fixed years ago, than to risk the unknown. The pathetic part of this is, that they miss out on years of bug fixes and performance improvements, because they think they're saving money by laying off the people who built their critical infrastructure. Intangible costs are intangible. ...but, they make it hard to retain support staff...

Laboratory samples don't count until I can buy them in 1000 piece quantities. Right now, I can buy 17% efficient solar panels all day, every day, at $1.25 per watt. Until the other options improve on that, they're just a waste of investment.

Nitpicking, my ass. The difference between 10% and 17% is huge. Wake me when someone finds a mass-producable solar cell that has better than that efficiency, and decades of life at that output. Current (heh...) silicon PV cells have reached the point of a 6 year payback on investment, and where the rails to mount them on cost more than the panels they hold. Until someone finds a hypothetical breakthrough, anything less than this efficiency is a waste of time and money other than for pure research.

Support contracts have to be paid, or that's the answer you get.

So, Sun support sucked because your employer didn't pay for a support contract, and you wanted the benefits of one (the downloading of patches) without paying for it? I'm guessing it's not even worth discussing threading models at this point.

See, it's a mat with conclusions on it. And then you jump to them.

No, pendantic is right, he's hanging around making comments.

Eh, it's past end of service life. Fine for a home or lab use, but, yeah, a 1280 is old. Beautiful hardware, built like a battleship. But at this point, having any of the purple generation of Sun gear in a datacenter is just a disaster recovery situation waiting to happen. So, old, certainly. Useless? Not by a far stretch. Just no longer enterprise-ready.

How about we put bad guys in jail, instead of punishing the millions of gun owners who haven't done anything wrong? A dramatic, double digit drop in murder rates for "Project Exile", vs. "challenges in discerning the effects of the ban"? Richmond, Virginia, had a program in the 1990s. "Project Exile". Short version: Mandatory additional 5 years in jail if you use a gun in a crime, or if you're a felon found possessing a gun or ammunition. Crime went down 40%.
https://house.resource.org/106/org.c-span.153371-1.pdf
From page 2 of this report, "Since the project began, the results have been evident. More than 200 armed criminals were removed from Richmond streets during the first year of Project Exile alone. An entire gang responsible for multiple murders has been dismantled. In 1998, murders were 33 percent below 1997, the lowest number since 1987. In 1999, murders are down yet another 29 percent."

Compare this with the Assault Weapons Ban, which accomplished nothing. Here's the National Institute of Justice's report, describing how it had no effect in reducing crime:
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/jerrylee/research/aw_brief1999.pdf
"A number of factors—including the fact that the banned weapons and magazines were rarely used to commit murders in this country, the limited availability of data on the weapons, other components of the Crime Control Act of 1994, and State and local initiatives implemented at the same time—posed challenges in discerning the effects of the ban."

A century and a half of evidence says otherwise. Unless you intend to include sources that are, you know, ignorant and wrong. Referring to the cartridge as "casing" may be used in as many as several percent of references. All of which are, like you, wrong. Sorry to be blunt but, words have meanings.

Can you name one gun control measure, ever, which has reduced crime? Chicago has 'em all, it's one of the worst places in the country.

I'd rather we go with "Project Exile" as implemented in Richmond, VA, in the 1990s. Mandatory 5 years additional in jail if you use a gun in a crime, mandatory jail if you're a felon in possession of a gun, etc. Punishes the bad people, while not disarming their potential victims. Oh, and crime went down 40% in a year.

They are murdered WITH handguns, not BY them. They are murdered by criminals. Focus on the bad guys, not the hardware. Blaming the hardware, then, by extension, blames the millions of us who are NOT criminals. And you people wonder why gun owners find this offensive.

The cartridge is just the brass part. The round includes the cartridge, the primer, the propellant (powder), and the projectile (bullet). I know this seems like pointless discussion over terminology, but, it's the equivalent of someone pointing at their PC and referring to it as the "CPU".

Exactly. Treat it like being defib or CPR certified. Those who qualify and take the training, should be allowed to protect our children in this way also. And if they can't pass a background check, why the hell are they around our kids? Don't force them to do it, of course, but give them the option. Almost all states have CCW permits with the usual requirements, and those requirements match up pretty well to who we allow to be teachers (I'd hope).