Until people stop believing in electrical genies that can hold vast amounts of power in a thimble, they can't think about the problem rationally because they believe electric is the portable power solution. Electricity is great, but even if you replaced the entire interior of your car with the best battery technology, it wouldn't be but a few percent of the energy stored in your gas tank.

Yes, it is getting better, and there is hope that one day it will be "good enough" for the task at hand; however, a 200% improvement of 3% is only 6%. We have a long way to go, and we're fighting physics.

Hearing of countless stories isn't the same thing as countless of nuclear power plants actually having issues with poor operational and maintenance attention. I mean, here is a plant in Japan, and it has ran like a top, and the containment in case of disaster did it's job. What part of lacklustre maintenance and attention played a part in creating the disaster, worsening its effects on the plant, or promoting the release of radation?

We have had one plant truly mess up, one almost mess up, and one hit by a natural disaster so large it defies reason that the plant managed to contain. In response, it seems we reward these efforts with a nuclear scare story every fifteen minutes. I know I'm exaggerating, but it seems that the scales are tipped way too far in directions that don't foster actual improvement.

Clearly the best choice. It is so heavily optimized that even its name takes up only 40% of the required character of the second best contender, emacs.

Do you really think that a back scattering machine contains the energy back scattered from your body when it has two huge gaping holes aligned with the most common entry / exit paths? As far as I can tell, to the people standing in line, the only shielding is a few feet of air (and the bodies of those before them).

So take your pat down (if you're lucky to get it instead of a screening). But don't think you're getting off with no exposure. Note that the TSA people generally don't stand in front of the entrance / exit, I wonder if that's policy.

While it is an interesting idea, I am pretty sure that a "No Fly Zone" would have to be enforced by planes that were either under control of the United States Navy (most likely, they have more planes) or the United States Air Force.

There are very specific clauses in the Constitution which addresses the US Armed Forces (defined by the Army, Navy, and Marines (and extended to the Air Force as they branched from the Army) which bar service members from acting against US citizens. While the public may remain ignorant about the rules, the armed forces (who will quickly be judged under the harsher UCMJ) are much more aware of this aspect of the law.

Therefore, your interesting idea would not be legal under the Constitution unless the USA would declare that Texas was party to a civil war. Granted, Texas has a reputation (undeserved) of being a bunch of gun toting quick tempered cowboys, but a civil war must be based on something more than a reputation.

That is what you think, but by the time you hit $120K per year, you realize that it's not enough money to put up with the truly asinine. Fortunately, there are plenty of good companies who value their developers, and while I never had a second monitor before, the current one practically pushed a second monitor on me.

Cash is cash, but in a mind related job, sanity is far more important, as it is required for all of the earnings today and tomorrow.

Giving my company full credit, I now do a lot less Alt-Tabbing, which in some ways allows me to concentrate more so on the task at hand.

After a few minutes of using it, you're applying a lot of force against your monitor.

I'm just waiting for them to re-release paper tape, the light pen, drum memory, and the toggle switch programming interface. We could call them cellulose ray, light sabre, wisdom vortex, and direct binary injection respectively.

It would work, if there wasn't already precedents that established "standard industry practice". It's the credit card companies who eventually set that bar, and Sony seemed to mistake the game for one of Limbo instead of Pole Vaulting.

Sony, how low did you go?

Fiorina was CEO, that's true; however, never forget that it was the Board of Directors who put here there, and she remained with HP for so long because she pleased the Board. If you want to throw stones, save a few for the board that decided to ditch non-focus products (profitable or otherwise).

That said, it is hard to imagine calculators being a device with a large future. They are useful, but their biggest competitor is the simulated calculator which ships with every desktop operating system.