Yeah, running a browser which can directly impact your main system is the problem. Like tramping through back alleys and sewers looking for something while wearing your best shoes and suit. Better to have someone else do it or wear a full body condom. Or, rather, have someone else do it for you wearing a full body condom. Analogy: Run a windows VM and browse in the VM with the browser in a sandbox. Whether your main system is linux or windows it doesn't matter.

Definitely mod up, he is right because it seems to me that ALL main stream 3D CAD software (solid edge, solid works, autodesk inventor, etc etc etc) are all basically the same, just the arrangement of the GUI is different. The nuts and bolts are the same.

Also, the commercial big name packages are a LOT easier to use than the freebies. It's like the difference between Adobe Premier and Vegas Video. One is intuitive, and the other is like trying to eat soup with a hammer. "You're gonna have a bad time"

Perhaps a tour through TPB would be in order? Oh, wait, that's just a joke I would never advocate piracy.

MS will always be around, they are too big to just disappear, but in what capacity, health and excellence they are around depends on how they deal with this portable tech iPad/iPhone/Android phenomenon.

Everyone wanted windows 7 and it is amazing IMO and the true successor to XP but I just don't .... want ... anything they're making right now. Give me Win 7, Server 2008R2, Office 2008 and my Android devices and leave me alone for about 5 years and then come around again and see if we need anything ok?

I would guess the only way they (Iran) could produce something equivalent to Stuxnet is by contracting it out to Russia or China. Would they actually do that?

And if they DID, could they successfully deploy it?

And if they could deploy it, could the manage and control it properly?

I don't know, that's why I'm asking. I would GUESS the answer isn't "no" but rather "no probably not" to all three questions.

They were implying that everyone "knows" that Stuxnet was a cooperation between USA and Israel.

In my area the 4G Verizon WWAN devices are doing this. It screws with VPNs big time. It connects you to verizon on an internal IP and then verizon NATs you the web content through their system.

The WWAN dongles can connect to the 3G service and then you're fine, that still works the "old fashioned" way.

This is fine for Bubba lookin at boats on craigslist or grandma getting emailed pics of little Johnny, but if you are in that 1% of non-typical use, whoops.

Haven't heard one good thing about Windows 8 yet, even Pirillo seems to be trying hard not to bash it - on tablets even.

Every non-techie who's ran into it absolutely HATES it.

With Vista at least it LOOKED like windows, it simply didn't work. THIS seems to work at least but it is a whole new interface. WTF MS, WTF.

That's just it.

What do you do if you GET a phone call? Does it play on your computer speakers for all to hear the results of your "test" at the Dr's office? Headphones? Bluetooth in your ear all day? Is it going through your smartphone? What if the battery is almost dead and you've forgotten your charger? What if it falls out of your pocket into the toilet? What if it forcecloses the phone app because you installed a buggy copy of fruit ninja 12? What if your battery only lasts an hour because of a rogue weather app that won't stay closed?

I think people still need something permanent for POTS calls if it's an office environment, but it's going to get way cheaper and simpler.

Maybe a POTS style receiver attached to the PC via USB or actually into the sound card mic-in and phones-out and the pc app has a speakerphone function.

But it's still something LIKE a traditional phone.

call it the iWheel and make it look all hip and trendy and you might have a chance there.

Just not too hip and trendy or Apple might whine about it and sue you.

I think it would be cool to explore the nitty gritty electro/mechanical aspect of exactly HOW skynet was able to get to the point of "taking over". The Sarah Connor Chronicles was sorta going there towards the end I guess.

Creating AI is one thing, but if it isn't attached to "teh internet" or given legs and hands, it can't do much more than make noise.

Also as smart as an AI might be, it would have to be fed relevant info of some sort to begin building the infrastructure even if it had arms and legs. Probably module one to be added to it's intelligence would be a ravenous information gathering algorithm.

I can only imagine the shaky hands and sweaty brow of the first guy who takes an AI and hooks it up to a drone with real bombs and hits the start button.

How do you know it doesn't exist in some form?

Do you know every black military project? The military has possessed, tested and used tech 40 years before it was released to the public as "new." Yes I know this because I was told so by someone who USED a technology and then saw it released well down the road as a consumer item.

The "theories" that the military is XX number of years ahead of the tech of the rest of the nation are based on fact, XX is the question.

Some form of AI is quite likely being used, in my opinion, either for creating political strategies, battle tactics, or actually guiding unmanned drones. You don't think they really spend $500 for a screwdriver, and $1000 for a toilet seat, do you? (lol)

Pretty much fastest ever? Not quite, see link below. Recovery is very slow by comparison to other recoveries.

http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-economic-recovery-2012-8?op=1

lol I have NPR as the radio station that plays on my clock radio in the morning as my alarm. Either that or country, something annoying.

Psst, hey AC, better check this out...

Incomes are down: http://news.investors.com/092512-626958-household-income-down-82-under-president-obama.aspx

Obamacare regulations for 2013 are going to be less than optimal: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gracemarieturner/2012/10/28/the-avalanche-of-new-obamacare-rules-will-come-in-january-2013/

Obama EPA regulations also sub-optimal: http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2012/11/04/epas-insanely-ambitious-agenda-if-obama-is-reelected/

Here's another tip- stop getting your news from NPR and MSNBC. that's a left wing fantasy.

When I saw it called the "unit" of computing I thought maybe it was modular so I could snap together a few "units" of them to make it faster, bigger, etc.

Shoot, make it NOT expandable at ALL and simply modular, so more ram, more hd, more proc, etc, just click it together. Have variations, different colors mean more ram or more hard drive. Pair a unit with more ram with a unit with more processor.

Otherwise, whats the point? They've made a nettop with an i3 rather than a atom? Ok...