And everything you claim to have learned on was outdated when I was a fucking teenager. I have a really hard time believing that this "old school" computing world is what you grew up with. You just sound like a computer "hipster" to me. Come crack open a PBR with me and relax .. you don't have to try this hard to be different. As someone who has done production in many industries, please let me reassure you that we wouldn't have adopted today's tools if they weren't better than yesterdays. Your mashup of what would also be considered old (social networking) and new (Win 8) .. oh fuck I just convinced myself this was a troll submission, fuck off.

You have a strange definition of "free". Publicly funded is better wording.

According to government numbers the NHS takes just over 18% of the income taxes, or about £1500-2000 or so per year depending on your income. It is also paid by other specific taxes (such as tobacco tax) and through general funds.

Thanks to the NHS guidelines, your wait time in the queue is to be no more than 18 weeks. Usually.

America pays more, but they can also generally see a specialist for any field within a matter of days or sometimes hours for non-emergency care.

And for emergency care. ... Many American hospitals are putting their emergency room wait times up in phone apps so you can compare wait times. I have heard it is common to see 5-10 minutes between entering the hospital and being treated for urgent situations. In contrast, I sat in a hospital with my daughter, her hand oozing blood after being crushed and having two broken bones and severe lacerations and soft tissue injuries, for nearly THREE HOURS before being treated. Watching her quietly cry the whole time I would have gladly written an American-sized cheque for £1000 to have her treated immediately.

What if you, say, forget a gear, or mismatch the pressure release valve?

This would probably be more reliable than POTS. Every household would have a backup battery. Even the POTS interfaces from the cable company come with a battery installed. Remember when cell phones were just phones and the battery lasted for days? Now imagine a bigger battery.

Also in a disaster they could easily setup mobile towers to replace towers that have been damaged or to add additional capacity. You can't just run new POTS lines in an emergency. The old system could have been down for weeks if your lines went down. Now maybe only hours or days if it even goes down. There is a lot more redundancy now too since you are not relying on a single copper connection to your house. In theory you would have the ability to connect to multiple towers, so it one fails the other will be a backup.

So it is not at all more vulnerable to disasters.

What exactly makes a cellphone (or any digital device) different than any other personal posession? Why did it take a special court ruling (and probably millions of dollars) to "clarify" this "issue"? Does the law (and the constitution) not already state that a person cannot be searched without due process?

Where in the world did this confusion come from?

Ugh yeah, I wish people would stop using Segway as an example of useful innovation. The technology behind them is interesting, but as a whole they failed to actually improve transportation in any fashion.

Hi Jittles, In my submission, I left out the word *paid* maternity, *paid* paternity leave. You're dead on regarding FMLA's 12 week requirement, but it does not require it be paid.

VAT is paid by the Final Customer, ... at the point of purchase, which in Amazon's case is an offshore subsidiary with lower tax. So basically they get to sell goods nearly tax free to UK residents where as local retailers have to pay full tax.

They pull the same trick in the US with sales tax too and it looks like congress are finally fed up enough (i.e. other retailers have lobbied enough) to close that loophole.

Yes and no.

Sometimes you need to get off your ass and walk around once in awhile. Focus your eyes on something that doesn't involve pixels or a desk. Lunchtime is perfect for that. Gives you a chance to get out, walk around, notice things, talk to folks in a groups, and in a setting where you're not all eyeballing a PowerPoint presentation.

I get the leave-earlier paradigm, but honestly? 8-10 straight hours in front a screen makes Johnny a very unhappy soul. Break that shit up.

Basic rule in naming species and diseases with geographical names: Good? Use American. Bad? Use Asian/African

Examples: California Candor, Dwarf Alberta Spruce, American Redwood, Canadian Maple

African killer bees, African land snails, West Nile virus, Madras eye, Burmese python

I've always wondered why they say that Lithium Ion and Lithium Polymer batteries don't have a memory effect, when even laptop batteries based on those technologies die after several years, and NOT because of charge cycles. I'm talking about the ones that stay plugged in most of their lives, charging. Maybe its the lack of charge cycles that kills them? But to say Lithium batteries have no memory effect has always been ludicrous to me.

I use a very old digital watch when I go hiking on the mountains (my phone is usually in airplane more or switched off). I put the watch in a closed pocket or strap it on the backpack (it's has a velcro strap) because I can't tolerate anything around a wrist anymore: I just lost the habit some 20 years ago. There are almost no other use cases for a watch for me, certainly not for a smart one that I won't wear.

That said, I'm sure smart watches will sell and maybe I'll make some money writing software for them if some customer pays me to do it.

The aol would do it for me. We used to call AOL the American Organization of Lamers. Coming into an IRC channel with AOL as your ISP was sure to get you kick banned.