... that's the sweet smell of the free market!

this, a thousand times this.

We'll be lucky to be halfway off XP on the desktop by 2013. Between user resistance, licensing restrictions, compliance requirements, tight replacement budgets, and vendors dragging their feet, I'll be supporting thousands of XP installs until 2014.

2 adults (we both are IT) & a male teenager

Router
Switch
File server (ppc powermac)
NAS
Airport
desktop x 3 (iMac & 2 homebuilt game rigs)
Laptop x 4 (MacBook pro & 3 windows)
iPhone x 3
iPad x 2
iTouch
PS3 x 2
Xbox
DirecTV connector

Extra credit - I cabled the house myself

... did they download copyrighted music to set the mood for their interspecies lovemaking?

isn't there supposed to be a link here?

what is going to be remembered about the 20th century?

nuclear weapons
going into orbit
information networks

the overhead AC in the test lab froze over the weekend, the ice then melted, the drip pan overflowed (the ceiling tiles got soaked, dripped, and then broke). the workstation underneath suffered the water torture for a couple hours and then the video cards shorted.

that Monday was spent filling out reams of paperwork. still hasn't been replaced, still a hole in the ceiling.

Billy Thorpe - Children of the Sun
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_18?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=children+of+the+sun+billy+thorpe&x=0&y=0&sprefix=children+of+the+su

simple, clear plots, non stop action, sophomoric romance - the John Carter novels are ready made scripts! i remember being in middle school thinking 'this would be an awesome movie!'

and now, with the technology to realize the fantastic settings .... what could possibly go wrong?

a 'conspiracy' that 90% of the group being discussed participate in would be 'the majority culture'
60% is 'a mandate' 30% is 'a political party'

Excellent point, and further I agree with the political sentiment I (would like to) sense implied ...

Having said that ... hitting flying objects and blowing them up is cool!
Maybe letting the military play with these toys and the wrinkly contractors pocket a few bills yields a technology that might be useful at some indeterminate future point?
Has that ever happened before? Maybe more importantly ... can the US afford that now?
Speaking sentimentally (my father was military turned wrinkly contractor) ... is this the kind of program in a fuzzy area that can be justified as R&D, is politically possible, maybe has possible 'soft power' dividends, keeps the engineers and rocket scientists working & production lines running ... does that pass the smell test?

well ... the statement
"The range of topics covered here is very wide and I don't know abc of several things discussed here"
makes you 'wise' in the Socratic sense, negating the description "stupid"

unfortunately, the location of this discussion reinforces the second descriptor

This is true, but the key difference is that people aren't mucking about with the latest installation of their airbag, and criminals aren't gaining access to peoples' cars without their knowledge and tampering with the airbag; in other words, if the airbag fails it's very likely the manufacturer's fault, they exercise almost total control over the system in the vast majority of cars.

Contrast this to computer security problems, which are sometimes the fault of the security provider (in this case Microsoft) but just as often (if not more often) is the result of user interference (people misunderstanding how the security system works or disabling security altogether) and malicious intent.

The real culprit isn't Microsoft, but the people who write malware; for some reason we don't spend much time blaming the criminal and we heap all our discontent on Microsoft. Maybe because they're the easy target here. At any rate, hopefully this shows why a lawsuit against Microsoft is illogical; they do not have sufficient control over the situation to prosecute them.

Forza is to Gran Turismo as Road and Track is to Top Gear.

Forza is about cars. Gran Turismo is about driving. Until i see crazy shit like the Model T, crazy 60's racers, and the DeLorean in Forza, no sale. Gran Turismo is a love letter to the car. Forza's a book report.

I think those 40 miles are travelled with a 16 KWh battery pack - so, you should compare the cost of 16 kWh of electricity against about a gallon of gas.