Next step to implement the mark of the beast.

Exactly!

I have about a dozen machines in my house and most run XP. I don't need any of that damn UAC or the latest version of Office. I upgraded one machine to windows 7 because I didn't want to get stuck with 8. Everything is behind a firewall. I have tons of software that works perfectly well.

Millions of people have woken up to realize that they don't need a new computer. Replacements will be the only market now. Microsoft will die a very slow death. It might take a decade or more, but they are in decline.

Business buys volume licenses to give them the ability to install older operating systems.

Same here. My battery issues came from a shitty free game I downloaded. Once that was deleted, things are fine again.

I always wait a day to see if the freebie app will screw with my phone. If it does, it gets deleted and life goes on.

STERN ! ;-)

A Power company. 5 week rotation operating windmills:

7 - 12 hr nights
7- days off
7 - 12 hr days
14 - days off (sometimes 4 - 8 hour days in that week)
So basically two hard weeks on shift, 3 weeks off (already paid) about ten times a year. Everyone does this gig for the shift and the time off. Work a holiday like Christmas? Double time and a half.

It is weird, but a very good gig.

I work 7 12- hour shifts, while there, I stare at 34 monitors for 12 hours at a time.

Then I get seven days off.

What about Facebook? How many millions willingly give up personal information for free?

There are many companies taking advantage of the naivete of internet users for their own advantage.

I was taught manners, I'm waiting for you to go first. :-)

Am I missing something? Is the earth not a closed system? Doesn't this carbon just recycle itself into other forms over x number of years?

Why are we freaking out about all this? Like we're gonna stop driving and using electricity any time soon?

In 50 years I'll either be dead or senile and won't really care anymore.

In other news, America seems to be full of people that want money for nothing.

Interesting that you should mention Saturn. I also used to work at an automotive plant in Toronto. They made the seat recliners. They couldn't find anyone else (besides me the poor prototype tech) that could weld a one inch bead and three spot welds with a mig welder.

The company brought in a robot and a huge 100% duty cycle mig welder. They made this massive jig that held 8 assemblies at a time. They had two people load and unload the jigs and about 200 people to do all the other assembly and packing. If they didn't have this robot, they wouldn't be able to make those parts.

They could have used a press and die set up. That would cost upwards of 100 grand. Since they only made 20 units at a time, it's just not cost effective.... and you still don't need a robot.

I worked as a welder-fitter at Komatsu Dresser in Cambridge Ontario a number of years ago. The "quality" issue is a red herring.

Robots haven't been invented that can fit a gusset plate made of 3/4" steel that doesn't quite fit right because a guy hand made it in a 500 ton press brake. The plates would have to be clamped, heated and hammered with a 10lb sledge hammer to fit properly.

We had about 20 - 35 ton trucks on the assembly line at any given time. There is simply no cost effective way to make a robot do the tasks that these guys were doing.

Vestas VOB scada to run windmills has a $6000. dongle.

Our network just got moved off the internet. It had some advantages, but legally I think we're now obligated to protect the scada systems as much as we can. The cardlock doors are coming next month

I bought a subscription to Open dns for my kids. For $29 a year they allow whitelisting. It's not as easy as you describe, but very effective for my kids. If it ain't on the list, they're not going there.

I like your idea. Be interesting to see if some enterprising geek could figure that out. I'd gladly pay for a service like that.