A sphere of cubical modules. Individually spheres are probably not the most optimal shape of CPUs and each blade of the super-computer. Across a large super-computer a spherical shape sets the best distance from center to edge for maximum latency.

I'm not sure how this is a related question? At X miles you can have the fluid taken out and tested and show the percentage of breakdown that occurs. There is a reason there are SAE standards. Now the breakdown may occur more or less quickly depending on environment and driving habits but the number are a good average. These are all parts that suffer mechanical stress and will eventually wear out.

It's not much different from computer hard drives. They will eventually fail, keep an eye on your SMART diagnostics. The real question comes in to play with solid state devices. If it has good caps, good power, and kept cool, the life of the device should far exceed the usefulness of the device. I've had servers in climate and dust controlled rooms last 12+ years. Support for the devices ends far quicker then the usefulness.

Its not like they could have just said Critical update patch...oh no, we need to make things confusing.

What happens when admins get confused and pour the contents of their beverage containers into their servers?

We apologize for the confusion in the Critical Patch Updates. The individuals responsible have been sacked. To avoid further confusion, all CPUs will be processed through CUPS, the Critical Update Patch Server.

And now the goddamn printer doesn't work.

Ever hear of the saying 'Turtles all the way down'. There is probably a reason the not so old machine is not supported.

One particular case I had to deal with was for a digital x-ray machine. The firm upgraded their x-ray management software to a new edition, but the 3 year old machine would no longer work with it. The company had changed the base processors in the x-ray machines so they required different drivers. They didn't licence the drivers for the old machines in to the new package because of the expense. They are better off forcing you to buy a new x-ray anyway.

Have you even hacked? Old systems are great places for hackers to jump in. It's likely they are never looked at so information gathering can occur for a long time with low risk of discovery. Once you have your foot in an old system you can use it to exploit other network resources.

Never assume any secret is worthless, you never know the motivations of an attacker.

Because the business owners understand machines pretty well. They require parts specifications on the machines they use, and many times a secondary supplier to fix or replace said machines.

They do not understand software, they treated it like a machine that was fungible. They didn't know enough about software to see that all the machines running and operating are far less complex then the financial package alone. The factory they have is anti-fragile. Engineers optimize each part of it for efficiency and the safety of each part is pretty well understood, the steps a product takes are very well layed out. The software is custom code and series of black boxes that no one in the company may understand, after a few years of changes the data flow in these black boxes can do very unexpected things. The failure rate and mechanism of machines in a factory can be calculated and pretty well planed for. A simple change in software can have drastic effects.

You have to figure out how to convert in to a society that can handle population decline. You also have to convince everybody that this is a good idea. A significant percent of the population won't agree with your policies and may spend an inordinate amount of time lighting your shit on fire. You also may have to deal with nationalist neighbors attempting to breed your population out of existence. Oh, and after a short few generations of one child you are going to have a population crisis. Essentially it's going to take a totalitarian society with an iron fist and a loaded gun to make this happen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_decline#Economic_consequences

No, we run the risk of the people who own the robots going on strike. They tend to be the same groups that own military production, own politicians, and control large portions of the media with financial sway.

Given that the patent office is self-funded, and rejections only make more time-consuming work, it'd be silly for some Machiavellian Patent Office executive to hand out incentives for rejecting patents.

Au contraire. Given that the patent office is self-funded, and rejections only generate more filing fees, it'd be Machiavellian for some silly Patent Office executive to hand out incentives for rejecting patents.

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

Physics Muthafucka, seeing the video of you watching tranny porn many bias a potential employer enough to keep you from being hired, which means you can't pay rent, which means you die lonely and homeless which defiantly affects your well being (ok, this is a ridiculous statement, we all know this AC is in to bestiality not tranny porn).

A-fucking-MEN. The fact that Godwin's Law even exists shows that people might have to lie to save their life or the life of others.

It's likely they would have to do this anyway, for a good portion of the network. Even if you think you know exactly where a cable is, before you start digging to extend the network you have to locate it and locate any other utilities around it. One of my clients has done all kinds of pipe and cable laying across the U.S. When he explained the process they had to go thru to push a new fiber conduit in to a telco exchange in LA, I was like screw that. They were pushing a few hundred feet of pipe past thousands of other cables with only a few feet of clearance. One mistake and you cause a national communications blackout.

On another forum I was posting a statement to the issue that in the future that personal image management is going to be even more important.

If you see your image being broadcast over the internet and you've had nothing to do with it, go to the media with the story that it wasn't you. Also contact the police and make sure that they aren't putting effort in to investigating you either. Lastly, you might want to post to a few social media sites saying the same thing. Social media can spread the news that it wasn't you just as easily.