I've been using Conkeror for a while now and I love it. Even if everything else sucked (and it doesn't) being able to use emacs keybindings in textboxes would make it worth it.

There are "open" CAs out there, the one that I know of is CAcert.org and they are currently trying to get into more browsers/OSs etc. This CA provides signed certs at no cost. http://wiki.cacert.org/wiki/InclusionStatus The way to solve this issue is the same way that we approach the closed-source/proprietary software issue; a free, open, community alternative.

Agreed. Looking at how some computing resources are set up, there is as much (maybe?) of an emphasis on high-throughput computing as on parallel computing ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Throughput_Computing ). As in "how do we make all these long-running jobs complete reliably and so as to use the available hardware efficiently?"

I went to a talk at Fermilab a while ago about this project. I nerded-out over the different technologies that'll be brought to bear on it (it is a superconducting tokamak, for starters). If I were the president of the world, this is what I'd spend my money on. I would fund the crap out of fusion research until fusion happened.

I feel the same way. For some reason no computing experience will match when I finally compiled my first FORTRAN program on an O2. Writing code in the Nedit text editor brings back such fond memories. Since this was in the basement of the physics building, I was running xearth to see if it was night or day outside.

Exactly. I just wanted to mention that "lock down" can't be a purely technical solution.

I usually have an SBCL session running. I enjoy the rational support (like 21/7 + 1/7 = 22/7) and bignums.

If a user has physical access to a machine, she owns it. I haven't seen anyone mention this amid talk of locking down systems. Let me elaborate: No root access? Boot to single user, reset root password. You own it. No root access and BIOS password? (varies by platform) Pull motherboard battery/modify amount of RAM (iBook, all Macs?)/remove jumper (most enterprisey Dells). Boot to single user, reset root password. You own it. If people have desktops, as in machines on their desks and in their offices well then they own these machines.