So, we ended up with a foot being, well, the length of a foot,
It made sense at the time, and worked well enough.

The history of temperature units is interesting and convoluted, but 32 for freezing is based on binary divisions (64 units) between that and human body temperature (96).

what part of 'unlimited' don't you understand ?

In those situations where I've recommended and warned against the functionality, and the user still demands it...

It's a commercial entity behind this, which means the government has easy leverage to make them snoop on all their millions of users.

The Enterprise computer was not hampered by being in another galaxy... They had local copies of all the data at all times

Did anyone really expect the MPEG-LA to offer license terms that were amenable to FOSS goals? That would eliminate their ability to exert and enforce control over the market.

As far as everyone else goes, sorry, no. I can watch them starve outside my door, and I am prepared to greet them, look them in the eye, shake my head and say that I don't have any stockpiles.

The fact is that neither Lotus nor WordPerfect ever successfully managed the transition from DOS text-mode to Windows GUI. This is due to a lot of factors, including bad management; W. Pete Peterson's book Almost Perfect is unintentionally revealing of this...

OTOH, my daughter will NOT get the cervical cancer vaccine, because HPV is preventable in behavior

Who is at risk for HPV?

Anyone who is having (or has ever had) sex can get HPV. HPV is so common that nearly all sexually-active men and women get it at some point in their lives. This is true even for people who only have sex with one person in their lifetime.

How do people get HPV?

HPV is passed on through genital contact, most often during vaginal and anal sex. HPV may also be passed on during oral sex and genital-to-genital contact. HPV can be passed on between straight and same-sex partners --- even when the infected person has no signs or symptoms.

Most infected persons do not realize they are infected, or that they are passing HPV on to a sex partner. A person can still have HPV, even if years have passed since he or she has had sexual contact with an infected person. It is also possible to get more than one type of HPV.

Of course their wage base is slightly higher than us mere mortals.

US Household Income

According to the Census ACS survey, the median household income for the United States was $50,502 in 2011, the latest data available.

US Per Capita Income

The ACS 1-year shows the per capita income in the United States was $26,708 in 2011, the latest year available.

I don't understand this "I don't want to be recorded" that people always go on about with this. Seriously, what is so special about you that a stranger would want to record you?

-- The Segway. The Bluetooth headset. The pocket protector.

What do these three technologies have in common? They all pretty much work as promised. They all seem like good ideas on paper. And they're all too dorky to live.

Now, far be it from me to claim that nerdiness equals lack of popularity potential. But I contend that dorkiness and nerdiness are two different qualities. While nerdiness implies a certain social awkwardness that's ultimately endearing, dorkiness connotes social obliviousness that opens you to deserved ridicule.

Or just as likely, they just faked the data.

Or how about a class action lawsuit?

Internet was in many households long before Microsoft implemented it on the "commodized PC platform".

In 1990 the Internet had existed for only 7 years; just 3 million people had access to it worldwide. 73% of these people were living in the United States, 15% were in Western Europe.