I could not agree more. I spent a long career working in the Research Labs at Kodak. It was interesting to see how people's use of images changed with easy access to digital images.

When it was hard to process and print your own negatives, people would get rolls of film printed. Some prints went into scrap books, fewer were enlarged, and many were trashed.

Digital imaging changed everything. Some images were fun to remember a moment and were easlily stored on a phone for a while and never printed. A few were printed, either on a thermal printer or professionally. Those tended to be carefully selected.

Beware of sweeping generalizations. I have hearing loss and wear hearing aids in my ears, so I am actually trying to respect the people I interact with by compensating for my hearing loss. My "corner case" aside, I agree with the cashier that customers should treat those who serve them with consideration by giving them their undivided attention while in a line, especially when other people are waiting.

Many years ago when I was in grad school, I went to Oak Ridge National Labs to use the Small Angle Neutron Scattering line. When I arrived, the staff scientist had the instrument open (think of a large stainless steel pipe in sections that are bolted together). We made some adjustments to the detector and we needed to bolt everything back together and pump down the system.

The staff scientist said, "let's go for coffee". I had done a lot of electron microscopy and knew it took a while to pump down a such a vacuum system, so I said, "shouldn't we get this pumping first?" and picked up a wrench to get started bolting sections together.

He smiled and said you must not have worked in a union shop. He said we had to call a pipe-fitter or we would create a union incident.

I had never encountered this in college or at the non-union company where I had worked in a lab before graduate school nor did I encounter this in the non-union company I worked at for 36 years afterward. We had skilled trades people to help us when needed (especially for large jobs and tasks beyond most scientists), but we could do the easy things for ourselves and get our work done effectively.

I prefer PDFs that I file when I can find them easily. A second advantage is that most manuals have multiple languages. I can split the PDF and make one that has only the pages I want.

Because much of the software we use is only availabe on Windows and is not Open Source. I have ported some to Linux, but the Linux version of one key package I use has bugs and I don't have all the source to fix it.

You nailed it. I run Monte Carlo simulations of electron induced X-ray microanalysis spectra. These can run for hours. I want control of my CPU cycles and don't want some update starting without my explicit permission. I have a friend who runs a big microanalysis lab. A rececent MS update broke DCOM and won't let his microanalysis computer talk to the microscope computer. We know of at least one other system with this problem. These are $1M+ systems...

My community does CPU-intensive work and we want control of OUR computers. We understand the need for antivirus/spyware software and are willing to use it. We don't want our OS to treat us like idiots and BE the spyware... We want to give explicit permission for the OS to phone home...

"Free" and licenced are not incompatible. There are many very generous licenses: CC-by, MIT, BSD. One reason a developer may want to choose one is that they welcome individual or even corporate users using it but want to prevent someone bundling it with something else and selling it to others without either permission and some kind of payment or acknowlegement.

I agree. Want to be safe? Carry a small tablet. You can add a bluetooth keyboard if you hate on-screen keyboards like I do. I would be wary of online banking on an unsecure network...

Armed response is way premature and is the last result when all peaceful means are exhausted.. On the other hand filing a motion for an injunction prohibiting this until the matter has been fully litigated would be a wise move. This is clearly a constitutional issue... We have a Constitution and Bill of Rights for just this reason...

Let's make sure the right head rolls... This was a rookie mistake that no CEO should ever make. One NEVER tries a demo for the first time before an important audience. If the CEO isn't willing to do a dry run, then he should either get a product manager who has the time to do it or the board should get a new CEO.

Earlier this year our Keurig brewer needed to be replaced. Went to the store and got a new one. Got it home and our existing K-cups wouldn't work - they were the old version. Called Keurig - they told me they would replace my cups. Told them that wasn't good enough because I didn't want to worry every time we bought cups. The rep said there was nothing she could do. Told her she lost a customer for life.

Took the brewer back, got a refund. Ordered a Mr Coffee version that is quite acceptable. Use whatever cups I want. Hope their management lose their jobs over this one. First rule of business is to treat your customers with respect or they (we) will find vendors who will. Interestingly enough, everybody figured out how to defeat their DRM. Keurig alienated customers and competitors found a workaround. Queue up Nelson Munch: "Haa Haa."

There is a clear reason for the rise in tuition: The availability of "easy credit" for student loans.

In the Dark Ages when I was an undergrad, we lived in dorms with painted cinder block walls, spartan furniture, and a bathroom per hallway. We had a minimal gym facility but reasonable equipment in the labs. With some help from my parents and working had during summers and breaks, I graduated with only $750 in loans.

Now you have luxury dorms and sports complexes. Sadly, the cost increases for these facilities and the explosion of administrators made it practically impossible to pay for one's education at a top tier state school by working hard during the summers and breaks and some help from ones parents.

Let's not mention the Lake Wobegone mentality that all the children are above average. Colleges love remedial courses - they get paid and the students stay longer. But that changes the economics. Attending college is a business decision and if the graduate can't repay the debt in a few years, the ROI wasn't there.

Depends upon whether six months of backup meets the requirements of the records retention statute. If not, at a minimum all management who signed off on the policy should be fired. I could also see a statute setting different retention periods for different levels of employees. I could see a shorter period for lower level employees, but senior employees such as Lerner should have records that cover a much longer period, such as the statute of limitation for the consequences of criminal action in their position.

Several knowledgeable sources have noted that fuel is both expensive and heavy. Extra weight creates drag. Airlines tend to load an aircraft with the amount of fuel required for a flight and a reserve to cover delays that weather and air traffic cause, not filled to the brim.

> That is... naive. It is highly unlikely that that professor has any hand in this.

I suspect you are wrong. Prof. Shiller already makes his classes available through OpenYale. I have watched several of his lectures. His lectures are quite engaging and he seems to enjoy teaching.