...that someone is raising the real issue. I'm in the UK and studied for a science degree and from people I still know who graduated, only one of them is actually working in science now (5 years later). Of other friends I've made in the field most have left their science jobs. The most recent has just retrained as an accountant. She got made redundant from her previous job with a big pharma as they moved her whole lab out to china where they said they could have 6 equally qualified people for what they were paying her. People aren't stupid, they aren't going to study for something where there's no jobs, or what jobs do exist are all low paid rubbish with no chance of advancement. They'll all go become accountants and lawyers. Say hello to globalisation...

Most of the comments here seem to be talking about code copying/sharing/theft.

However this isn't the only way to get code. When I was doing my CS degree I was know as being someone to ask for help when stuck, and people frequently did. This lead to me being asked several times if I'd accept payment to write the assignment for them; of course I declined. These people clearly didn't have the first idea how to construct a program, yet several seemed to pass the course, which always amazed me. That was a few years ago now, and I expect it's only got easier with sites like RentACoder, for people with money to buy their way through courses. A very talented and poor friend of mine on an english course got offered alot of money to write someone's dissertation.

The only way people get caught is if someone grasses them up.

VLC does that...

CTRL + L/R arrow, ALT + L/R arrow and SHIFT + L/R arrow for big, medium and small jumps forwards and back.

I'm sorry but that's not quite correct. I worked as a movie projectionist for several years, so I know this from experience. While 24fps works, and is what used to be used in cinemas, it is noticeably flickery. As with most advancements in cinema technology, they came up with a bit of a hack. While there are still only 24 frames of film per second, the projector shows each frame twice, giving an effective frame rate of 48fps.

Don't misrepresent what I said...

The GP was talking about a theoretical collapse, which I clearly quoted, not geomagnetic reversals.

I really hope not. We'd fry and so would the communication satellites if the magnetosphere vanished...

I'm not trolling here, but explain to me exactly why this is so terrible?

So what if someone else makes stuff for you? You could say we should all be making our own food, because each person needs food, and if they don't make their own food they're in danger of starving...

As far as I understand it, it was the very fact that moving away from subsistence farming that allowed modern society to flourish.

How is this any different?

The trouble is a project of that size usually requires some level of state/federal organisation or funding to secure the necessary investment from private funding and the power to buy the land. Which in the USA seems to cause foaming at the mouth and long rants about the evils of communism.

(I'm assuming here a new high speed railway would require a new less bendy track than already exists)

I think this is part of the confusion really. The banking systems in different countries are quite different and have different charging models. They are just trying to get rid of what is a free service in the UK for personal accounts. I know a few small business owners that use personal accounts for their banking precisely because they don't charge for transactions.

I have to wonder what UK bank the GP is using as I have accounts with three major banks and they all charge around £25 to transfer money between them. I've found the easiest way to change money between accounts is to drive to the bank, withdraw in cash and walk across the street and pay it into the other bank. (luckily all three banks have branches next to each other) Stupid in the 21st century, but it's the quickest and cheapest way for me to do it.