Last time this came up, someone here pointed out that as drivers' own safety increases, they have less reason to be cautious, which is the real problem. Seatbelts, airbags, GIS, alert systems, have all reduced the need and habit of using their own brains.

Tho I will also say that in my observation, cyclists today are not nearly as cautious, nor as conscious of other traffic, as they were 30 or 40 years ago. Enter helmets and bike lanes, and now there's no need to pay attention to traffic with their own brains.

That's a defect. There's supposed to be an inrush current limiter.

Crap switching power supplies from China are a huge problem. You not only have to look for a UL logo, but check the logo in the UL database. UL even has special rules for China about where the UL stickers come from.

Tests of computer power supplies have shown that the UL-certified ones will consistently deliver their rated current. That makes sense, because that's how UL tests them. Others, loaded up to their rated load, overheat, shut down, burn out, or in a few cases, catch fire. The really bad ones lack key safety components, like a fuse.

I bought some laptop-type switching power supplies on Amazon which showed a UL logo in the picture, but the delivered power supply looked different and lacked a UL logo. I raised hell with Amazon over that, and they kicked that seller off.

The answer is, populations with the compulsion to sacrifice themselves on behalf of the group are more likely to reproduce themselves and abide, while populations without this compulsion are more likely to see their population decline and cease to exist.

The existence of human beings is a testament to this. We, ourselves, are a culture of cells that work together and sacrifice themselves for the good of the culture. When they stop doing so, the composite being that we are dies, and ALL the cells that make us up also die.

No shit.

As someone who spent the first 20 years of his life in an area without significant seasonal changes and the next 20 years in areas with major seasonal changes I can definitely say that seasons are vastly overrated.

Having near perfect weather every day is about the least horrible curse I can think of.

Wasting trees is a constructive activity?

And we can find constructive things for them to do after those jobs are gone. If nothing else have them pick up litter in parks and highways- get a real benefit for them.

We don't want to keep people in useless jobs just to keep them employed. The trick is to move them slowly to useful jobs at a rate the economy and safety net can absorb.

I don't know about your state, but the DMV in WA has my email address. I get my renewal notices by email instead of paper. The IRS could easily adapt- they take my check electronically, they could just as easily email me of problems as physically main me. You're talking minor changes which would probably save them money (although they'd have to be rolled out optionally to support those without computers).

For that matter, I sometimes go months without picking up my mail. I'm easily available by phone, email, and 17 other electronic ways. If its important they'll find me.

You say this like it would be a bad thing. No real mail gets delivered to me anymore, its all electronic. I haven't even picked up my mail in months.

"But, tempted though I might be to cancel mail service, you normally have to give mailing addresses for a few critical life elements: job applications, credit cards, bank accounts, taxes, and children school forms."

Don't forget mail from DMV, court summons, legal correspondence and stuff like that which unfortunately comes mixed in with the junk mail.

I wouldn't be surprised if this backport is basically ActionbarSherlock added into the support library with a few tweaks.

Not being able to uninstall != lockin. Not being able to install a competitor is locking. Not being able to change the default handler is lockin, but you can do that.

Heck, even not being able to uninstall is a feature of the OEM not the OS. Nothing in the OS prevents those apps from being uninstalled- in fact various OEMs have shipped with many of those apps replaced. Samsung uses their own browser, and Verizon was using a different maps app for a while. The fact that it can't be uninstalled is a technical limitation in the fact its typically placed in system memory when shipped for ease of implementation by the OEM.

So yeah, no Android lockin here.

They aren't selling at a loss. But even if they were, there's nothing wrong with not using their other services. That's the risk they take by selling it that cheap. If they don't like it, charge more.

Lets not exaggerate. Nobody is still shipping Gingerbread in any volume. There's plenty of pre-existing, will never be upgraded devices out there. Enough so that you have to target 2.3 if you're selling an app. But they aren't making new ones.