"they have taken to large scale LARPing across the entire archipelago with pretty much the entire population taking part."

Until this very moment, I never thought I could use the word "LARP" and "cool" in the same sentence, but this sounds pretty cool.

But why isn't there a model for people who want to share their toys without losing access to them?

You can't really compare most museums to the CHM because the items in most museums aren't interactive. Or at least, you can appreciate the items without necessarily "using" them.

I wouldn't expect to have *unrestricted* access, but it would be nice if they at least gave donors certain days when they could come play with their stuff for free, provided it didn't interfere with other patrons' enjoyment.

Some people juggle geese.

Forget punching, we need to go straight to stabbing.

Weird, I was seeing something different:
'fhunter2ing moron' and 'batshunter2t crazy'

Harder than Battletoads? I think not.

Could be talking about the CuBox (http://www.solid-run.com/products/cubox) which wikipedia tells us has begun shipment.

Actually, yeah, which USB PCs?

Different definitions of pretty, I guess. My aunt loves the "Fisher Price" XP theme, and takes it a step further by putting everything in Comic Sans. Now her computer is "fun".

That's not "average". That's the lowest common denominator. Plenty of creative people aren't programmers. There is a whole spectrum of users put there.

Or did you miss that whole MySpace thing, when everyone and their dog was embedding HTML in their little corner of the web? It wasn't pretty, but there's no denying there was demand.

There really needs to be a preservation/orphan works clause in our copyright laws to prevent stuff from being lost to the ages.

It saddens me that we have the technology to keep our knowledge and art alive for eternity, yet we have laws that almost guarantee it won't survive... not without corporate sponsorship, anyway.

Which tells us that no one cares about the past anyway, unless it concerns you or your family.

That's fantastic! Hey, let's get rid of all profit-less things like fire departments and freeways too!

Could be. But even so, burger flippers are still producing something.
I guess the question is if IP-based "business" like, say, patent trolling, is somehow counted under tech manufacturing - then we have a problem.

Although I share your worry that the US will become an IP-based economy, there's still a long way to go before that happens.

Manufacturing and trade still dwarf other the information and entertainment sectors:
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/IBQTable?_bm=y&-filter=&-sortkey2=&-defOrder=N&-sortkey1=&-ds_name=EC0700A1&-sortkey0=-RCPTOT&-NAICS2007=00|21|22|23|31-33|42|44-45|48-49|51|52|53|54|55|56|61|62|71|72|81&-ib_type=NAICS2007&NAICS2007sector=*2&-geo_id=01000US&-dataitem=RCPTOT|GEO_ID$|NAICS2007|NAICS2007$|OPTAX$|FOOTID|ESTAB|PAYANN|EMP|NESTAB|NRCPTOT&-_lang=en
(Sorry link got FUBAR, paste it manually if you want to see it.)

The US also remains the world's largest manufacturer:
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/10/us-still-worlds-largest-manufacturer.html
(Sorry to have to link to a blog, but the reference in the post is a dead link.)

Right, because CS geeks are well-appreciated in public school peer groups, and won't be ostracized at all. If you're the kind of person who can only learn social skills in school, you probably won't learn them there anyway... either that or you'll only learn a twisted version of what "proper" behavior is.