Unless you live in a first-world country.

Cheaper? Yes. Better? Arguable.

I'd say for regular users, they are equivalent, but for more advanced things, calc doesn't compare to Excel, for example.

I think that only happens because he always kept a human or humans as the main characters. He could have easily written a Mind-centric story about all the backroom dealings the ships and hubs had. It was shown in many stories that there were pretty fundamental disagreements about topics like interference in other civilizations, and so a story about how it was decided what Special Circumstances ends up doing could have been rather interesting.

What is the point of an operating system if not to run programs? For some, computers can be a hobby, but when you need to do work, you don't do that with an operating system but a program inside one.

As an actuary, I can tell you we don't care how fast you drive - as long as you pay appropriate premiums. So 10mph would work if you want to pay almost $0 per month, but if you're willing to pay real rates, driving at a normal speed is fine.

Using a proper suitcase also works. It is a joke to open a zipper once you know how (just look it up on youtube). The solution is to use a hard-body suitcase that uses latches, not a zipper. Samsonite makes some nice ones. They are hard to find, and not cheap, but worth the money. Of course, there are still ways to open a suitcase like that, but it's just not worth the trouble for the crooks when they can have their pick from so many other suitcases.

A downside to this is that it will make it more likely for your suitcase to get outright stolen, as opposed to having just some things taken from it, but that's what travel insurance is for. Besides, my credit card offers luggage insurance for free anyways.

I'm not from the US, but I was under the impression that there you still have 1 test (or perhaps group of tests) that determine what kind of post-secondary education you can get.

I get unlimited talk, text and data for $40 per month from Wind. That doesn't include the phone, but you can buy a decent one for $150-300 nowadays. And it's nationwide. Granted, Wind doesn't have coverage outside the main cities, but that's all I need. How much does that cost in the US?

How about just not watching any of the crap they put out?

Crazy idea, I know.

One of the things covered in the leaks he published was how the US carried out extraordinary renditions in Sweden, so that could definitely happen to him.

You could easily end up spending more on electricity than on the computer - especially if you use it as a server.

People didn't study Latin and Greek just for their sake. They studied those languages in order to read some of the greatest works of literature, philosophy and mathematics in human history. I studied Latin in grade school (Argentinian private school) and I'm glad I did. Latin made it easier to learn Italian and French, as well as English (65% of the vocabulary in English has Latin roots, as well as a number of grammatical rules). Moreover, no translation can do justice to the beauty of Virgil's poetry, and it is amazing how simple Greek words like kleos and nostos can be so nuanced.

You don't accurately value them. That's why IPO's are risky, no one is sure if the price is good or not, so it's a win big, lose big kind of thing. However, keep in mind that the wealth of data Facebook collects is very valuable and useful in the age of Big Data.

How are they using a monopoly in one sector to acquire one in another? They don't seem to be pushing the Xbox through Windows. Moreover, there's a difference between loss leaders and dumping. Their Xbox division is now profitable, as instead of making money on the consoles they get it from games and Xbox Live, which is a perfectly valid model.

In Canada, you can write off 3% of your house's value as an expense due to depreciation. If you do this, the CRA will hate you, they'll flag your account and they will check everything you submit, but it is legal. I know this from a fairly high-ranking friend in the CRA, and I've been filing this for over 5 years now. No trouble yet, and my accountant also assures me it's legal.
The reason they flag the account is that if you sell your house for more than
(original value) - (depreciation you filed)
you'll need to pay back taxes on all that depreciation. However, the CRA only keeps records for 5 years maximum, and in practice about 3, and the worst-case is in essence having gotten an interest-free loan from the Government of Canada (assuming you got enough money to foot the bill if you sell).