Curiously, if you follow the link it says that GmailFS doesn't work anymore.

My server backs up on to the desktop. Currently the desktop backs up an internal drive. Once I upgrade the server (stalled, in part due to HD prices), I will backup the desktop on the server: a mutual backup exchange. When that day comes, I may also do a backup exchange with a friend's server located in another state.

Not if other machines repair the machines and make the machines.

Not quite. Just because it appears to have happened before doesn't mean that nothing changed or that there isn't an end.

In the pre-industrial age, most earned their income through brute labor.

Early machines took much of that away but there was still profitable tasks to done by trained hands doing the tasks that machines lacked the finesse for.

The factory automation came in, able to perform many of the many tasks that well trained hands previously did. It became difficult to make a living working with one's hands. But machines still weren't very smart and so people that were smart learned to make their living by using their brains.

But machines are getting smarter. They do brain work too and the kind of work they can do goes higher each higher. A knowledge worker can attempt to move up the food chain, of course, but eventually there will be no further up to go. If one can't profitable use one's brawn or one's brain, what is there left to do? Probably the last stand will be the artists. Human creativity feeding irrational human desires. Unfortunately, society has never provided many artists with a living wage.

Of course, this doesn't happen overnight or with 100% efficiency. There will always be a few people who someone make their living through archaic means. But there will come a time when most people will be unable to provide value beyond what machines are already doing.

It is entirely possible that all POTS is now 64kbps but it hasn't always been the case. In the 90's at least, many telcos used "bit robbing". One bit out of 8 was used for signaling and, thus, was unavailable for the voice codec. That left 56Kbps.

I'm sure there will be some corporations using land lines for a long time but the era where you can always expect to get a phone along with your computer and chair has already passed. My last two contract gigs (in office) never assigned me a an office phone. We used cell phones and skype. In my current contract, there is technically an office phone but it is awkwardly placed and shared with three others. I never use it. Once again, I use skype and my cell phone.

Sort of. You get new gear after you get home. For the remainder if your trip you will have none. That's probably going to be an issue because, if you didn't need your gear on your trip, why did you bring it with you? Loosing your camera gear on the way out to a photo safari pretty much blows the trip.

I do a lot of travel in third world countries where theft risk is a big issue. I'm not sure if a long train ride in first world country qualifies for such paranoia but here's what I do:

1) Padlock all the metal zippers. Anything with in a compartment with a fabric zipper can not be secured. There is little point in securing a bag if someone can simply open a zipper and remove the good stuff. A lock is pointless if someone an simply cut the handle with a pocket knife.

2) String a cable lock through one or more padlocks and wrap it around an immovable object, like a seat leg. I use a cheap bicycle lock much like this one: http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___56711?cm_vc=PDPZ2 but there are plenty of options.

Security doesn't have to be perfect, just good enough that isn't worth the trouble or risk to the thief.

That said, there have been times when I would have liked something a proximity alarm: not so much for theft but so that I don't absent mindedly leave something behind.

I would say that this shows that people's priority filters work pretty well.

As popular as it is to put down chit-chat, the truth is that words spoken by real people that you actually interact with about things that actually happen are astoundingly more important for one to remember than well crafted prose from characters who never existed.

This goes to the core of why learning structured information is often so difficult. The brain's filters have not been trained to treat the information as important so it gets discarded along with all the other rubbish.

I tested it with a friend's email address. Her "real" email address is not visible but by searching for it, I can find her page.

Are you expecting C# to become less proprietary or Java to become more? And you are quite right to not trust Oracle. The worst thing to happen to Java was giving it to Oracle. Sun wasn't perfect but they meant well.

I didn't give them any phone number and the email address is only used for facebook.

Still, this is a pretty serious permissions flaw. Users that are not privileged to see information should not be able to search for it either.

Quite true, but it is difficult to distinguish the two prior to maturity. Normal 20 year old's are not perceptively aged either. They are in their prime. No parts of their bodies have noticeably declined. It would be much more instructive to check up this little girl when she is 30 or, better yet, 40.

Far less new brutal rulers, perhaps. But the risk is the same or worse for those who would rise up against existing brutal rulers.

Mostly, though, I think it will mean fewer despots. Despots stay in power partly through brutality but at least as much through controlling information. But no control is perfect and it becomes harder to stay in power when your entire population consists of people old enough to remember cases where you told them lies and they knew better.

There is no such thing as universal efficiency. A device/design is efficient if it uses less of whatever you desire to conserve. A rocket that is more mass efficient or more fuel efficient may not be cost efficient.

Why shut anything down? Granted, they may not be able to see much since the impact was on the night side but I don't see what harm there could be in keeping the camera rolling until it's explosive decommissioning.