In all likelihood, it's the result of a political game to try to avoid the blame for massive cost overruns in a loosely related project which is funded under the same umbrella account/fund.

You've got a pretty short memory.

Remember a couple months ago, when Boston was under martial law and the police forces were performing warrantless door-to-door searches, at threat of force? Now imagine that scenario with active resistance: it's the scenario you describe.

You're assuming a lack of indoctrination and the presence of a moral conscience in the majority. "Free thinking" is largely an illusion and most people, despite claiming to be able to hold an opinion, often just toe the line and follow orders. I, as is the same for everyone, am not exempt from doing this myself (at least time to time). There are very few independent people of the nature you describe: they're usually leaders and out in the front.

If you can consistently get mostly-accurate targeted marketing thrown at you based on a -very slim- amount of public marketing data, what do you think the government will

Imagine this for a second: they know every purchase you've made in the past year, and they are able to trend and analyze that data. They have public records. Let's say they know you were divorced, and then you start spending wildly and erratically. Maybe you seek out counceling, spirituality or religion to find solace. Maybe you take up a hobby - you decide to renovate your house or take up gardening or beer brewing. Or maybe all three.

Then, they're able to correlate tools, chemicals, etc. and, with 70% certainty, tell you're at a high risk to become 'radicalized' - based on an abstracted and PC-sanitized profile which is really meaningless to pretty much anyone, since it intentionally excludes the more likely demographics (which are truly marginal to begin with, anyway). Congratulations, you're now one of the majority of divorced men who the gov't thinks is highly likely to be a terrorist. Technicality aside, this information will be used politically in this cultural environment.

Oh, we do have those geographical lines - that's where you're wrong.

Look at county voting records for the country. Those lines are very clearly drawn between "progressive urban, reservation, and immigrant" areas and "everyone else". Culturally, you're not looking at things correctly if you look at state borders; there are cultural regions, and they tend to either circumference cities or push back against those spheres.

Also, I'm sure you're aware of the Balkans and at least some of the history there. There were no clear geographical borders, just a mix of a lot of diverse people. That's how they've gotten into so many conflicts over the ages, and why the region is an ever-increasing number of small states.

The middle class in most of the US is actually pretty hopping mad, too: you know, the people who have 2-3 jobs between a couple, have home mortgage payments, children, and extensive personal daily obligations. They might appear apathetic but they are not; they aren't being left alone any more, they're being torn into like a freshly downed calf.

It's not that simple, but no, it's not that difficult, either.

Station the NY National Guard units in Alabama. Station Alabama National Guard in NY.

Station urban military units in rural communities, as well as the inverse.

You're not killing, beating, or arresting the neighbors of anyone you know now; they're culturally different enough that you're able to disenfranchise them fairly easily. This will be very easy to do due to the high proportion of Latino and urban blacks in the military today: the places needing occupation and jackboot thuggery will be rural, white, and protestant communities in low(er) population areas, and urban areas (as is historically the case) will toe the line much more readily without a high occupation force ratio.

You know what I've noticed? In the past decade or so, people have been less likely to make '1984' references the more Orwellian things get.

Sorry, the totalitarianism we're living under today is, at this point, even more severe than what Orwell wrote about. We're kinda cooked.

Surely you're not surprised.

After 3 months, it'll just get extended. Extensions are much easier than the initial intrusions; they can say "it's only for a little while" and people will put up with it.

I'm personally surprised anyone is surprised anymore. This is kind of the MO of the government under this administration, and they've been brazen about it since the last election. Is nobody paying attention?

Have a link to back that assertion up? I've not seen any Thinkpads in the past year or two which suck; the opposite is true: they all seem to be of surprisingly rugged quality.

It also has to do with costs. A LOT of companies are moving production back to the US due to the cost. Business people are starting to clue into the fact that Chinese production isn't actually all that inexpensive when you factor in R&D, communication with the factories, Q/C, product lifecycle, shipping costs, and just general, overall ROI.

For instance, Whirlpool has made a corporate commitment to move all Chinese manufacturing back stateside. They've already re-engineered a great number of their products, reducing production costs while improving the end result. (They're using a process on the manufacturing line which sounds a lot like Agile to me, actually.) I've bought a "Made in USA" dishwasher and water heater from them this year as a result: their products feel sturdier than the other cost-comparable products and honestly, are cheaper than most while still having better synthetics (eg. power use, noise rating, etc.) I haven't been displeased.

How sadly wrong you are.

Frequent releases isn't a process; it's the result of a process. Kind of like how "a single release only" isn't a process with other methods, it's the result of said process.

Agile calls its so-called results its process, when in fact it's just throwing shit at a wall and hoping something sticks. It's a businessman's dream, because he can sell an unknown large quantity of billable hours - and by the time the client knows any better, they're Invested and have a hard time justifying backing out. I have seen so many projects have overruns, get new/additional devs thrown on, and still have the project ultimately fail to deliver what the client is delivered a usable product (often with a bill many times larger than initially proposed).

Here's a big difference: with agile, you can (and seemingly, many do) carpet and furnish the 67th floor before the hole for the foundation has been dug. Then they're not stuck trying to figure out how to get the 67th floor half way up the building when they're ready to start building it, nevermind moving the elevator shaft...

Add to the fact that most in-vehicle theft is performed with a broken window, it's kinda stupid. I'd prefer to leave my doors unlocked so I don't have to shell out $300 for new glass - and a broken window is a much more visible sign of B&E than someone fiddling with a coat hanger or gaining access keyless.

I believe the key actually has to be present only for the initial start of the car, though I might be mistaken. That would be how I'd design it, at any rate. I see no point in the key needing to be present while the vehicle is in operation.

On a whole, keyless start is an irritating and stupid feature, I think. For those of us who work out of our vehicles, it's irritating to have to lock/unlock the vehicle frequently just to make sure it's not jacked.

'dd' (or rawdiskwrite, or whatever the Windows equivalent is) is your friend, as is virtualization. There is very, very slim rationale behind keeping these systems physical. Even SCO virtualizes OK in most scenarios.

Since when was that equivalent to "drug-dealing, cop-shooting criminal underclass"?

That phrase/song was written by an elitist Marxist, and it was satirical. He was not fond of America soaking up Europe's underclass due to the above mentioned lack of equivalency.