No, but we should have access to past data -- it was once common for the archives of the presidential offices to be opened to the public a decade or two after the end of a particular administration (W. ended that tradition). The only two items on your list that should have a longer period are the launch codes (which are not changed so frequently) and the personal information of soldiers (which should remain private for the sake of the soldiers and their families). The rest should be made public knowledge in a timely fashion -- military equipment is constantly upgraded, troop movements are no longer sensitive after the end of the war, and guard schedules should be changed frequently. Why should this information remain secret forever?

You forgot one of the more esoteric ones.

Nice exercise in absurdism. Taking the case of "nuclear launch codes" and stretching it to "a shit-ton of classified documents" is exactly the kind of thing that causes problems. No-one is talking about handing out employee ID codes, or disclosing how government buildings are laid out. We are talking about things like secret prisons, military pollution (such as my own groundwater being contaminated by the Ai Force dumping degreaser on the ground at a local airfield for 30 years), testing of chemical/biological warfare agents on US military personnel (and CIVILIANS we now find out, with a french town receiving LSD spiked bread some decades ago).

What is at stake here is secret governmental policies intruding upon the freedoms of citizens.

In fact, come to think of it, yes, ALL of that data that you are talking about should be revealed. This includes passwords and nuclear launch codes. They can easily change the codes and passwords (and security patrol schedules) prior to their release. If that is the cost of making sure that innocent people aren't being raped and tortured by our government in some third world hell-hole, then that is a small price to pay.

I think if you are worried about the efficiency of their solution you ought to explain complexity/order notation, and then apply it to a some practical data structures, like arrays or hash maps. Even more awesome if you get them to do some time measurements in easy language X so to demonstrate the effect of complexity. At crunch time, if they can judge the design trade-offs of their model&implementation, then that will eclipse any speed benefits of a compiled language. Good luck!

^^ this

And this is why I never let Paypal fund the payment from my bank account and force them to use my credit card.
If there is a problem with the order I just call the credit card company and they will reverse the purchase on their end.
But better I avoid eBay and paypal as much as I can.

Yep. Glass over map, good high-resolution camera mounted above (as far as possible), long steady exposure. Maybe some stitching afterwards.

I'll be happy to take care of any of your clients that are foolish enough to want their websites to look and function similarly across all major browsers. Viva la revolucion!

and what of the client who wants to differentiate his site by offering tech that has emerged and evolved outside the standards, like Flash?

the wheels of the gods grind slowly.

there is nothing to stop some new or unexpected entrant - from unleashing the next must-have plug-in.

the plug-in that is well on its way to 98% penetration of the market before the standards committee can nail down proposals that first saw the light of day over five to ten years ago.
 

> because in this day and age: Name recognition means all.

Yeah especailly when many bloggers and slashdotters couldn't read well enough to tell the difference in names. IPEX, D&H, NewEgg they look all the same right? :)

I also found it slightly amusing to read the posts which said that people in NewEgg should have noticed the fakes because of the typos...

Spelling and grammar errors are so common nowadays, and more and more people seem to take offense when someone points out the errors.

Actually in the US I'm pretty sure they got it finished a few years ago, they just can't figure out where to put the "WARNING! Objects below you may appear more stable than they are!" sticker, the "WARNING! Do not let anyone under the age of 12 ride underneath the rotor blades" sticker and similar important safety informations.

But it's freaking huge! I don't think I could even fit that through the door to my house.

My experience is similar, but the number of people who can take the car to Autozone for a free diagnostic code reading; that tells them to replace the pedal should be everyone, just a matter of confidence.
Unfortunately me experience with dealers is that's also the best they will do regardless if it is electrical or mechanical as well (doesn't really help either argument though.)

But you should be aware that Windows 7's Task Scheduler comes by default (at least mine did) with a background defragmentation task set to run once a week, and only while the computer is idle. That should probably be enough for most users. One should be aware of this if one desires to use another defragmentation utility, because having two defragmenters fight about where a file should go (either actively fight, or just a file is moved between two locations every time the other is run) is not good.

dot.bank model: Let's sell dimes for a nickel and make it up in bailouts...

Today, Windows 7 (NOT AN UPGRADE) [amazon.com] goes for $178.54 on Amazon and lists for $199. According to the Minneapolis Fed [minneapolisfed.org], $99 in 1985 is worth $200.21 in 2010 - in other Words, inflation adjusted, Microsoft hasn't raised the price of Windows. And if you include all of the programs that are included with Windows 7 that you would normally have had to have purchased separately back in '85 (compression, file management, image viewers, etc, etc...) Windows has gone down dramatically. Now, they've been labeled a monopoly in court, but they're pricing isn't that of a monopolist. Actually, they've given the consumer a really nice value.

What happened to hardware prices during that same time?