Maybe because MS hasn't changed the .NET API every 5 minutes with stupid trivial changes, then deprecated the old versions? Java had a horrible case of too many cooks.

Deprecated APIs have not been removed, and haven't changed nearly that often. So what are you really complaining about?

McDonald's wifi isn't free. Boingo, iPass, etc all federate to Wayport in McDonalds. It is free to AT&T Internet customers, but not the populace at large.

I am amazed that in the hundreds of comments here, yours is the only post I've seen pointing that out. I wonder why they don't manage to turn it into a profit center if there really is such high usage?

Flash, Silverlight, and JavaFX all have pseudo-3d (perspective transforms, etc). None of them have true 3D included (though its possible with Java to use 3D wrappers from an applet).

Because I have yet to see a single legitimate reason NOT to upgrade XP from SP2 to SP3?

I have an XP SP2 machine on which SP3 consistently fails to install. Thats the best reason that I've found so far.

Applets can spawn threads and make network connections (as long as the follow the same origin policy).

In my experience, the only guys who like this arrangement are the ones that are constantly asking "Hey bob, could you check in foozballwidget.dll please?" as loudly as possibly, just when I've gotten into the zone working on some problem*. ;)

* - Doubly annoying if you find out it already was checked in

You can get a private pilot's license, good for light aircraft and night flying, for about $5,000, with about 100 hours logged.

Simulator time or not, 100 hrs @ $50/hr avg is going to be hard to come by. I think most folks end up closer to $7500/60 hrs.

(It's hard on the engine to kill it by starving it of fuel, and drains the carb float bowls which can complicate restarting.)

Not true at all, and in fact most light singles are shut down by pulling the mixture, which essentially does just that (starving it of fuel).