In the context of this, I'd say the internet was a great invention. Look at how much it surprised a real powerhouse in the domain, Microsoft. No way would I have predicted in 1990 how ubiquitous the online experience would become.

And here's the way I like to think of the gamble. When you actually have the flu and you feel like shit, would you take a 1 in 3 roll of the dice if your symptoms could magically evaporate and disappear? You would. So I don't see what difference it really makes if it isn't 100%. If you avoid the flu part of the time, you're happier.

Here here. I was a chronic flu sufferer, with the usual complications, particularly bouts of bronchitis most winters. I finally had a nurse practitioner inform me that I was one of those people who should get a regular flu vaccination. And I've probably had bronchitis only once in the 18 years since. Getting my daughter vaccinated made a similar improvement in her winters.

I doubt a lot of folks do that, and outside of television I've never known anyone who did that. And it's a stupid idea. Rock salt doesn't make a gun non-lethal. Someone is either a grave threat or not. If they aren't a grave threat, you have no business shooting them with anything.

How do you teach your children or friends to shoot if your firearms only work for you?

And if you actually need the gun? The need is unlikely for the individual, yet legitimate defensive uses of guns happen all the time. If you're that unlucky individual, you really really need that gun to function. It can't fail because you happened to grab the grip a little differently or the software had a bug.

If you keep your weapon secure (locked when not in your possession) then the risk of someone killing you with your own weapon is not substantial.

Here's why I don't like magazine disconnects. They interfere with the safe consistent operation of the gun in other situations. For example, the Ruger Mark III pistol has a magazine disconnect. You have to "dry fire" the gun in several steps while cleaning. That means, rather than remove all magazines and ammunition from your work environment while cleaning, you need to keep a magazine (unloaded yes) to insert and remove at various points in the assembly and disassembly. It makes the whole process significantly more complex.

It also means that you can't easily practice with that gun without ammunition. Although the gun is safe to dry fire, when you cock the hammer, the slide will lock back. Without the magazine disconnect, you would simply pull the slide back and let go an you'd be ready to dry fire. Dry fire activities are valuable, but they're also a place where people make mistakes. So it'd be better all around if you could remove all ammunition and magazines from your environment when doing it. Adding complexity to the process makes it more likely you'll commit an error.

I prefer the simpler more consistent operation of guns without a magazine disconnect. But my very first lesson to new shooters is also that a gun with an empty magazine can still be loaded (and I use a dummy round for that lesson).

Becoming an associate member of the Free Software Foundation is probably worthwhile, and not very expensive. It's true that RMS is an unlikely spokesman, but the GPL has had a profound effect on software freedom.

This is my experience too. People want to believe this study because it has a good narrative, but it doesn't really ring true for me.

This is also in Project Gutenberg. I know. I had it scanned and submitted (though, as usual, lots of other people did the work of getting it proofed and assembled).

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33283

The process of finding that one of P or Q matches actually tells you that P or Q. That means instantly that both public keys can be factored. Hence both private keys can be determined. You don't need prior knowledge of either private key ahead of time, just the public keys.

I can +1 the Lumix as well. Pretty good as a rule on Auto, but the ability to switch to fully manual mode in challenging situations.

To be fair to your boss, I've witnessed plenty of "issues" arise with different software platforms that had commercial support and where the vendor wasn't particularly interested in resolving the issue. Perhaps we weren't big enough fish in the pond. I've also watched IT staff use that as an excuse for failure. In my personal opinion, designing around a closed source solution and having poor response from a vendor shouldn't let you off the hook. In a way, it's worse than an open system, because often you can't even get into the guts of the problem to fix it, even if you might have the ability.

The cost to a company for using a commercial platform is not merely in the cost of the licenses, either. You have to also consider the cost of license compliance and tracking. The energy my workplace spends in a year on tracking "seats" and negotiating licenses for closed-source programs is just depressing.

I generally buy Dell Inspirons. I always try to limit my choice to the models with Intel wireless and Intel video, though I can be okay with a Broadcom wireless if it has been checked out by others. I've typically been very happy with Inspirons (note, I've had more glitches with Latitudes). The only issue I can think of on my current Inspiron 1520 is that the Svideo out is glitchy. It definitely worked best a couple versions Ubuntu back. But except when I hook up to my TV I have no problems at all.

Do a Google search for the model you want and Ubuntu, and poke around the Ubuntu forums, and you'll know if people are having trouble or success.

I've never heard this rule, but it immediately resonated with my experience.

I'm not sure how it is in the rest of the country, but if I actually want coverage (i.e. radio signals) my list of carriers is basically 2, US Cellular or Verizon (or competitors who buy access to their networks like Page Plus).