> I am in the process of reverting the two machines I had already upgraded
> back to Windows 7. Regrets, and hope Windows 10 spys are eliminated.

Install GWX Control Panel (disables Windows 10 nagging) and Spybot Anti Beacon (disables Telemetry). After that you will have perfectly working Windows 7 install without all that crap Microsoft is shitting against us.

> I'm guessing that those who choose an "Air" laptop with a big-ass Nvidia GPU,
> don't know what they're doing.

Yeah? Just wait few months for Xiaomi VR system. :) I think they know what they are doing.

Well as for your first question I only noted that that is possible to play arcade style games on mobile tablets and smartphones using controllers with physical buttons. With that it is perfectly playable. And I assumed that Nintendo could sell such controller with access to its games library (via Virtual Console system). In my opinion this would make them a lot of additional money without really canibalizing they mobile consoles. Who buys current generation gameboy style device to play oldschool games?

As for your second question I guess that developers who developed for Nintendo platforms do not have rights to release these games elsewhere.

They don't need to port anything. They already have the technology to do it via Virtual Console. They just need to release VC client and allow to purchase and download games to that.

Adding physical buttons to smartphone or tablet is not a problem. I constatnly use my iPega controller with 5,5" smartphone and 8" tablet and it works great. I mostly play oldschool titles from SNES, M.A.M.E. and native ports of games as Metal Slug or similar. I think there is lot of money to make if Nintendo released an attachable controler that hosts the device such as smartphone as its screen with built-in battery. AND also released its vast library of oldschool games on it. They have means to do it via all this virtual console stuff they have on their current systems.

This phone is basically rebranded Alcatel Idol 4 (which Alcatel itself rebrands from chinese TCL corporation) with custom Blackberry ROM and software.

I would rather buy Blackphone for security.

Well people tried to deal with heat in architecture since like 1000 years B.C.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Just look for clues in architecture of nations living in constantly hot climate.

AC is OK when you need it (in car f.e.) but I do prefer other cooling methods if it can be achieved.

Do you understand statistics in any way?

> 130 million miles have been logged by drivers using AP

Tesla AP was introduced around 2014 (I've used Wikipedia for this - I really have no clue).

> This is the first fatality and there have been zero injuries up to this point.

So this is data from roughly 2 years.

> In addition, a number of accidents have been avoided. So, how does this compare to the average?

Average from what peroid? How many years?

Funny is that now the Leavers from the group you've described (rural, small towns, not educated) will have it much tougher during and after the crisis. The poor will starve first.

Here is some info:
http://en.miui.com/thread-2985...

Single 18650 battery weights about 40-50 grams. Xiaomi states it uses 20 of them so the battery alone is about 1kg.

The bike weight is 14,5kg.

Try GWX Control Panel to disable GWX and OS updates entirely:
http://ultimateoutsider.com/do...

Also Spybot Anti-Beacon which disables telemetry:
https://www.safer-networking.o...

It works perfectly for me on Windows 7. And yes I know that all of what it does can be done manualy but these tools do their job and work well so why bother...

> [RMS]: Most citizens of the US live under far more surveillance than
> the citizens of the Soviet Union knew.

Technically of course he is right. In Soviet times there was no Internet, no cellular network and no technical means to process all this data. So it is obvious that now the governments have more means to spy on citizens. But staying just on technical merits you could have said that "most citizens of the US live now under far more surveillance than the citizens of the Regan era US knew".

The guy is just wrong. I live in Poland which was Soviet sattelite state (quite autonomous since it managed to free itself from Soviet grip). I remember my father talking about his workplace in communist times. Once on his job he joked about the shape of glasses the general Jaruzelski wore - he said he was a welder (since the glasses looked like welders). He said that in company of three other people in his workplace. Yet the next day he was called before party member who reprimended him. And this is not some unusual story - the truth about communist states is that about 10% of people around you were state agents reporting to security service (by will giving them benefits or forced to be f.e. blackmailed).

And that is how totalitarian surveillance works - it uses people not machines. People who spy on you will always be better than any technology (unless the technology gets somehow intelligent which isn't happening in a few decades).

I respect RMS but in this case he is really wrong.

> What [...] is generally the best way to distribute patches

Patches for what? For PC operating systems? PC software? Embeded computers?

> in a way so customers can download them, considering
> that the machines are offline?

Well you can't download anything when you are offline. You mean that customers download the patches, put it on removable media and install them on their machines...

> Are there any software packages (open source preferred) that pretty much
> allow engineers to upload a patch with a description to a web server, and allow
> customers with credentials that are registered in LDAP to browse and download
> them quickly?

Yeah like SFTP server for uploading and web server (f.e. Apache with LDAP modules) for customers?

What exactly are you asking?

> I have a slightly unusual requirement.

Nothing really unusual about this.

> I just have a desktop PC which I use for most of the stuff I do (gaming, video, work, etc.),
> and it's upstairs. From time to time, I'd like to use it downstairs. Is there a wireless solution
> that will let me take control of the PC from downstairs, using the TV (HDMI) as the screen,
> and the TV's speakers to replace my desktop speakers?

What you are asking is how to work remotely from TV room to your personal computer.

You haven't specified any essential details so I need to ask:

What kind of stuff you wish to do remotely?

1) Just access photos on your PC and maybe some media (music, videos streaming)?

For that you need just a simple network media player attached to your TV. Also you need a modest wifi connection between your TV and your PC. Anything that has wifi, can output via HDMI, has a remote and plays media files (photos, audio, video) will do.

2) Maybe do some office work on it?

For that you need a thin client. Probably Android based. That can do VNC or RDP. Also some input devices for that box (USB or wireless keyboard and mouse). And a modest wifi connection.

3) Gaming?

If you even think about streaming games from your PC you need a powerful wifi connection (like dual band, N standard, *fast* access points). And some device that can stream games from Steam - even small Raspberry Pi box could do that but network performance is essential.

So given above three points you need to have:
- configured wireless or wired network connection between the TV and your PC
- somekind of client device at your TV (Android based set-top box or dongle, something like PCoIP thin client, small Linux client (like RasPI))
- some input devices for your TV - depending on what you want - a remote control for media, a keyboard and mouse for workflow, a gamepad for gaming

But the one thing in common is to have network connection (wireless or wired) between the PC and the TV.