Indeed, uCos has always seemed interesting, I've just never had a an opportunity to use.it. There are several great RTOS' out there that can live on a real low power embedded processor.

Seriously, an A7 and Linux for an IoT thermostat or glass break sensor? Linux is wonderful and all for servers and even little routers, but real IoT devices live on a dirt cheap processor in a few kbytes, not Mbytes or GBytes and last for a year on a single battery. FreeRTOS that just received support from Amazon is a likely solution for IoT. A survey by EE Times suggests that new embedded projects are adopting FreeRTOS and a slightly higher rate for new products than even Linux (page 63) while embedded linux still has a small lead for existing projects. I'll bet this pig ships will mono and C# built into it and that is why they pushing linux.

Probably could be fixed at the rule level without congress. I believe the law had an exception for "small hand-held cameras." I don't know if Space Man's camera qualifies as hand held, but clearly congressional intent was to exclude low res non-photogrametric grade devices. I suspect the real problem is that this administration has so blown-up and chocked the bureaucracy that there is no one left to process even a trivial bit of paper work. Let alone promulgate a trivial amendment a to make this moot by say declaring 100 m resolution equivalent to a small handheld cameras. These simple fixes are why we need a functioning executive branch. This is what bureaucrats do!

Pumped hydro is a utility scale solution to storage that is proven reliable and cost effective.

If by "Your energy taxes are so insanely high and convoluted" you mean we have some of the lowest electricity prices on the planet then yep bring on the "insanely high and convoluted" taxes because I like living in a place with clean air without coal smokestacks and almost free power.

I want 10 memberships from this guy

I seem to recall that the Romans invented iron wrist bands that were able to direct employees (slaves) with an attached communication link (chains). They also had a neck and ankle versions too.

Yep we used test monkeys at a couple of places where I worked on games. Both cafeteria looked like the bar scene from Star Wars. Oh wait, Disney did buy Lucus, didn't they. Never mind.
What, not *that* type of test monkeys, never, never mind.

What the EU/US-Justice did to microsoft's browser business very effective broke a monopoly on browsers and allowed chrome/Firefox a way forward. But when you have companies that are monopolies/dominant in multiple business segments using their strength to lock competitors out of a market then no you are not limiting choice. You are creating a level playing field that fosters many choices through fair competition.

If the cable/teleco companies keep consolidating and strangling access to the internet how long do you think you will have any choice on what product you can buy? I'm old enough to remember Ma Bell and having no choice who I got my phone from.

On the surface, say Apple looks like a tightly focused widget (phones, tables & computer) company, but look a little deeper and you see them using their monopoly positions to capture new markets much like Microsoft did with the browser business before they were forced to open up the desktop. In Apple's case their music business is tightly integrated into their product as is their back-up storage business. Apples does not provide an API so that others can provide music for their music player and ios does not have an API to allow you to select any cloud storage company. These interfaces would be easy to write. Just look at their mail client. They are abusing their dominant position on the phone to force/coerce you into paying to use their ancillary services. DOn't think me an APple hater as I am writing this on a Mac and have an iPhone in my pocket. Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, etc are just as guilty of abusing their monopolistic positions and will also need to have their hands slapped or have the whole company dismembered from time to time. Don't worry they will keep growing and be able to abuse their position again. Creating unfair sustainable advantages is what most MBAs seem to do. Capitalism will survive a little adult supervision.

In 2003 the Army deleted the following from their creed:

I will use every means I have, even beyond the line of duty, to restrain my Army comrades from actions disgraceful to themselves and to the uniform.

So I guess now you are now supposed to support your Army and comrades in committing actions disgraceful to themselves and to the uniform.

So quickly we forget the lessons of history.

" Replicants are like any other machine, are either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit it's not my problem."

Water and pesticide for cotton production is mind-blowing high. Compared to most food production it is off the charts.

Even with a bit higher capital costs between sources when you have to compete against an essentially zero fuel cost you are bound to fail.
If I were making big bets today, I would be looking for a few narrow canyons I cold buy to put in some pumped hydro. That type of base storage is where the next gold rush will be found. Cool thing about pulped hydro is that you can reuse the water over and over.
I also remember hearing about some group looking into reusing old mine railways as they tend to be steeper than commercial rail. They were going to put loaded cars with an electric engine/generator to act as gravity storage. Who says those old coal mines can't produce (or at least store) clean energy

Voice as an option on Macs must have been around longer than we think. Back in '86 when I was working at Plexicorp, a visiting professor from Edinburgh University tried to use my boss's Mac as if it had a voice interface. He ended up falling back to the keyboard. He seem very bemused to have to use such a primitive interface. The prof seemed to really know about engineering.