I used to use Net tamer (a combination PPP client, e-mail client, and web browser) on my 80286 over a 2400 baud modem. This was in 1996... ah the anguish. Seriously though if you want credit for having the least powerful online machine, you have to be able to do something useful with something less powerful than an 80286. Turns out you can browse the web with a Comodore 64. http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/classic-tech/surf-the-web-on-your-commodore-64/182

Here they are (as best I can remember, and excluding any non-linux operating systems):

Slackware
RedHat
Mandrake
Debian
Kubuntu
Ubuntu with unity (got rid of it immediately after installing)
Mint LXDE edition (still using)
Raspbian (still using)

My primary motivation for switching early on was the package manager. I thought RPM would be better than Slackware's lack of a package manager (at the time), but I still ended up in dependency hell. Debian package management is a few steps up from this (love apt-get) , but I wanted more recent software (and libraries) than are in debian stable, so I switched to Kubuntu . I tried Unity, hated it, so moved to Linux Mint, which is basically the same as Ubuntu without Unity.

+1 to the parent.

RS does not have any Raspberry Pis... Newark/Farnell/Element14 have them. I cancelled my RS order and got it in 4 days from Newwark. Newark is showing 100 in stock right now.

>I'd also like to point out that mankind may be having a detrimental effect on evolution. There are too many efforts lead by humans to rescue species that have been slated for extinction.

As evolution doesn't have a predetermined direction or speed, it's difficult to say what is detrimental - that's a value judgement. Evolution is simply the mechanism by which species change to survive and reproduce given their environmental pressures. There's also no slate that marks species for extinction. The reason we rescue species that are almost extinct is that we are causing their extinction, and we also value biodiversity. From a strictly Darwinian perspective, we could say that humans are fitter than those other species, therefore they should go. But at least some of us try not to do that because we value biodiversity and what we can learn from it.

You're right though that we do have the ability to consciously or unconsciously direct evolution. Ever heard of the Aurochs? It now provides the cheese flavor on your Cheetos... well, the "Cheddar cheese" part of it anyway. It is interesting to speculate about how human intervention medical science will direct human evolution over time. We've effectively eliminated most selection pressures, made the infertile fertile, and generally intervened in coupling, fertility, birth and death in every way we can think of. Does this stop evolution or is this evolution at work?

>I thought A Scanner Darkly was pretty close to the book...

The movie was pretty accurate reading of the events in the book, but the telling of it was lacking. The book is gripping in some ways, but the movie was largely emotionless with flat voice acting and toned down dialogue. For a better passive experience than the movie, I recommend Paul Giamatti's audiobook version.

>I don't have a solution, but I wish I did. The present state of affairs isn't really satisfactory to anyone IMO.

Agreed. I find myself almost on Microsoft's side of this. Our current class action system has devolved into ambulance chasing and legal theft; rare is the class action lawsuit that actually helps someone, or punishes a company for doing something genuinely bad. All they do in general is harass companies into lining lawyer's pockets. The law firms involved are representing themselves and not the plaintiff class, since they have much more to gain.

I would like to propose the following changes to class action law:
1) Class members would have to opt in and not out. If a majority of the class does not care enough to opt-in, the suit cannot proceed.
2) A Law firm representing a class may work on contingency, but may take no more of the award or settlement than the actual costs incurred, with receipts presented to and audited by the court. Class members would be given full access to all receipts, and could protest any of them.

Yes I'm aware that this would cut down on the number of class action lawsuits by 90% or more. I assert that is a good thing. Remaining consumer annoyances can be handled via other mechanisms.

Apple sells hardware/software bundles wherein a major reason people buy the hardware is to use their exclusive software. Examples? Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod. All I'm saying is let's not discount the software aspect of what apple sells. If they sold windows or android devices, nobody would care about them.

Until a huge breakthrough is made in battery technology, electric cars are doomed to fail, no matter how high the price of gasoline.
Not so sure about that. If electric commuting is 10X cheaper than gas, and you can get by with an electric's range, it would be stupid economically to use gasoline.

Electric cars are too expensive -- it's cheaper to just pay the high gasoline prices.
The Volt is expensive, but it is not a pure electric. It's a very expensive series hybrid. The Leaf is still a bit expensive, but not outrageous.

With batteries, there is no repair or rebuild or get a used one from a junk yard
Incorrect. There are many companies that can recondition a Prius battery, and there will be companies that do the same for Leaf batteries once there is a market demand.

I agree that electric cars aren't for everyone (not even the majority) but there certainly is a market niche in which they are practical and economical and will likely be moreso in the future as gas prices have nowhere to go but up. We have 100s of models of gasoline vehicles to fit every possible buyer's desire, isn't it a good thing to have choices in how your vehicle will be powered?

In my experience, the only way to deal with this is to use a force rank priority system, meaning everything is put into a stack, and you work from the top of the stack. You only rank your requirements relative to each other and not against some sort of "high, med, low" system. If you do this, you need to expose the ranking to all the stakeholders. If they have problems with the ranking, they can negotiate with the other stakeholders. Yes, "deadlines" will absolutely slip, but you are providing value by doing the most important things first, and everyone knew what was most important. A lot of people have trouble with this, because they are used to just kicking and screaming until they get what they want, but it is better to train the stakeholders to work this way than to deal with the alternative.