The problem is social. The test results coming out of the suburbs are as good as anything anywhere on the planet.

The results coming out of the center cities might as well be coming out of the worst holes on the planet.

Better go take a close look at the 14th Amendment there sonny.

Treason:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.

The Enemies always have been and always will be ignorance and stupidity.

Open and shut case I'd say.

Don't forget the geoheliocentric system either. You still get the Sun going around the Earth AND you can explain more observations.

Tycho Brahe had it right!

I have a similar experience - I used to admin some echomail stuff on Fidonet in a similar timeframe. This was transferred via a gateway into Usenet for a while.

Now though it's starting be hard to find traces of it. So maybe after 30 years or so you will disappear.

Well, you have two data points. The existence of all sorts of software designed to take advantage of information easily available on the internet, and a 'feeling' that programmers possess some special moral character. The answer to this conflict is obvious.

The idea that programmers have some special moral character is nonsense.

Ubuntu LTE.

I very rarely have data losses while working on a computer.

Back when I first started out I had the experience of using some quite dodgy software so I got into the habit of saving things quite frequently. It's served me well over the years.

>The only shortage is in intelligence...

You mean wisdom and understanding of thermodynamics.

There's lots of intelligence, but it's usually misdirected.

Sockets are unreliable too.

You do know Intel is getting out of the mobo biz, right?

I've really only found it necessary to flash a mobo BIOS once in the past 10 years or so. It made my hands sweat. Not going to do it again if I can avoid it at all.

Primitive island states are unstable.

Plus it gets real boring to live on a place that you can circumnavigate in a couple of hours.

You are much better off in a small nation-state like Monaco or Jersey.

The problem with your idea is that lots of patents are improvements on inventions owned by somebody else.

You can't implement them without violating their patent.

> Turn all of Facebook off.

And nothing of value is lost.

Suppose I am a 65 year old writer.

If I work, say for a movie studio my creations will be worth substantially less to the studio than a younger author if the copyrights expire at my death.

This will make it hard for me to get a job or otherwise sell my works.