requested the ability to treat Windows security bug reporters as being in league with terrorists by invoking the Patriot Act.

My head is spinning.

Not to mention...
This needs to have an online multi-player component...
With less content and more DLC, plus shit they can buy, like new skins or clothes and stuff...
With always-on DRM so that those evil pirates won't copy our games... and can we use that to pipe more ads into the games too? Live?
Oh, and that ending is too polished. Leave it hanging so that we can bring out episode IV next year...

Most of that doesn't come from the dev-deam

Then I guess that - similar to VC++ - anybody using those extensions will have to deal with the issues of non-portability. I've not really seen most of those before so I can only guess at how much they're used.
Best to avoid them if you can, unless you're working on something that's OS-specific anyhow (Linux kernel module, whatever).

That does assume some level of global altruism. One possible result is a utopic world. Another likely outcome is what tends to happen with humans when classes and/or beliefs mismatch: war.

Indeed, there are books and websites dedicated to old laws that would seem crazy by normal standards but are still on the books. They've never been removed, it's just that they ceased to be prosecuted. Perhaps pot use will fall under this.

The problem is, though, those laws are still on the books. They could be used for malicious or targeted prosecution. How about getting fined for bothering bullfrogs in Arizona, or a 30-day sentence for flirting in Little Rock Arkansas?

Dropping prosecution is a good start, but eventually outdated laws need to be removed.

That's depressing. The Eloi of this world are likely to be pretty fat and unhealthy. They wouldn't taste very good...

Good for you, but I don't see the assumption that the "average" trucker doesn't have an electronics degree etc is insulting. It's not just truckers. A *lot* of people specialize and tend to get sunk into a particular career/education path.

Sure, some of them will be able to fall back onto some other skill. Some will be able to turn hobbies into great jobs. It happens, but not that frequently.

I was starting school as the lumber industry began to fall back in my home province. Some of those guys moved to an IT path and were great at it. I know another guy who became an electrician. Whatever the outliers, there were *lots* of people in my class (coming from the lumber industry) who had no place in IT. They simply couldn't grasp the concepts, or - when they did - there were struggling in the face of others who had more aptitude. So why choose IT? There were simply no more jobs in the industry they'd worked for 20+ years... or at least none that would pay the bills. Everyone was being told "IT is the future of jobs" so they ended up in my program. But frankly, people who'd been working in remote locations for half their lives or more simple didn't have enough exposure or grasp of technology for that industry. It ended up swamping classes with people who dropped out, or barely passed tests by studying 24/7 but who had no real aptitude for the work in a real-life situation.

If the human-driven transportation industry started to be replaced by automation, how many "truckers" would find themselves in dire straights? I'd guess it would be similar to the lumber industry. Some people would move to [industry that supposedly has jobs] but find themselves without an aptitude. Some would drop out, some would scrape through. Others would find a natural skill for something else and do OK. There would be lots though who would simply find themselves struggling to find relevance in the current job market, and go through hell for it.

It's not about being incapable of doing anything else. It's being capable of doing something else that pays the bills and has job opportunities available before you go bankrupt. When you've got a wife, kids, and mortgage, it's not easy to just pick up and move on. Education is expensive and takes time. Other skills may not necessarily equal any sort of immediate job opportunity. It's not that you're incapable, it's that the opportunities might not exist for the average person, especially when the markets would be saturated by your fellows also suddenly looking for work and have bills to pay.

You can't personally consume, but you could have a small army of concubines popping out kids who do.
For some of the world's hyper-wealthy, this isn't far from reality either...

Such a system will collapse because the top 1% needs the rest of the population to buy the products they make

But why do they need this? Who will control manufacturing?

Imagine a future like this: quality food is grown, maintained and harvested in optimal conditions by robots. Most common items are created by robots, similar to 3d printing but on a high-quality industrial scale (perhaps assembly by nano-bot). If a rich person wants something, he/she grabs a catalog item and simply has it assembled by nanobots. There's not even a need to buy materials as the bots can simply disassemble+reconstitute almost anything as raw materials. Bots are also optimal for defence, as any intruders can be taken apart in a manner similar to the building materials with no evidence that they even existed.

Of course the "normal" people can't afford nanobots. They're reduced to a near survival. Perhaps they have to purchase products from the wealthy (who again, control everything). Perhaps the rich don't even need them, as - again - they can have whatever they want built for them.

The only thing normals would be useful for (to the rich) would be entertainment, or to think up ideas for new "toys" for the rich. Some form of movies or music might exist, but likely those high up would probably not even have even see a normal person much less interact with one.

Does Apple already have a claim on the name? If Japan continues with this trend of cute robots, it'll be the next big thing.

Is Microsoft paying any attention to this?

Which extensions? The only special extensions I've used are ones that are in the C++ draft but not current-version. You generally have to add special flags to use them.

That would be the middle of the three E's (Embrace, Extend, Extinguish). Stupid as it sounds for people to use OS-specific extensions in many circumstances, it's not exactly uncommon.

Indeed. Playing something like BF4 and getting ganked five times a minute by some foul-mouthed little bastard who insists on insulting both one's skills and parentage isn't going to do much for reducing stress levels...

Perhaps leave teens mentally exhausted unable to dream up ways of getting in trouble. Won't last - the amoral behaviour so necessary in playing many violent video games is training these people, establishing thought patterns. Curious how they will rationalize things when they get into their 30's and 40's.

i need a red sports car for my mid-life crisis -- so I can run people over with it

A marketer or political consultant - if they had quantum numbers, well, they'd be quantum!