I don't care about the boogyman either. He's just in it for the scare. Or perhaps the good representative from California should be given that title. I also get annoyed at the descriptions: "hi-powered rifle" fits any modern rifle big enough to hunt deer. A 7.62x39 (SK and AK ammo, one of the most common in the world) is a relatively tame round, roughly equivalent to a 120 year old .30-30 in terms of muzzle energy. "military style weapon" fits any rifle with a capacity > 3 rounds, an adjustable stock or pistol grip stock and mounting points for accessories, like scopes and flashlights. That loosely fits the description of my deer gun, a shotgun with a slug barrel.

I don't get concerned until there's a real effort by someone who clearly knows wtf they're doing. This looked then, and now, more like someone with a grudge (think ex-employee) trying to cause trouble by cutting a bunch of semi-random phone lines running past the station, then firing a rifle at the transformers. If this was really what is being implied in the article (assuming some reasonably sound intelligence indicates it to be so) my description -- they're a bunch of rank amateurs -- stands. These folks need to stop needlessly scaring people.

Congressional members, regulators and even the "terrorists", amateurs all.

The quote is "Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure." A carefully placed iron rod, dropped from high Earth orbit, would be quite effective as well.

Aluminum does have fatigue crack issues. Knowing that, there's 20 years of experience building sports cars out of aluminum and over 70 years of experience building aircraft out of aluminum. It would be reasonable for Ford to leverage that knowledge to design a truck where fatigue cracking can be minimized and the structure can be designed to tolerate some fatigue cracking, resulting in a vehicle with a 20+ year lifespan.

As you pointed out, even steel has it's issues. I'm restoring a truck that's over 40 years old right now. To do it, I'm pulling the entire vehicle apart, to inspect the frame and all the structural elements. I've already identified a couple of elements in the cab that need to be replaced.

Titanium would be perfect. The truck will cost 7 figures; but, it would make for a damn nice truck.

Properly implemented aluminum is just as sturdy as steel, without the rust. Don't worry about the abuse, it'll take it.

The rating system was created shortly after WWII at the behest of the U.S. Government. They wanted an easy way for procurement officers to know which vehicle to select when processing a requisition. Prior to this system you had things like Ford F-1's and Chevy 3100's which are the same category. So a simple rating system was devised: F-100, C-10, D-100, etc. were the "1/2 ton class" F-200, C-20, D-200, were the "3/4 ton class" and so on. The trucks have grown in size and increased significantly in capacity since then; so, the model numbers no longer have a basis in reality.

That's actually a good analogy; because... In order for a Ford Taurus to be competitive with the BMW 7 in certain circumstances, it's going to need substantial upgrades to the brakes, suspension, and drive train. This will raise its cost substantially.

Because Windows 8 is what is shipping? You can downgrade it to 7 if you want to, that's up to your IT department. Eventually they'll have to move on though.

It's a multisocket machine. You have to buy a Windows Server license, not a desktop license.

Company I work for had a program that designed for Windows. All it does is connect to a device in the field, download data, and configure the device. To use it in the field, our customers had to carry a laptop with them. Some of these locations were very remote. We ported the app to Windows CE but the handheld we were bundling it with cost $2,000.

In late 2008 or early 2009 I suggested we port it to iOS and Android, so that the customer could use a tablet or a mobile phone in the field. I was told by management that those were fads that wouldn't last. In Early 2010, after they dropped support for the CE version, I demonstrated how porting to Android and iOS could be done. I pointed out that once it was working on Android and iOS for mobile, it would be a short leap to get it to work on the Apple laptops our customers were showing up with. Was told it would be too hard to maintain multiple platforms. (We're only talking about a few thousand lines of code and a GUI for the Windows application). In 2012 when I brought it up again, I was told they had looked at it and decided it would be too expensive to build a "mobile" version of the application. Customers still have to carry a Windows laptop into the field.

While the example is an application, I think it's representative of what's going on with mobile websites. Upper management neither takes mobile seriously; nor, are they willing to invest equally in multiple platforms.

The car can identify the unique keys by the embedded chip. Even my sub-compact economy car has that capability. It can definitely tell the difference between the keys, the software allows me to program operation limits based on which key is in the ignition.

You're too lazy to check Google or Wikipedia for articles on Supersymmetry, why should we take the time to explain something you obviously can't take the time to read about.

A guy buying a truck for his job, isn't going to buy the $70k truck, he's going to spend $45-50k on an F450 (if and only if he actually needs that much payload capacity), to keep his costs down.

Don't know why you're being modded insightful. This is a common way for municipalities and states to incentivize companies to expand, stay in their current location, or move to a new location. It's common practice. The assumption is that the tax revenue will be recouped through secondary and tertiary sources: suppliers building plants and warehouses near the factory, increased employment resulting in increases in local property taxes and increased sales at surrounding businesses, etc.