I find that discussion boards have mostly filled that void, at least for me. There's a discussion forum out there for virtually every interest these days, where people post and share stuff.

Just use month/years in your release numbers. Seriously. A version of Firefox released in december 2012 is firefox 12.12. Simple. Gives you a clear idea of its modernity. No confusion or consternation.

If anyone else needs simple solutions, I'll be over here sitting in the Idea Booth.

Apparently, so was the food.

Walmart, Target, and the like are going to sell cheap crap. I don't know why you expect them to do otherwise. In your last sentence you point out that joe average typically doesn't drop $600 on road bikes - which is exactly why Walmart and Target don't sell them.

There's no shortage of places to buy real, nice bicycles in any city. I have a $450 Specialized that I ride almost every day. There are three very nice bicycle shops within 10 miles of where I live. If you expect to find nice bikes at Walmart, you're gonna have a bad time.

...that age is just a number?

Alternatively: "Life begins at 4.0".

Only 1920x1080, and four inches smaller... it's a completely different product.

I blame the nuclear bombs.

Yes, Top Gear is an entertainment show. However, they demonstrated this with a presenter sitting inside the car while it sustained multiple artificial lightning strikes at a test center in Germany.

I have a Galaxy Nexus with the feature, and it's a simple option in the Settings menu to turn it off.

I think the reasoning behind it is pretty obvious. Windows 8 is designed to be the Next Big Tablet/Mobile OS, and Microsoft is trying to keep the experience the same across all devices. Lower-spec'd mobile devices won't have the graphics horsepower to pull off fancy translucency and animations.

Still, I think they should give desktop/laptop users the option to turn it on, at least. I happen to be fond of transparent title bars and the like myself.

You'll find that 'Randians', as you call them, refer to themselves as 'objectivists'. It's what Ayn Rand named her philosophy, and if you do a little reading, you'll see the differences between objectivism and most flavors of libertarianism.

There are wild, varying degrees of 'libertarianism' as well. So far as I can tell, the only constant is a desire for a small Federal government and a preference for states' rights. I identify as libertarian, and NO, I don't think we should shut down law enforcement or the postal service or switch back to the gold standard. I want an end to the drug war, and end to the pointless global conflicts we're constantly embroiled in, a reduction in wasteful government spending, and a shift back to states' rights (instead of one-size-fits-all legislation). I'd also like the income tax to be replaced with the FairTax (basically a national sales tax with an annual 'pre-bate' to account for the poverty level).

Neither the Democratic or Republican party are for me. The Dems want big spending and social programs, the GOP wants to criminalize potsmokers, blow up brown people, and outlaw homosexuality.

So, yeah, I was a Ron Paul supporter and will be writing in his name on the ballot... again.

Well, the fact is, people buy imports from places like China because the manufacturing is cheap. Cheaper than domestic production. Sure, the Chinese manufacturers could build to the standards of (say) American manufacturing, but at that point, once you factor in overseas training, import costs, etc, you lose the advantage of having your products made in China.

The Chinese government knows this and artificially depresses the value of Chinese currency in order to keep exports up. It's hard to say what Chinese imports would really cost if they did not do this, but it would certainly shift against importing from China (though my gut tells me that we would simply look to other developing nations like India, Mexico, or a half-dozen other South American nations for our goods - Apple has been looking to Brazil for manufacturing lately).

In short, if you really want quality, you don't go to the opposite end of the Earth to find someone to make your product, unless you're willing to physically go there and oversee the standards (which is what Apple is doing - don't tell me they don't have representatives at FoxConn supervising the shit out of that place).

In any case, I have a feeling that 'American manufacturing' (as it stands) may never recover. By outsourcing our manufacturing, we're also selling off our intellectual property and infrastructure - in short, we've all but sold off entire industries. I'd argue that the US still has the best 'idea men' in the world, and arguably the best scientists and researchers (for now); but what do we do with our amazing new processor core designs (or whatever)? Give it to another country to have them build it so we can buy it back from them. I suppose that's a good thing for anyone who wants information to be free (because at this point it certainly is), but look what it did for companies like Dell -

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/08/17/why-amazon-cant-make-a-kindle-in-the-usa/

Yeah, Dell more or less created the modern giant incarnation of Asus when they outsourced their tech.

Doc: No wonder this circuit failed. It says "Made in Japan".
Marty McFly: What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan.
Doc: Unbelievable.

I tend to agree, but anyone who claims they've never gotten angry and struck an inanimate object is a liar. A tool doesn't work, a part breaks, you stub your toe on something left on the floor - you suddenly lash out in rage and strike/throw the item to 'punish' it.

Or maybe I just have anger management issues :)

If you think Apple as a carrier would be cheaper, then, well... ...I don't know how to finish the statement other than pointing out that Apple tends to be competitive on everything OTHER than price.

Google would be cheaper, but, naturally, it would be ad-supported. And in beta, of course.