After having failed to parse "Mines May Eliminate More Than Half Their Human Workers Within 10 Years" as "Land Mines May Eliminate More Than Half Their Human Workers...," I was relieved - after reading TFS - to discover that nobody was actually going to be killed by these nefarious mines!

Kindda makes you wonder why Stallman insists on putting "GNU" first in his preferred name for Linux, "the GNU/Linux System," if after all these years, he and his organization still can't do the hard part of a Unix clone, namely, creating a useful kernel. Personally, I think he should call it "the Linux/GNU" system. Then again, he's never been known for modesty. ;-)

I, too, have made my share of Windows registry edits. But having once tried - and miserably failed - to install a sound driver on Linux, I really appreciate the fact that Windows Plug-and-Play (do they even still call it that?) "just works" nearly all of the time.

The common experience is that you plug something in, it shows you that it's installing a device driver for the new device, and a short time later, its ready to go, with nothing to configure at all. For example, I recently bought a small USB audio gizmo to circumvent the noisy sound generated by my PC's built-in sound. Plug it in, let it cook for a minute or two, and voila! it just works.

This latter story passes what I call "the grandma test," that is, your grandma can do it. Compare that with the Linux sound driver experience I had where even a computer professional (who was largely new to Linux) couldn't succeed at installing a sound driver - even after rigorously following the "HOWTO" on that. (BTW, Grandma doesn't even know the HOWTO exists.)

Have they ever delivered a usable system? - if so, I've never Hurd of it. ;-)

Cool, I didn't know you could "weigh" a sun! - I thought that the best you could do is calculate its approximate mass.

Kindda makes you wonder how big the scale must be. And what it's made of that can withstand so much heat. And what you set the scale on. (At home, I always place mine on a floor that's connected to the Earth, but I'm not sure how that could be feasible on...well...a larger "scale."

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Yup. As hard as they tried to push Windows 10 on us, it doesn't make sense that they would vigorously enforce the deadline - which, as you suggest, likely was only intended to create a sense of urgency. ("This offer is limited, so call now!") However, the "assistive" loophole seems unlikely to produce large numbers of additional installs. So, I'm still expecting them to come out with some sort of excuse like "Due to popular demand, we've decided to extend the deadline, yada, yada, yada."

"Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand."

Good point. If we consider Windows 10 to be a kind of "robot," we can consider how it does in relation to Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics in the recent case where my elderly mother accidentally approved its installation as an "upgrade" of her Windows 7 system, which culminated in device-driver incompatibility warnings which she interpreted as making the computer unusable. (Elderly folks and non-techies get confused by things like that.) To wit:

"1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." Its installation approval process did not adequately protect against accidental approval by the elderly human, thereby causing her to come to harm.
"2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law." Although the installation technically "obeyed orders given it by human beings," in this case by proceeding with an installation that she accidentally approved, that caused her harm per the First Law.
"3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws." Windows 10 would get high marks on this one in the "protect its own existence" category due to the fact that it can't be uninstalled once it's installed, except for having violated the First and Second Laws along the way.

Overall conclusion: "Bad robot!" (whacks Windows 10 with a newspaper.)

This brings up an interesting question: would the actual Satoshi Nakamoto (whether or not that's the actual Craig Wright) have made more money by mining a lot of early bitcoin for cheap and sitting on a hoard until it takes off, as apparently was done, or would he (or she) make more money by "coming out" to patent bitcoin technology in advance before it became "prior art" (as it is today) and simply let others mine the initial cheap bitcoin? In other words, would the early patents have been worth more than the early bitcoin?

Not a bad idea, but no such provision to eliminate immunity will actually work, because they'll simply pee in the cup on the House and Senate floors.

Still, it might boost CSPAN's ratings.

Funny you should mention that, I hear he's just been booked into the GNU/Comedy Store in Cambridge. (His contract called for the venue to change their name rather than simply omit the brown M&Ms.)

I see that this got modded down. I guess I finally found the one Trump supporter who reads Slashdot.

I just realized that I committed the sin of rhyming "be" with "be." Please accept the following modest correction:

The following original work is provided with apologizes to Billy Joel:

He's absorbed with himself, you can see in his eyes
He can spoil his party with demagogue lies
And he won't show you tax forms you thought you would see
He calls-names like a child but he's always The Donald to me

He can tweet you in hate, he can bromance and leave you
With a waive of his miniscule hand he can peeve you
And if you throw a punch he will counter with three
Yeah he lies like a rug but he's always The Donald to me

Oh, he just cares for himself, he might win the big race
He's forever unkind
Oh, he never gives out and he never gives in
He just changes his mind

And he'll build a great wall to the south of our Eden
Then he'll send back brown parents whose children still need 'em
So he panders and brings out the worst you can be
Blame it all on yourself if you voted him POTUS-to-be

Oh, he just cares for himself, we might have him as Prez
Yet to tyrants he's kind
Oh, he never gives out and he never gives in
He just changes his mind

Personally, throughout many years of use of Windows, starting with NT4, I've never once had a boot problem with Windows that was due to a version change or an update from Microsoft. Instead, all the boot problems I've experienced seemed to revolve around other various types of data corruption on the machine.

Oh, except for the other day when my new (and first) Windows 10 machine took two hours to boot due to apparently having completely reinstalled Windows 10. I deduced that it was a complete reinstall not only because it took so long but also from the fact that in the last few stages it promised me that "none of your files have been changed."

At least it worked after that. Lord knows what they did to the machine, or why they did it. But I think I'm beginning to know what it feels like to be an attractive new inmate in a maximum-security prison...