No, no, you don't want to disrupt the narrative that Bill Gates was the most evil man in human history that engaged in the most brutal of business practices right out of the Joe Stalin playbook. Really folks, I would never say the guy was a saint but there was a lot of market forces at play that tend to go unacknowledged in the PC story, and Gates may have played a little hardball, but he was hardly the Mafia Don that he is often portrayed as. ( As for that Anti Trust suite in the 90s I heard some of the stupidest technical discussions ever about the "browser market" as if it was a platonic entity that necessarily existed, and that by giving away IE MS was doing something evil. Really.) Now Gates is giving away Billions after Billions in Charitable causes and urging other successful billionaires to to the same. Bad Bill.

"Work For ME", I intended to say

I should add that I have made the UI work for, but it was unjustifiably difficult to do so

Yep. No argument there.

I tell you what though, as a ten-year Safari user, its a better deal than you may think. They have tons of other publishers (Wiley, et al) available. Its pretty damn handy to be able to access virtually any relevant tech title on demand.

Everything Lucas did regarding 'Star Wars' was for kids, and 1-3 are solid evidence for that. I imagine if I had been a kid in 1999 rather than the teenager that saw #4 (i.e. the first one) when it first came out I could maybe go with the "It's for kids" thing and be done with it. But there is always "Empire Strikes Back" that was done with such finesse that it always showed that a truly excellent movie can be done, and still the kids are happy. Maybe the bar got raised too high but there it is. On a side note, the original should have one the 1977 best picture award, Not even because its its so "great", as that we knew even then it was a game changer. If not that one, then "Empire" for sure. I mean, we've been talking about this franchise for 40 years now. But as far as '77 goes it should have been a shoe-in. Who the hell remembers "Annie Hall"?

This is also on point. The Pentagon has no use for a draft anymore

I think you're take on this is correct. Most opposition to women in combat came from outside the Pentagon

I got hounded into reading Doyle's longest book

I tried reading Rand's Atlas. I shrugged.

ST was too campy to be a "Greatest" movie IMHO. So I guess I'm a bug lover. Also the violence was hard for many to take (I am excluding myself) I think another ultra-violent movie (non-SF warning) that came out at the same time as Starship was "Saving Private Ryan." C'mon was ST greater than that?

Well, I for one think that if "Mad Max" says it, it must be so....

My personal goal is to tie String Theory to Kite Theory.

Gee, hate much? Your "Fuckistanis" are human just like you are pretending to be.

I basically get and agree with your point, but I can't help thinking that there isn't some truth to this. I think what has to change is the belief that to get this kind of benefit from math is that you have to go through the formal traditional training in it, and I have personally found that isn't so. There is a lot to do in math (beyond typical applied mathematics) that most people with average intelligence could take on and master. No, one can not become Einstein or Hawking if they just "try". But there still may be benefits for most.