Similar story here, but I don't do graphics. To me, an old-style desktop, used as a home server where I can have a couple of GPUs, seems to make more sense. I will keep using my MacBook Pro, which is 5 years old at this point, for as long as I can. It's a decently specked machine, so I can keep up with the latest macOS and software. But for raw computing power, I think a Linux home server is the way to go.

The brain is not a multimedia storage device. It stores data, but also the relations between the data, and the patterns to interpret and manipulate it, and extract useful information. The brain stores, and at the same time, makes decisions and takes action.

Well, you also fail to take into account that 800 MB of *data* can do nothing by themselves. To create a human being you need a bit more than just the genome information. You need it in the form of ADN in a cellular nucleus, and a living human to nurture it. And parents to make it survive until adulthood, and around 20 years of patience, food and education.

All in all, those 800 MB are more of a highly compressed form, and only describe an empty shell.

Too late for that. The only way something like this is possible is if an "entity" in charge of managing "public affairs" (AKA "the government") does it. But the people at the government rarely have this kind of hindsight. And it would have lots of downsides: ineficient slow development, high costs, obsolescence...

But despair not. *All* those satellites are in very low orbits, that will decay in a few years. If really critical, they will eventually be replaced, possibly by a public provider, once the technology is mature and cheap enough.

Not if these 800 MB include the state of the neural connections after the child has grown and learned.

Anyway, I personally would not buy the 800 MB number (it seems too low). There are approximately 86 billion neurons in a human brain. Using a single byte per neuron would require 86 GB. But also, a typical neuron has around 7000 synaptic connection with surrounding neurons. Using a single bit per connection would require almost 1 KB per neuron, so we would be talking of a global of 86 TB. And this is a very low estimate. It would be difficult to model connections with a single bit...

If my back-of-the-envelope estimates are correct, 800 MB would allow you to have something as clever as a honey bee (which has around 600K neurons). Note that this is no small feat, given the amount of things that a bee can do completely autonomously. It would make for a incredibly smart drone, for instance.

High quality niche publications have been there since forever. I for one couldn't recommend enough lwn.net. It is one of the most reliable sources of Linux and Open Source news. Professionally done, because it is subscriptor paid. And deliciously devoid of ads.

I'm sure many such publications exist.

The problem is that their signal is drown down by humongous amounts of noise. That's the consequence of the ad-driven Internet that we have today.

I have seen this argument thrown around many times, yet it seems impossible to get hard numbers. How much money is going to these "small inventors"? How much to patent trolls? How much to attorneys? Without those figures, there is no way to have a reasonable argument.

I'm full ears for all the complains I hear from every single colleague; woman, man or anything else. At the same time, I'm completely deaf to quota demands. The first leads you to fix real problems. The second is only a problem in someone's spreadsheet.

Imagine a net without ads, as it was back in 1994. Expensive, slow, and with signal to noise ratio closer to 1. Just the opposite of what we have today. We should build one.

Is that add-supported content is here to stay. This is just part of their marketing campaign for ads.

When was the last time a calculator won?

After scanning the list, I would recommend to take those statistics with a HUGE grain of salt.

This, and gaming. Basically interactive media consumption. Thus the list of names behind the proposal.

This is, probably, the best possible outcome after the Microsoft/OpenIA brouhaha.

Web 2000 sound a bit off by now.