If I remember my dads old IBM PC XT keyboard right, it must have been the model M. Key-travel too far and springs too hard for my taste. Nice bounce and the metal feel was great though. Don't need the sound but the feel of the snap when the key goes in was good. I would not think you could get shorter key travel with the model M technology, so I' can't say I miss those. That might be me trying to justify shipping the rig to recycling twenty years ago ...

Forget about eugenics, what with pensions and health-costs, education costs and what-not, humanity is basically a dud investment. The rational thing would be to kill off the entire species. Just need one or two guys to reboot skynet whenever there is an OS-update ready. Could ensure fiscal surplus, biodiversity and avoid global warming.

Neat idea, and given Elon Musks numbers are correct, he's right. But, if we are living in a simulation, it is a simulation with self-aware software agents. I do not think there will be "billions" of those in any forseeable future, so the basis is wrong.

M-x shell in emacs for anything long-running, or where you need copy-paste. M-x rename-buffer lets you run several shells in one emacs. If you have a file opened with tramp e.g. open a file named "/user@other-host:/etc/that-config-file" (i.e. ssh to another system) , M-x shell will launch on that host (at least in recent versions).

Also other shell-based interfaces like mysql, tclsh will usually have their own mode, launced with e.g. M-x sql-mysql .

Emacs does not like ncurses-based apps, so then Xterm needs to be kept around. These days emacs handles normal ansi-colors quite well, though tramp will usually fail if you try to open files on a busybox-based system.

For one-line, one-off commands Xterm or system default.

I think even the Economist will not have hubris to try turning the clock back 200 years, at least not in one swoop. I don't think it would take any pressure. Like ACorrosionOfDeviants says, the articles seem pretty well thought out. Considering the prevailing attitudes towards "IP", the position the Economist takes is actually pretty radical.

Financial newspaper Economist also did a large piece on patents recently. They have backed down on their original stance of abolishing patents altogether (from 200 years ago, when patent law was enacted), but they still come out pretty clearly on how patents may be stifling innovation.

Mac or Windows.
http://helpx.adobe.com/flash/s....
Somebody who has actually used it could probably tell if it will run under wine

command : # strings /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5 | grep bash
gives:
Africa/Lubumbashi
#! /usr/local/bin/bash
#! /usr/local/bash
#! /usr/bin/bash
#! /bin/bash
what is php5 doing with those ? And no, my cgi-bin directory is not facing the world, I've had a hand-crafted /usr/lib/cgie-bin doing in place since forever.

" I value stability and clarity." .That's called growing up. Next, before you know it, Jonathan Edwards is a grumpy old man ..., Hey, wait, he's already there :-)

Just scrolled through the list at http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_ALL_hackerspaces . Took a peak at a couple of the active ones in Norway, and they are operated by university level student societies. See a potential for hackerspace ranges: open-closed/simple-advanced/chaotic-orderly. Would be a nice fit as a "club" type thing in college aswell.

This hackerspace: http://sonen.ifi.uio.no/ in Oslo apparently does "education fair" type work at http://www.gathering.org/ everey year.

We are building a new library with a "Newton room" in my home town, just across the road from the local college. The potential here is huge. Just have to find the time to goad some people into supporting this before my boy turns 15 ;->