Here, here. Quit bitching and drop $100 for a Roku 3.

I'll bet those English majors wouldn't have used "then" in place of "than." ;-)

Iran has been at war with us since the revolution. Its time Americans started recognizing that fact and speak/act accordingly.

Honda sells (or sold) a natural gas Civic. Home refueling equipment already exists.

Am I missing something, or is the government just way behind again?

Most colleges/universities in the US are run as non-profit organizations. Their mission is to educate.
The Devry/Kaplan/Phoenix schools are for-profit companies. Their mission is to increase shareholder value.

So, while all schools charge tuition, and both types of schools seek to educate and not lose money, their aims are significantly different.

Agile is not sufficient for regulated industries.

For example, each commercial aircraft in the US has their own set of engineering designs specifically for that aircraft. Every single nut, bolt, and rivet is documented and signed off my multiple engineers - materials, electrical, mechanical, stress, etc. In the event of a plane crash, the FAA swoops in, grabs up all the pieces and reconstructs everything to determine the cause of the crash and they review all engineering drawings and documents. If the cause of the crash was due to the design of the aircraft - a lot of engineers are going to lose their license to practice engineering. Now, think about the "auto-pilot" software or other control software on the plane. If the plane crashes, do you think that the FAA will accept index cards as an acceptable substitute for documented design and specification?

How about the anti-lock breaks and traction control software in your car?

Or the software that is used to control medical equipment? I suppose you are not familiar with the programming mistake in the software of a nuclear medicine machine that exposed a patient to 20,000 times the expected dose of radiation and killed them.

9 years ago, a great deal of military technology went from lab to massive scale rather quickly for new bombs to wreak havoc in cave strongholds. Why is BP or some other interested party with deep pockets unable to do the same here?

We have an existing crisis and a potential solution. Somebody pony up the cash and start producing this. Its a risk, but if effective there is a great deal of profit to be made in the event of another oil spill.

Calling any entrepreneurs...

>> Pick an antivirus to run and constantly worry if it's good enough to keep up with all the malware
There is an easy solution to this.
1). Do not click on any popup banners that tell you to download software
2). Do not get any files from p2p networks or warez sites.
3). Do not download any screen-savers or other crap from download sites.
3). Do not open email attachments from people you don't know
4). If you get an email attachment from someone you do know, stop to think about whether they actually wanted to send you the file or if their system could be compromised.

This will prevent 99.99 % of all the virus/ad-ware/malware from getting on your machine. The corollary is that in over 99% of the time, YOUR BEHAVIOR, not Microsoft, is responsible for anything bad that ends up on your hard drive.

>>make sure the firewall is on at all times
On W2K, your computer was exposed because IIS was on by default and there was no firewall. Since then, Windows has included a firewall and IIS is disabled by default.
If you enable your computer to download windows updates, as soon as you got the first security update, the Security Center will popup and let you know that if your firewall isn't on. If your firewall isn't on, it is because YOU chose not to turn it on. And this has been the case since 2001.

>>disable unneeded services that are on by default and those that pop up by themselves misteriously later
Most unneeded services are not started - and none turn themselves on mysteriously. You may download and run an executable that turns on a service - that is a sign that you should be more careful regarding the files you download.

>>always on the lookout for spyware and malware
Don't download files from the internet and you will be fine.

>>wonder why the fuck it won't stop asking for drivers for that Bluetooth dongle I plugged in two weeks ago
Windows can pick up *most* hardware that you plug into your computer... provided that the hardware manufacturer followed the proper specifications for the hardware. Did you buy a name brand bluetooth device or did you buy some el-cheapo brand. Most likely, it is not a Microsoft's problem.

>>hunting down programs to use by myself and always worry which of them might contain spyware or trojans
Easy solution here. Do not download programs from the internet except those from *trustworthy sources*. Or, considering that this is /., you can go to sourceforge, download the code and compile it yourself. Since you have the code, you can read through it and make sure that it doesn't have any malware in it.

>>Add the inherent rot of every Windows installation I've ever seen, which makes you need to reinstall at least once a year, if not 6 months.
OK - I certainly have to call you out on this. FUD, FUD, FUD. I am a professional software developer. I've been using XP on my computer since its release in 2001. (I moved from Win2K because it did have some of the problems that you mention). I have never had a virus. I have never had malware. I've never had to reinstall. So, for over 6 years, constantly using my computer, for over 10 hours a day on average, I've never had a single problem that you mention.

The best book I've encountered on UI design is an ancient tome entitled "Principles and Guidelines in Software User Interface Design" by Deborah J. Mayhew. Search for it on Amazon; looks like there are 30 used copies.
This was used as the text for my GUI design class in college. Very enlightening, even though I HATE writing GUIs.