Aye! (posting to undo moderation)

... if it were, they'd be making top plates out of titanium or something

There are pianos, violins and guitars made today with carbon fibre tops and soundboards. They are more efficient resonators, so these instruments are usually more responsive and effectively louder than those employing spruce (or pine, cedar etc). But musicians playing traditional instruments are a conservative lot (understandably so, habit being at the core of instrumental skill), and most seem to favour the 'warm' character of a plank of wood over the high-tech appearance of woven carbon.

Thank you for that, good sir. What an eloquent illustration of proper thought.

Et dona ferentes.

Amen, brother.

"If the physical universe ceased to exist, would the rules of chess remain the same?"

The answer is "yes". Because the rules are metaphysical, not physical.

The answer is "no". Because there is nothing left, there is no record of any rules left, therefore there are no rules.

Your "solution" to the question postulates that something is there which will keep a record of the rules. A mistake common with people who have yet to come to fully accept their own mortality.

QuickPar on Windows is long-obsolete. MultiPar is the more modern variant.

Filesystem for the ages, eh?

You misspelled "Vogon".

stdio.h works just fine in C++.

So, what "extra include is necessary in C++ over C"? I write C++ and C all day and can't think of any.

Has there ever been a backdoor in Windows or other Microsoft products? No.

Yes, there have indeed been numerous opportunities to get complete access to Windows systems from outside. It appears that you simply prefer not to call them backdoors -- perhaps "vulnerabilites" is the first word to come to your mind. The difference is intent, and that is impossible to judge.

Clearly, this boy is more worth loving than you have the strength to.

Trolls have achieved immortality already before, meet Herostratus.

I applaud the tech companies for actually trying to disclose more.

I would have applauded too, had they tried to disclose before their complicity had become public. Post facto, it reeks too strongly of public relations damage control.

The battles the US military is engaged in involve hearts and minds, and drones are very bad from that perspective.

What you say is obviously true, but this shallow truth is shrouding the much more profound one that if you want to win "hearts and minds" you don't wage war in the first place.