A better place to start would be to explain why I should put up with a switch to a bunch of mostly unfamiliar measures of distance, volume, and temperature?

Because honestly, the "big problem" for imperial measures (lots of weird measures with odd conversions) really has never been a problem for me. It doesn't matter what a rod or a hogshead is (or a bushel, or a dram, or how many teaspoons in a gallon, or inches in a mile) because I pretty much never need to know (and if I do need to know, I can just google it).

10 a day? How about 10 a year? Also, get off of my lawn.

I have a Tracfone, and like it pretty well.

• For US$20, I get 90 days + 120 minutes (+ usually a bonus 20 minutes). If you need more minutes, they're not that expensive.

• You have your choice of phones. You can get a Smart Phone if you want, but you can also get a relatively primitive phone for US$20. I've got one of the cheaper ones. Supports texting (although I've only used that a little bit) and web browsing.

• Best of all, it's pay-as-you-go, and so all it takes to "opt out" is to stop buying renewal time.

The "aliens have visited the moon" is a pretty common trope in SF (2001: A Space Odyssey, In the Ocean of Night, Inherit the Stars, and many others).

While this makes a tolerable MacGuffin, somebody probably needs to tell these guys that it's not real.

I think it's a fair assumption that anyone willing to assemble a computer from parts is going to have stuff like spare keyboards, mice, and what-not lying around. And who doesn't have a USB drive anymore? Also (at least where I live) the library has publicly accessible computers (although a library card is required here). You may also need to get your distro via torrent, depending on available bandwidth, restrictions on duration you can use the computer, and the distro size.

I think the real cheat is any budget that involves a mail-in rebate.

Yeah, no argument there.

Nah, too easy.

N/T

In my original timeline, the zombie apocalypse was initially triggered by roving gangs of grammar Nazis.