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pays their full-time workers so little that they can't afford food or a place to live without welfare and foodstamps?

Could you please provide a source for this claim? In 2014, the Wal-Mart blog fisked a hit piece that was claiming things similar to what you just claimed, and pointed out that the average hourly wage at Wal-Mart was $12.91 per hour (and that is specifically not including highly-paid management).

http://blog.walmart.com/fact-check-the-new-york-times-the-corporate-daddy

How does it help me that my tax dollars have to subsidize Walmart employees

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/11/13/apologies-but-welfare-payments-to-employees-are-not-subsidies-to-walmart-and-mcdonalds/

Wal-Mart makes about 3% profit. In comparison, Apple Computer makes about 24% profit. Additionally, Wal-Mart has a more ethnically diverse set of employees than Apple Computer has. You seem to hate Wal-Mart; do you hate Apple Computer even more?

https://www.aei.org/publication/every-month-walmart-gets-one-profit-day-from-its-sales-while-apple-gets-7-5/

Also, low-income people like to shop at Wal-Mart because the low prices are a benefit. Some economists have written papers attempting to estimate the impact.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/11/walmart-destroys-jobs-yes-but-the-benefits-go-to-consumers-not-the-top/
http://www.nber.org/papers/w11809

So, to summarize: Wal-Mart pays a lot of taxes, employs a lot of people at an average hourly rate 78% over the US federal minimum wage, and benefits the poor by helping them spend less on the things they need.

I just don't understand all the Wal-Mart hate.

Cheapest Keurig coffee maker on Amazon: $82

Cheapest microwave at Walmart: $49. Or if you really need the money, buy a (probably much nicer) microwave from a thrift store for $10.

The microwave doesn't have any stupidly-expensive consumables and can be used for reheating healthy, homemade food just as easily as processed junk food. The space argument is bunk too, since you put stuff on top of it with a net loss of little counter space.

If the police are actually responding to crap on Yik Yak, it won't be long before someone gets their jollies sending the police on wild goose chases. Of course, it isn't like it's easy to pick up a cheap burner phone, hop on an unsecured WiFi network and fake the phone's location. Whoops.

"Tomorrow at noon this place burns to the ground. I'll be driving a hot pink Tesla Model S, come at me, pigs."

Amusement worthy of 4chan ensues.

Plenty of boxes and retail stores still use "PC" to mean Windows. I haven't paid attention in-store lately to check, but if you go to Walmart's website they do. Plenty of game boxes still say "PC CDROM" or "PC DVD" on them as well. Even fairly new stuff like SimCity. Many of them also specifically say "WIN" or "MAC" though. Might just have to pay more attention next time you're out ;)

I'm not arguing the other posters' points that strictly speaking, PC means "Personal Computer" and should be generic, but "PC Compatible" has been an industry term for decades at this point and trying to argue otherwise is pedantic, and somewhat more recently it also implies Windows. I'm old enough to remember when it implied DOS, too.

Plenty of boxes and retail stores still use "PC" to mean Windows. I haven't paid attention in-store lately to check, but if you go to Walmart's website they do. Plenty of game boxes still say "PC CDROM" or "PC DVD" on them as well. Even fairly new stuff like SimCity. Many of them also specifically say "WIN" or "MAC" though. Might just have to pay more attention next time you're out ;)

I'm not arguing the other posters' points that strictly speaking, PC means "Personal Computer" and should be generic, but "PC Compatible" has been an industry term for decades at this point and trying to argue otherwise is pedantic, and somewhat more recently it also implies Windows. I'm old enough to remember when it implied DOS, too.

We have at least one instance of that in the US - Excedrin. Their "Extra Strength" formulation has the exact same amounts of the active ingredients as their "Excedrin Migraine" and "Excedrin Menstrual Complete". At least at Walgreens Online they charge $17.99 for 200 Extra Strength caplets and $18.49 for 200 Migraine caplets. In the actual brick-and-mortar stores the prices are usually identical. Walmart's prices are the same.

You can already buy a regular, not-smart TV everywhere. It's called a computer monitor.

Really? I can buy a 60" computer monitor that can change channels, has 4 inputs and sound and comes with a remote for less than $700? Please tell me where I can find this fantastic buy...

Oh that's right, not available for reasonable prices anywhere...

A general boycott now would, IMHO, get press attention and make a clear statement to media companies that buyers are sick and tired of being treated like farm animals. /. can make it happen!

No it can't.

This 24" Vizio HDTV from Walmart has integrated WiFi, a full suite of apps including Netflix and costs $178.

We have reached the point where it has become almost impossible to buy any random piece of home video hardware or accessory that does not include integrated WiFi and a basic suite of Internet apps, with protected streaming media services like Netflix at the top of the list,

They don't care about users freedom what-so-ever. All they care about is market share.

The product that can't stream protected media has no market --- which means that it can't and won't be used to introduce DRM-free streaming media to users.

Many premium content providers such as Netflix require DRM support. Matchstick has undertaken the mission to develop DRM as an independent project with the open source community...We plan to use the Microsoft PlayReady technology and are excited to bring premium content to Matchstick. We'll keep you updated as we work to contribute newly developed source codes for DRM back to the open community. It's our goal to make sure open source technology doesn't mean 2nd tier content and experiences!

February Update --- Product Delay, Hardware, DRM, Content, and more!

There is a lot to be said for a standardized DRM platform based on open-source code. Time is short, It is becoming almost impossible to buy an HDTV without integrated WiFI and its own suite of apps.

VIZIO E241i-B1 24" 1080p 60Hz Razor LED Smart HDTV $178.

Are you going to tell me that a 13$ phone isn't dumb enough for you:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Veri...

When people get their panties in a twist about how much "wealth" the Walton family has it just shows they don't understand what wealth is.

Their "wealth" is paper. They could be worth X millions one day and X - a butt load of money the next. It has no impact on how much they can spend at lunch or whether they get the premium cable package or the standard. It's not cash.

On the contrary, it is very definitely cash. Walmart Corporation pays dividends to the tune of $0.48 per share every quarter for the past four quarters. Walmart has raised their dividend every year for the past 41 years. That amounts to $3.1 billion in cash paid to the Waltons this year. The Walton family still controls a simple majority of the company, owning more than 50% of the 3.223 billion shares outstanding.

That's cash money. No loan, no promissory note, no sale of shares. Of course the Waltons have built an edifice of fictional corporate entities to hold their stock that exists mainly for the purpose of avoiding taxes, so it's not like there's a single bank account that goes cha-ching +$775 million every quarter, but the difference is only significant to the tax man and the lawyers.

You don't understand what wealth is. It's ownership. And ownership PAYS. And pays and pays and pays.

Wrong. There is no My K-Cup or derivative thereof that doesn't require you to remove the insert in the machine that has the needle in the bottom of it -- the one used to puncture the bottoms of the pre-made K-Cups.

Wrong. I have these

I usually use these with my Keurig. Ocasionally I use standard K-Cups. No need to remove/reinsert the insert.

> One can always not purchase at Walmart.

That works both ways. Walmart has no legal obligation to do a pricematch. Their own policy says (and has said since the start), "The Store Management has the final decision for matching an online price."

Pricematching fake prices is no different than a store like JC Penny's using fake prices in order to negate their discounts. Scummy but not fraudulent.

Here at work, people have built essentially the same project (USB control of relays) with three different platforms, an Arduino, an rPi, and an old Pentium with MBs of RAM. All three did the job.

The Pi processor runs 44 times as fast as the Arduino, meaning it was 44 times as fast as needed for the purpose it was used for. The Pi has 512 MB of RAM, the Arduino accomplished the same task and has 2 Kb of RAM. The Pi has up to 16 GB of flash storage, the Arduino 32 KB.

So they ALREADY did "up the specs" to about 50 times as powerful as needed for these types of tasks. The Arduino used for the project cost $5-$10, the Pi $35.

Suppose the Pi had 2 GB of RAM and cost $150, would you suggest that they "up the specs" to 4 GB and $250? If that's what you want, you can get it here:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dell...
The Pi isn't a desktop computer. It's designed for particular types of tasks, and those tasks don't need gigs of ram. In fact, looking at the Pi-related web sites and the Arduino related web sites, the applications are often very similar, which indicates that the Pi is way over-speced for the many of the applications it is used for.

When I started my web hosting business we offered servers that ran Linux, just like the Pi does. The standard dedicated server had 256 MB of RAM, the upgraded option had 512 MB - just like the Pi. Web sites served hundreds of GBs of traffic every month off those 512 MB servers. Why does the Pi need more?

If speed isnt an issue: Try Straight Talk. $45 prepaid Available at Walmart http://www.walmart.com/ip/1544...

Clocks ticking MPEG LA. What are you going to do in 2016?

The 50" 4K UHD TV is at Walmart, starting at $1300. MPEG LA has moved on.

T-mobile has a $30 unlimited data, unlimited text and 100min voice. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tmob... I don't think even those tablet/data only plans can beat that. at least not for unlimited data.

I used to do that except caustic soda kept getting stuck behind it, even after I washed my hands, and left a burn spot that ached terribly when the watch was touching it. So I switched to a pocket watch like thing, that I keep either hanging in my neck straight down to my belly button(but that can swing about badly if you lean over and you don't keep it under your shirt), or hanging in my neck but the watch stucked into my shirt pocket right above my left nipple, where it is easier to get to, it does not swing around badly, but when you lean over too deep it does fall out and it's a bit annoying. But it's worth the sacrifice, as I've learned to keep my wrists completely garbage free, easy to rinse, and uninhibited in motion. Completely bare writsts just feel fresh and healthy and keep life simple when doing any manual task.

The watch I do have is this, from Walmart: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Time...
I actually had a couple of them, one I scratched up bad, another ran out on battery and considering the battery cost at Walmart, I invested into another full watch plus battery, I needed something quickly, and it's good to have these beauties for the future, in case they become unavailable. They do have a design flaw, and that is the front buttons keep getting pushed when you lean over, but nothing beats the robustness of huge LCD digits, and even a blue LED backlight when you're in a dark area. They are made in China, but don't let that fool you, as they are extremely accurate. I usually keep them 3 minutes fast, and they stay 3 minutes fast for a whole year or more without adjustment, even though I keep accidentally pushing them front buttons when leaning against my chest, and that switches the view, with one of the views having a chance to also zero out the seconds, but the chances of that is very small, as when you're pushing the front buttons you're not simultaneously pushing it from the edge too, where the seconds reset button is.

Have you ever visited Wal-Mart Online? Talk about "no shelf-space limitations"!!!

They have everything AND the Kitchen Sink!:

http://www.walmart.com/browse/...

Except that you usually cannot return an opened video game (or opened CD or DVD), because of the suspicion of piracy: http://help.walmart.com/app/an...

Also, your explanation is like a designer saying: "What, you wanted the picture with a 1920x1080 resolution? Yea, I made it 320x240 and then stretched it using Microsoft Paint and saved it at a higher resolution. It's 1920x1080, what's your problem?"

The *real* test here is when large companies like Wal-Mart or Home Depot start putting arrays on their huge roofs.

Dohohohoh!

But it makes more sense to filter the air at the inlet if you can, or at least as it recirculates through the HVAC system already built into your home. Check your air filter once in a while, people!

Unbelievable. I went straight to walmart.com to verify your claim, and now I'm definitely amazed.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Stra...

It's incredible how cheap these things have gotten.

People can get a decent smartphone for under $80 here already, this one with no plan:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/T-Mo...

I've seen it under $70 just a while back but Walmart must cycle the prices every so often.

Also available for preorder at Walmart http://www.walmart.com/cp/LEGO-Movie/1166827/

sure, you can spend thousands on a bike. but it's not hard to find a decent one for much much less.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Pola...

the upgrade I'm tempted to make is to a Microsoft Surface Pro 2.

It looks like you're choosing a 10" Windows 8.1 (x86) tablet. Among these tablets, what does the Surface Pro do that the less expensive Transformer Book doesn't?

Yeah, but that's a console, which by its very nature is a less preferable method of gaming

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

So tell me, what PC games were you playing from 1972 to 1977? Let me guess, you were'nt, unless of course you were some university lab playing Hunt the Wumpus or something, but odds are you weren't playing electronic games at home.

Now take a look at the price for

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

or the Launch price of the original IBM PC:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...

Look at that price, that was $1500, 1981 dollars, for a machine with 16 of RAM and no floppies. OS and Monitor extra of course.

In 1981 you could get an Atari 2600 for $199, so far far more people bought 2600's to play Combat, Space Invaders and Missile Command than bought IBM PC's to play Adventure. Sure there were always a few "rich kids" with tech aficiando dads who bought them such machines or Trash 80's or Apples or C64's. But they were HUGELY outnumbered by 2600's.

today, I can walk to my local store and get a PS4 for $399.

That $399 will get you something like this PC:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer...

Now you're going to say, "I can build a better rig for $600. $600 is $200 more than $399. That extran $200 will get you at minimum 3 games, or 2 games and an extra controller, or a year of PS+ and 2 games, or a lot of indie titles.

And before you say "free Team Fortress" or "free MOBA", I'm going to laugh at you for spending $600 or more on a game machine...only to then not spend money on any games. That is why I often think of PC gamers as cheapskates. Or more accurately, Filthy PC Gamer Bourgeosie Philistines would rather throw money on hardware for e-peen points on benchmarks, than actually buy games.

meant mainly for children and the developmentally disabled.

I don't know where you are, but that's most certainly not the case in the Anglophone countries or Japan, especially since the PSone days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

You think publishers were selling copies of C&C, X-Com, and Panzer General to "Children and the developmentally disabled"? Who do you think they were selling, Azure Dreams, Castlevania: Symphony of the NIght, or Colony Wars to?

Adults. They knew the market had grown up alongside games and was still playing.

There may well be other features of console gaming that once presented some advantage. I can't think of any, but theoretically it's possible that they exist

It just works. No muss, no fuss. Spend a little on hardware and then focus on buying games. Lot

killing WordPerfect

It's not dead yet!

This is on the shelf at my local Wal-mart:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Core...

Which one?

Kastar: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Kast...
Steren: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ster...
ETEK: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Digi...
LANG: http://www.walmart.com/ip/A-E-...
Klein Tools: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Klei...
TM Atlantic: http://www.walmart.com/ip/TM-A...
Ideal: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Idea...
Universal Enterprises: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Univ...
Morris Products: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Morr...
or
ROLLS: http://www.walmart.com/ip/ROLL...
?

Which one?

Kastar: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Kast...
Steren: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ster...
ETEK: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Digi...
LANG: http://www.walmart.com/ip/A-E-...
Klein Tools: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Klei...
TM Atlantic: http://www.walmart.com/ip/TM-A...
Ideal: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Idea...
Universal Enterprises: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Univ...
Morris Products: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Morr...
or
ROLLS: http://www.walmart.com/ip/ROLL...
?

Which one?

Kastar: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Kast...
Steren: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ster...
ETEK: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Digi...
LANG: http://www.walmart.com/ip/A-E-...
Klein Tools: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Klei...
TM Atlantic: http://www.walmart.com/ip/TM-A...
Ideal: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Idea...
Universal Enterprises: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Univ...
Morris Products: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Morr...
or
ROLLS: http://www.walmart.com/ip/ROLL...
?

Which one?

Kastar: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Kast...
Steren: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ster...
ETEK: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Digi...
LANG: http://www.walmart.com/ip/A-E-...
Klein Tools: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Klei...
TM Atlantic: http://www.walmart.com/ip/TM-A...
Ideal: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Idea...
Universal Enterprises: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Univ...
Morris Products: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Morr...
or
ROLLS: http://www.walmart.com/ip/ROLL...
?

Which one?

Kastar: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Kast...
Steren: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ster...
ETEK: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Digi...
LANG: http://www.walmart.com/ip/A-E-...
Klein Tools: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Klei...
TM Atlantic: http://www.walmart.com/ip/TM-A...
Ideal: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Idea...
Universal Enterprises: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Univ...
Morris Products: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Morr...
or
ROLLS: http://www.walmart.com/ip/ROLL...
?

Which one?

Kastar: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Kast...
Steren: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ster...
ETEK: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Digi...
LANG: http://www.walmart.com/ip/A-E-...
Klein Tools: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Klei...
TM Atlantic: http://www.walmart.com/ip/TM-A...
Ideal: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Idea...
Universal Enterprises: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Univ...
Morris Products: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Morr...
or
ROLLS: http://www.walmart.com/ip/ROLL...
?

Which one?

Kastar: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Kast...
Steren: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ster...
ETEK: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Digi...
LANG: http://www.walmart.com/ip/A-E-...
Klein Tools: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Klei...
TM Atlantic: http://www.walmart.com/ip/TM-A...
Ideal: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Idea...
Universal Enterprises: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Univ...
Morris Products: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Morr...
or
ROLLS: http://www.walmart.com/ip/ROLL...
?

Which one?

Kastar: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Kast...
Steren: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ster...
ETEK: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Digi...
LANG: http://www.walmart.com/ip/A-E-...
Klein Tools: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Klei...
TM Atlantic: http://www.walmart.com/ip/TM-A...
Ideal: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Idea...
Universal Enterprises: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Univ...
Morris Products: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Morr...
or
ROLLS: http://www.walmart.com/ip/ROLL...
?

Which one?

Kastar: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Kast...
Steren: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ster...
ETEK: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Digi...
LANG: http://www.walmart.com/ip/A-E-...
Klein Tools: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Klei...
TM Atlantic: http://www.walmart.com/ip/TM-A...
Ideal: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Idea...
Universal Enterprises: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Univ...
Morris Products: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Morr...
or
ROLLS: http://www.walmart.com/ip/ROLL...
?

Which one?

Kastar: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Kast...
Steren: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ster...
ETEK: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Digi...
LANG: http://www.walmart.com/ip/A-E-...
Klein Tools: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Klei...
TM Atlantic: http://www.walmart.com/ip/TM-A...
Ideal: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Idea...
Universal Enterprises: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Univ...
Morris Products: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Morr...
or
ROLLS: http://www.walmart.com/ip/ROLL...
?

No need for a $500 computer when a $100 computer will suffice. Sure, it' refurbished, but it has a Core 2 Duo with Windows 7 on it. For basic tasks, almost any computer from the Core2/Phenom era is sufficient.

A few hundred? Walmart has 6500 trucks and 55,000 trailers..

http://corporate.walmart.com/o...

Yes, but this truck is still mostly concept. And they're not going to swap out their complete fleet for these things anytime soon (recouping too much sunk cost at this point).

So we'll probably only see a few hundred of them as they phase these trucks in.

Reality and the hidden costs of these things will bring the whole project down eventually.

A few hundred? Walmart has 6500 trucks and 55,000 trailers..

http://corporate.walmart.com/o...

As for your last comment, I think you're wrong. People don't really have access to video cameras that "give little to no indication that they are recording."

A while back Woot sold out a bunch of cameras that look like pens. The lens is just above the top of the clip, so when they're clipped in your pocket they're pointing out. The only indication they are recording is a small orange LED on the back side, hidden from view.

Or get them from ebay. Or Walmart.

You can buy an iphone at walmart but they are pricey compared to an android.

The thing I found amusing was it sounded like Musk was denying he intended to buy out Apple. {I would have expected that to go the other way}

Musk framed an acquisition as 'very unlikely,' mostly because it would distract Tesla from its goal of building an affordable electric car

They could have chosen a digital broadcast TV standard that was backwards-compatible with the older signalling system. It existed. It was one of the choices.

ATSC is digital. NTSC was analog. There is no way to have an analog-compatible high-definition digital broadcast standard, without just having two channels operating side-by-side, which would be the worst of both worlds.

Instead they went with a brand-new protocol, that made all old TVs obsolete, unless they bought an expensive converter box and antenna.

Converter boxes were all only $10-15 after the NTIA coupons every household got two of. And these days, you can get a digital converter with USB, photo/audio/video (MPEG-4, H.264, WMV, etc.) playback, and full DVR/PVR functions, for all of $30, like the EMatic AT103B from Walmart:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Emat...

You certainly don't need a new antenna. A select few people may have lost a few channels, but that was really unrelated to the digital switchover, and just an opportune moment for broadcasters to save some money.

The result? Relatively few people in the U.S. watch broadcast TV anymore.

The number of OTA viewers has GROWN significantly after the switch to digital, and cable companies are seeing declining subscriber counts as a result. Many of those who could get static-filled analog TV broadcasts didn't want them, and resorted to the better picture quality of cable or satellite. These days, OTA is now the BEST picture you can get, and cable and satellite are the inferior choices, which also cost obscene amounts of money for very little value-add.

The most recent reports conclude: "OTA television is growing in importance to more Americans as percentage of TV households whose only source of TV is received off-air has climbed to nearly 20 percent"

And the biggest percentage of those cable TV subscribers are old baby boomers, who will simply die off in the coming years, and shift the numbers increasingly towards OTA:

"The research also found that younger households are more likely to be OTA-only. Among households headed by someone 18 to 34 years of age, 28 percent are broadcast-only"

http://broadcastengineering.co...

If you want to kill off a technology, abandoning backward compatibility is a great way to do it.

Maintaining TOO MUCH backwards compatibility is a great way undermine NEW technologies, too. If you look at something like Ethernet, which seems to have an unbroken chain of compatibility, in fact they only maintain compatibility a single generation back, and discard what came further before. Notice that the GigE cards don't come with AUI or BNC connectors? Notice that there are no GigE hubs? That GigE doesn't work over the CAT-3 cabling that was installed en-mass way back when? And in the future, CAT-5 will go out the window, too.

Today, with 802.11ac available, it's long past time to eliminate 802.11b compatibility, making that 802.11g equipment faster.

But this school has mostly low-income students who don't have the sort of high-tech resources at home that we all take for granted

If you are as qualified as to be able to affect a library's decisions, why don't you spend more time working — earn the money to buy your charges some low-cost earlier-generation tablets? Walmart lists a 7" Android tablet for $65 and you may be able to get an even better deal buying in bulk (or buying last year's cheapest). Just be sure, each family buys their own, rather than have them collectively-owned (and thus neglected).

This, really, is a solved problem and may even fit the library's budget — the budget you were going to spend on something else instead.

By turning your whole library for the poorest visitors, you are making it even more likely, that normal people will stay away...

I firmly believe that what Aereo does is, strictly speaking, legal, but hardly fair play.

What the broadcasters do is quite unfair, but technically legal as well.

Aereo is essentially a leech on the system. They give nothing back to the content producers.

They delivery YOUR eyeballs to the networks and their advertisers. You might go watch YouTube instead, if Aereo didn't exist.

What broadcasters are worried about is cable retransmission fees, which has nothing to do with Aereo. Viacom wants to keep your cable company paying obscene amounts of money for channels like Nickelodeon and MTV, and threaten to pull their local CBS channel if they don't agree. Broadcast television was never supposed to work that way. Aereo is breaking that model.

I consider Aereo a valuable service for people like me who are out in the fringes... If I spend $200 on an antenna system, I can get most, but not all, of my local channels, with minor breakups. That same money will pay for Aereo for quite a while. It can also save me from buying a DVR as well, though I must admit, those are getting dirt cheap, these days.

And while I can make an antenna work over time, renters without dedicated private roof space (see: FCC) may not be in a position to do so in any case. Those same renters may also not be in a position where they can get satellite service, either. Then it's just a question of being at the mercy of the local cable company, or not having TV, without Aereo.

I agree, most people are waiting until the odd number of Windows next year or so. In the meantime there are opportunities to purchase refurbished Windows 7 PCs from Walmart: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dell-Refurbished-775-MT-Desktop-PC-with-Intel-Core-2-Duo-Processor-4GB-Memory-750GB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-7-Professional-64-Bit-Edition-Monitor-No/26922092

You have not met my wife. She will walk into a room where I am sitting, change the thermostat or fan speed, then walk out. So I got to get up and set it back again. I have considered modifying things so it can't change, but that would be cruel.

You don't need a $300 thermostat to fix that.

Black Friday represents everything about America that the Terrorists hate, so help fight Terrorism by fighting your neighbors over a $300 TV.

$300?!?!? Pffft... try $98 bucks! Them's fighting' words!