Since when does your right to "fly on a plane without being subjected to a thorough search" outweigh my right to "fly on an airplane with a reasonable certainty that the homicidal maniacs on board are NOT armed"?
Well, at least the TSA 'may' have done this to the wrong person finally...
The "wrong person" would probably be one of the ardent supporters of giving the TSA all the power they desire, not a borderline-libertarian who probably already has a list of profanity-laden things that "TSA" stands for.
$3700 is the kind of price when people would be much less bothered whether a car can go for 600km or 60km. Qualitatively less performance on almost all counts for over twice the price of an ordinary car just doesn't make sense beyond the idealistic fringe with very deep pockets, trying to polish their better-than-thou attitude to the rest of the world.
However, qualitatively less performance for a much smaller price of entry is justifable. Netbooks did this. Of course their performance rather laughable compared to a proper laptop - but you couldn't get laptop for $200. It satisfies the need of a basic mobile universal computer for a price below all other offers. The same would work for cars for a lot of commuters - it need not be all or even most. There are 300 million americans, even if it only appeals to 3 in 100 people, that's 10 mio customers.
Generally you are right, but... Those in the US "trying to polish their better-than-thou attitude to the rest of the world" make up a staggeringly large percentage... Oh, and netbooks are dead.
And lastly (on a more serious note) not everyone in the US has a car (far fewer can actually drive one,) and the typical run rate for cars is 6 million a year. Capture 3% of that market and you are moving 180k units a year. Sounds easy? Volkswagen (no slouch when it comes to marketing and diversity) does 300k in a good year (and thats including their Audi brand.) A niche, in the auto industry, is somewhere on the order of half a percent of market share.
I can't wait for the sequel when Tesla declares bankruptcy and goes out of business. They will claim that the illuminati in league with the oil companies using the Free Masons infiltrate and sabotage Tesla.
Why go to that trouble? They will just blame it on the bad driving habits of Jeremy Clarkson...
And if you buy one you are going to need to hire an electrician. And if you rent or live in a condo/apartment try finding a 240v plug in the parkade. Or a landlord that will let you install one. And power in 15c a kW/h plus transmission charges 33c per kW/h.
33c per kwh? wat? Is that canadian dollars? "expensive" in the US is 14c.
(yes i know that the exch. rate has been even for some time)
Netflix allows you to set up sub-accounts for this reason. My girlfriend has a sub-account for when she wants to watch movies on her PC. For the Wii, we just use my account because it stays logged in. The only downside is logging into a sub-account often throws Netflix in a redirect loop that returns an error on Fx/Chrome/Opera and crashes IE (IE doesn't do well detecting loops)
Netflix sub-accounts (unless there is a hidden option I am missing) do NOT have "watch instantly" capabilities, probably for this very reason. Otherwise, why would anyone get their own watch instantly account when they can just have a friend/relative give them a queueless sub-account to do it for free?
Or a Toshiba Toughbook CF30. It's a bit more expensive, but it doubles as a bullet shield (only small calibers, non armour piercing and it will probably not be a usefull computer afterwards). Dropping it from a dozen meters (40 feet or so) doesn't really damage it and a car driving over it is no problem if the toughbook is flat on the ground. It seems to object to a tank driving over it though.
40 feet? Come on, even if the case were perfectly sturdy with perfectly soft insides (two things that are impossible) you can't stop a hard drive from that speed (and the CF30 doesnt come with an SSD) without serious damage. The most rugged of the Toughbook line is only certified for a 6 foot drop.
Yes, a bag you can buy for about three and a half cents will surely work as well as one that is purpose built! The big thing is the temperature of the water; seal something up on a nice warm summer day and take it rafting with you, then drop it in the river... And watch as the inside gets just as wet as the outside. Moisture management is only effective if you take watertight sealing, plus humidity/condensation into account at the same time.
You don't think that those places feature actual armed slave drivers who are holding hostage every single productive person in the country, do you? There will always be dissidents but by and large those nations have a stable base of people who genuinely agree with the regime about how they should feel regarding outside aggressors (like the US). Why do you think they take such pains to control all forms of media? A regime that requires as many armed guards as citizens is not going to last very long, they are very apt at using fear as inspiration. What better way to stave off rebellion than to convince the citizenry that the only thing worse than the current regime is the regime that wants to overthrow it?
If we had discovered aliens on the moon we would not only still be able to go into space, but we'd have already dropped at least 3 nukes on the moon by now.
There's something inherently fucked up with people that are unwilling to spend on things like health care, education, science, but will spend hundreds of billions of dollars on military gear without any consideration for budgeting at all.
The Fear war has simply gone the way of the actual war mongers for the past few decades (mostly since the USSR was such a good boogeyman) but make no mistake, it is so easy to convince a confident, wealthy nation to pour trillions of dollars into something with a little fear on your side that it doesn't matter if the boogeyman is a nation we don't agree with politically, climate change, or hell an actual boogey man. Put a little fear on the table and watch how fast the wallets fly open. Governments are all too aware of how easily this works. Hell, in the case of America it's hard to say that we did anything notable at a time when we DIDN'T specifically fear something.
Does the entire Iranian populace hate us? Do all the North Koreans hate us? Or is it just more convenient to believe that they do to make it easier when we start killing them...
No, you had it right the first time. The regime in those nations know that they can earn much more loyal support through (construction of) a common enemy than they can through any amount of good deeds (except perhaps the deed of constructing a free and democratic society, but i digress.) They do indeed cultivate hatred at every opportunity. You are correct that not everyone will fall for it, but enough of them will to generate the support the regime needs to do basically whatever they want. See Mccarthyism for an example, if you think construction of an enemy by any means necessary in order to garner supporters is a skill only dictatorial regimes posses. This is a tactic that nearly every government has used at some point, and as such it is very important not to downplay its presence or its effect.
Was that non-transferrable to some other area of chemical production, or did they somehow get rid of their boring-but-solvent departments in some strange reorganization scheme?
You might say that their solvent business... wasn't! Hahahaha aaahahaha aha ha ha ha. Eh? Srsly, they did divest the profitable holdings, how do you think they have lasted this long given that film use basically bottomed out a decade ago? The only thing left is the name on the door and that's what this move is about. Someone (Apple, Sony, Canon, anybody) needs to do "the right thing" and buy up Kodak and put the name to good use, and spare them from this trolling.
I'm not talking about how it got here - all the pro sports were good things when they started, that's why they grew. What I'm observing is that, for me, pro sports jumped the shark well over a decade ago - and, at least in football, the energy, excitement, and money that flows in collegiate play wouldn't be the same without multi-million dollar contracts hanging out there a couple of years in the future for the best of the best.
I don't mean to be argumentative, but this still does not follow... Are you saying that collegiate athletes would not be as driven to participate or perform, if the pro level was not there? I can see that possibilty but the only evidence is actually to the contrary: many athletes have the option to go pro earlier then they actually do. I know for sure that the spectacle that is the NCAA exists solely to make money off of the college level and doesn't relate at all (except in the sense that they compete for mindshare) to the pro leagues. The whole sports thing exists because there are people around who want to be fans, and the NCAA could even thrive without the pros since the fans would move over (or find a different hobby.)
Those are just apps you can use if you want to. It's completely different if Google asks you to create Google+ profile when you're booting your Android phone.
Is it completely different than Google requiring you to use/create a Gmail account when booting your phone? Why the sudden outcry over social network integration and not over Gmail? Are you not a big enough fan of Hotmail or Yahoo to care?
The difference is that Google Search dominates the market, while Fox doesn't.
Doesn't that all depend on who's watching what, and when? Google's "domination" is purely subjective, they have a majority share in Search but they are by no means the only large player. Much like the Superbowl (probably why it was used as an example) where almost every eyeball directed at a TV is watching that channel (162.9 million pairs, last year). You could in fact say that the company who is responsible for televising the Superbowl indeed "dominates" broadcasting for that evening, the exact same way Google does...
2, Honestly all NFL atheletes are a joke compared to College football players. Big fat lazy overpaid idiots. I have no interest in watching a bunch of rich panzies play a game. I would rather watch REAL atheletes at college level.
A lot of people feel this way and more and more join the ranks each year.
I totally agree, but the strange reality is that without pro sports, College sports would wither, maybe not die, but certainly lose the vitality it has as a result of being the gateway to pro sports. I'm not sure there is a good answer, other than to abandon the circus that is pro-football/baseball/basketball/hockey and support something newer and more satisfying, I'm not sure right offhand what that is, but maybe they could look to the world of motorsports for inspiration, it doesn't seem quite as decadent/offensive.
Actually you have that a bit backward, Pro Football (like other sports) was created because there was profit potential *after* collegiate sports gained enough national popularity. The idea that college sports somehow relies on the presence of pro sports also flies in the face of the spirit of the "student-athlete" (not to mention, a huge portion of college athletes never go on to play professionally...) Notably, in the NBA there is actually no real benefit to being a college athlete (ask Lebron James) other than perhaps preparing you for a life where you aren't a total douche (again see LBJ) and still college basketball maintains it's popularity.
You do know there area large number of people that really dont care at all about live events or sports in general. Honestly, if it was not for the parties I was invited to and the open bar, I could not care less about the superbowl.
For two reasons. 1, the NFL are nothing but a bunch of scumbags. the claim yearly they lose a lot of money from people STEALING the superbowl by inviting friends over and having a party. Yes, having more than 10 friends over is ILLEGAL as far as the NFL is concerned.
2, Honestly all NFL atheletes are a joke compared to College football players. Big fat lazy overpaid idiots. I have no interest in watching a bunch of rich panzies play a game. I would rather watch REAL atheletes at college level.
A lot of people feel this way and more and more join the ranks each year.
Yes, gotta hand it to those squeaky clean, all drive and no greed folks at the NCAA! (I think I tore my sarcasm tendon on that one...)
NCAA athletes are by and large beyond reproach, but there are enough bad ones in there to muddy the waters. Add to that the insistence that conferences should have some divine right to monopolize for profit (cough, Big Ten Network) and you are left with something that might be better than the NFL in some ways, but is demonstrably worse in others.
How is this different from MS integrating IE into Windows to beat Netscape? Google has a monopoly on search and is harming other industries such as social networks, maps and finance sites by integrating them by default into the search, whereas other competitors like Map Quest don't have this chance and are dying off slowly like Netscape did.
That's an easy one; with MS the customer was the person sitting at the computer, and they were also tasked with deciding which browser software to use (from a range or free and for-pay packages). With Google, the only people who could be construed as customers are those purchasing ad space; if you are using the search engine you are not their customer, you are part of their *product*. Because the ad war for eyeballs stops at basically nothing, it is hard to argue they are abusing a market position in one that *doesn't exist* when really they are just providing more paths for advertisers to spend money with them. Now, argue that they are somehow unduly harming the marketplace for advertisers or ad companies, and you may have a case (as it is, Facebook has such a huge lead in the social space that this will all be irrelevant for several years.)
So not only search, but they're using Android and every other product to tie the user to Google+. They're going to get hit hard by antitrust issues.
So for the dozen or so screens also baked into Android that allow use of Facebook, Twitter, and a host of other social and email services they will need to add a "Join Now" button? I know the SEC and the Justice Department are separate entities but it just feels like as long as Facebook is still privately held the feds don't really give a crap about what happens in social network land (beyond the extent that they can monitor it all at will).
Trying to do much REAL WORK(tm) on a tablet is an exercise in frustration. By the time you add a keyboard and mouse so that you can be even marginally productive you might as well get the tablet so that you can work even where/when there isn't a wireless network.
The tablet's niche is on the couch or the train or the bus.
You are exactly correct, the sad thing is that many people have a computer and *no* intention of doing "real work" on it at all. They want to send out short, barely legible emails and update their facebook status with the occasional far too blurry picture. In the distant past, you needed a whole dang computer for that; then came the laptops (which destroyed the desktop market), then came the smartphones which started eating into the laptop market and now we have the tablets which are probably enough (between them and smartphones) to take away a huge slice of things people used to have to cart around a whole laptop to be able to do. I have witnessed people who used to be quite glued to their laptops get a tablet, and spend WEEKS without even touching their laptop since it did the little things they needed it for anyway.
Will tablets ever replace a reasonable desktop/laptop for real work? Not many think that, but if Michael Dell believes that no one who in the past wanted a laptop now wants a tablet instead, he is really sorely mistaken.
There is no possible way that this fellow's mistake was the only one made during the entire production process. There were thousands of mistakes similar to this that went into the satellite in question (there are thousands upon thousands of parts and processes required, after all), this was merely the one that escaped all efforts to eliminate it... Unless you can prove that he really was conspiring to sabotage the satellite, you need to blame the process and not the producer. For all we know, the rag had an intentional yet temporary use in the fuel line to prevent accumulation of some contaminant (metal chips, vapor from welding, etc.) and the guy who put it there was just doing his job.
It seems as if some people just can't believe that Google would ever do anything wrong. This isn't the cute little search engine from 2000. They went public and became an ad company; 97% of their revenue comes from web advertising. But I think they're really good at appealing to tech communities, using feel-good phrases like "openness" to make themselves more endearing to those demographics.
Gasp, not ad revenue! Did you expect their revenue to come from people paying for search results? Please try to grasp this: Every company that solely works in the Internet space is an Ad company. That's how money is made on the internet, if you think this makes something evil then you probably should be unplugging your computer from your 56k modem right about now. I mean Slashdot (the site you apparently abhor but can't stop posting on) relies on web advertizing, and OH SHIT most of it is in the form of Google Ads to boot!
Slashdot Mirror
Since when does your right to "fly on a plane without being subjected to a thorough search" outweigh my right to "fly on an airplane with a reasonable certainty that the homicidal maniacs on board are NOT armed"?
Karma? Yes, I do have some to burn...
Well, at least the TSA 'may' have done this to the wrong person finally...
The "wrong person" would probably be one of the ardent supporters of giving the TSA all the power they desire, not a borderline-libertarian who probably already has a list of profanity-laden things that "TSA" stands for.
$255 for 780 kW/h on my last bill and the next bill is supposed the be an extra 2c per kW/h.
zomg where do you live, the north pole? ~600kw/h is my monthly average and that runs me about $70 USD.
$3700 is the kind of price when people would be much less bothered whether a car can go for 600km or 60km. Qualitatively less performance on almost all counts for over twice the price of an ordinary car just doesn't make sense beyond the idealistic fringe with very deep pockets, trying to polish their better-than-thou attitude to the rest of the world.
However, qualitatively less performance for a much smaller price of entry is justifable. Netbooks did this. Of course their performance rather laughable compared to a proper laptop - but you couldn't get laptop for $200. It satisfies the need of a basic mobile universal computer for a price below all other offers. The same would work for cars for a lot of commuters - it need not be all or even most. There are 300 million americans, even if it only appeals to 3 in 100 people, that's 10 mio customers.
Generally you are right, but... Those in the US "trying to polish their better-than-thou attitude to the rest of the world" make up a staggeringly large percentage... Oh, and netbooks are dead.
And lastly (on a more serious note) not everyone in the US has a car (far fewer can actually drive one,) and the typical run rate for cars is 6 million a year. Capture 3% of that market and you are moving 180k units a year. Sounds easy? Volkswagen (no slouch when it comes to marketing and diversity) does 300k in a good year (and thats including their Audi brand.) A niche, in the auto industry, is somewhere on the order of half a percent of market share.
I can't wait for the sequel when Tesla declares bankruptcy and goes out of business. They will claim that the illuminati in league with the oil companies using the Free Masons infiltrate and sabotage Tesla.
Why go to that trouble? They will just blame it on the bad driving habits of Jeremy Clarkson...
And if you buy one you are going to need to hire an electrician. And if you rent or live in a condo/apartment try finding a 240v plug in the parkade. Or a landlord that will let you install one. And power in 15c a kW/h plus transmission charges 33c per kW/h.
33c per kwh? wat? Is that canadian dollars? "expensive" in the US is 14c.
(yes i know that the exch. rate has been even for some time)
Netflix allows you to set up sub-accounts for this reason. My girlfriend has a sub-account for when she wants to watch movies on her PC. For the Wii, we just use my account because it stays logged in. The only downside is logging into a sub-account often throws Netflix in a redirect loop that returns an error on Fx/Chrome/Opera and crashes IE (IE doesn't do well detecting loops)
Netflix sub-accounts (unless there is a hidden option I am missing) do NOT have "watch instantly" capabilities, probably for this very reason. Otherwise, why would anyone get their own watch instantly account when they can just have a friend/relative give them a queueless sub-account to do it for free?
Another whole what in your head? Spelling and grammar correction subsystem?
Or a Toshiba Toughbook CF30. It's a bit more expensive, but it doubles as a bullet shield (only small calibers, non armour piercing and it will probably not be a usefull computer afterwards). Dropping it from a dozen meters (40 feet or so) doesn't really damage it and a car driving over it is no problem if the toughbook is flat on the ground. It seems to object to a tank driving over it though.
40 feet? Come on, even if the case were perfectly sturdy with perfectly soft insides (two things that are impossible) you can't stop a hard drive from that speed (and the CF30 doesnt come with an SSD) without serious damage. The most rugged of the Toughbook line is only certified for a 6 foot drop.
Yes, a bag you can buy for about three and a half cents will surely work as well as one that is purpose built! The big thing is the temperature of the water; seal something up on a nice warm summer day and take it rafting with you, then drop it in the river... And watch as the inside gets just as wet as the outside. Moisture management is only effective if you take watertight sealing, plus humidity/condensation into account at the same time.
You don't think that those places feature actual armed slave drivers who are holding hostage every single productive person in the country, do you? There will always be dissidents but by and large those nations have a stable base of people who genuinely agree with the regime about how they should feel regarding outside aggressors (like the US). Why do you think they take such pains to control all forms of media? A regime that requires as many armed guards as citizens is not going to last very long, they are very apt at using fear as inspiration. What better way to stave off rebellion than to convince the citizenry that the only thing worse than the current regime is the regime that wants to overthrow it?
If we had discovered aliens on the moon we would not only still be able to go into space, but we'd have already dropped at least 3 nukes on the moon by now.
There's something inherently fucked up with people that are unwilling to spend on things like health care, education, science, but will spend hundreds of billions of dollars on military gear without any consideration for budgeting at all.
The Fear war has simply gone the way of the actual war mongers for the past few decades (mostly since the USSR was such a good boogeyman) but make no mistake, it is so easy to convince a confident, wealthy nation to pour trillions of dollars into something with a little fear on your side that it doesn't matter if the boogeyman is a nation we don't agree with politically, climate change, or hell an actual boogey man. Put a little fear on the table and watch how fast the wallets fly open. Governments are all too aware of how easily this works. Hell, in the case of America it's hard to say that we did anything notable at a time when we DIDN'T specifically fear something.
Fear, it's what's for dinner.
Does the entire Iranian populace hate us? Do all the North Koreans hate us? Or is it just more convenient to believe that they do to make it easier when we start killing them...
No, you had it right the first time. The regime in those nations know that they can earn much more loyal support through (construction of) a common enemy than they can through any amount of good deeds (except perhaps the deed of constructing a free and democratic society, but i digress.) They do indeed cultivate hatred at every opportunity. You are correct that not everyone will fall for it, but enough of them will to generate the support the regime needs to do basically whatever they want. See Mccarthyism for an example, if you think construction of an enemy by any means necessary in order to garner supporters is a skill only dictatorial regimes posses. This is a tactic that nearly every government has used at some point, and as such it is very important not to downplay its presence or its effect.
The discovery may even provide clues as to where the oxygen came from in the first place.
Shouldn't they be looking for the carbon dioxide eaters?
Was that non-transferrable to some other area of chemical production, or did they somehow get rid of their boring-but-solvent departments in some strange reorganization scheme?
You might say that their solvent business... wasn't! Hahahaha aaahahaha aha ha ha ha. Eh? Srsly, they did divest the profitable holdings, how do you think they have lasted this long given that film use basically bottomed out a decade ago? The only thing left is the name on the door and that's what this move is about. Someone (Apple, Sony, Canon, anybody) needs to do "the right thing" and buy up Kodak and put the name to good use, and spare them from this trolling.
I'm not talking about how it got here - all the pro sports were good things when they started, that's why they grew. What I'm observing is that, for me, pro sports jumped the shark well over a decade ago - and, at least in football, the energy, excitement, and money that flows in collegiate play wouldn't be the same without multi-million dollar contracts hanging out there a couple of years in the future for the best of the best.
I don't mean to be argumentative, but this still does not follow... Are you saying that collegiate athletes would not be as driven to participate or perform, if the pro level was not there? I can see that possibilty but the only evidence is actually to the contrary: many athletes have the option to go pro earlier then they actually do. I know for sure that the spectacle that is the NCAA exists solely to make money off of the college level and doesn't relate at all (except in the sense that they compete for mindshare) to the pro leagues. The whole sports thing exists because there are people around who want to be fans, and the NCAA could even thrive without the pros since the fans would move over (or find a different hobby.)
Those are just apps you can use if you want to. It's completely different if Google asks you to create Google+ profile when you're booting your Android phone.
Is it completely different than Google requiring you to use/create a Gmail account when booting your phone? Why the sudden outcry over social network integration and not over Gmail? Are you not a big enough fan of Hotmail or Yahoo to care?
The difference is that Google Search dominates the market, while Fox doesn't.
Doesn't that all depend on who's watching what, and when? Google's "domination" is purely subjective, they have a majority share in Search but they are by no means the only large player. Much like the Superbowl (probably why it was used as an example) where almost every eyeball directed at a TV is watching that channel (162.9 million pairs, last year). You could in fact say that the company who is responsible for televising the Superbowl indeed "dominates" broadcasting for that evening, the exact same way Google does...
2, Honestly all NFL atheletes are a joke compared to College football players. Big fat lazy overpaid idiots. I have no interest in watching a bunch of rich panzies play a game. I would rather watch REAL atheletes at college level.
A lot of people feel this way and more and more join the ranks each year.
I totally agree, but the strange reality is that without pro sports, College sports would wither, maybe not die, but certainly lose the vitality it has as a result of being the gateway to pro sports. I'm not sure there is a good answer, other than to abandon the circus that is pro-football/baseball/basketball/hockey and support something newer and more satisfying, I'm not sure right offhand what that is, but maybe they could look to the world of motorsports for inspiration, it doesn't seem quite as decadent/offensive.
Actually you have that a bit backward, Pro Football (like other sports) was created because there was profit potential *after* collegiate sports gained enough national popularity. The idea that college sports somehow relies on the presence of pro sports also flies in the face of the spirit of the "student-athlete" (not to mention, a huge portion of college athletes never go on to play professionally...) Notably, in the NBA there is actually no real benefit to being a college athlete (ask Lebron James) other than perhaps preparing you for a life where you aren't a total douche (again see LBJ) and still college basketball maintains it's popularity.
You do know there area large number of people that really dont care at all about live events or sports in general. Honestly, if it was not for the parties I was invited to and the open bar, I could not care less about the superbowl.
For two reasons. 1, the NFL are nothing but a bunch of scumbags. the claim yearly they lose a lot of money from people STEALING the superbowl by inviting friends over and having a party. Yes, having more than 10 friends over is ILLEGAL as far as the NFL is concerned.
2, Honestly all NFL atheletes are a joke compared to College football players. Big fat lazy overpaid idiots. I have no interest in watching a bunch of rich panzies play a game. I would rather watch REAL atheletes at college level.
A lot of people feel this way and more and more join the ranks each year.
Yes, gotta hand it to those squeaky clean, all drive and no greed folks at the NCAA! (I think I tore my sarcasm tendon on that one...)
NCAA athletes are by and large beyond reproach, but there are enough bad ones in there to muddy the waters. Add to that the insistence that conferences should have some divine right to monopolize for profit (cough, Big Ten Network) and you are left with something that might be better than the NFL in some ways, but is demonstrably worse in others.
How is this different from MS integrating IE into Windows to beat Netscape? Google has a monopoly on search and is harming other industries such as social networks, maps and finance sites by integrating them by default into the search, whereas other competitors like Map Quest don't have this chance and are dying off slowly like Netscape did.
That's an easy one; with MS the customer was the person sitting at the computer, and they were also tasked with deciding which browser software to use (from a range or free and for-pay packages). With Google, the only people who could be construed as customers are those purchasing ad space; if you are using the search engine you are not their customer, you are part of their *product*. Because the ad war for eyeballs stops at basically nothing, it is hard to argue they are abusing a market position in one that *doesn't exist* when really they are just providing more paths for advertisers to spend money with them. Now, argue that they are somehow unduly harming the marketplace for advertisers or ad companies, and you may have a case (as it is, Facebook has such a huge lead in the social space that this will all be irrelevant for several years.)
So not only search, but they're using Android and every other product to tie the user to Google+. They're going to get hit hard by antitrust issues.
So for the dozen or so screens also baked into Android that allow use of Facebook, Twitter, and a host of other social and email services they will need to add a "Join Now" button? I know the SEC and the Justice Department are separate entities but it just feels like as long as Facebook is still privately held the feds don't really give a crap about what happens in social network land (beyond the extent that they can monitor it all at will).
Trying to do much REAL WORK(tm) on a tablet is an exercise in frustration. By the time you add a keyboard and mouse so that you can be even marginally productive you might as well get the tablet so that you can work even where/when there isn't a wireless network.
The tablet's niche is on the couch or the train or the bus.
You are exactly correct, the sad thing is that many people have a computer and *no* intention of doing "real work" on it at all. They want to send out short, barely legible emails and update their facebook status with the occasional far too blurry picture. In the distant past, you needed a whole dang computer for that; then came the laptops (which destroyed the desktop market), then came the smartphones which started eating into the laptop market and now we have the tablets which are probably enough (between them and smartphones) to take away a huge slice of things people used to have to cart around a whole laptop to be able to do. I have witnessed people who used to be quite glued to their laptops get a tablet, and spend WEEKS without even touching their laptop since it did the little things they needed it for anyway.
Will tablets ever replace a reasonable desktop/laptop for real work? Not many think that, but if Michael Dell believes that no one who in the past wanted a laptop now wants a tablet instead, he is really sorely mistaken.
There is no possible way that this fellow's mistake was the only one made during the entire production process. There were thousands of mistakes similar to this that went into the satellite in question (there are thousands upon thousands of parts and processes required, after all), this was merely the one that escaped all efforts to eliminate it... Unless you can prove that he really was conspiring to sabotage the satellite, you need to blame the process and not the producer. For all we know, the rag had an intentional yet temporary use in the fuel line to prevent accumulation of some contaminant (metal chips, vapor from welding, etc.) and the guy who put it there was just doing his job.
It seems as if some people just can't believe that Google would ever do anything wrong. This isn't the cute little search engine from 2000. They went public and became an ad company; 97% of their revenue comes from web advertising. But I think they're really good at appealing to tech communities, using feel-good phrases like "openness" to make themselves more endearing to those demographics.
Gasp, not ad revenue! Did you expect their revenue to come from people paying for search results? Please try to grasp this: Every company that solely works in the Internet space is an Ad company. That's how money is made on the internet, if you think this makes something evil then you probably should be unplugging your computer from your 56k modem right about now. I mean Slashdot (the site you apparently abhor but can't stop posting on) relies on web advertizing, and OH SHIT most of it is in the form of Google Ads to boot!