Used routers that can run FOSS router software abound because factory firmware updates ended though many are amply fast for their real use case. I just flashed my old 6700v3 with FreshTomato which is simple to do. I'd upgraded but kept the 6700v3 as a ready backup. (I don't believe in being one-deep on comm gear including computers.)

Of course any PC with two or more NICs can route and there are plenty available. "Home lab" enthusiasts make all sorts of interesting appliances from tiny PCs with ethernet and wireless with space to add a second single or multiport network card.

Routers are computers after all.

The reason it worked is because it was organic to the storyline. It did not feel like a forced situation. If it had not felt organic, then it would have repulsed most people. Not because two different races were kissing, it is that norms were being violated just for the violation.

Say what? I might go with "progressive" as a description, but it is a strange claim that is is Left. It all takes place in a Military Authority structure and the rules are strictly enforced without allowing excuses. That is so much not-left, that I am uncertain how you even begin to claim it is Left. Because they are not close minded closeted homosexuals they are Left? What is your reasoning here?

JJ Abrams ended the Star Trek movies. He made beautiful, but ultimately forgettable movies.

A claim I have heard numerous times on Reddit and a few times here on Slashdot is that there are no ethical billionaires. That is not an "average" view. That is a strongly politically Left view. Anyone who views themselves as strongly Left or Right is likely not average. The average is FAR more nuanced than either Right or Left allows. Which is intentional.

You are missing something. The government is too corrupt to handle the upgrades. Billions get sent to certain people and garbage is produced. This has been observed constantly from the 1980s.

I seem to recall two attempts at updating ATC systems in my lifetime. Both ended with absurd amounts of money being flushed into some people's pockets. There is too much money at stake to update them as there is too much corruption and the money will be wasted.

The situation is certainly not as black and white as people appear to make it; however, when I wanted to go to college, I would have had a helping hand throughout the entire process, from filling out forms to requesting money if I were a female. As a male, all I received was, "we have plenty of males, we need to stimulate female accessibility".

You also appear to forget about Affirmative Action.

These programs were absolutely necessary to kickstart some amount of diversity; however, these programs did explicitly discriminate against white males regardless of how much you deny it. Which is why they were, theoretically at least, ended. Artificial discrimination is a terrible thing, even when it is used for "good". It is like murdering part of the population to make everyone who is left feel more equal.

So you forgot about the KDE/GNOME transitions from version 2 to version 3? The interface has been a mess for both since then. And then you propose another proprietary solution when they are trying to escape proprietary solutions? I suspect you may need to rethink your position on this matter.

LOL. They don't care at all. That all stopped completed by the 1980s. They will just import Asians or from some other populous place as Americans fail. The best part of that is that the chains can be put on as they are brought in. That is not so easy when the locals are born.

There is an extermination going on, and it is against US citizens that are not part of the ownership class. Social Darwinism in action.

Only for forced births. If women have their choice, not all males are suitable. Just because you can find a male willing to impregnate any female, that doesn't mean the females want it...

And most males actually are not willing to impregnate just any female.

But yeah, individuals don't matter.

Ummm, you fail to realize that all men are slaves to their penis. There is no need to consider them since there is always a male willing to impregnate a female.

*blink*

That is because you are operating under the fallacy that the value of the dollar is the same everywhere. Sure, take a third world country's currency and convert it to dollars and assume the costs are similar between the two countries and you get the outcome that you are proposing.

The natives on sentinel island are arguably the poorest people in the world... and yet, they live a better life than many. They have food, shelter, and a supportive society. They lack medicine and electricity. The lack of medicine is severe, but the lack of electricity is not really a problem considering all of the problems it brings in.

Your poor and indebted countries are just failed markets so they are disregarded.

Wow! Do you REALLY believe that? Sure, my son makes more dollars than I did at a similar point in my life... but the dollars... they just don't go anywhere near as far. It was the same with myself and my own father. I made more than he and his wife did at a similar point in life and I was very much not better off than they were. (both father and his wife had a masters degree, not blue collar work)

There is money to be made around those old laws. Reviewing them won't change a thing because the people with the income streams will fight it... and they have the money to do so.