Any user who had to endure the "quirks" of IE will happily dance on its tomb.

But what will clueless corporate IT drones now mandate? What is the most annoying, buggy browser around now that IE is no more?

This is an age-old question. Engineers always seem to be hard-pressed to explain what they are doing all day long.

This can lead to problems when the people asking the question are non-technical AND have the power to defund projects or departments they don't understand.

My favorite comic strip on the topic (oldie but goldie): http://revoltingregulations.bl...

Take my neighbor. He retired. He has a very small social security, some stock that has declined sharply, and a sizeable savings account that produces currently almost no interest.

How exactly could that person spend his money on "durable and valuable goods"? What kind of goods, and how will he still be able to pay the bills?

The elderly would be the first victims of such a stupid policy, just like inflation victimized them in the 70s.

Who says individuals don't get charged? That's the whole point of negative-interest rate policies. Bank accounts above a certain amount are already charged negative interest in Switzerland, for example.

As for Japan, there is currently a quiet run on banks due to negative interest. Japanese people hoard cash and buy safes.

Of course it will backfire. People will have to save more fore retirement since they cannot count on positive interest to produce gains. Hence consumption and growth will decrease further.

That's why these bozos want to ban most cash. They don't want you to withdraw your cash when the negative interest policy hits.

Hooray for transcripts! Thanks for providing this one.

I agree, Unicomp keyboards are hard to beat thanks to their buckling spring switches. And the price is awesome: $80 or so for a keyboard that feels *solid*. Compare to at least $120 for most Cherry-based keyboards. I use mine in a software development office (cubicles) and I don't have complains. To the contrary, other developers and sysadmins have bought their own Unicomp after typing a few test lines. Too bad the poster posted as AC, this is a very thoughtful post.

Having a gun inside a thin-walled spacecraft filled with oxygen sounds crazy,

Having a spacecraft filled with pure oxygen sounds and is crazy. The Apollo 1 fire (1967) showed just how crazy it is. Which is why they don't do it anymore. Neither ISS nor the Russian capsules have a pure oxygen atmosphere. In fact, the ISS atmosphere is ground-level pressure with 20% oxygen. Only the EVA suits have a low-pressure, high-oxygen breathable mix.

I "escorted" a precious cargo on a flight once. It was in a padded plastic case looking a lot like this one. We simply bought a seat for the case! It was not an antique, it was a motherboard tester prototype. We simply couldn't risk getting one of these protos damaged or lost.