Don't invite hackers to connect to my LAN. If I do, check the colour of their hat at the front door.

Mercurys magnetic field deflects the solar wind inducing a magnetosphere, which deflects charged particles, much as our earth's field does.

Since Mercury has a magnetic field, it's a safer bet than Mars to inhabit. There are regions at the poles that are in shadow and probably have water ice. These may be close enough to the sun side to tap its solar energy.

I had to stop reading the article at that point as I couldn't take it seriously. Mind you this is Slashdot isn't it?

The plan is to make you prey.

Those discounted lithium batteries

Brain the size of a planet

It's nice to hear they've got "Uncertainty". Now wait for the "Fear" and "Doubt".

Promises by incumbent parties at election time always beg the question: Well why didn't you it already?

Good on them for not paying the ransom. People who do, just encourage the criminals.

Mod parent up!

Pioneering spirit is gone. The rich nations, (who can afford this kind of venture) contain comfortable complacent populations. Compare this with the risks that third world migrants take to reach us, many perishing inn transit.

What a wonderful 'bodge'. By emulating a floppy, it allowed us to boot and install a new OS from a single disc.

Ask what they intend to use it for, as they there are things that take more effort to get working, and a few more things that will never work. Tell them that it's a steep learning curve but they will learn about computers and computing in the process, far more that using Windows or MacOS.

An anecdote: The lady who does my garden uses Linux (I and she don't know which flavour). Her neighbour installed it on her computer about 8 years ago after serious problems with Windows. She can recall having to ask him once during that time to fix a problem, other than that it "just works". Her primary requirements are modest: email, browsing, accounts, letters, posters. She might do more, I don't know her personal life beyond that..

73 year old here. I'm not sure the average age is a useful metric. I come across people of all ages who just don't want to understand

FFMPEG continues to be the best and most versatile tool for media conversion.