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[Reelya]

My Linux problem is that, shortly after installing any new distro, I couldn't use my netbook's built-in wifi. I installed all sorts of packages and drivers and spent hours scouring forums and the Internet for any combination of commands that would make it work, but nope, it would randomly just come on and stop working when it felt like it. There's also the part where it broke the screen brightness control, so I had to have a terminal open at all times to brighten or darken the screen.

All of this is in the context of the fact that what little Linux software existed was almost all terrible. Nothing had any documentation, packages from apt or the software center would come with broken installs, basic promised features wouldn't work as advertised... That is, if I could get it to open at all.

But FOSS is great! In fact it's so great that when searching for Linux applications, I often get a recommendation to just use WINE. That's a hell of a selling point: the software sucks, so they made it possible for you to do extra work to get back the features you already had under other operating systems.

The core issue is that this is like 1-2% of the total desktop install base at max, and the people who maintain it often do so as a hobby. it would be a miracle if it worked out of the box on a wide range of hardware given just those two aspects. The 1-2% install base thing is also enlightening when you hear Linux people claiming that the reason such-and-such a vendor doesn't support Linux with driver support is due to a Microsoft conspiracy. Perhaps it's more than you're only 1% of all machines, so supporting every bit of hardware on the off-chance that someone who is known to be adverse to paying for stuff wants it isn't seen as a high priority?

EDIT: You also get corporate Linux installs, and those would add somewhat to the compatibility efforts. However ... the sensible thing to do if you were rolling out Linux at a corporate level would be to minimize the number of configurations, while also sticking to better-supported hardware, so corporate Linux deployments don't really help with the compatibility with fringe hardware thing.

[Iduno]

I've half my mind made up to start trolling parents with a line of physics toys. The first (and so far only) one would be a DIY electric train (batteries not included). It would come in a large and fancy box. The box would contain a couple nickel-coated cylindrical magnets and some copper wire. The instruction booklet would have one page, depicting the right-hand rule with no annotations.

This should be easy to expand:
Toy robot, with real-working lights and sounds
AM/FM radio

You can also introduce children to optics by sending them a bag of sand, or let them mold their own plastic bodies for the trains, robots, and whatever you sell by providing some petrochemicals.

[Yoink]

cOwOnavirus

[methylatedspirit]

I have an inexplicable urge to buy a Celeron D. Also, a tagline for the "newest" and "best" Celeron Ds: Half a meg and constantly stalling.

[Iduno]

I have an inexplicable urge to buy a Celeron D. Also, a tagline for the "newest" and "best" Celeron Ds: Half a meg and constantly stalling.

Celeron "D-, come talk to me after class."

[methylatedspirit]

'Discrete graphics' refers to a dedicated graphics card. What does 'discreet graphics' refer to, then?

[Naturegirl1999]

Discrete could mean hidden, but hiding graphics defeats the purpose

[Il Palazzo]

'Discrete graphics' refers to a dedicated graphics card. What does 'discreet graphics' refer to, then?

Private browsing mode?

[ZBridges]

Discrete could mean hidden, but hiding graphics defeats the purpose

Discreet means hidden.  Discrete means individually separable.

[scriver]

Discrete words

[McTraveller]

Ghosts:  an aspect of quantum mechanics?  I mean there is talk of "residual energy" and stuff like that.  Maybe it's just a realization of the uncertainty principle manifesting part of a person displaced in time, just as there is always a probability of finding a particle at a distant distance location?  Am I remembering correctly that you can have tunneling in time as well as space?

[Egan_BW]

people ≠ particles

[Naturegirl1999]

I have a song stuck in my head, my mom and brother say it is “Old Susana” however, I don’t remember when I even heard the song, I have a feeling it was a long time ago, I hear the melody, and I know it has lyrics, I just cannot figure out where I heard it or why I’ve been thinking about it for the last 2 days, considering I haven’t listened to it in years

[McTraveller]

people ≠ particles

Wait what? All my engineering analyses of "consider a person as a point mass..." are wrong!? 

As weird as QM is, why rule out some sort of aggregate phenomena.  I guess you'd have tor form a null hypothesis and test it, eh?

My other theory is that some "ghost" phenomena are some kind of holography, which may have a QM component.

Most of this is just because my wife watches lots of the ghost hunting shows 

[Naturegirl1999]

The Ouija board works because your body can move without you conscious,y controlling it, essentially your body subconsciously moves the planchette, even knowing this, my family still hides the Ouija board since me, my brother, a cousin and a friend played with it earlier. I want to make one with paper and use a coin as a planchette. Messing with the subconscious you, or rather, the subconscious you messing with the conscious you, still sounds really cool