High Tech New Deal

Nothing like a public works project to stimulate the economy, create jobs, boost morale. Why bother building roads, parks, dams . . . that's so Depression era! In the age of high definition, we could at least do something that pushes the limits of the early 1980s imagination . . . say, build a Death Star. The best part is that somebody has already started putting pencil to paper (how low tech!) to come up with some budget numbers.

The Geekologie article is pretty amusing by itself, but clicking on some links and reading comments exposes the true potential for hilarity. My personal favorite is the worksheet with some of the calculations, including volumes, weights, etc. The comparison of the volume of said Death Star vs. the volume of dollar bills for said budget of said Death Star is shocking. Just imagine how much graft there would be on a governmental project with a budget including that many digits before the decimal place.

In the list of things that made me chuckle today was part of a response to a question in the Mossberg's Mailbox section of the WSJ this week.

Another speed-enhancing tactic is to use a program like Startup Cop Pro to prevent unneeded programs from running at startup, and one like PC Decrapifier to clean out craplets -- unwanted pre-installed programs.

Ahhh, craplets and crapplication . . . is there anything that "crap" as a prefix doesn't amusingly enhance? I own an iMac for home use, but I am subjected to PC use at work and have long wondered about the marked deceleration of general speed which all Windows machines seem to undergo the longer they are around. The remainder of the answer sounds like a nightmare of a maintenance regimen, I'd rather have a valid excuse for decreased productivity.