The lesson I draw from this is that this music, and more so its minor celebrity performers and instruments are just not relevant and fascinating to the commuters in the DC metro when they're trying to get to work. Even if they don't listen to classical music at all it doesn't mean they have no taste or should be looked down on.
Agreed that the model as well as features present are the important issue. Most thinkpads have either perfect or near perfect linux support, so the main question is which feature set and known design defects the OP will want to live with. For example, some keyboards or screens are better than others, some batteries last longer than others (x220!), and so forth.
Prolog and other logic programming languages are natural rule languages. You will want to consider the semantics that the rules are given as well as how negation in the language is treated. It's also good to know the (worst-case) complexity of the problems you are trying to solve and to match them appropriately to expressive power of the rule language you propose to use.
TL;DR but I think the future is verified correct programming. It's been around a while but been too hard to do right, or do fast. I think though that the needs for greater security and correctness will reassert themselves.
"ocw scholar" at MIT. Start with calculus, then do linear algebra. By the time you're done, they'll have their DE course refactored for independent learning too.
GPL is essential when you are hacking your own stuff because the last thing you want is for someone to take what you've done, improve it, sell it and then close it off...and Linux is GPL. BTW, GNU stands for GNU is Not Unix, which comes from the fact they had to rewrite AT&T's Unix utilities from scratch.
Windows is great for earning money precisely because it is so deeply flawed and requires so much support. It's an endless money pit for the people deploying it, and a guarantee of lifetime employment for you. I've hacked on systems like Windows that were closed source and unfree, and it was not rewarding except in money terms.
