Since the court will allow such a device installed on your vehicle in 99% of all cases anyway, this doesn't really change anything...

I also agree.

For a change, they're not bothering us, not wasting their or our time, not sniffing our data lines, library books or whatever.
They're using a very simple, fast and accurate system to see if somebody hasn't gotten a required permit. And collection money on it. And it seems to be worth it - already over 250 people have been caught, and sent a (relatively low) fine.

Actually looks like they're making sense.... hm. Hang on. The state making sense? There must be something behind this! Evil aliens? Looking for terrarists in your backyard? Playing God to harmless civilians? There must be Something Wrong! I've never seen the state make sense!

Well, seeing how the US Army seems to (partially) enjoy killing and their wonderful power over civil, er, sorry, terrorists, I'm sure the veterans will like more video games like that.

(Yes, I read WikiLeaks)

...and?

You're saying that the Brasilians are ignoring moronic laws set up by industry and reality-estranged politicians, and you consider this something not to be proud of?
I don't get it.

You're right.
And isn't that an excellent reason to fully ignore all games requiring connections to some or other server, which might die on you in a few years anyway?
Check out the games before you buy. CD-based protection? Okay. Server-based protection? Hands off.

Mhm... yes and no.

Hating the USA (or any other country, for that matter) is simply a sign of being part of those 50% of humanity (the ones with below-average IQ).
Why hate an entire country? It can be that it's run by a particularly lousy dictator (dictator bad citizens bad) or a government selling itself out to the industry (also doesn't mean that the citizens are bad), or your local PR agency is cursing the country because .

The leaders of countries are usually idiots. Politics is typically not something done by bright people, so you can't even blame them for it. Hating them will not help you much, especially as you've never met them in person, getting to know them better.

Best thing you can do is ignore these morons, and stay away from countries who are currently giving trouble (such as the USA, for insists on the right to take away our notebooks at the border for at least six months, without needing reasons) .

But don't blame the citizens. They're just people like you and me.
The above post is quite correct - there are a large number of countries who used to be world powers, and now they're simply nice tourist destinations: Italy, Spain, Greece, Egypt, Portugal, the UK, Holland... they were all big, then came a crash + collapse, and now they're harmless. Same thing will happen to the USA - good. Just wait for it to blow over, then you can go and visit again.

>I'm a computer programmer, not a BP employee or apologist.

Again, my apologies. I just keep getting good news about BP, and sniffing closer at it, I keep running into the PR industry...

Oh, well. Guess I should trust Slashdot more.... oops. Probably simply need more sleep ;)

I am sorry if I seem to misunderstand something, but... who are you? And who gave you "+3, Insightful"?

Yes. They buy a search term, to try and put a spin on the news. Of course this is irritating. And no, we're not interested in news from them as we know that they have a very large and currently exceptionally busy PR department, making news from them quite worthless.

Again, sorry if I seem paranoid or something, but... who are you? I keep finding very positive entries, protecting BP, writing positively about them. Seems a bit weird, especially seeing that they're trying to keep 3rd-person data away from this.

"BP to Donate Net Revenue from MC252 Well Leak to Protect and Rehabilitate Wildlife in Gulf States"

A pure PR site. Looks like you can actually find some capable PR people ;)

I do apologize, but... who are you?

Sounds very interesting indeed. Normally I'd be quite fascinated, but... seeing that the whole thing comes from SONY causes me to simply call up this article to say I refuse to touch anything made by SONY.
I know. Large company, lots of different attitudes, some of it could be quite good - but sorry, no. I have had so many bad experiences that I'm willing to get rid of a bit of good stuff while pouring out a huge amount of junk and irritation.

Let's wait for a copy. Even a more expensive copy would be interesting. As long as there's no SONY involved.

Well, by now we should all know that the only way to make money on the stock market is by having some amount of insider information. Everything else you can more or less forget about. ...unless, of course, you hook up a couple of billion to a computer program and really, really hope that it does not contain any bugs whatsoever...

Wrench icon -> Info about Google Chrome -> Ta-DAH.

Does make a bit of sense ;)

>However, we do have real power over Gov't - it's called actual votes.

No, you don't. The USA shows this particularly clearly, as you only have two parties, and they're *both* worthless morons.
In other places (like here in Germany) you can find more parties, but they are *also* all morons, with no exceptions.

So - no, you don't have power over your government; unless you're a large company who simply buys them all.

Why is everybody so up in arms about one guy babbling about something he doesn't like? I mean, so what? Let him babble to his hearts content.

Well, I was in 12 different schools (my parents travelled a *lot*, great fun) and it was the same every time:

a) Get introduced to the class by the teacher.
b) Have the class bully with his 2-3 friends threaten you.
c) Better obey him.

Except that c) never worked for me. Thus I found that this class-bully is typically chicken if he's alone, and will only act like sh*t if he's with his friends.
Thus walk up to him and hit him hard. If you're quick enough, you can beat him up quite a bit before his friends can stop you.

Then you get beaten up, of course.
But the next day, you walk up to him and do it again. After a very short time, they will actually start to leave you alone, and you can spend the rest of your time in school in peace and quiet, meeting the other people, enjoying yourself.