Even 10 times would far too often. And nobody was whining.

Who was ignoring this? Certainly not me, and I don't think anyone else.

Again, nobody did this. Not me, and not GP.

GP mentioned losing a house. There was an actual case like this in California. An innocent elderly couple lost their home and large plot of land to civil forfeiture because somebody had planted a few pot plants OUTSIDE their property line.

Ignoring the outrageous cases that do occasionally happen is no less erroneous than what you accused us of. Nobody should be treated like that.

---
"It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own." -- Thomas Jefferson

That was way up the thread. I was replying to a general comment to the effect of "running a program isn't work". There was nothing suggesting that comment was in the context of playing a game or watching a movie.

Strictly speaking, that's not true either. There are an uncountable number of cases where judges were convinced to sign a warrant based on false statements or false evidence, for example.

So the warrant was not a legal warrant, and the search was therefore not legal, either.

Of course not. However, we do know of quite a few cases of abuse occurring. And for every one we know about, there are probably at least several we don't.

I don't think GP was referring to the basic concept of any civil forfeiture, though I could be wrong. I think it was a reference to the many cases of abuse.

Uh... if that's what you think, GP might actually be more informed about the issue than you are.

I am reminded back when I first started reading electronic bulletin boards, and I found EFFector Online from EFF, and the pubication from EPIC, whatever that was called.

At the time, civil forfeiture was a big deal as it related to online crimes, and the publications were chock full of examples of abuse. Like the greenhouse operator who liked to order his annual shrubs at market using cash... stopped at the airport, and was deemed to be a drug dealer because of his old jeans and excessive cash.

He was never charged with a crime. He never had a forfeiture hearing. But he never got his $30,000 back, either.

There are LOTS of such stories, from very reliable sources. I would consider EFF to be one such.

They've made a decent start for 2015, though. Among other things, I am holding onto hope for a ruling on King v. Burwell that reflects the actual law and Constitution, rather than ideology.

Not only is this just wrong, but where the heck do you get the idea that Ruby is a "hippie" language?

I mean seriously. WTF?

Yes, it is. Or at least it can be.

As a programmer, often running a program IS work, and what I'm getting paid for.

And if I write a script to update the database this way, and it runs all night, then that's my work that's being done. Of course, I'm not charging by the hour. But still. If I wrote it, and it's running, that's my work. That's what computers are for, and why people are paid to program them.

And if, for any reason, I have to sit there and watch it run (which does occur, for various reasons not necessarily related to the code) then it most definitely is work. For example: sometimes it's not possible or practical to do THIS until THAT finishes running.

If MS carries through with open-sourcing all of the C#/.NET stuff, it will be a great ecosystem. I'd love to write C# for Linux server back-end stuff, without being constrained to some subest of the language, and with full ".NET native" compiler support (or distribution support for the .NET runtime).

Thanks for the nice feedback. I could get a lot more graphic, but I don't think people would really believe me. What you see on TV of firefighting is as unrealistic as everything else on TV. For good reason, I guess, since video of what goes on inside a real burning building would be very hard to watch. It would mostly be a dark or a white screen and a lot of noise. Not great television.

Who knows? Maybe they mean "spartan" in the sense of the opposite of "bloat".

One can only hope.

Yes, most of the services are not available here either - and I'm less than a mile from Philly, so it isn't about being out in the boondocks.

Ooops. I'm not a contractor - that was meant to say "ASK a contractor...".

It's better at extortion than at unbiased advice.

As a contractor for the Angie's List literature that they send professionals. It is really slimy.

Huh? Why should you recover it? ISP fees, VPN, VPS - all of those are something that YOU pay for, because YOU want to be "out there". Why SHOULD you recover it?

Of course, you could do what so many others do. Put your paypal account on your home page, and solicit funds in the form of "donations". I've actually sent donations now and then. I block the ads though.