I have NO idea how many lego sets I had. IMHO the "junk" of the sets were the windows, people, wheels, the stupid closed minded stuff. I preferred the raw blocks, mainly the 2x4 and the longer ones that were in such short supply. I mad some amazing things, including a box with a door locked by three tumblers, that required its lego key to open. (if it had been glued together, naturally)

I also had dominos and blocks, two capsula sets (adding a switch, motor, and wires to the mix), an old and a new girder n panel set (kinda meh), tinker toys (also meh), and later a number of assemblable toys like a little battery powered toy boat I had to wind the motor (dc windings) on, a ball clock, crystal radio, and by age 10 two electronic design experimenter (150 and 200 in 1's). I did a LOT of building when I was growing up. (though a good deal of it started going toward electronics by the time I was a teen)

Kids need a shot at that sort of play when they're growing up. It's not going to be for everyone, but this whole culture of "stick an ipad in his hands" by default is just a shame. Ikea is going to go out of business by the next generation, nobody will be able to assemble any of their furniture!

I was just talking with a friend of mine, father of my godson, about the possibility of getting him into arduino. Wow, he's gonna be NINE this December, and he doesn't have anywhere near the head-start I did. I did manage to inspire him with a variety of art supplies which he loves, and got him several of those assemblable bots from radio shack last year, trying to get him a good start and taste of things that he finds he has an aptitude for. It's not just building things, kids need to get exposure to a variety of things as early as possible, so they get their feet wet with essential flexible skills like buidling, as well as getting a taste of variety to see what they really enjoy.

But being able to make things, that's such a basic, universal skill. It's one that every kid should get heavy exposure to, in a format they can enjoy excelling in.

"For instance, Gmail was limited access at first and you had to be invited to join. I see that you are using a gmail account."

Which was created well after beta/limited access.

" I have not seen any direct quote from her that indicates an opposition to the principle of vaccines or the efficacy of all vaccines. "

Then you obviously didn't pay one fucking lick of attention when she was on TV for several years, spewing her medically-unsound bullshit.

" Why bother nit-picking nuances or perceived contradictions in wording."

Ain't shit perceived. It's plain as fucking day to anyone who's read her bullshit diatribes over the years.

She's trying to pull back the bullshit she's said.

" Her general position that she is not against vaccines in general but only against un-safe vaccines is a valid position."

No, it's back-tracking on her own shilled and uninformed LIES.

" The only issue is: Are existing vaccines safe and could they be made safer? All else is nonsense."

Son, we were using MERCURY-BASED VACCINES for decades. I'll guarantee you McCarthy had some of those very vaccines.

This is pure hypocrisy and back-tracking because her ass has been caught in the biggest lie she's ever lived.

Whomever modded you up isn't very bright.

This Masonic exclusivity bullshit is the exact reason I got turned off of Glass in the first place.

"how do they find out you can hear?"

It's a video chat. They see me talking and responding to non-visual stimulus and it's pretty fucking obvious.

"what is "perfect" sign language?"

Anything they can understand.

"you sound like you're just making shit up.."

You sound like you don't actually work with some of these services to provide high-speed high-framerate international deaf communications networks. I do, on the other hand.

Do you even know how Camfrog works?

No? Be quiet until you do.

Simply put, I run several rooms on the site. The rational deaf people come in and act like normal humans. Then they invite me over to another room, run by deaf people. Oh shit, a hearing person! BANBANBAN.

Perhaps you wouldn't look so stupid if you actually used the service I speak of.

WHY is it okay for Symantec to do this?

The more relevant question to ask is "Why DID Symantec do this?" A more interesting question would be "Why did Symantec break the law?" They didn't do that, but the answer to all three is the same.

"because it helps them make money".

In this particular case, the fear of ransomware helps Symantec sell their product. So a researcher doing something to combat ransomware hurts Symantec's business. So they do what they can do, to protect their profits. In this case, it's even legal for them to do it. So it's a no-brainer.

You simply have to expect this sort of behavior from any big business. There's no point in being confused or shocked by it.

A month from now they will be able to make a new press release, "Two months ago security researchers dealt a blow to ransomware, protecting users and devaluating our product. Today, we're pleased to announce the ransomware developers have made the necessary fixes to their code outlined in our recent publication, and once again, Symantec is your only defense against ransomware!"

If you need your emails regarding legal matters, throw a subpoena duces tecum at them.

They'll unlock those accounts so goddamned quick, lest they be held in contempt of court.

"I would like you to prove your point that deaf people are considering themselves as superior to hearing people"

Go get yourself a Camfrog account and go into a deaf room.

Won't take you more than about 15 seconds to get kicked out once they find out you can hear, no matter if you can do perfect sign language.

"They look at those that get implants as traitors."

Yep, see this on Camfrog all the time. The sheer ignorance of it all is absolutely astounding.

I'd been talking about Novec 1230 being used as a computer coolant for years on this site. Prior art all over the fucking place.

That would actually be a much more feasible use for this, at least for certain ranges of speed at certain altitudes.