Oh really? I hear this claim a lot, but its been my observation that if the Democrats do something stupid, Jon will certainly take the opportunity to nail them to the wall. I recall that when the Democrats got control of the Senate, that he played video of them discussing an effing sports game rather than fixing the country, like they claimed they were going to. Or showing clips of similarities between Bush and Obama speeches. Or comparing Obama's exit strategy with Bush's. Or calling out Democrats on hyperbole.

Jon does clearly lean left, but I don't see him as playing softball with the Democrats. They just tend to give him less ammunition. Yes, the Democrats do have their fuck-ups, but the Republicans have taken the whole dishonest-fuck-up game to a whole new level.

Slippery slope is only a fallacy if you fail to outline that its possible and likely to go from one point to another. Hardware, software, and service lock-ins are hardly an unknown phenomenon in the computer industry. I think its completely valid to be concerned that a company like Apple is trying to use their walled-garden approach to lock their customers in to their own services, and I'm glad that the FSF are trying to bring attention to it.

And I'm someone who actually prefers some of his devices to be "walled-garden" devices. I just want to have the option to get a device that's not tied to one company, if I so desire.

$120 + $30/month is a kick in the balls. Well, actually, you're correct that its hyperbole on my part. I was comparing it to my iPhone (yes, an Apple product!) which I got for $200 ($30 a month for the data), but as some other posters pointed out, there's no contract and its unlocked. Taking that into consideration makes it seem a *lot* fairer.

Still, no Flash is going to be a deal-killer for me personally, I think. At first, I was thinking about getting one of these for my wife, but no Flash support means she can't watch Japanese TV over the internet while loafing on the couch.

I wonder what the hardware cost for the 3G stuff is? Regardless, prices are set based on what people are willing to pay. I'd wager that being able to browse the internet while loafing around in the park is worth $120 to some people. It seems a bit steep to me too, though, and I have to admit I did a bit of a double-take at the price. The main kick in the balls is that you have to pay $30 a month on top of that for the data plan...

Good question. It doesn't mention anything about that, so I'm assuming that its going to be useless outside of cities. Not a big deal for some people, I would guess, and that's probably why they're offering the WiFi-only versions too. That way, if your 3G coverage stinks, you don't have to pay extra for a useless feature.

The 3G version has both.

To be fair, the pope also decrees that sex outside of marriage is also a sin, so obviously they're not really following the teachings of the pope, are they? Seems to me that if you have no issue having sex, then you shouldn't have issues wearing a condom. I'm inclined to doubt the prevailing wisdom that Catholics, and the pope, are responsible for the AIDs epidemic in Africa.

Disclaimer: I'm an agnostic, so don't take this as promotion of organized religion. I just don't like scape-goating.

I'm actually a bit surprised at the almost-uniformly negative response to "mega corps." I've worked at two companies that could be described as "mega corps." The first, while not exactly soul-crushing, bore such a striking resemblance to Office Space that I was happy to leave. The other one has been an almost-uniformly pleasant experience, with a solid focus on tech and very little bureaucracy. What I've taken away from this is that you can't judge the quality of a job by the size of the company.

As far as the 60-hours-per-week thing goes, both jobs had me firmly in the 40-45 hours range. The lone, very rare exceptions (50-55 hour weeks) were solely due to my own fuckups, and my desire to not have my fuckups impact the rest of my team (as in, they're actual people who didn't deserve to look bad because of something I did). I've never been forced to work long hours.

On the topic of overtime, I've found that mentioning "quality of life" and "no mandatory overtime" in interviews will get you dropped like a hot-potato if the company in question actually does expect 60 hour weeks. I've made it a habit to ignore people telling me not to ask these things, and make sure to ask it in every interview. Tends to weed out the places I don't want to work.

I realize that my experiences may not be the norm, though.

The same Chris Hecker that currently recommends you use Direct3D for production code on his web page?

Sure, he's still recommending OpenGL for prototypes or experimental stuff, but its kinda damning praise, don't you think?

Yes, I agree. Its amazing that fictional entertainment makes things up to entertain people. I know that when I think "accuracy," I think "Hollywood."

Current LCD/plasma screens cannot polarize the light, which is how those 3d movies work. Wikipedia.

Someone tried something similar to that.

Amen. All told, my wedding cost around $350, and $240 of that was for all-you-can-eat steak after the wedding.

Back when I was still into the religion thing, I had a Bible with footnotes that discussed translation issues and meanings of certain passages, citing original sources where appropriate. It outlined areas where there was disagreement about interpretation as well.

I can't remember what it was called, unfortunately, but I had considered it a step above some of the other bibles I had seen.

I don't think a lot of people feel that war is never an answer. However a lot of us feel that we spend far, far more on war than we actually need to, and that it'd be prudent to maybe focus on consolidating and reducing our forces to a defensive role.

Its frustrating when people act as if we want to get rid of it completely. Its also frustrating when people respond to nuanced criticism of our military spending with, "Well, funding the military is the federal government's job!" Of course it is, but that doesn't mean we need to spend quite so much.

That's begging the question. Those with a "hate-on" for Stallman likely see no moral or ethical dilemma with proprietary software. You're assuming that its imminently clear and universally agreed upon that proprietary software is unethical and immoral, when this is actually not the case.