Since ASCII stands for "American" Standard Code for Information Interchange I think the Soviets who created this might be offended.

And the deaf might be good at watching surveillance camera video... And those height-challenged might be good in tight spaces.... And those uterus-enabled might be.... well you get the picture. I guess we all "sell" what we are good at but those doing the buying should be careful of enabling exploitation.

If you subscribe to cable or satellite TV then you are paying to be advertised to. Every minute there is a commercial on your screen is a minute of service you are paying for that someone else is using for his gain.

Here's an interview with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium, where he concludes that Life is the most likely and simplest explanation for all the methane on Mars. Surprising to hear a very mainstream scientist say so and so openly. http://jonja.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8193

Waiting for Perl 6 seems a lot like waiting for the Messiah to arrive. And even when (if) it happens there'll be some people saying "Nope. Not the right one... Keep looking...."

No joke, I see the the inevitable end of all this is that the world will be dragged kicking and screaming to an eventual worldwide government. Nobody is going to like it. The masses will fear loosing their voice but will accept it because it will be the only way to have a chance at reining in these huge multi-national behemoths. The corporations will fear being out muscled by an entity even larger than they but will acquiesce because, as in this story, they will see it as the only way to keep from bleeding from a thousand cuts.

Can I get an "Amen"! Grab those cans and sing "Hallelujah"! The lords [of the internet] work in mysterious ways!

By presenting a situation that in and of itself is not dangerous (clear maps) but presenting it as an imminent danger to life and limb, isn't the honorable Mr. Anderson doing exactly what he claims to want to prevent?

They say they have trouble implementing code due to time and motivational constraints. Seems to me that if Google/YouTube has built a very successful website around the FFmpeg engine then Google ought to pony up some programming help with improving the project. Wouldn't that be "The right thing to do" (TM)?

The problem with the moral high ground is that so few people actually stand on it. For all you in the "download it and send the author a check" crowd, let me ask you a question: How many pieces of Shareware lay unpaid on your computer right now? Not Crippleware. Not Nagware. True download and use it Shareware. I remember reading a blog by a shareware author (I wish I could remember what the software was). He did an experiment. He released some versions of his very popular software as true Shareware, some versions with a nag screen and some versions with features disabled until a user paid. The results were, of course, predictable. Not exactly what the ./ crowd wants to hear but one side does not have the monopoly on dishonorable behaviour.