I haven't seen any evidence of "hundreds of thousands of great developers that would love to contribute if they were not being bullied down" The LKML may occasionally exchange civility for productivity and transparency. I'd prefer to have it this way and have a stable kernel than a wishy-washy maintainer using corporate-speak and making excuses for people who aren't delivering to the standards required by the project. There are literally thousands of Free / OSS projects in need of developers. Many of those projects have friendlier maintainers and environments. There is ample opportunity to be involved with Free Software in a place that matches a developer's temperament. The LKML is not for for the thin-skinned.

The government's number one tool in the fight against citizens
FTFY

Hey, AC, even if your're not ready to go the full 'counseling' step, consider calling one of the hotlines for 'just a chat'. A five minute committment is worthwhile to just be able to talk to someone who doesn't know you and won't judge you.

Software frees you!

Video / music copyright enforcement efforts will probably pale in comparison to those attempted for the duplication and sharing of physical objects / designs.

Actually, I believe that 'Mono' comes from the word for 'Monkey'

3/10

You may wish to try Minefield, (4.0 beta) if you can stomach using a beta. I've actually been using the nightlies for months and they're generally stable. You may want to try a release beta, however. (4.0b6 is good). There are 64-bit linux, Mac, and Windows versions.

Keep in mind that it's a beta, though and not intended for general consumption quite yet.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

Because I hate Flash, I have a separate Firefox profile specifically for using the plugin. (Yes, there are other ways to block flash, but that isn't helpful if you're trying to find which of 200 tabs started autoplaying on startup)

Another analogy would be airlines. "Some corporations are proposing to build a network of things called 'airplanes' that'll let people travel without the existing roads. And they'll get to decide what prices to charge and what routes to offer. No fair!"

Perhaps a better analogy would be:

An airline owns the airport in your city. They wish to charge a "Prioritization Fee" for airlines to get preferential treatment at the airport. Their aircraft will of course not have to pay this fee.

Coincidentally, all of their competitors' aircraft fares just increased, and the flight times became longer.

Of course, you are still free to choose any airline you wish (provided you don't mind paying more and having slower transit).

when oxygen mixes with hydrogen, the hydrogen oxidizes (burns) instantly.

That is incorrect. Hydrogen and oxygen can coexist without the hydrogen oxidizing instantly.

EDIT
do I get me a pet Mastadon?
Typing fail

It's Mastodon

Add spelling fail to your list

> by Red Flayer (890720) Alter Relationship on Thu October 01, 09:01 AM (#29606869) Journal
>

> > I'm a middle-aged, overweight fat computer bloke

>You're posting on slashdot with a UID less than 890721 No need to restate an obvious truth.

Nice! It took me a second to figure out what your benchmark was...

Luther, amongst many others, pointed to the PayPal system as the antichrist (literally meaning "in the stead of Christ").

FTFY

I Cracked my iPhone the first time I dropped it, 30 seconds flat. But if you read the fine print, it turns out Apples warranty doesn't cover the screen.

On the off chance that you're not trolling, why would you think the warranty would cover accidental damage? If I run my car into a tree during the first 5/50, they're not going to give me a new car because the car was defective.

I think Apple would happily replace the screen if something happened that was a manufacturing defect. If you can convince someone that dropping your phone is the latter, then you have far better debating skills than I.

Finally, they asked me how much I thought it was worth. I told them that I'd pay $500.

Yikes! You are either desperate, a liar, or maybe just really rich ;-)

I really don't understand your argument. You are asserting that:

A) He's desperate to pay $500 to sign up with an agency that wanted $3500 originally? I'd say paying $3500 may be desperate. $500 is just good negotiating. Besides - he never went into detail regarding what the sevice provided. It could easily be worth $500 if they sponsor dinners / meetings / outings, etc.

B) A liar? What is so hard to believe about him *telling* the agency he thought they were worth / that he would pay $500

C) Rich? $500 is not pocket change, but neither [as the sales pitch goes] is it an excessive amount to meet a future wife / husband.

All that said, I don't think *I* would ever pay that much for something so contrived as one of these matchmaking agencies. I am forced to conclude, however, that there are some people for whom this is the best option. That number is probably a very small one though...