Well ... the US certainly seems to think that it should be the latter, considering how much they like working on extraditions for things done while not in the US.

To me it seems that France took a look at this policy and found it to be a grand idea.

Did they call it a Freedom air disaster?

Why does it dim your hopes? We already knew that Earth was pretty rare (1 in 8 planets in our solar system) before discovering extra solar planetary systems.

Currently we know of 861 extra solar planets, which moves our rarity to 1 in 869. With an estimated 100 billion to 400 billion extra solar planets in the Milky Way, that becomes quite a few Earth-like planets.

If an Earth-like planet is a million to one, then it's between 100,000 and 400,000. If it's a billion to one, then it's between 100 and 400.

And that's without considering the estimated 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe and the billions of years that planets and life have to develop after our observations.

Landing twice doesn't take skill - just inertia.

Landing in a way that you can walk away from it takes skill.

Multiplayer Sim City does sound interesting, I agree, but they've gone about doing it in entirely the wrong way.

A much smarter way would have been to implement save-games in a Git-like fashion, where you can pick and choose which people to play with.

This obviously won't work for a real time game, but for games like Sim City and the like, it'd work just fine. Hell, a Civilization style game could work fine as well.

In the description you should put down an Olympic distance instead. Like 110 metre hurdles.

Seriously - they're like the Mountain Three Wolf Moon Short Sleeve Tee

Here are some choice examples of 5-star reviews:
"Got me off my video game addiction!"
"Like Russian Roulette, slot machines and slicing your wrists all in one!"
"Great Loading and Queue screen simulator!"

Stephen Fry made a good point about polygamy.

Why is it that it is perfectly legal to be deceitful to your spouse and have a mistress and children with her, but it is completely illegal for more than two people to have the state recognize their love for one another?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_tk6Wxkaj8

The problem is - who should be punished for gathering the illegally obtained evidence?

The policemen who physically gathered the evidence?
The lawyers who signed off on the gathering?
The officers who signed off on the gathering?
The politicians who pushed for a case to be made?
All the policemen who were involved with the case?

It's a tricky situation, because what is to prevent A from getting B to take the possible fall, by telling B to go pick that thing up?

What I'd like to see is somewhat similar, but with clear lines of responsibility.

The prosecutor in charge of the case is held in contempt of court for 10% of the maximum penalty possible for the crimes, but no less than 7 days (no pay etc), plus a fine equalling twice the salary that would have been earned in the time. Same for the lead officer/detective on the case.

The prosecutor's boss (DA/AG etc) gets 5%, but no less than 7 days (no pay etc), similar fine. Same for the similar position in the police's ranks.

Any public officials who have provably pushed for the case, gets 3%, but no less than 7 days (no pay etc), similar fine.

Not sure what kind of punishment would be fitting for the policemen, CSI techs etc. who gathered the illegal evidence though. If they planted evidence or gathered it in knowingly illegal ways, they should obviously go to jail, but the problem comes when they gather evidence in good faith, that later turns out to be illegal. I don't want to punish them for simply doing their job in good faith.

Alternatively you end up with people being detained because they were thinking "bad thoughts" about someone else.

Like when someone ogles a woman's ass while the wife is standing next to them.

Well, if you support gay marriage, you're bound to eventually support humans to marry other species.

Yeah but an IT support dweeb isn't a nerd. Nerds have better sense than that

And since you are, quite appropriately, named "short sighted", this fits perfectly with what we all know about nerds - they do not exist.

I can easily think of at least a hundred different things that nerds "doesn't do", many of them mutually exclusive.

Some of us nerds and geeks find that in order to pay our bills, we have to do things we do not necessarily find particularly glorifying - like helping your friends and family with their software problems, because YOU are a complete ass.

And believe it or not, some of us actually like the idea of helping people out with their computer problems, whether it's figuring out what the cup holder is for, how to turn on the computer, or how to replace hardware on their own.

Unlike what short sighted people like yourself seem to revel in, we don't have a problem with people trying to learn new skills by asking others for help.

You know - it's a bit like sex, in that it is more fun, when you aren't on your own. And it's a LOT more fun when you've learned how to do it properly, guided by someone who doesn't tell you, that you're a incompetent moron, imbecile, fuckwad who needs to read the fucking manual, and stop asking questions that have already been asked before, and shouldn't ever dare to try it again until they're experts.

Well ... given your attitude, you might actually not know. Just trust me on this one.

Buy them something that comes with phone support. Seriously.

Sure, the support contract may be somewhat expensive, but it's a lot easier when you don't have to worry about support yourself.

Buy them an iMac and get them AppleCare support for 3 years for 169 USD
Buy them a Dell Inspiron One and get 3 Year Enhanced Support for 149 (I can't find a direct link to a description)
Buy them an HP Envy and get an HP 3 year Care Pack149 USD

Or some other company - it doesn't matter. What matters is that they can bother someone other than you about these things.

It boils down to something like 50 dollars a year for ease of mind - both for you and them. Sure, it's easy to call you, but they also worry that they're disturbing you. Much easier to pay someone else to do it.

It sounds callous and harsh, but honestly, having worked in phone support for two of the companies, I can tell you, that once you explain to these people that instead of having to worry about bothering their friends or family, they can simply call us and not have to worry about bothering anybody, you can almost always hear a a load being removed from their shoulders.

Yes, we like being able to draw on help from friends and family, but we also don't want to come off as needy and helpless.

What makes you think this is a first world issue? "We" only make up about 1/7th of the world's population.

I realize that this may come as a shock to you, but the world is bigger than you seem to think.