If we were talking about fighting censorship, that would be a good point. But we're talking about law enforcement. Whether it's pirating or drug dealing, you can't let them carry out their business and bust them for it too. It's either legal or it's not.

We're not talking about censorship; we're talking about law enforcement. In the US and probably a few other countries, there's a difference between the two.

The blank media tax is a brilliant idea in my opinion. But yes, it seems to have been written for physical media and doesn't extend very well to the Internet.

Letting other people surf through my IP? Doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

You don't get to avoid your country's laws just by creating a computer network. If a terrorist group wants to use the network to plan attacks, and if I want to use it to sell drugs to kids, is that okay? Just saying. There is a line somewhere, and the governments are going to set the line for us - it's the definition of a government.

How about if you pair two of these robots against each other? Deadlock?

I was about to say that surfing YouTube via https is a little paranoid, but actually, maybe I should start doing that.

Bullshit. A store employee can't be expected to automatically know that someone is from Iran, especially if they're in the US legally. They're not selling to a foreign country. They're selling to an individual who is in the US.

I generally support a store's right to refuse a sale to anyone for any reason. Just be fair and call it racial profiling or discrimination, not a legal requirement.

Yeah, but can you imagine Larry Page giving a meeting in Hawking's voice?

Yes, I remember the ATR joke from long ago. :)

If you overheard a genuine threat, you'd have to be able to prove it with a recording. Otherwise, the whole effort is useless. But yes, the divulging and long-term storage should be carefully controlled.

If it was done well and successfully, the budget should be very reasonable compared to the rest of the national budget, and it could be an integral part of a country's transportation security. But now I'm just dreaming.

Probably. You're in a public place, and could be overheard anyway. I think it's actually a good idea. There should be more looking and listening going on, and less invasive searching.

Because if they decide to implement it in the future, they can do so without taking the time to pass a new law. And "current" means today, not tomorrow.

Please send me all of your "worthless" paper money. I'll send back a box of pure copper pieces.

That's a common problem with "new" web sites. Try writing an "old" web site. It will do everything you need it to do, but it'll be faster, and run on every browser. It can still look very pretty, too.

Or, at the very least, test in increments using various browsers, instead of once you're finished. When I was in college, incremental testing easily made the difference between passing and failing a programming course.