I want it totally private. Has the concept of privacy gotten so totally lost that people seem okay to settle for relative privacy?

By the way, the best way to keep your data private is to keep it out of your untrusted phone/computer/whatnot, and use bogus data when you need to enter something.

Exemples: use "Acme inc." as your home phone number's name in your addressbook, and nicknames for your contacts. Don't enter your full address as your home in your satnav's app but someone's address in a street close-by, etc.

Because the subjects of the review (the number of rooms and presence of bed, the owner being a stickler for correct bills) are peripheral to what normal would-be visitors expect to read, and that's usually enough of a clue to tip them off.

It's used all the time: when you want to tell people your business is under an NSA gag order, to clue in a potential employer they should not to hire one of your former employees who's incompetent... without saying so explicitely because you can't.

considering Miami Vice was pulling these kinds of numbers in the '80s. Granted, it was only for one actor, but still.

Yes, and if you remember, the other lead actor was paid less well because he was rather less white, and he was rather pissed off about it, understandably.

These star actors cost a lot, yes, but they also brought in a lot of money. So I suppose it was, and still is a sound investment.

without posting anything bad. For instance:

- This hotel definitely has 8 rooms, and all of them have beds.
- The hotel's owner is very dedicated to ensuring your bill is correct when you leave.
- Checkout time is strictly enforced, so you're sure to find your room empty when you arrive.
- Staying at this hotel is much better than camping on a landfill.
- This hotel is much less expensive than the George V, and much more comfortable than a Texas motel.

Nah, don't worry about it. It's just some "security expert" going all dramatic on some minor vulnerability he found, to plaster his name on the front page. Anything talking of airplanes, hacking, hijacking, plays the terrorism bullshit music score, and is a surefire way of attracting media attention.

No doubt the TSA will very soon jump on the opportunity to invent some new rule to steal - sorry, confiscate - your Wifi-enabled devices at the security checkpoint too...

I recall watching a documentary on doping in the cycling world - possibly a documentary on Lance Armstrong, I don't remember - in which they described some cyclist who had taken a course of testosterone as becoming quick-tempered and violent as a result, and in a very short time too. I guess it is true

When I was younger, I worked on speech recogntion problems - well, expert systems and neural networks in general. It was the toughest nut our team had ever been tasked to crack, and we didn't crack it.

When the man on the street perceives speech recognition to be simple - and coming from a taxi driver, that's more than a little ironic, considering they're essentially human Traveler Salesman Problem solvers - you know technology has overtaken you beyond hope.

Me, I can't stop being complete blown away by what can be achieved today. Driverless cars are almost a reality everybody can buy, yet I still vividly remember MIT experimental self-driving trucks trying to hold a straight line on a closed circuit at 1 mph!

If you think you can still be friends with addicts/users, you are mistaken. If they can't get clean, screw them, they will only pull you down.

I suppose it can work with hard drugs or alcohol - I am not, and never was, a user or either, so I'm no specialist though.

However, I AM a nicotine addict. I say nicotine and not tobacco, because I have switched to vaping as a risk mitigation strategy (and quit smoking for good as a result).

One thing I can tell you as a former smoker is, when you're hooked on tobacco, there's no escaping it. You can't avoid being with other smokers, because the smell of cigarette is everywhere. When I quit smoking, it'd only take some random guy who had just smoked outside, walking past me, reeking of cold cigarette smoke, to send me craving like there was no tomorrow.

Random guys who smell of tobacco are everywhere. You just can't escape the smell. You're constantly bombarded with reminders that, yes, you'd really REALLY want to smoke one just right now.

Oh wait... they haven't passed the bar yet.

Have you seen all of nature to affirm without any doubt that something doesn't exist?

Besides, just because the overwhelming majority of something is a certain way doesn't mean it can't exist in another way. For instance, while all known beaches organize themselves as flat expanses of sand, there is still a probability that a wave comes along and spontaneously forms a sandcastle, albeit a vanishingly small one. Nobody's ever seen it, and probably nobody ever will, but it's possible. That's just math.

I'd be more surprised if researchers had proved his senary sun system could NOT exist. The man was a visionary.

Personally, I choose to make that trade only with Google. One company has my profile, and in exchange I get many services.

You can't really be that naive are you? When Google has your data, Google's business partners have it too (part or parcel), the law can have it through subpoenas, the NSA... just about everybody.

Besides, I suspect Google uses the data in ways I don't want it to be used. So even if it was the sole guardian of it, I don't want to give it to them. Not willingly anyway, and as little as possible when I don't have the choice - and people have less and less choice as days go by in the matter.

The United States has abandoned its manned space exploration capabilities, relying on another semi-derelict cold-war era launch setup, provided by a country it's on the brink of war with (Russia), preferring to funnel almost unlimited funds to anti-terrorism and Orwellian surveillance programs instead...

I'm was born during the cold war. Tensions between the US and the USSR weren't ideal by any means, but at least when I was a kid, we looked forward to a bright future of scientific achievements and space exploration. Now all I look forward to is reaching retirement age with some money on the side that's still worth something despite the inflation, hoping that WW3 and the religious crazies don't overwhelm the world before I kick the bucket.

Sad, sad world...

What I meant was, you can train yourself to like healthy foods, to the point of craving them. Me, just eating one small burger from McDonald's makes me sick now.

As for exercising, it make you feel good. It really does. It's a real buzz after an mere half hour of cycling or swimming.

And then, in the grand scheme of things, when your health is good, you generally feel good too.

Staying healthy makes you feel good, but it does so in the medium to long run, and it takes a bit of effort to get going. Chocolate provides immediate, short-term and effortless pleasure. But it's not good for you. Don't you think it's worth investing a little effort for a few months to train yourself to enjoy a healthy lifestyle, so that you can feel good all the time afterward?

Too bad healthy food tastes and/or feels like shit and excercise is frustrating, wholly unpleasant and time-consuming :/

Yet those of use who exercise and eat healthy seem to lead a happier life. With so much frustration and time wasting, it's a strange thing isn't it?

Maybe you should give it a go some day. You might end up liking your veggies and feeling good exercising...