OMG, holy cow and all that. Speaking as someone who has started and sold a couple of small businesses, I can promise you that Obamacare will NOT make it easier. There is even a tax for every employee, whether you have health insurance or not. Sorry to burst your bubble (and no matter how you feel about Obamacare in general) but more regulations do NOT make it easier to start a business, no matter what kind of regulations they are.

I'm pretty sure that isn't profitability that is stopping us from getting FTL drive.

Maybe it's xenophobia. Last time we did that in the movies, a bunch of pointy eared illegal aliens dropped by.

Ping time can geolocate? Within 10 feet. I'm about to piss on myself laughing. Ping is more determined by quality of network than distance, and varies according to the route each ping takes. You assumptions assume every route is the same, or is on a cell phone. They are not.

Go play network expert somewhere else, and get off my lawn.

Li-ons and TiGrs and BeArs? Oh my....

Jesus Christ, the signal to noise ratio has gone insane at /.

In the US, the law is dictated by where the call is generated. Some states allow recording, some states do not, some states allow for "single party consent" (as along as ONE of the parties know) and some require notification before the call starts or beeping tones every $x seconds.

He called from outside of the US, so US law is irrelevant here.

Citation needed. I can't even get most webpages to load that fast.

What a load of crap. Most teachers salaries are paid for with local and state funds, not federal income tax. And if you don't have a home, it is highly unlikely you have any deductions that can be itemized. This likely means you are part of the 45% or so that don't even pay any effective income tax, so you would hardly be starving the federal govt. Hate to rant, but this is just trolling and I don't have mod points.

When you are using Wikipedia as a citation, you are either lazy, or you don't understand what Wikipedia is.

Spam....

Actually, this is one form of copy protection that DOESN'T work. The fact is, I was all ready to buy the game. I actually buy all my games, haven't pirated one in forever. (I'm old, employed, $60 is no biggie).

Now I won't buy the game simply because I couldn't play it if I did, and I don't want a game that forces me to save games online, be online when I play, can't be played on an airplane or in the car, etc. And it will stop working once they get tired of hosting the servers.

I've bought every SimCity game ever made and many other sim games from Maxis. Paid money, not pirated. 1, 2k, 3k, 4, Societies, Sim Copter, even Sim Tower and The Sims 1 and 2, simant, simfarm, and so on. I just can't buy this in good conscience because I don't know if I will be able to use it like I wanted to. And that is sad, since I love their games. Maybe, just maybe, I will buy it if someone comes out with a cracked version, and just use the cracked version. I don't mind spending the money, I just don't like being treated like a criminal once I've given them the money. At least with Steam, I can play most games offline and on different computers.

Actually, Texas has a higher standard for search and seizure protection and has for decades. Ask anyone who works in criminal defense (I used to there), the standard for criminal cases in Texas isn't the US Constitution, it is the Texas Constitution.

Can you provide some kind of information on this? I would really like to know what CPUs to avoid.

If you are looking to avoid all errata, then buy an abacus. All CPUs have bugs.

From experience: You put one of the monitors on top of an old VCR with a tape in it in public view. Of course, the VCR is a ruse but they think they got the recording mechanism if they do break in and steal it. The VCR doesn't even have to work.

Fake cameras with built in motion sensors that pan the camera are also good. They run on 9V batteries and cost about 8 dollars each. Of course, this is in ADDITION to a real security system. It just allows you to have the look of extreme coverage.

Most crimes are of convenience. If you look like a very difficult target, they will move on to something that looks easier. Usually. Nothing is 100%, nothing is free, but choosing nothing is dumb.

Plus they've got you locked in contracts.

That is like calling rape, "sex" simply because they have you locked into the sites of a gun. Either way, you are getting screwed, but the contract doesn't make it less offensive, it makes it more so, since you would expect it to be updated quickly, as you are paying money AND doing so under a contract.

Anyone can grow a pot plant, but it takes a little more finesse to actually make something smokeable with THC in it. Just like making booze worth drinking is more difficult than soup. You have obviously done neither, but I'm guessing you've never tried to do either. Comparing it to a houseplant is laughable and shows a lack of understanding of the photosensitivity and growth stages. And distilling booze from mash isn't rocket science, but there is a science to it. From experience, it is much more difficult to do it even half way decent than you understand.