I was part of the group that stood in line for a week for the original X-Men opening in Hollywood, CA (a hold-over from the popularity of the Star Wars lines).

One day this homeless looking guy (one of many, possibly hundreds, that we saw during the week) came by with a wolverine hat on and told us that he had invented the character. We humored him, but none of us took him seriously. A couple days later Bryan Singer stops by to say high, sees this guy in the background, and pulls him to the front of the line to tell us that the guy invented Wolverine. Oops.

That whole experience was frought with cringe though. Before I had been introduced to Bryan, he knocked my dreamcast off of the TV (ok, we weren't exactly roughing it) and I yelled at him for a solid 2-3 minutes. I also spent some time arguing with an old man about Star Trek, who turned out to be Harlan Ellison. To be fair, he didn't tell me who he was (I would have recognized the name, though I didn't know what he looked like).

All good points, but the fact is that we already treat people differently based on their gender. I.E. you must run this fast, for this long, to be an effective soldier, unless you are female, then you can be slower and quit sooner. The answer is that we don't put women into the positions that are too physically demanding for them. This is the same concept, if you happen to have an MOS that doesn't require you to be physically active, then as along as you can complete your mission you should be fine.

And why not separate camps for cyber warriors? If that is actually the term, then maybe they should have a cyber camp and a cyber uniform too. If they dress in business casual and work in offices then they would look just like the contractors they are meant to replace.

Who is pushing women out of the CS field? There are obviously a lack of women entering the field (for any of the meriad of reasons posted in this thread), but in my 20+ year experience in the field I have never experience an environment where women are pushed out. If anything they are championed because of their differences and often treated with kid gloves.

In my current office a majority of the women have risen above the rank and file. Whether it's due to talent (in my opinion it is, as most do seem to be more effective team leads), or due to management not wanting to look like they are discriminating I cannot be sure. I can be sure that they aren't being pushed out.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't the royal family own some huge portion of the land and buildings? You would remove a title, and change tax payments to rent payments, and in the end you would have what, Kennedy's with the finances of Walton's?

I took the bog standard BS in Computer Science (so not Software Engineering), but had to learn basic proficiency in multiple languages.

CS101/2 was C++. There was a machine language course where we learned theory (MIPS) and practical (SPARC assembly). There was a data structures course that required labs to be done in Java, and expected you to learn it on your own if you weren't already familiar.

There was an Artificial Intelligence course which required you to learn and use Lisp and a compilers course where we developed compilers for our own limited scope language, and an operating systems course where we built an OS using our compiler from the previous course.

And who could forget the database course with the flavor of the day SQL, or the computer graphics elective that made use of OpenGL.

There was also a general languages course where every 2 to 3 lab sessions we switched to a new language. Obviously we didn't learn anything in depth about them, but we were exposed enough to get the basic concepts and to determine when / where they would be most applicable.

So sure, the degree wasn't laser focused on one or two languages, but to say we weren't exposed to programming is laughable. And while the BA in Computer Technology (the programming only degree we had at the time) was also offered, our BS CSCI students with decent grades could be guaranteed several offers from recruiters while the BA CT students almost never received such attention.

You can buy RSA tokens, the same that governments and militaries around the world rely on, for $10 a piece.

They will do it the same way they always do. If the company is "out of state" but does business in Deleware, they can be sued in Deleware. Same if they are out of Country.

Now, how effectively can Deleware (or the US if it is out of country) claim the assets from the judgement, that is obviously case by case.

An example would be someone sueing Google. Google doesn't recognize Deleware's authority, doesn't show up for trial. Summary judgement for claimant in $XXX. Claimant then sees a Google StreetView car parked in a Motel 6, calls the Sheriff and has the car seized and turned over. Rinse and repeat until the value has been reclaimed.

Just wanted to mention that the article lists $148k as the highest level. Given that the highest paid employees at the USPTO are federal lawyers and judges that seems pretty low.

Without commenting on this particular situation; why does the researcher necessarily have a more correct interpretation of the data than someone else who has reviewed that research.

Take academia for example. If a professor has 20 of his students experiment on rats and report the results to him, which he compiles and then publishes with a conclusion. Why is his conclusion automatically better than anyone else with similar background that can now review the same data? Because it was his "idea" to do the research?

Ahh the old Europe is superior to US because they drive stick argument. I love it when people become overly proud of a talent that pretty much anyone can learn in a few hours at a Walmart parking lot.

Your healthcare may be superior, but driving a stick is a personal preference and is about as boast-worthy as being able to operate the fryer at a burger joint.

I see this as making sense for physical goods, but if they "destroy the market" for intangibles like eBooks, then raise their prices, it is trivially easy for the publishers or some third party to re-enter the market.

Presumably it is easier to get access to easements and existing municipal infrastructure. Funding is easier as they can self finance through municipal bonds vice getting loans from the bank, and they add a sense of legitimacy that may encourage fence sitters to choose the new option.

Factory for building batteries, owned by the person who owns the largest installer of solar panels in the US, only considering regions with a high percentage of clear sunny days. Somehow I think the power grid is not their primary concern.

I think it more likely has to do with the difficulty of creating a female hero that people actually care about. Since they can't seem to do that, they will just convert an already popular hero, giving them an instant audience.

I know Slashdot isn't all one mind, but I seem to remember the arguments from our European members being the opposite when it came time to try Microsoft for being a monopoly.

How can the EU fine a US company? Simple, they fined the portion that was incorporated in the EU.

This is the same issue; The US is not going after the EU Microsoft corporate entity, they are going after the US corporate entity. That these may be the "same" company (like a person with dual citizenship) is not really the issue. They can ask the US company to provide the data (wherever it is located), and if they refuse they can be held in contempt, found to be obstructing, etc.