Yes, the way I see it, it will be impossible to convince AGW deniers to accept the science observations, not because they are stupid, but because they don't want to be held accountable for any wrongdoing. It's like taking the 5th, or "don't talk to the police"... anything you say can and will be used against you. No one wants to admit to being stupid or making mistakes. Viewed through this lens, their policies on other things like abortions and gun control make more sense... "Well abortion is wrong, if you got pregnant you made a mistake, and we don't make mistakes"... "Well guns only shoot bad guys. Why would I accidentally shoot a good guy? I don't make mistakes".

We need to find more effective ways to communicate with these people so they can live responsibly. But trying to shove their faces in the facts just makes them belligerent and more likely to rebel and go the other way, like buying the biggest SUV they can afford, because F*(K society and their maths.

I don't know why I don't see more of this... is it not obvious that TrueCrypt is most likely made by whitehats at the NSA? And that the blackhats at the NSA probably finally strongarmed them into abandoning their hobby project?

This seems consistent with the TrueCrypt End-of-Life announcement.

Heh, I sort of wanted to get a PS3, but then I realized that the only stuff I wanted to play on it were the updated versions of PS2 games like Gran Turismo, Burnout, God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, etc. So I decided I didn't really need it.

Maybe I'll pick up a PS3 or three to build a 3-screen wraparound GT6 setup (like I had always been fantasizing about doing with multiple PS2s, but it's too expensive to get monitors equipped with component inputs nowadays, so might as well just go the PS3 route with cheap HDMI LCDs)

Yes, that makes a lot of sense! GTA3:SA was pretty brilliant... I assume that was made by the RS San Diego / Angel Studios group? If so, I might like to check out Red Dead Redemption... my favorite GTA games always had a good shot at the time capsule thing going.

While the graphics and production values of GTA4 were pretty high, the gameplay, variety, and story were pretty crap in comparison to the stuff they had you doing in GTA3:SA. From the reivews, it looks like GTA5 is more along that vein, so maybe I'll pick it up on Steam when it hits firesale status... and upgrade my CPU to better match my GPU.

Puerto Rico has these "third world" jitney services.

They're actually pretty cool, when I was there all the drivers of the vans knew each other, and had their own cellphone social network going on, so if you called one for a pickup, and they weren't close to you, they would call another driver who was available to come pick you up.

Even better, they would do their own vanpooling of passengers, kinda like the airport shuttles work here in the US, but coordinated over their social network. So you might be going from town to town, and stop somewhere briefly to pick up and drop off some other paying passengers who called in and just happened to be along the way.

So much efficiency could be achieved...
Disclaimer: I essentially wrote my master's thesis on running mass transit networks more like a jitney service, with smaller, more flexible vehicles:
http://hairball.mine.nu/~rwa2/...

Of course, Virginia still gets some points for tolerating "Slug lines"... the instant carpools where people headed in or out of DC could pick up strangers lined up at bus/train stations so they both could ride the HOV lanes in.

Well, more to the GP AC's point, even the primary stock exchange is kinda pointless. I mean, investing in a company for profit essentially means you're saying, "hey, here's a company that looks like it's being mismanaged and is not performing as well as it should, I'm going to buy some stock in it in the hopes that someday, some half-decent manager will also eventually see that this company underperforming, and buy enough of my shares to get a controlling stake in the company so they can run it better until it performs to meet or exceed Wall Street expectations."

Unless you're one of these managers, which, let's face it, you're not.

Yeah, maybe it's because I grew up around the beltway and knew plenty of nice folks who worked for the NSA. I'm not really worried about them.

Here are some things I've done to improve my security stance against things that I actually feel are more of a threat, though:

* Upgraded OpenSSL on my box, so the script kiddies don't get in.
* Don't announce that we're going on vacation on Facebook or Twitter, and I don't post pics until I get back home.
* Keep my important docs and firearms and backups in a fire safe.
* Set up motion on my box with some cheap webcams gazing at the lawn and driveway.
* Shred my junk mail with credit card offers.
* Use KeePass to juggle strong online passwords on sites that should have it.

I would really, really like some form of national ID with a smartchip to replace my stupid SSN and Birthdate as a means of identification and authentication. But other people would rather deal with insured losses I guess.

Device convergence, perhaps? The Nexus 5 I just bought from Craiglist (I guess from someone who bought an Android device by mistake) has both GSM/HSDPA+ and LTE radios in it.

Just out of curiosity, how did Sprint manage to absorb the NextTel "push to talk" technology that was popular back in the pre-Blackberry days?

I'm a bit worried about this Sprint acquisition, but as a Voicestream customer back in the 90s that weathered the T-Mobile takeover, I guess things could turn out OK. I suppose this is why T-Mobile has been doing lots of undercutting lately, to buyout and pull as many customers in as possible before this takeover, at the cost of future profitability from that customer base. Recently they upgraded my basic family plan to unlimited anytime + SMS, "for being a loyal customer".

Oddly enough, I have a Verizon iPhone 5s for work, and the coverage doesn't appear to be all that much better than T-Mobile in the Pacific NW... I have the same dead zones downtown or even out in the boonies.

Someone pointed out the Cook's statement was just a joke at an Apple audience.

But yep, we're nerds. We like technology.

I currently have an iPhone 5S on Verizon for work, but I still just upgraded my personal T-Mobile device to a Nexus 5 (a new one from Craigslist at a good discount from someone who bought it by mistake, so I'm getting a kick out of this thread). So I'm in a good position to comment. So maybe I will.

They're about the same weight, even though the Nexus is quite a bit larger. The aluminum case on the iPhone is nice but very slippery so it already has a bunch of nasty gouges in the corners and edges. I haven't dropped the Nexus yet (it's only been a week) but the rubber backing is more secure. Yes, I should get protective covers for both of them, but lazy.

The iPhone's camera is noticeably nicer... the Nexus sometimes has trouble focusing on my intended subject.

I don't care for the stocks that Apple puts on the notification swipedown, and there's no way to remove it.

I usually get quite lost in Apple UI elements, since I've been using Android longer I get frustrated when I can't figure out which UI element to use to bring up the menu or to simply go "back / escape"... it's always a different one hidden in a corner or worse yet a swipe in some random direction.

Ironically, Google Chrome on iOS is a bit easier to use than on Android. To switch tabs, since you can still swipe left/right from the edge. On Android they had changed it a few months ago so you had to swipe down a bit to show the address bar, and then swipe left/right on the address bar, which annoys me... almost enough to consider going back to Dolphin browser maybe. And Chrome, on iOS also has some kind of accelerator that takes you back to the top of the page if you swipe down repeatedly aggressively enough, whereas Chrome on Android just makes you swipe and swipe. OTOH, trying to scroll up/down in a page on iOS often accidentally brings down the notification menu or the "bottom" iOS menu instead, which annoys me more. More reasons to go back to Dolphin browser I suppose, where I could just bind pgup/pgdn to the volume rocker.

... or try fark.com , that's the only site I've seen that seems to have some intelligent discussion from conservative right-wingers that actually helps me understand how they see the world from their perspective.

That said, all of the facts and data I've ever read point to anthropogenic climate change. The science only tells us it's happening. It's not going to tell us what to do about it.

I do believe that it's is an ideology or faith that we "ought" to do something about it. Can't really expect people to work out the whole "don't shit where you eat" thing by themselves. Unfortunately the only time any sort of environmental regulation takes place is after a bunch of people manage to die from it (London pea soup fog, smog reductions, DDT, etc.). Is it better to be proactive or reactive? Or maybe we just wait for things to burn baby burn and go "huh". You know, for SCIENCE.