I think it's interesting that you got modded up for repeating my post. I guess I wasn't explicit enough.

I had a completely different read on Opportunist's post. The "want" turns it into an indictment on the moral character of government officials involved in such activities. In other words, it's not about the government reserving rights to certain activities but rather about the perceived low moral character of those in charge.

Those activities may sometimes be necessary, but wanting to do them is sick.

Someone please verify, but I think we have a double-Whoosh here.

"Stop eating and you'll live forever."

The good news is it doesn't affect your appetite.

"There are processes in place to deal with law violations committed under the veil of state secrecy. Snowden did not lift a finger for even a moment to follow those processes, electing instead to break the law himself and go straight to the public."

If that was even true he would have had good reason to do that. Two of his predecessors had their lives completely ruined after they tried to follow process.

One of my favorite lines (gleaned from a post here as a matter of fact) is, do you really expect to win a rigged game by playing by the rules?

"Realize that businesses are doing this in response to demand."

There is no negative demand. In other words, people are not demanding no service. What's really going on here is that businesses are seeing how little they can get away with as far as customer support and still sell a product.

This isn't consumer grade, but at work we still have a number of Solaris machines in use. One of the reasons in the past that we stayed with Solaris was their outstanding support. That support has become a joke in the past few years thus removing another barrier to switching over the Linux.

You're just noticing this? A successful business model these days includes limiting how much you actually have to deal with your customers. It's not just tech. Forums, voice menus and FAQs are the order of the day for problem solving.

"To let the computer do the work unlike the idiot pilots who insist on actually flying the planes because it's boring to watch."

Pilots should get as much real flying time as they can. When it comes to emergency situations no computer is going to safely land you in the Hudson river.

Because it goes with the onion on the belt.

"I think some professionals are attempting to hijack the thread."

I certainly hope that's the case. It would be a shame if he was being an idiot on his free time.

This isn't so much a hand-held 3D printer as it is a hand-cramp generator.

"Show me a kid who knows how to add in hardware."

Adding in hardware IS easy. This is how I do it:

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/...

We are in times where someone who makes a billion developing a social app or game is considered to have done something important.

No. The word you are looking for is sociopath. Jobs did not display violent behavior and he was not unstable. He was, however, un-empathic to those around him and displayed anti-social behavior.

I'm a Mac user and I really like my Apple products, but I don't mythologize or worship Steve Jobs. He was driven to make cool stuff but as with most people who affect the world in big ways he was doing it strictly for reasons of ego.

And yes, Larry Ellison is, too.

"Jesus, it's 30%? I thought it was 10%. Sickening."

For crying out loud, it was only a few years ago that the app store and its deal for developers was started and already everyone has forgotten what happened. Developers flocked to creating apps for the app store because they were only charging 30%. Devs were used to making no more than around 50% for their efforts.

For someone else to host your app and process all of the transactions and make it searchable, etc. you have to expect to pay something.