Trolls are like Bullies. They are whatever you say they are. And what you say they are is whatever you personally have an issue with to promote your personal agenda. (Not "you", but the royal "you").

It sounds, to me, like the father has an issue of his own with discerning reality from fantasy and fiction.

I think the more bots using twitter, the better it would be for the stock. I tried following some people on twitter for awhile and even the most interesting and intelligent had feeds that were largely repetitive and self-absorbed or served to do nothing but mindlessly parrot the common attitude about any given topic that the poster had no clue about. I don't need a twitter update every time you post a picture of your kid to facebook, which I don't use because I don't want to see stupid pictures of your family in the first place.

If twitter dumped all humans and became just the pipeline for automated short message systems that facilitated interactivity between disparate applications and services around the web, it would be far more interesting and useful and that is something I'd invest in.

Nope. Not in the least.

When I see NGO after an organization's name, my assumption is that their source of funding is shady and that their actual purpose other than that which they position to the public, because that is often the case.

It's important to say "NGO" the same way it is important to say that your PAC is not directly endorsed or paid for by the candidate or cause it is supporting. Obfuscation and deniability. They aren't a government organization, but they're not a private organization, either -- yet they are funded *by* governments, businesses, other organizations, and people. And... there are something like two million of them in the US alone.

No, I'm making the distinction between the technical people and get-rich-quick snake-oil scum who happen to have chosen the current popular field to scheme in.

Granted, I don't come here much anymore, but . . . seeing the top post on the front page being about an updated cell phone style change makes one wonder if they've accidentally stumbled upon gdgt.com, engadget, gizmodo, twit.tv, or cnet, instead of slashdot.

Can we, perhaps, not refer to the entire tech community as one thing? Let's have the tech community, and then have the community that makes parking space auctioning apps, social websites, and "break-through" instant messaging apps who think they're on par with Tim Berners-Lee or Packard or Wozniak, because they made an iphone app where you can leave reviews for your favorite pigeon feeding seat in the park.

Fortunately, abundant litigation when dealing with US employees will surely make them want to hire more US employees, in the future.

I would be satisfied just in knowing that there is a branch of the service called SPACE MARINES.

Bring on space battles. I want space battles in my life time. I know aliens probably won't happen and neither will colonizing aonther planet or even the moon, but at least let me have space ship battles.

And then, we start using automated algorithms at Google to report drug users. ... and people not reporting every cent of income in their taxes. ... and alerting local authorities to "belligerent, non-compliant attitudes".

I've seen bus drivers take a corner without considering the other lane, and wipe out a driver and passenger in a truck, waiting in the turn lane. I've seen a bus driver carelessly activate the bus-stairs-convert-to-wheel-chair-lift before it was safe, completely knocking over an elderly wheel-chair bound person onto the concrete, head first . . . and then just sit there, not doing anything, requiring myself and another passenger to jump off and assist the person.

I don't see how automation can do much worse.

Netflix gives me unlimited access to an enormous library of content for $8/mo. Playstastion Now gives me temporary access to individually purchased items. The two are nothing alike, other than the fact that they transmit temporarily owned content over the internet to the customer.

As to the pricing issues -- yes, they are destined to fail. Netflix and Amazon Prime made it cheaper and easier to pay for content than for people to acquire it through other means. Services like RDIO made it almost absurd to bother acquiring music any other way, for the mere $5/mo. A gaming service could accomplish this, but they need to provide a massive catalog of consistent content without a thousand strings attached and for a really low price. Additionally, it needs to be through a unified distribution channel; nobody wants to subscribe to EA, then to Ubisoft, then to Valve, then to Activision/Blizzard, then to Riot, then to Sony, then to Microsoft.

Gaming suffers from the problem television still does and that others (music and movies) used to (but still do, to a smaller extent). They want to profit from constraining their distribution; not operate like the manufacturer of ANY other product. Almost every company in the world wants their product in as many stores as possible for as many avenues to the customer as possible. They don't care if they're sold at the gas station, convenience store, Amazon.com, Target, Albertson's, and Safeway. Unfortunately, when it comes to digital media -- especially games -- some are available only on Origin. Some only on Steam. Some only on GOG. Some only on one platform for awhile, then no longer. This model has to change. Constraint and hassle needs to be eradicated. Distribution channels need to compete not on exclusivity, but on price and service and interface and community.

Until that happens, this ridiculous "pay a dollar or more an hour for a twenty year old game streamed over the internet" idea is dead.

Sorry, I don't buy into all this "we need to get kids using computers and programming in grade school!" crap. Or this "we need everyone to be in STEM!" crap.

Why do we need this, exactly? To keep the pool of employees huge and the pay low? Where is the push for teaching kids automotive skills in grade school? Cooking? Surgery?

Let's just focus on the basics. Teach kids to be inquisitive, critical thinking, human beings with a strong grasp of reading and writing and math and history and geography skills and knowledge. Those with an interest in other things will pursue them and doing so will be much easier with a solid primary foundation in these universal fundamentals.