Your assumption is that common sense matter in a court of law. It does not.

This is one of the most important things one can understand about the law system. My father started to study law and attended law school, something to occupy himself with in his older years. He regularly blew my mind by telling me about court decisions that not only bypassed common sense, but also morality, and kept going into the realm of truly messed up.

The court room has nothing to do with the real world, real experiences, common sense, morality, or anything a sane person might recognize. It's a separate world with its own strange rules, and the only way we mere mundane mortals can tap into it is through our spirit shaman lawyers.

Just a note on portable music players...

I was looking to buy on about a year ago, and I didn't want an iPod. I find Apple's stuff to be too overpriced for me. I eventually settled on a Cowon J3 - it supports MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, WAV and APE (whatever APE is). There's also several other players out there that support a wider ranger of formats - it can just be hard to find them.

The fact that some players support Ogg and FLAC in particular lead me to believe that future Opus support is not out of the realm of possibility - especially if we vote with our wallets, and contact these companies to let them know that their support of various formats was a major selling point.

I don't really understand why being wealthy is a bad thing. I would much prefer a successful leader than an unsuccessful leader. I am not jealous of people who have a lot of money. I'm happy for them. If they worked for it, good for them, they're awesome and smart and a hard worker. If they won the lottery or their parents left it for them, good for them, they got lucky.

But I guess I'm not the typical selfish, resentful person.

I love you, Slashdot. I learn something new every day.

Exactly. Additionally, I would like to know what "great content" exists on Facebook anyway. "Person X has posted a photo." "Person Y likes Person X's photo!" Yeah, that's some great content there.

Really, just block the whole site completely. Any valid educational content that might possibly maybe be found on there can also be found elsewhere in greater amounts.

License plate readers are a great idea! Just this past week, it helped Mr. Police Officer know that my car registration was out of date. Mr. Police Officer was of course very polite as he told me about the $200 fine. Very handy! Now the government can raise revenue more easily!

On a related note, does it have any advantages over Winamp? Winamp has a small footprint and plugin support (with lots of plugins), a simple UI, a decent library feature, and has been my music player of choice for a very long time. I've tried other things but alternatives just seem so bloated (especially iTunes - oh dear god).

NBC's coverage has ALWAYS been bad. The worst part is that they smother everything with "human interest" stories to the point where you're not sure if you're watching the Olympics or some daytime talk show. Also, they commentary has been ridiculous - and sometimes outright offensive (particularly during the opening ceremonies).

I am incredibly annoyed that the Olympic Committee has started this broadcast monopoly business. It's terrible. NBC paid cash, so they can be as terrible as they want with impunity.

Which is why I have a new VPN account so that I can watch the BBC's coverage.

I would be happy to pay $20 or so for an Official Olympics Streaming Account or somesuch.

I don't think the super adamant Richard M. Stalin types are as numerous as you believe them to be. There's a lot of Linux fans where I work, and the only reason they have a Windows partition at all is for gaming. All of them are excited about Valve's interest in Linux as a platform - not a single mention among them about DRM being a concern. Personally, I don't care as long as it works.

I think that the vocal minority / silent majority is a truism here, as it often is everywhere else.

I don't know of any republicans that want to completely abolish the EPA. Maybe reign it in a bit - its powers are pretty broad - but abolish it completely? Heck no. Even if one doesn't believe in man-made global warming, one does believe that dumping nuclear waste into rivers and lakes should be very much illegal. There may be a few fringe people who want to destroy it completely, but part of the general GOP platform? No, I don't think so.

I'm happy that there is a governmental body that can pass some regulation and assess fines; as someone who lives near Cleveland, OH I much prefer that we no longer set rivers on fire.

The "Left" and the "Right" have a lot more in common than either side thinks, but they're too busy spitting ridiculous one-liner sound bites and demonizing the other side to see the common ground and act on it. There's too much money and power to be made in being a cocky bastard and convincing people that "the other side" is just a bunch of horrible, evil, terrible people that want to kill babies.

I wish I could just throw up my hands and ignore politics. I really do. I'm sick of the gotcha game, sick of the nasty lies, the deliberate information and hyperbole. It just pisses me off. But I still pay attention and vote anyway because, well, maybe I can get someone a little less awful into office next time. A little less small minded, a little less polarized.

I'm probably fooling myself, though.

Does the introduction of 4th edition and 5th edition in any way stop you from using older source books?

I'm still using 3.5, my books didn't suddenly disappear overnight when 4th was released.

Yes, because games are something that only children do. Especially games that use a significant amount of math and copious amounts of (admittedly often too) complicated rules. Games that encourage out of the box thinking. Games where you can include complex scenarios - and be able to handle them in any way you choose, assuming you are alright with the consequences. Not limited to combat, games with older players often include politics, economics, religion, and other social issues.

I know you're just trolling, but there's far more to pen and paper RPGs than many people think.

I'd take a half-assed PnP RPG game over an incredible computer RPG any day. Why? Because the computer gives me a very limited set of choices and makes a lot of assumptions. If I want to do X, and it isn't coded into the game, then I can't even attempt to do X. Not so in PnP games.

Very interesting. I believe I may do this.

This worked for me. I got a 25% pay raise overnight and some work-from-home time every week as well.

This is the way to go.

I make a good amount of money, but I could easily live on half of what I make. The rest I stash away. I could go out and buy Latest Tech Gizmo or Awesome New Car, but I'm satisfied with what I have. I could fit everything important or valuable in my little Ford Focus within a few hours and leave to go wherever I want.

Well, except the dogs. They're kind of big, so I'd have to make two trips. But you get the idea.

It's not about the money or the big house or the fancy car - for me. Other people are really into wealth and toys. I'm not going to say that they're wrong or bad, they're going after what they want. But I don't think it leads to long term happiness; you're always looking for another "fix".

Me, I prefer quiet time alone, animals, books, and not being attached to a place or a lot of stuff. Many years ago I had to move to a smaller apartment and I ended up throwing out / giving away a lot of stuff. It was liberating.