Spoiler alert: you are tracked all over the net, and add-ons like Ghostery only partly help. If you don't want that, don't surf the net.

Other techniques could probably link this very post to my person with high accuracy just because of my writing style. So just don't start with the assumption you are anonymous, cause you are not.

As far as the article goes; the 'Porn' keyword here seems more to serve the goal of tickling the reader and triggering the ''i want privacy for delicate things'' mindset. It's sad that only one website replied to his questions and i do agree that their argumentation of ''too much data'' is anything but waterproof. However, it seems they already were more open what they are doing at the backend site, than any of the big toko's like facebook.

I trust facebook less for guarding my privacy than a porn site, after all, the porn site wouldn't want to risk loosing its visitors because of privacy issues, while at FB it is their core business to do so.

Most likely, if a porn site is actively tracking you it's a honeypot in the first place. I agree it stimulates sticking to the big sites and avoiding material that could be illegal, but that's just common sense. I never have had the illusion my prn preferences are anonymous for any interested authority or hacker.

Please don't compare apples to oranges. You are totally right about the trust issue, that's something personal. But it has very little to do with the C# language or .NET.

Pulling JVM into the equation not really helps either, cause the consequent question would be: Do you trust Oracle? Or Google, for that matter if you count Dalvik in.

I do like the C# as a language, having done a few smaller projects with it. The reason why i prefer not to use it is, indeed, because i don't trust or like Microsoft. Having said that, i am totally fine with the Mono project - despite all criticism it's just the language and the VM and has very little to do with MS, and when appropriate (i.e.: someone pays for it) i wouldn't hesitate to develop with Mono or .Net again.

GP totally has a point here: The languages you really need for a certain task already exist, whether it be C, C++, C#, Java and a handful of other niches including but not limited to Perl and PHP. Whatever your choice is, try stick to a steady platform. Code written in any such `proven` language is much more likely to compile in another 10-20 years from now than code written in some obscure actively-developed language which adds little, that couldn't be done otherwise, but headaches.

And AC above also has a point that many OS enthusiasts are guilty of exactly what they accuse their nemesis of. Hence he doesn't deserve the tag 'astroturfer', it may well be his honest opinion. It's totally ok to criticize, but be prepared to accept criticism too, please.

Actually, silver is already used in fabrics as anti-bacterial additive (or anti-smell, depending how it's advertised) in various brands of sport clothes.

How beneficial this is for the health is another question, as it remains a heavy metal. Other nitpickers say it gets washed out after only a few wash cycles (and consequently pollute the waste water).

Then, maybe, your using the wrong approach.

Try "Don't document your code, but code you documentation"..

This is as easy as creating all files you normally would, and just write down, in comments, the code you are planning to write. You catch several flies at once here: You design the entire code base, top-down, you bring structure to it, and you already documented it before you even started coding!

All you have to do now is work out your comments. You start by prototyping your (OO) classes and methods or (non-OO) functions. Once you validated your information flow (as in: all methods take all parameters they need, objects have all variables and methods they need in a non-redundant way, etc etc)- the remaining task is trivial: work out any method.

Then once you completed implementing the last method, you hit compile. And guess what: chances are your code _just works_ because you organized yourself and your activities in such a way that will avoid creating stupid mistakes and oversights, and 100% of your focus was with implementing well-defined functions or methods.

Top-down just works. Especially when your projected project is large. Resist the temptation of coding (but of course, you can consider your approaches while designing). Don't feel stupid for spending 2 or more days designing without coding - you will earn this time back tenfold. And while designing without implementing, you will get a good feel of which potential libraries you need, and where the easy and tough bits of coding are. But eventually, it all comes down to avoiding errors while having oversight of the entire program flow.

I feel stupid for paying now. MS just said that they are ok with stealing their software. For consumers & small businesses who actually consciously purchased a license - MS just showed us their middle finger to show how valued we dear customers are.

And now since MS said that stealing propriety software is ok, some other software vendors may not be happy with them. Pirating photoshop or games or whatever is just accepted, according to MS. Don't search for really free alternatives, they rather have you steal/copy it than using an alternative.

Really, i don't like stealing software. That's why i stick to free solutions quite often. It's also not why i like Linux, but a nice added benefit, and added benefit of OS in general. But now i feel stupid because one of the richest companies in the world say i was a moron by paying them in the first place, and that they don't care if you play the game fair or not. I suddenly regret any penny i payed them over the last 20 years.

All of the above, in the past 15 years, with the exception of the CPU, that was pre-2000.

Made me hard to choose from.
* RAM - on occasion, mostly when new.
* Videocard - 2 'blown up'; bad capacitors or GPU defect
* Motherboard - bad capacitors. And cheap models suck - better spend more on mobo less on cpu.
* Fans - always an issue especially if you are a smoker
* Hard disk fail - 1 soft fail, replaced it before end of life. One very hard fail, on a brand new drive. Unfortunately it kept all my data as i was migrating.
* Power supply - again, i learned not to buy cheap stuff.

In general, failed components (apart the video cards) were indeed cheap / low budget. My current PC is ok, because i choose better quality parts (mobo+PSU mostly). Apart the harddrive which was acting 'weird' after 4 1/2 year and hence got replaced by an SSD disk, which was a good idea anyways.

Lessons learned: if the PC is acting weird, check the unobvious: the PSU. Older hardware: check capacitors. New hardware: don't trust memory, mobo and hard drive until proven (`burn-in`).

A year is not long. Only young people think a year is long. It might as well have been a week.

Some people just want to put their code in 'the public domain'. It may be code they are not maintaining, not commercial, or targets a very small niche.

Sometimes you want your code just published - shared with the world - forever, for the next one to find it useful.

Google promises such service. One would think 'google, they know how to store data'. Even google engineers use the service themselves. And then, one day, they announce the service will cease in 2 years.

Google should NOT HAVE STARTED SUCH SERVICE. They mislead developers, and now put them up with the extra hassle of moving stuff. If they wanted to kill it, they should have said 'testing' 'alpha' 'beta' 'do not use for your project' etc.

I'm totally with the some of the other people here, Google has proven to be unreliable. Any service they not like could be gone at ant time they choose, no matter how well it works or how succesful it is. Your gmail account may well be next.

I don't mind google cleaning up beta projects. But Google Code was anything but a beta project. Ok, they were not the largest player in the market, how bad is that? I do like choice, and multiple players can learn from eachother.

So.. My personal conclusion: a very very bad move of Google which will steer many people away from their current and future projects.

I don't think the average Tesla buyer buys the car because it's 'green'. They buy it because it's electric sports car. Being electric, the (peak) power output is much much higher than achievable with combustion engines.

Then, the battery problem will likely solve itself over the next decennia. We may not have reached the optimal solution, but Tesla clearly shows there is a market for what is available with current-day technology.

Other car manufacturers are going the hybrid road to increase efficiency. But i do agree that the 'green' aspect is misleading, in general. If we want to be green, best thing we can do is reduce the amount of times and distances we (need to) travel; improve public transport and promote/easify carpooling. Yet, i think electric cars are here, and are here to stay, just as gasoline cars are, for the foreseeable future.

...30 years ago.

I love my old transistor amplifier. The only thing i purchased are a (few) sets of speakers. I prefer to get my other 'gear' second-hand too. Record player, tape player, amplifier - it's all reasonable high-end electronics from the mid 80's up to late 90's.

I don't have a standalone CD or DVD player anymore - that task is being done by a laptop or a R-PI with external sound card. My smartphone works too, it has reasonable sound but a audible 'click' every few seconds, so it is not the best option. I'm considering to purchase a (car?) memory card/USB player, as soon i find one with proper specs that can read flacs.

Concluding: good audio doesn't have to be expensive. A lot of people dump their pearls at the trash only to replace it by shiny boxes with cheap electronics.