The GOP realized that this is not a policy that’s going to help them keep the Senate in 2016. Right now the GOP is dominated by old Republicans who want the party to attract young voters, so ginning this issue up into a war wasn’t worth pissing off the young voters. The other important group in the GOP are the sham libertarians who are trying to bring wealthy techies into their camp. Going to war over net neutrality would halt Rand Paul’s advance into silicon valley. All the money the telcos and cable companies can throw at the GOP isn’t really worth pissing off all the people who want uninterrupted streams from Chaturbate and Russian pirate TV streams.

Unless you’re retired it’s almost impossible to live in the developed world and not interact with computers on a daily basis. So computer literacy is an important part of daily life in the USA. So everybody needs to know something about programming or they’ll be incapable of understanding basic and important concepts that are relevant to daily life.

But that doesn’t mean that we need to reshape our entire educational system to crank out more software developers so that tech companies can pay lower salaries, which is really what’s behind many of these big efforts to push coding into schools.

Solving problems like war and climate change pretty much requires getting into politics. If you were a nobel laureate would you want to spend your time dealing with the idiots people vote for?

“Safety features have also been enhanced, adding "adaptive cruise control and the ability to read speed limit signs, stop itself if a crash is imminent, stay in its lane, and even park itself in a street spot or in your garage."”

I need that right now in a two ton all-wheel drive SUV so I can drive sanely while yelling at my kids in the back seat. Please Elon, hurry up and take my money!

“That means, if life is at all common in the Milky Way, astronomers could soon detect it.”

No, it means that if, thousands or even millions of years agao, some other life form happened to be broadcasting monster radio waves, in the direction of Earth, astronomers might detect it.

Keep in mind that most movies make back some or all of their production cost before going to DVD. Video is icing, not the cake.

The $60 price point has really turned me off from gaming. Alone the $60 game might not be a killer. But combined with the game industry's obsession with pleasing hard-core gamers you have a recipe for me walking away from gaming. Why would I pay $60 for a game that requires me to unlock most of the content? Or for a game that requires lots of trial-and-error? Or for a game that was released unfinished with showstopping bugs? I'd rather stick with $10 downloads.

The 9/80 work schedule is a scam. Youâ(TM)ll have worked the 80 hours, but on Friday there will be a big meeting and youâ(TM)ll need to work. The next off Friday some important maintenance task will come up and youâ(TM)ll need to work. After that there will be a client interaction and youâ(TM)ll need to work. Your company will not pay you overtime for any of these extra Fridays because youâ(TM)re a salaried professional.

Itâ(TM)s a trap!

Right now is a terrible time to be looking for an entry-level niche position. Those jobs are being filled by mid and senior level workers who just got laid off and will work for an entry level salary to keep their family fed. And if you do get a niche job, youâ(TM)re likely to become the new senior technician when the more expensive hackers get laid off and their jobs are dumped on youâ"which is not a fun situation to be in.

What you need to do is get into a whatever IT job you can, keep working on security stuff at home or in test labs at work, and ride the recession out. Make connections. If you have security people on staff get to know them and show interest so that you might get promoted when something opens up. But whatever you do, donâ(TM)t sit around unemployed and hoping that the perfect niche job pops up, because in this economy thatâ(TM)s not likely to happen.