I think that HTML5 would make it far worse. Where do most of these bad programmers start? Where the barriers to entry are lowest-- javascript. You'd be making the problem worse, not better.

I do think that there's much improvement to be made with permissions on mobile phones. But that's a separate problem, and one a lot of the Android custom ROMs do well.

Different requirements drive different designs. Before WW2 seaplanes were common because of the lack of runways. After WW2 airports proliferated, and seaplanes couldn't keep up with technical advances due to the compromises involved in allowing them to land and take off from water. But that doesn't mean there aren't applications for aircraft with a flying boat's capabilities, it just means there isn't enough of a market in places like the US to support an industry. Even so, here in North America there are some 70 year-old WW2 Catalinas being used in aerial firefighting. China is a vast country which is prone to many kinds of natural disasters that could make airlifting in supplies difficult, so they may see potential applications we don't.

It's also interesting to note that seaplanes were highly useful in the pacific theater of WW2, and there hasn't been a protracted struggle for sea control *since* WW2. Also, China is a country with no operational aircraft carriers; aside from its training ship the Liaoning, it has a handful of amphibious assault ships that can carry a few helicopters. The US by contrast has ten supercarriers and nine amphibious assault ships that dwarf the aircraft carriers of WW2. The technology and expertise to run a carrier fleet like America's would take many years for China to develop. It's conceivable that the manufacturers imagine a military market for aircraft like this in the interim.

...or if he's using shell style wildcards, he could mean "pure and utter sherbet."

I expect though that since it involves a gun the results of the investigation will be buried on page 937 of the local paper (which will be print-only and only circulated to local libraries).

Reports of trains *not* running on time certainly decreased, but that's not quite the same thing...

It does appear that the law was written that way. I don't know that I agree with it, but it needs to be applied as written ... unless, of course it involves someone claiming self-defense in a shooting then the law goes out the window because "justice".

I expect the case will fall off the radar soon. Usually these kinds of shootings don't hold media attention for long. Just like all the innocent young kids who die as a direct result of careless gun owners in this country.

Are you referring to the case in Philly where the psychiatrist shot the guy who was trying to shoot up the office? I expect we'll see the NRA celebrate that one for a while, until (if) we figure out why the shooter was shooting the place up. We'll probably then find out that the shooter wouldn't have managed to get off many (if any) additional shots of significance and then the whole story will slowly fade away.

I didn't realize I was personally connected to this. In another comment here I did offer a link to another news article on it that supports the notion that the old man did chase them out and shoot the woman in the back in they alley. Unless you want to assume that the 80 year old man - who supposedly had a broken collarbone from the incident - shot her in his house, and then dragged her body out into the alley to make some sort of point.

I have accepted some time ago that you no longer want to read my comments (yet for some reason you reply to them anyways). I never claimed there previously to be a victim here; I only asked why you put so much energy into wasting other peoples' time. If ever there was a victim of this discussion though I would argue it to be you, not me, as you seem blissfully unaware of how absurd you make your own arguments and tactics look.

Wow, how many off-topic memes from the conservative blogosphere can you combine in one response to me? You funneled so much complete BS into that one that you almost - accidentally - gave your own answer to the question that your JE title is asking here.

No. The GOP is certainly your party more than the current leaders of the democratic party are representative of mine. And your clever re-spelling is further indication that you don't actually want to discuss this.

This is the first time I have ever seen you raise the "fiat money" strawman in discussion. If you seriously want to discuss that - and didn't just offer it up in desperation - then I ask you one simple question - where on earth can you find an example of non-fiat money that is in common use and has an agreed-upon value? There is no demonstrated case of how it would actually improve things to move the US Dollar from fiat to non-fiat.

Nobody who actually favors entitlement reform has ever suggested that. I see no reason to suspect that you proposed that for any reason other than to be ridiculous (furthermore as other ridiculous people have also offered it previously to be ridiculous I suspect you copied it from them in hopes of using it to kill the discussion entirely).

I ask you third-grade level questions, to see if you have even third-grade level comprehension, and you generally show that you do not.

The discussion wasn't about the military budget, it was about the cost of the wars.

Surely, when you want to know how much it costs to drive a car, you want to include gas and maintenance, right? Insurance and parking costs. Even the cost of traffic tickets.

The Council on Foreign Relations, who likes wars, tried to minimize the cost of the war just to the line items in the budget. It's worth having a more realistic estimate.

Design guidelines are just recommendations. Frequently bad ones. A developer should design the best UI he can, not follow what Google says regardless of whether it fits. And most developer guidelines, Google and Apple both, are crap.

The problem is that the whole app movement has brought in a whole slew of crappy developers who's idea of coding is to search stack overflow or git for stuff to copy paste. They don't read it, don't understand how to use it right, and expect it to magically work. Worse half of the people writing that code fall into the same category, so its the blind reading the blind. If you pick a library off of github and assume it will work, you deserve what you get. Unfortunately your users don't.

These people have been around for a while (they used to be "web developers" and program by copy pasting big chunks of javascript). The problem is that on a phone they can do more damage. In a world where the number of quality programmers is fixed and far less than the demand for programmers, how do you fix it? Making it easier to program actually hurts, you end up with those crappy coders trying to do even more. Maybe its time to raise the barriers to entry for a while.

FWIW my general weapon of choice - for home defense - is a baseball bat:

• It never misfires
• It never jams
• It never runs out of ammo
• It's silent
• You don't need any special permits to buy or own them
• You already know how to use them

I ask you to make fewer assumptions in the future based on the author's name alone.

You're welcome. I have heard of it happening more than once at universities; in research labs, offices, libraries, even in dorms.

I agree. Some people are quite bold.

I can't speak for them or their motivations. Indeed they could have been after something else entirely or it could have been someone who thought they were at a different door. I will speculate though from what I have read of grab 'n dash crimes previously that they likely didn't think real hard on it; I'd be surprised if they even looked in the window. If they had heard your TV they may have even thought there were a number of people there (party) and that it would be that much easier to walk in, grab something, and walk back out.

I would say think pickpocket, not mugger / murderer.

If you're near the door, and they come in and you shoot before you wait to see if they are armed, I would say you were defending your property more than your life. Now granted some would say that if you wait you are foolish, and gambling with your life or whatnot. Generally the pizza guy knocks, and people seeking help say so from the door (rather than coming through it first), but it could just be someone at the wrong door with no malicious intent.

Personally I would expect that if you just yelled at the person at the door - just a loud "HEY WHO (with or without expletive inserted here) ARE YOU" - they would probably turn tail and run without even pushing the door open.

p.s. And I would never defend property with a firearm. Even if I lived in a state that allowed it, which I'm almost sure of that I don't. I'd only risk an aggressor's life to defend my own. Because I really do want to be able to get through my whole life without killing or harming anyone. It just sucks that it's really the responsible thing to do to look into acquiring some means of deadly force, because of the remote but real threat of violence by uncivilized people.