Step 1 - Stop all money going to foreign aid. Problems here mean we need the money more.

Step 2 - Petition the UN for enormous amounts of aid. Let's see how the rest of the world likes it when we don't open the tap and demand they pony up.

Step 3 - Eliminate the TSA and go back to private firms providing airport security. Let the airports hire local people as they see fit.

Step 4 - Reduce welfare to child-only benefits after 6 months. That was the original intention. Let's go back to it.

I wonder how much money would go back into vital services if even a couple of these were done. I didn't touch the issue of pork projects because of the cost involved with deciding which ones were 'pork' and that all of them would be kept in place while more were introduced with the resolution.

I spend far too much time uninstalling/deleting/nuking from orbit all the crapware that comes pre-installed on a new computer. Why on FSM's green-ish earth would I BUY a device that uses crapware as the main selling point?

They can't even 'upgrade' their Android app without breaking functionality. That's just the kind of stability I want on my cell phone. ~sarcasm~.

A lot of states already have laws on the books that prevent things that restrict the line of sight. A lot of that crap you see hanging from rear view mirrors can get you a ticket if you're already pulled over for something else. And this is as it should be.

Google Glasses fall into this same category. You're blocking part of your field of vision with a display of distracting material. What happens when there's a motorcycle in the same visual area as that cute cat picture you're viewing on your nifty glasses?

Notify the public that these devices are illegal based on existing law and you're fine. There's no need to add another one to the books.

Japan is producing a heck of a lot of robots. Given the treasure they've just found I find it difficult to believe that they aren't already designing robots and robotic processes to do the mining for them and send up the refined material. There's plenty of experience out there in developing machinery for extreme environments so coupling that with their history of making robots I see them getting a mine going in very short time.

"It's now very common to hear people say 'I'm rather offended at that.' as if that gives them certain rights; it's actually nothing more .. it's simply a whine. It's no more than a whine. 'I find that offensive,' it has no meaning. It has no purpose, it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that,' well so f*cking what?" - Stephen Fry

I've never heard of her until this story. I don't follow Twitter, I don't follow a lot of the technical blogs because I'm happy to be subject matter specific after 20 years of doing what I do.

From reading the various comments and TFA I've come to the conclusion that the men were being a bit out of line by talking during a presentation and then engaging in a conversation as well. That's impolite to the speaker and to the attendees around them who were trying to listen. But that happens all the time at conferences.

What took it over the edge was her taking offense at comments that were pretty harmless in context. We don't know what the full range of the conversation was and she may well have encouraged them to speak freely thinking they were talking to a reasonable person. Yes, I said both 'reasonable' and 'person'. Gender is NOT an issue here. A man may well have been equally offended by the comments that got blown out of proportion.

Being a female in the tech industry for this long means I've seen a lot of sexism in the workplace. I've developed a pretty thick skin to minor work-inappropriate comments and jokes because they don't bother me since they're not directed AT me. If I do feel that things are getting close to crossing a line I'll either ask them to tone it down (not stop, mind you) or I'll leave the conversation depending on the circumstances. I'm not one of the boys nor do I ever wish to be. I'm a valued co-worker who happens to be of the female gender. I don't expect anyone to walk on eggshells around me but to maintain a professional attitude.

If I did find myself in a more serious situation my company has channels to follow for dealing with harassment and hostile work environments. I would have no problem using those resources and feel that I would be taken seriously. I won't use them to deal with petty annoyances or as retaliation. That kind of thing is what harms women - abuse of the process to do real harm to another employee.

Do I think she should have been fired? Based on what I've read I think her company did the correct thing if she was not doing her job of representing them to the community in the manner she was hired to do. If this had been a singular event then my opinion would probably be different.

Do I think one of the men involved should have been fired? No. He apologized for his behaviour and it seems like it was a real apology, not one made because he had to do it. If he had done the same thing she did - created an artificial furor over a minor transgression - then it may have been different.

He's a victim of one person's need to feel superior and need to try to shape public opinion to her match her own. I can't see how this kind of thing would discourage any female from wanting to enter the industry. If anything what she did would make me less apt to want to work in a highly female environment because of the possibility that more fanatics were just waiting to pounce on anything that made them 'feel uncomfortable'.

Disclaimer - I have a BS in Psychology but it was a long time ago and I'm not a psychologist. Having qualified my forthcoming comments here they are.

I can see using this to "prove a negative" in that it may show if he's faking his claim of insanity. When the higher brain functions are reduced he may not be able to keep up a pretense of insanity if he is faking his behaviours. It isn't definitive confirmation one way or the other but if he's found to be coherent and meets a criteria for competent when he's not fully in control of the examination then it would be interesting evidence.

This is a variant of "in vino, veritas" where lowered inhibitions results in saying and doing things you repress when you're in full control.

I'd put him in the Hannibal Lector restraints before lowering his inhibitions tho. Common sense and all that.

I worked for a company that went Big Blue (desktops, mainframe and OS/2). Overall I liked OS/2 although the Windows 3.1 (WinOS2) emulator had a few issues.

IMO the thing that killed OS/2 was the success of Windows. If Windows hadn't made enough improvements to be acceptable then OS/2 would have had the edge and kept on growing market share. They had some advanced functions for the time and with a larger support base they would have kept on growing.

When Microsoft had a viable product they stopped supporting their products on OS/2 and that was that.

I still remember the game where you tried to catch the cat with your mouse. You could also put the cat on your desktop so it chased your mouse. Completely useless but amusing.

Some of the fattest-paying contracts in the whole of software development are for dinosaur systems. Seriously - if you want to make twice or thrice whatever your current contract is, develop expertise in a 'dead' technology that is still being used in a high-value niche market.

Oh yes. I wrote the employee onboarding/offboarding process at my previous employer. It took me about 8 years to fully develop it because of systems involved and getting buy-in from the various silos but when it was done it ROCKED! Passed every internal, external and federal audit. Was timely and directed to get the employee set up with the exact access they needed and made sure tickets were generated for everything on a termination.

Fast forward 2 1/2 years. During this time the company had been acquired by a much larger company. I get a call asking if I would be willing to consult for them to keep the process running. Note that it hadn't had a single glitch in the time since I left. I know this because there was no one to maintain it and if they wanted it to keep running that meant it was still running.

This was supposed to be a 2 month gig. Now it's running into 2014 Q1 which means conservatively 2014 Q3. I have a tidy second income for the next year and a half with maybe 10 hours a week on nights and weekends.

And I have a sneaking suspicion that the new company IT department is going to be in touch about polishing up their systems to make them work well too. My hourly rate goes up for them if it does happen.

When eBooks are considered the same as dead tree books then there might be a reason to gripe about illegal copies floating around on the internet.

I can't check a current eBook out of my local library. The books available are old/odd/obscure. Why is this?

I can't buy a used copy of an eBook for a buck. I can do that with physical books at used book stores.

eBooks are priced the same or even higher than printed versions. Heck, sometimes they're OCR copies even though the publishers have the electronic version right there. The publishers are shooting themselves in the foot with this by making legitimate purchases undesirable.

Economics are the reason behind this. Publishers can't skim all kinds of money off the top when the costs are "Convert once to electronic version, pay royalties to author". They can gripe about piracy all they want but they're trying to protect their monopoly and keep as much money for themselves as possible.

While you're giving everyone access to the internet connection you pay for why not leave external electrical outlets available with a sign that says "Free electricity" and let anyone run extension cords to their homes. Don't forget water - let the neighbors water their lawns using your water. Ooo - can't leave out gasoline. Make sure you have a full 5 gallon container available to anyone who wants it.

Screw that noise. I pay for it and I'll use it. If you want broadband pay for your own. Can't afford it? There's a library down the street - go use their computers. Or find a business that has open wi-fi for their customers and leech off that.

Does this make me a bad neighbor? I don't think so. It shows that the sense of entitlement is alive and well out there but I didn't need a reminder. I see it every single day.

Not just ripe for abuse, but now borderline people will have more of a reason to lie to their psychiatrists about their inner demons. I can see APA hating this.

So all those liberal anti-gun "mental health professionals" can report any patient who admitted to owning guns as being potentially dangerous and have their guns stolen in the name of OMG THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

Does this include social workers with a basic degree and run group therapy sessions in the library community room? Is there some definition of mental health professional?

Someone, anyone taking my possession without my permission is stealing. Period. Just because they think they're empowered by law to take it doesn't mean I can't get fair value if they're not going to give it back. This isn't eminent domain. It's legalized theft. Didn't a bunch of people in some colony in the same general area start a war to prevent this kind of egregious behaviour? This would be a job for a well organized militia.

Oh wait...

Those are, IMO, the two things keeping e-book sales low. Why should the hardcover edition cost $15 and the e-book $14? For the extra buck I get a physical product that can never be taken away from me and that I can resell if I choose.

Publishers are greedy and don't want e-books to be successful. They give crappy OCR, non-proofed copies when they could easily create perfect electronic versions and do everything they can to drive the purchaser away from e-books.

I finally got tired of hauling books around and went with e-books for a very select set of series and use the public library for everything else. Publishers would get a lot more of my money if they didn't act like pricks when it comes to e-books.

It's that simple. Buy a wall charger (if you need to charge the phone during the day) and keep the thing completely off the grid at work. There's no way I would connect a storage device to my company network. They tend to frown on that kind of thing.

So where's the problem?

Enjoyable reading if you want to get some idea of what it might take to colonize Mars. All the problems listed are addressed there along with a bunch of others.

A Mars colony will be a Biodome project. They need to be as self-sufficient as possible since there's no alternative waiting outside the door.

I've got a business making gaming miniatures and while I prefer the look of hand sculpted ones 3D printing is what's becoming more common. Gee thanks for making it more tempting to get a 3D printer.