Just as YOU should not generalize populations.

I initially thought I would be the only person I knew who'd vote for him. However, when the topic has come up (the election in general), I've been pleasantly surprised by the number of people I know who - without my prompting or mentioning him - have said that they are voting for Gary Johnson as well. Of course, it's not ENOUGH people, but he has more support than I expected. I like many of you am extremely disappointed that the non-insiders don't get some attention. OTOH, I guess the "liberal media" may not be as liberal as some suspect, else the more dangerous-to-the-establishment candidates would get some air time.

after I read the article title:

I need some Xenon!
I'm holdin' out for some Xenon 'til the mornin' li-ight!
...

Bad 80s movie? You're soaking in it!

I imagine if you inject the original "Half-Life's" code into a system 521 years from now, people will stare in awe and perplexity as a crowbar emerges from the > and bashes their heads in.

That's always been my take on it. Depending on age, one could theoretically have purchased media (let's use music) on each of: vinyl, 8-track, analog tape, CD, digital tape (DAT), MP3 with DRM, then MP3 sans DRM. Probably extreme, but the point here is a sale of the same content, to the same person, could possibly take place seven or so times at retail price each time. I don't now and never have felt this is fair to the consumer.

Especially in the case of vinyl and metallic tape (including video tape), the physical media degrades with time and use; if (as the industry argument goes) I am purchasing the privilege to view/hear the content, then I should only have to purchase it once. If the material breaks down, or a better format emerges, I should be entitled to a copy in that format. I'll grant a small price to cover manufacturing costs if the item is physical, but if it's 100% digital even a small fee is indefensible if I've previously purchased said media rights, and THAT implies that I would be doing nothing wrong in obtaining a copy from alternate sources once I've paid my "right to consume" fee.

But... but... corporations ARE people!!!!

What a sad country we've built for ourselves.

I'm part of the minority (my impression, anyway) who thought the ribbon was a great improvement immediately. But this OS change doesn't appear to be a play to improve a desktop experience, it looks like a play to regain relevance a consumer market that has widened to include those who were not interested in desktop machines.

I think the misjudgment is that there are two markets - desktop and mobile/touch - that are being lumped into one. Design for both, dammit. 8 is going to be nice for tablets, I truly believe that. But for a desktop, it's just not making me happy at all.

Likely it is true that there are few if any pieces of software that are 100% perfect, but there is a huge difference in *knowing* that you are going to put out a product that *IS* defective, and when you know what those defects are, and putting out a product that you have tried your best to suss out entirely and in good faith believe is going to work for your customers. While both groups may be perfectly willing to support the product, the second respects their customer base and the long-term relationship they hope to build; the former wants your money today, and just prays that it'll be too much of a hassle to switch to another product once they've got you.

TL;DR --> Some companies don't give a fuck, some do.

I have to respectfully disagree here. I don't believe there is anything entirely private about FB (for that matter, I don't trust that I am guaranteed privacy using Gmail either, so interestingly your analogy holds - though in negative), even if that privacy was breached only from time to time via accidental release. And your information (I would not doubt in the least that this includes ALL of your information) is available to the highest commercial bidder. At least with e-mail/search system companies (be it Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail, etc.) it's *probably* only your search habits that are being mined (I don't work for any of them, and haven't done any thorough research myself - just wracking my brain for recollection of news, etc, in which e-mail releases or misuse occurred). Point is, it's a very open forum where it's safer to bet that you ought not to communicate things that you may regret.

I probably haven't been active on FB for at least two years, and last week I deleted my account. The shift in the nature of privacy weighed heavily among the factors that lead me to do so.

Switch to Etch-a-Sketch technology. It's wireless and is guaranteed to only contain information your people already possess, with no outside influence.

Not sure why you got marked troll. I agree, how much will the populace stand before an (or in Iran's case, another) uprising occurs? Syria and Libya should serve as warnings for Iran. I admit I'm not intimately familiar with all of the intricacies of the three situations; still, it appears that there are lessons to be learned.

I agree - I was insulted by this movie, not from a religious point of view, but as a lover of film! The multiple-voice dubbing for some characters, horrid green (or blue)-screen shots, terrible acting (they weren't all bad, but you can only do so much with the material at hand - see SWI-III for further examples), less-than-low-budget special effects - all contribute to the clear goal of this tripe: to put movie-making as an art form on trial in front of the world. See what can happen when we allow digital video recorders into the hands of rank amateurs!?!???!!? The horror, the horror...

Further properties of this "film" that are damaging to the image of movie makers around the globe: "sex" scenes that cause no arousal, death scenes with no on-screen interaction between attacker and victim, and parody with no wit, no clarity, and no true sense of purpose other than to be generally insipid. All of these things are an affront to cinema fans in every nation! We must NOT allow just anyone to make movies. We must stamp out those who only "believe" themselves to have a vision but have no true skill.

Oh, wait... we allow people in this country to freely express themselves as long as they are not infringing upon the rights of others? Oh, I didn't realize that. You mean, if we start clamping down on one form of expression that we find distasteful, it could lead to others wanting OUR way of expression suppressed? Oh, I didn't think of that. Never mind then, make your stupid movie. I'll just ignore it like I did Avatar.

I actually find 7 to be to be reliable and stable. I do wish that file management were more powerful and convenient (thought having grown up in the days of DOS, I have no problem doing what I need via the command prompt), but otherwise everything I want to run works, it doesn't crash, and the 64-bit version is snappy and responsive, and my PC is pre-i5/7 architecture.

I'll second this. I'm at least *ahem* years out of university, and I just finished "Brave New World" a few days ago. The last paragraph - "bummer" doesn't begin to approach it.