Well, it certainly seems like M$ spent most of the last decade doing the exact opposite. Start menu - gone, working file manager - gone, busted arse copyright system - forced in and kept regardless, idiot ribbon - no choice for old system, phone gui on desktop - no choice basically a big old fuck you to the customers, again and again and again and well it's the M$ way. Critique them and expect abuse not a fix.

Sorry but it is illegal for government employees to participate in politics whilst on the taxpayer dime, during working hours. Whilst not at work, using you private equipment and connection, fine, have at it but when at work, electoral laws kick in and tax payer dollars can not be used for political purposes, well, at least they are not meant to be. These laws are being criminally flouted so often at every level in a corrupt marriage between government and news organisations, at the demand of their owners, the major multinational corporations, it all seems rather quaint to expect any of them to obey any laws at all any more with regard to elections.

In this case the facts here have nothing to do with Assange or rape, the fact here is the United States government after recent rather lethal shenanigans in Europe ie the Ukraine, in now on the out and Sweden just wants to make this particular political eye sore disappear and move on, along with creating a bit of political distance between itself and the bas ole US of A.

It is the prime example of the problem. Australia, did much the same with all research being required to generate a profit and Conservative political parties. As such all research that was for the public good but that could only be given away free was cut off. The problem is corporate psychopathic greed entering into science as other areas have already been exploited and there is a massive drive to do to universities and science, to match what was done to news organisations and pharmaceutical corporations, 'LIES FOR PROFIT'. When lies and token fines generate the highest profit than that is exactly what US led corporations will do, it does not matter the field or what associated fields also need to be corrupted or the possibly human life consequences, 'MORE PROFITS NOW'.

The problem is psychopathy, we have let them get in charge of government and corporations and they are doing exactly what they are genetically predisposition to doing, lying, cheating, stealing and killing, with a complete absence of conscience. From police, to schools, to hospitals to any area you can imagine, they are causing chaos in their mad rush for power and to feed their greed.

Bitcoin is doomed, not so much because of the many crooked things people associated with it do but because every con man and their dog want to start their own easy to mine at start currency and build up imaginary stockpiles of hundred of millions of dollars before releasing it to the suckers. Basically, they all end up eating each lunch and the fraudulent of impact forces legislation and because you can not legislate to include one or two crypto-ponzi-currencies whilst banning the rest, by law it is all or nothing and hence all will inevitably be banned.

Vested interest opinions rarely make any sense, generally being based on desires and propaganda, rather than facts. It is hardly surprising that governments would ban ponzi currencies. Every time some crazy new scam comes to and end, those who thought they were going to end up get rich quick millionaires run around screaming about, freedom and the right to lie, cheat and steal and fraud is protected free speech and, and, and, what ever else they can scream about in the childish rage about being cheated from cheating.

The real threat is not direct, it is all indirect, in the delusional world, of mass marketing, advertising, exclusivity and fads. Watch makers where already suffering in the, "why bother I have a clock in my phone and it also reminds me of the weather or anything else that might crop up and it provides me with usable screen space" market. So apple jumping in with pseudo pumped margins and marketing exclusivity will toxify the market and kill that faddish statement of wearing an exclusive time piece because 'er' 'um' you want to show off wearing a exclusive time piece because you are special because 'er' 'um' you can afford to buy one. That market collapses when it gets exposed for what it is, suckers trying to buy an image.

What a load of PR crap. It is more akin to, I think I heard a gunshot, time to drop a nuke from orbit it's the only way to be certain.

This incessant US bullshit that all forms of policing should be allowed to act as law en-FORCE-ment outside the purview of the courts is crazy and the direct reason so many of you are being killed by steroid rage junkies.

There is only one answer to idiotic requests like this, NO, sorry, fuck off, go through the courts, we don't trust you, which is, DUH, why fucking courts in the first place, WE DO NOT TRUST YOU. Courts are about forcing the government to prove the validity of any action it takes against citizens.

So how about this for a chant "I will pay a bounty of $10,000 for each ? person you kill", it's just words after all and words don't kill do they. Declaration of war, meh, just a piece of paper. Words can do great harm and must be used carefully and must be subject to the law, else fraud, bribery, incitement to violence, threats run riot and the physical actions they promote go out of control.

Let me fix this "authoritarians who see no problem with removal of privacy", with authoritarians who see no problem with removal of other people's privacy but are hugely resistance with even the slightest hint of the slightest infringement of their own privacy and are forever demanding more secrecy in their own actions.

Easy, calculate the number of position in the area where employers want to pay 50% of their current salaries and they know those existing employees will refuse the massive pay cut. So there are 545,000 positions available that pay 50% of salary of the positions currently filled. There are also a range of military and law enforcement positions, where they pay totally shit wages and conditions are absolutely crap and where they can send you to prison for the minor infractions and failed jock strap douche bags out of jealous hate will treat you in the most appalling contemptuous ways imaginable. Problem being they can not stick foreigners in those positions, so it is necessary to, free up the employment market, by managing salary and conditions expectations, by altering the employment base, by promoting the influx of more flexible non citizen individuals.

Because Boob, no one id denying you access to that property. You are just making an unsubstantiated claim that they are copying it, they are not stealing the content from you. Although routinely pigopolists do exactly that steal other people's content, claim it as their own and then sue them for it.

This obviously is pursuing the idea of declaring war on countries that infringe copyright, like as if those countries were forging a currency and seeking to bankrupt a country. So Hollywood studios declare war on a country, seek to kill 10% of the population and seize the assets of the rest because they systematically copied stuff.

Copying is not stealing, copying is not rape, copying is not murder, and copying is not piracy on the high seas. Got a civil dispute over who is the owner of the content solve it in the civil courts and don't expect the rest of us to pay for it.

Want to launch into a mass extortion scheme where the parents of children a subject to massive fiscal penalties, ten of thousands of dollars or their children's futures are destroyed in the courts, well, seriously fuck off, you are a sick fuck and we are not stupid.

So you are saying if I copy your clothes I should go to jail for ten years, hmm OK, 'er', FUCK YOU.

There is always the political statement route. Simply fly the plane to Diego Garcia and let the cowardly US military shoot it down. The pilot did have that map on his at home flight simulator and was practising on it (which would tend to indicate an intent to land rather than crash) and regardless of what anyone says, some one had to have cleaned up the wreckage and the Australian government made a really, really rather surprising amount of noise about searching for the plane as far away from Diego Garcia as possible, all the while pretending the Jidalee over the horizon radar system doesn't exist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.... It is also not like the US military has a history of shooting down civilian aircraft under hugely questionable circumstance. The Sherlock Holmes idea springs to mind "Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth."

Oh No, the shock, the horror, the pain and suffering of millions of slash dot users. 'ER' you know, you just could have skipped this story. I do it quite often myself, skip whole days even.

A developer of a free open source game engineer sought some feedback from the slash dot community and you take personal offence, hmm, do you have a vested interest in alternate products by any chance.

Personally the open source game engine market might do best by targeting a specific market that is not well served by 'AAA' game engines. Perhaps low violence networked board gaming simulations and taking them more in visually interactive directions. They do not take a huge amount of visual and audio development time and the focus is heavily on game play, gaming concepts and new ideas. A market that well suits indie development.