No, we're calling them magnets now. The next step is finding out how magnets work.

I'm totally against spying on our own populace, especially by the NSA which wasn't created with that intent at all. There is some reason they are doing it and we need to find out why and who is having them do it. Are they acting outside of government authority or is someone in government endorsing what they're doing? If the NSA is acting on it's own abolishing the NSA might be a solution. If what they're doing is being authorized behind closed doors getting rid of them won't change a thing, it'll just put a different label on it.

What I was getting at is we don't know the full extent of what they are doing. We know they are spying on us. We don't know what they are doing for us, if anything. They probably can't tell us exactly what they are doing to benefit us because it would wreck that part of their mission. We're in a Catch-22. We need to find out whether they work for the people or someone else, and go from there.

Are you honestly expecting an agency with license to lie to give honest testimony?

This may destroy my karma...

The NSA is (theoretically) in a position where it cannot tell us what it has done for us. There may be all sorts of things the NSA has done to protect our nation. Publicly disclosing those actions could wreck their whole mission. We should consider, as IT professionals, that we're in a similar boat. We can't always tell the customer/client exactly what is going on, and even if we do tell them they're unlikely to fully understand. We definitely don't tell our customer's competitors what we are doing.

The real issue with the NSA is this: who is the customer?

Finally! A government admits it's policy is intended as satire! Kafka is doing the Green Back Boogie in his grave.

I agree with A, it makes sense. B, not so much. I don't see how the US could seize real estate on foreign soil through a court action. They could try, but I don't see Ireland (in this example) agreeing to let them have the land.

Or consider this: I am in Ireland and I steal a phone from someone at the pub. I fly back home to the US. The Irish authorities are able to determine who I am. Can an Irish judge issue a warrant to search my house in the US?

Consider this scenario: I am a US citizen who owns a house in Ireland. I commit a crime (in the US), say selling drugs. Can a US judge issue a warrant to search my house in Ireland? Let's say I am convicted. Part of the ruling is to have all of my property connected to the crime seized (by the US DOJ). Can they seize my house in Ireland?

The initial hardware is cheaper with HDDs. Operational overhead might be entirely different. An HDD needs to be plugged in all the time (consuming power) while a Blu-Ray (or DVD for that matter) does not. Also, an infrequently accessed Blu-Ray, stored properly, is likely to have a much longer shelf-life than a drive that is always powered up, leading to lower overhead in the form of replacement/recovery costs.

Not to mention there are things available by torrent I could not buy if I wanted to. For examples: 1) Linux-native Half-Life 2 that doesn't require Steam. 2) Windows 7 that can be installed to, from, or run from a USB flash drive. If these corps would stop slinging artificially crippled tech I'd pay for it.

Nah, you just need another voodoo chicken! Damn kids...

When the corporations can provide me with a superior product I might decide to pay them. But right now, I have a native copy of HL2 for Linux that doesn't require Steam. I have copies of just about every version of Windows which can be installed to and run from flash drives. Neither of these things can be legally purchased. When "they" stop artificially crippling technology I might pay them for it. Of course, I'll probably have my own army of open source killbots by then.

I would actually pay to watch that. Kickstarter, anyone?

The issue here is that our youth are not learning how to learn. Core teaches them several very specific things and often gives our youth the impresssion that nothing else is necessary. Core does not teach our youth to question and test the validity of information. We are teaching them rote memorization. Yet, we excpect new ideas and innovation?

Parent is right, a $1000 transportation tax would be terrible for poor people. I have poor neighbors who can't even afford a junker that costs $1000, let alone an extra tax on top.