"have created a false environment designed specifically to validate their non-existence." try "have created a false dichotomy (good guys and bad guys in the spyware advertising business) designed specifically to validate their parasitic existence." Wow. I'd never have thought that Casale would claim such a high moral ground. Serious labour has gone into removing their stuff from spyware ridden computers.

"hey, I believe in AGW'

Well I don't.

I believe in taking care of the planet we were given, the best we can (which is compatible with a lot of environmentalist aims) I believe in taking everything the scientific/governmental elite tell us with more than a cup of salt and I'm sorry, this still looks like a major snow job, especially when people have to use phrases like "I believe in AGW" just so all the zealots don't jump down their throats.

Here! Just for fun jump down MY throat and have a good time about it. I believe that however you describe our origins, God did it and we are totally beholden to him in every respect-- and that includes how we use/misuse his planet. To me, his interactions with me support my conclusion that he really is who the bible describes. There! All you ridiculous zealots can "Ready, FIRE Aim" at me for that.

Actually, (and this is admittedly mere conjecture) it looks to me like the AGW is concocted as a way of maintaining the oppression of the third world. but anyway, I just refuse to BELIEVE in it and I'm shocked that among this tech community, who are by habit and profession normally so sceptical, we have to confess our belief in it just to be taken seriously.

and just think, now Neo can be treated!!!

The problem wasn't with the asking. It was with whoever stuck this up as general interest item. timothy?

We were a service/hardware provider and we made a killing that year that was completely erased by the doldrums in years following, Everyone had pushed forward their buying cycle into late 1999 so 2001-2003 were unnaturally lean years.

After they left the Ark, I mean...

Bruce assumed much in thinking that one idealism would promote high ideals in all other areas, even ones that are off some peoples radar. Open source people are not primarily saints. They're just people who are focused on fixing one piece of the pie -- the pie being an aggregate of all that is wrong with the world. They might just not get it "right" in all other areas. Who can?

(apologies to facebook)

Games are a reflection of cultural stereotypes because stereotypes are easy to understand and therefore facilitate the important thing -- the game play. The goal of game play/design is not "to reflect cultural diversity." Is there any profit in adopting this secondary goal? ----- "I should like balls infinitely better," she replied, "if they were carried on in a different manner; but there is something insufferably tedious in the usual process of such a meeting. It would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing were made the order of the day." "Much more rational, my dear Caroline, I dare say, but it would not be near so much like a ball."

Good law, good ruling. Maybe penalty is too small, but it's time to go after RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft and a whole host of others who set up 'authorities' to say what they want said, and then quote from them as if they were independent voices. As earlier reported on slashdot --- http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4079/125/

This whole thing interests me greatly. What is it about humanity, that we create societies in which the underlying rules are so often radically different from what is written down?

The US has a real problem recognizing anything outside its borders while demanding that everyone else in the world recognize them. But slowly, slowly, humility will come. It has to. The cure for pride is already here. It's name is trillions in DEBT!

This is such a clear case of if you can't win on your own merits, try FUD!!! I have watched the quality of Symantec Antivirus products steadily decline in quality while rising in price ever since the first Norton Antivirus (I'd be upset if I were Peter Norton, to have my name dragged through the mud like that). It's a trend I've seen among service tech's out there. "Problems on your PC? Oh, let's start by removing Norton..."