Is that anything like the Timesink Cavern?

Except that pairs almost always divvy the work between them in a very delineated way:

Partnerships between two people with very similar opinions and skillsets (the Coen brothers, for instance) are extremely rare.

In an episode of Top Gear from a couple years ago, Jeremy Clarkson was reviewing the Alfa Romeo 8C, asking "Can a car be a piece of art?"

He quoted an artist friend of his, who said that a car can never be art because art must have no function outside itself; it must only be a piece of art. He concluded that the 8C is a piece of art, because it's useless as a car, despite its utter beauty.

I agree; something industrial can be beautiful if it was created to be beautiful, and not simply engineered to meet a need or to fit a market segment.

I don't know about you, but if I wrote a book, I'd want to be dead before someone does something that makes me spin in my grave. ;)

I'm a deist, you insensitive clod! If God has to issue a patch, he can't do it without hitting Ctrl+C, recompiling, and starting over!

I think that's going a bit too far the other way. What about works that are released after the author's death, for instance? I think the estate (in most cases, read: family) should be able to benefit from the proceeds of a work for at least 5 or 10 years after the creator's death, or after the date of release, whichever comes later.

Lionel Hutz: "Murder one!?! Wow, even if I lose I'll be famous!"

Yes, but it won't make a sound while doing so.

Just because better security exists does not mean that people use it.

I use a properly secure passphrase on my credit card's website, but on accounts that aren't as critical (Slashdot), I use a simpler password.

P.S.: It's "hunter2".

I saw a piece of software that does something similar to what you're talking about; recently I watched James May's Big Ideas, they showed a camera that you wear around to create a lifelog.

The camera took photos every 30 seconds or so, and the software was able to divide sets of photos into "events"; it distinguished between the time the wearer was in the kitchen making breakfast, and when they sat at their computer typing up an article, for instance. I imagine that someone's created similar software for public use, then.

Easy. Just watch the Independent Film Channel all day. The movies you watch will most likely not be owned by the MPAA. ;)

You could also watch more foreign films, but be careful; in some cases you're just funding the MPAA's foreign equivalent.

While I have a chance to plug this movie while being on-topic: I recommend checking out With Fire and Sword. It's a historical epic, and since at the time it was the highest-budget Polish movie ever made, the production looks on par with Hollywood movies in the same genre (Braveheart, for instance).

I have no idea if With Fire and Sword is owned by an evil company, but it's a damned good movie, and at least it's not in the actual MPAA.

Or, from Bart Simpson's trial for the murder of Principal Skinner:
"Your honor, I move that Principal Skinner's entire testimony be stricken from the record."
" DENIED! Case dismissed."

Are you just bitter? I know plenty of young kids who are really interested in science, even more than I was at their age.

This may be the age of emo, but keep in mind that Generation X was the age of "Whatever."

I had a high school chemistry class just a few years ago where we cut open pennies, melted the zinc inside them, and flung the molten zinc out onto the counter. Only one kid burned his hand.

Compared to that experiment, soldering is safe. I would say "as safe as bowling", but bowling causes a fair number of injuries annually.

Yeah, I'd hate to be overcharged by -2^63 dollars! That would be tragic!