As I've read elsewhere on this site, you'll also need the source code for the compiler. How far does the paranoia have to go? Maybe I'm in my depressive cycle or something.

It may have been obvious in this particular instance, but it's still incorrect, it's still irritating and it still intrudes itself into what was otherwise a fluid transfer of information. Maybe I'm just irritable, but the irritant itself is avoidable and unnecessary. We already have a phrase that means "raises the question": it's "raises the question". It's not at all clear to me why that one could not have been used.

By the way, I'm not having a go at cold fjord who simply quoted the passage. Just wanted that to be clear.

Sure, but why work with millifurlongs or whateverthefuck it is that imperial unit people work with?

Nice: http://xkcd.com/37/

AV software is like car insurance, most of the time you are just paying for nothing but when you actually need it, it's pretty damn helpful.

I think a better model is preventive maintenance, which is aimed at stopping it go wrong in the first place. Insurance is about collecting a payout if it does go wrong. Presumably indulging in the former might lower your premiums for the latter, but it's not clear to me how that applies to the AV scenario. I never took insurance against viral infections on my computers.

This phenomenon begs the question: How do jihadists reconcile such hypocrisy and ingratitude in their own minds?

No it doesn't. To any language curmudgeon curmudgeons out there who tire of this apparent nit-pickery, I can only say that getting this shit wrong interferes unnecessarily with communication. Why I should have to carry more than my own 50% of the load of the task of communication is quite beyond me. What's wrong with getting it right?

2) Enact some sort of acceptability voting (e.g. instant run-off), starting with local and state elections and building support for federal elections.

We have that here in Australia in most jurisdictions. We call it preferential voting, as you probably know. Just in case you don't know, there are two distinct flavours of it here: optional preferential voting and mandatory preferential voting. In the former, as in the elections in the state of New South Wales, you need only allocate preferences to the candidates you want to vote for. In the latter, as in the federal elections, you must number EVERY FUCKING CANDIDATE.

Seriously, if you take instant runoff, make sure you take the OPV flavour of it. Do NOT force your voters to vote for candidates they don't want.

The american government at this point is pretty much entirely owned by various corporations and private interests that don't represent the thoughts and will of the american people.

Unless you're willing to allege (and, preferably, to prove) that a non-trivial percentage of the votes are physically corrupted/subverted/whatever, then these various corporations and private interests very much do represent the thoughts and will of the American people who bother to vote.

Yes, I did read the rest of your post; my point is that the vote -- assuming it is a fair one -- turns out overwhelmingly to favour the status quo.

What I think I saw you do there was rename "objective truth" and "subjective truth".

There is no evidence God does not exist, just as there is no evidence he does exist; therefore, atheism requires just as much faith as any other religion.

It would, were atheism to be what you seem to think it is. Atheism is just a lack of theistic belief. It may or may not lead to a positive belief in the non-existence of a god, but it doesn't actually mandate one.

It's possible to be an open-minded atheist, you know; a talking, burning bush might change my mind, at least in principle.

If it's a mature tech, I'm all over it; sign me up then. Until then, don't let them near me when I'm asleep, OK?

What's the difference between mind uploading and immortality?

Wait a minute... doesn't that restrict your Federal government and not your State governments?

When I buy a car I expect it to wear down and need repair from time to time. I do not expect the same of a right to watch a movie / listen to music / play a game.

Car manufacturers do not get anything on resells. Nobody should. First sale doctrine and all that. And yes, I know that publishers claim that they license a right to use software instead of selling that right. But I rather suspect that all falls over when you want to exchange a scratched CD/DVD; you'll have to pay for the license all over again.

And how is "I know that doing this job is going to piss people off, but I choose nevertheless to do it" not the thinking of a selfish prick?