The kind of person who would waste that kind of money on a phone merits a phone that sucks.

The thing about systems is that you generally shouldn't need to think very hard to find a use for them, unless you have too many systems. You either buy systems to meet your needs, or you have standing needs that will tell you what to run on the thing.

Anyhow, the V1280 isn't an antique by any means. It was a really really nice piece of hardware when it was released, and I think that was just 3 or 4 years ago.

Oof. Never been compared to Ron Paul before. Harsh.

Sure. Metaphors only go so far. My point is I don't want others erasing bits of history that I depend on, and so letting people erase is kind of scary.

The actor is less interesting to me than the act; Big Brother itself is not scary, the acts that Big Brother did were scary. They would've been just as scary done by a big corporation in a "free" market ("Jennifer Government" is an interesting libertarian dystopian exploration of that) or done by some other social organisation.

I have. Perhaps you're familiar with the editing of history that was a theme in the work?

I'm not happy when people dig into forums and start scrubbing bits out of them; it means that if I want to keep an accurate history of things I can look at, I need to save a copy, and if I'm having an internet argument with someone I need to stash a copy of everything they say on my website (or at least ready to go up there) to preserve coherency.

For people who I think might try to disappear, or for people who frequently delete or censor their blogposts/discussion posts, I already do this, but it's a pain in the butt. I don't want it to be more common.

It's healthier for society to accept that people change than to let everyone reenact 1984 every time they get nervous.

It's pretty amusing watching people freak out over these things and call them nude-o-scopes and similar. Just like with gun-control laws, I don't care a lot about the underlying issue, but it's so tempting to take a stance just because the NRA folk are so bloody nuts.

Are you trying to say this is Harvard's "fault"? Surely I'm misunderstanding somehow.

To me, this is just a happy filtering out of some students who needed a lesson in humility and ethics. No fault to Harvard or the professor.

Anything that raises the hassle level to untracably do illegal/harmful activity will probably either catch or deter a reasonable chunk of the would-be criminals. We live with knowing that the locks we use in our homes could be picked, and if someone *really* wanted to take the time and the risk or spend the money, they could probably get in in various ways, just like we never achieve 100% safety from other crimes. That doesn't mean our safety measures are worthless though.

Masking ad hominem with a "sounds like" doesn't make it any less so. I am quite aware of what clinical depression is, for more than one reason.

Ad Hominem doesn't work that well when you don't know the person you're speaking with.

So cute when people get full of themselves and take on a title like that. Sometimes the depression is when that lofty self-perception is a kite that gets snagged in one of the trees of reality.

I suspect it's also that a lot of us became computer types after neglecting human ties to some degree, and once we get old enough we either come back and learn to deal with people, or we become increasingly lonely and unbalanced as we age. Sometimes both.

I'm impressed that the author (probably) thought of such a great title for the topic.

The definition I was using shows up first on that list. You may be very disappointed I am not using one of the other definitions provided there, but your URL undermines your argument.

And by tooks I mean tools. Sorry. It's late at night :)