Facebook got rid of something that took away their control over how the users interacted with FB's pages. Is that surprising? FB wants direct interaction and monitoring of its cattle so that it can package up their information to sell to the highest bidder. Why would they tolerate anything that threatens that by giving users better control over their use of the site. It might hide some useful information that they are gathering by the inefficient design they have created.

Facebook: always remember you are the product, not the customer. The customers are Big Business (and now the NSA apparently) :P

This is why every single user should delete their FB account.

How about Rocky Wood as in "She likes to Rock The Wood" or something.

The whole generation thing is BS anyways. I was born in 1959. I don't fit that generation or the one after it very well at all. I like computers, am quite computer literate, I play computer games (mostly MMOs), I read SF and Fantasy. I have a smart phone, I use the web in a variety of ways on a daily basis.
I get very tired of being lumped into a generation that somehow doesn't get it or something just because of my age.

Now, I don't sk8, I don't use text speech abbreviations, I can usually spell, I have owned various game systems but got rid of them because I don't like playing them as much as computer games, but I get tired of being treated like I am from the Middle Ages too :P

In the original democracy of Athens, they had a stone wall in the center of the Agora (the marketplace) on which were printed *all* the laws which governed Athens, so that no citizen could claim to be unaware of them (if you couldn't read, you got a slave to read it to you etc). Hardly practical these days but indicative of the solution: we need a reduction in laws such that the average person *can* theoretically be familiar with most of them, or at least those which affect their lives. We need laws free of "lawyerese" phrasing or at least a commentary that spells out the impact in clear language.

These days we could post the laws on the Internet even, but not if there are 15 million of them :P

I think we are just more aware of it due to the Internet. Our western society has always been more or less free and equal around the edges, as long as the powerful and influential types are able to remain in control. When they can't, it shows its ugly side.
We live in a very polite, nice, and mostly peaceful Police State which has pretty iron control over things.

Having been in the high arctic (Baffin Island), in December, I have to say nothing beats a snowmobile pulling a komatik for moving across snow...

Me too :(

Ah, why is this being posted on /. now? They announced on Sunday that the next doctor will be an actor named Peter Capaldi. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0134922/?ref_=sr_1

This is about as stupid as can be. Its as if /. posted a story announcing Obama was elected president for a 2nd term, or that Bin Laden was dead.

Its starting to seem like the *only* reason politicians get involved in politics is so they can rake off the cash from political contributions and "favors" done by lobby groups, then when they retire, get a massively profitable position on a board of directors for some company that bought and for them while they were in politics.

Maybe the first thing that should happen when you get elected to any office is that your bank records and financial statements become a matter of public record, updated on a daily basis...

So essentially your politicians are a bunch of money-grubbing whores who try to get all the cash they can to ensure they keep their jobs. Moreover, because you have very frequent elections, they probably spend a lot of their time engaged in turning another lobby-group/corporate trick in order to keep the money flowing in so they can stay in power.

Does this leave them any time to actually try to do the things they were ostensibly elected to do?

Glad to hear it. Men may brush off threats and abuse on the Internet - and perhaps women need to grow a thicker skin in some cases - but the reality is that women who state anything remotely challenging are subject to harassment and abuse, and indeed death and rape threats on a regular basis. My wife gave up playing a few MMOs due to the *continuous* sexual harassment she received whenever she logged in - and this when its a given that every female character is actually a guy according to most male gamers (silly but it is the reason so few women want to actually admit they are female).

Were it not for the anonymity we enjoy on many websites, this would happen a lot less. That anonymity lets us post our thoughts and opinions freely and should be treasured (although seemingly its not really anonymity given the NSA etc) and its a shame that asshats feel compelled to spew forth idiotic and offensive vitriol just because they can - or because they were abused, or can't get laid, or are so obnoxious no one wants to be their friend or whatever other source of all that mindless rage and anger is. Trolls ruin the web for a lot of people.

I know there are a lot of websites my wife will simply not visit any more because bullshit like this goes on, on a regular basis. I sincerely hope they find cause to charge the guy who was arrested and he receives a harsh punishment that is well publicized if he is found guilty. Perhaps that might deter some idiots in the future.

Its a pretty rare film that I will actually go see in the Theatre for pretty much exactly the reasons you mention. I see maybe 1 film a year on average, 2 in a rare year.

I also got rid of cable for the same reason. Nothing worth watching for the ridiculous cost of the service.

I can wait to watch it on DvD or from some online source like Netflix (or Bittorrent for that matter).

In order to simplify the FISA applications, the NSA has simply divided the world into 4 populations, and by means of this 3 hop capability, the application can simply read "Group 1", "Group 2", "Group 3" or "Group 4", although there may be an "All of the Above" option, who knows.
In any case the applications are stamped as Approved prior to being completed.

But.. But.. Its Mentally Unstable and its got the intelligence of a 4 yr old. Surely its already *passed* the level of your typical CEO?

Sadly, they are stuck in the mindset that things were that way and thus will always be that way and that they deserve the profit margin they were used to in the market they understand, just because they are used to it. They don't want to adapt, and sadly the legal system is supporting them in the preservation of their outdated business model.
I too used to download tv shows, now I have Netflix and the BBC app for my wife's iPad and hardly ever consider downloading things because a CONVENIENT and AFFORDABLE method of obtaining those things legally is available to me. I am not surprised at the results in Norway at all.

The MPAA/RIAA just has to clue into the fact that they can make up their profits by selling to more people at a lower price, rather than fewer people at a higher price and still make some money.

Of course I am sure they are also worried that there will in fact be little need for them down the road as more artists and content producers cut out the middle men. That concern I understand.