Michael Conway's sure got a kickass tan.

I wish this idea would die. The KKK Grand Wizard probably didn't really choose to be a hateful racist, it's probably a combination of an extremely poor upbringing (being taught to hate at an early age is going to be hard to reason your way out of), and poor intellectual character. A black man probably didn't choose to be black, but if a pill existed to change the color of your skin for personal reasons (hey! I want to be blue!) then one should be free to take it. And if one wants to choose to sleep with members of the same sex, then one should also be free to do so. Religion, of course, is almost always a choice.

These categories are protected, not because they are not choices, but because we as a society have agreed that they should be. Because we've seen some of the things that happen if they are not, and we don't want to go back to that world. Except, it seems, Indianapolis does.

A very intelligent and insightful comment. What are they going to do? Ask you for your gay card?

That's a pretty good question. The answer of course is that the laws on discrimination are fairly precisely written for a reason.

An organisation is not permitted to discriminate, either when hiring people or when doing business with them, on the basis of sexual orientation, gender or religion. Perhaps there are some other categories too. Whether or not these things are choices - some are, some aren't and some can be under various circumstances - is entirely and completely irrelevant. These are the protected categories enshrined in law, and signed into effect by your country's elected officials.

An organisation is permitted to implement things like dress codes (no KKK hoods...) and other rules about whether or not you are permitted in their establishment. The Klu Klux Klan is not a religion, and so it is not protected. End of conversation, and so no - you do not have to serve him.

It's little different to refusing to serve a guy who turns up naked, or shouting and screaming at your staff, or whatever. You can throw the guy out, and have the cops help you do it if you need them to do so.

I literally cannot believe that anybody would seriously hold that opinion. It's certainly not freedom for those being denied service, is it? Oh, they're free to go somewhere else, are they? Sorry - that's not freedom. Freedom itself is a woefully under-examined notion in the good old United States of America.

The cops showing up at your "target's" door because you rang the cops and claimed they were waving a gun around, or whatever, is not an "indirect" result of your statement.

It's a direct, predictable, and intended result. This is why the appropriate punishment would be attempted murder.

That the police in the US are a dangerous force that may be abused in this manner is an entirely orthogonal issue.

Some time around the same time that normal* police activity became referred to as a "war", I suspect.

* Not that I consider the current attitude towards drugs 'normal', but that's another story.

Not anymore. Things change.

Terse _and_ bloated?

Buying a soldering iron and some comics is somehow not going shopping? Or it's a better kind of shopping because it's a tool and a comic book? Geek elitism strikes again girls! You're nothing if you're not soldering and reading about super-heroes!

Mattel shouldn't be listening in to children's playtime conversations for any reason - but this doesn't mean that there's something wrong with playing with barbie and talking about nice shoes. This does not make you a "brainless bimbo". It makes you a child.

They're creepy too. It's worse when you're bugging children's playtimes, but we shouldn't accept any of those things in our lives.

That's a weak argument, and I even agree with you. The State is sanctioned to exact forms of punishment that individuals may not - imprisonment is illegal too you know.

Those are some pretty reasonable points, and the cables do seem to be more fragile than I would like. That said, micro USB cables are a bit worse, and the lightning socket is a great deal more robust than micro USB.

The circuitry in the charging cable isn't the problem anyway - the problem is Apple's business practice of charging companies a licensing fee to use it. This is something that should probably be prohibited by law, but since it's not you can certainly see Apple's point of view (more $$$, yes please...). The IC probably costs about 10 cents.

Well, USB has all the smarts at the other end of course. Display port cables do contain circuitry - or at least some do. USB to serial, or VGA, or audio, or whatever most certainly do contain circuitry. I don't disagree that it seems unnecessary to put an IC in the charging cable, but if you don't abuse the thing they do last.

Er, yes? It makes engineering sense too, put some smarts in the cable and then you don't need to include (for instance) line out amplifiers, or HDMI output, or whatever, in the device itself. Seems reasonable enough to me.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/remote-file-manager/id608738784?mt=8

This bears examination. Leaving aside the geek-elitism in this statement, could it not be the case that the average Joe wants to avoid thinking about his computer? The average Joe probably doesn't especially want to think too hard about his microwave oven, or his car, or his TV either. Perhaps the average Joe would instead prefer to think about something else? Something he actually wants to do, instead?