This fast lane/slow lane analogy makes this sound more reasonable than it is. Netflix, or anyone else, can't pay to have their traffic go faster. They can only pay to have someone else's traffic go slower. ISPs are talking about taking bids to selectively slow traffic. How, exactly, is this different from a denial of service attack?

GMO can introduce proteins into foods that would not otherwise contain them, which could be life threatening to people with food allergies. This is a concrete reason to require labeling.

> Does Piriform's request have merit?
Did you read the article they are complaining about? It reads like a how-to to rip off Pirform's data. The subtlety of winapp vs. winapp2 may have gotten lost somewhere. But statements like "The Open Source disk cleaner Bleachbit takes advantage of this as it can import all of CCleaner’s cleaning locations." sounds like a real problem.

Is this a poorly worded article or is the author suggesting taking Pirform’s proprietary data? Does your organization support/encourage people to take Pirform’s proprietary data for use in BleachBit?

The winapp2.com site seems to list a data file from Pirform, not the community. This may not be your responsibility, but it certainly puts the whole community into question. How closely aligned are you with that community?

> What is a good response to avoid any ugly situation?"
I would expect you to be an expert in these tools, this market, and the winapp2 community. The fact that you are asking us these questions suggests you are not. Do you support the article? Do you support the use of anything proprietary to be used by BleachBit? Does the winapp2 community support anything inappropriate with Pirform's data? You should take a position on all of these items. Even if what you are doing is technically legal, how you present yourself can attract unnecessary trouble.

> Do I need a lawyer?
Who knows. So the only safe answer is "Yes". But, this is as much of an image issue as it is a legal issue. You might need a marketing person to explain this as much as a lawyer.

I'm sure something happened here, but all RT reports is a summary of the blog entry. I've watched RT (it is broadcast over the air in my part of the U.S.) and it is most certainly not a neutral source. Did anyone review the police reports? Get the scoop from a Delta spokesperson? Talk to his wife, or another passenger in the area? Surely the TSA and airline industry have earned their reputation. But there are also people looking to paint them all in a bad light. This is very disturbing if true. I want to see some independent accounts before I believe I understand what happened. Hopefully some other news sources will pick up the story.

I was about to post the same thing. Here in the Maryland, Comcast and Verizon are battling it out for Internet, Voice, and TV service. Comcast service (delivered and customer service) have improved many times over sine FiOS showed up. But Verizon has been offering fantastic rates guaranteed for 2 years with no contract so I finally switched in January. A little competition is a wonderful thing.

One more for Doctors without Borders / MSF. I ditched ARC in favor of Doctors without Borders about a decade ago after one of the many publicized cases of mismanagement at the ARC. Hey, try this: I just googled '"american red cross" mismanagement' and '"doctors without borders" mismanagement". The results for the ARC are about problems at the ARC. The results for MSF are how their services are needed due to others' mismanagement. If you like the kind of work that Doctors without Borders does, then they are deserving of your support.

A degree isn't only about training. It is just as much evidence that you can set a long term goal and achieve it, and jump through all of the hoops necessary along the way. After hiring a number of people with and without degrees, I find it says a lot about their attitude towards how to accomplish something. I'm not saying it is bad, only different, and that employers pay attention to those things. I would add to other advice here that you should highlight long term accomplishments. If you set up and ran your own consulting business for a while, that would help to convince me that you are not looking to just hop from the easiest thing to the easiest thing and can really persevere through the BS to get the job done.

Metrics are valuable if you do the same thing repeatedly. If you build a new building that is like the previous one, you can collect metrics and compare your performance against history. If you write the same search algorithm again and again, you can collect metrics and compare to see how your performance changes over time. Of course, with software, you never repeat. Somewhere around the third time, you move it into some form of library, reuse it, and start on a fresh problem. Perhaps metrics are helpful in some situations, such if your team keeps repeating the same mistakes, you might find similarity in those mistakes (code smells.) There are plenty of people working on these problems and tools. But, from a management point of view, if you keep doing the same thing, you are doing it wrong, and code metrics are not going to help much.

Your boss has a job to do. He/She may not like it any better than you like yours, but that's the job (and why it comes with a paycheck). Figure out what they are trying to accomplish and help them do it. If you do this, everything else mentioned above will fall into place. If you don't know what their goal is, ask. If you can't help them achieve it you need to either change yourself (maybe a little less ego) or find another boss.

By far the thing that bothers me most about text messages is paying for the privilege of receiving SPAM. If they pick a price point that puts an end to SPAM then this is a great step. But, I don't suppose that could happen. Given the money they make from the receivers, they'll make an exception for the spammers so they don't cut out that revenue.