You stick to your principles, I'll stick with enjoying a great game. A year before you do. At half the price.

Principles are all well and good, but blindly following them without considering things on a situational basis is just stubborn and silly.

That's a great idea. Going by typical NASA costs for things, the toys would only run 10-50k, and you could get yourself into a nice efficient compact for a cool $15M

Well as the other reply here kind of pointed out, what I meant to imply with that statement is that you do what is best for the business even if you don't agree or like it, and if it starts to turn into serious ethical issues then you look for a job elsewhere.

I think we can agree peoples' lives are a little different than files, right?

And as someone so astutely pointed out in another reply, if your employer violates your principles that much, find a new one. Otherwise you make concessions to do your job. That's why you're PAID to do it.

No, I'm talking about their day-to-day business before we even came along...MS Office docs are the norm in b2b transactions, and as a supplier the burden is kind of on you to take the crap your customer gives you. Some of the employees were just happy to have the more familiar Office experience...one comment was, "Oh, good, it's like the one I have at home now."

I won't even start on the cobbled mess his servers were in...however it starts with using WINE to host their ERP and goes downhill from there...

On the bight side, he did get a bunch of people to stop using IE.

And actually FWIW, I set up an Exchange 2k7 server at home (TechNet ftw) a few years back, having never set up an e-mail server, period, and I had it working fine in 2 hours, and it's still running to this day, because I am too much of a procrastinator to update it to 2010...

That would be a little overkill for 2 users, but it is a good point. I agree with your last statement completely. We acquired a company admin'd by a Linux-obsessed freak, and the people we hired on were quite happy about not having to send the occasional un-openable MS Office doc to the one person with Office to re-save and convert for OO.o use, and how well Exchange handled their email than Zimbra, etc. His over-adamant use of OSS was a hindrance on the business. As a sysadmin, you first obligation is to your employer, not your principles.

Of course, we're both going to get voted down because we are a bunch of MS sellouts, despite a full third of my servers/appliances running Linux and other OSS...

Oh, get off your high horse. A friend of mine was forced to buy a fucking Mac for a psychology-related major. This is insignificantly minor by comparison. The world is, has, and always will be full of proprietary crap, well outside the realm of software, get used to it.

Hmm, I have an idea. How about we use one of the most ferocious predators on the planet...the shark! And then, to make it unique, we need to add something. Something deadly, but impractical, for comic effect. How about lasers? Sharks with frickin' laser beams on their head...how's that?

Not sure where you are getting off accusing games to be bundled with 'crap widgets' ('widgets', seriously?) Xfire was completely 3rd party. I can't think of any games off the top of my head that came bundled with it, though I am sure there were a few. I used it once for like a week and got rid of it, I never used it, though I thought it was a pretty decent application.

I really can't think of any random crap 'widgets' other than Gamespy.../shudder. I'm, sure there are a few other random things I'm forgetting, but it's far from the deluge of crap that you are describing.

Then I must be an a-typical graduate. With a few exceptions, I learned shit. I just have an expensive piece of paper that gets me decent jobs.

Yeah I feel like I am watching an episode of Star Trek and they forgot to use the simple analogy so it all makes perfect sense.

Actually I quite enjoy single-malt Scotch (not Walker blended swill), something from Speyside preferably. Can't stand any sort of smoke though, so the cigar would be out. Also, I'm a big fan of port baby back ribs, served wet and smoked, or a NY Strip steak, moderately seasoned and cooked medium-well. The Wii Fit likes to debate whether I am obese or overweight on a weekly basis, I hover right around 30 BMI. So I think you could safely say I enjoy food.

My point is, you can do all of those things you mentioned without alcohol (It's quite easy to go to a bar and drink soda...I did it for years until I got a taste for good bourbon and scotch). Without food...well you kind of...die. I was just comparing and contrasting different restricted items as a part of my argument.

I was about to flame you for being a moron, but I thought about it again. This is like comparing a fast food meal to a pack of cigarettes. So at least there is precedent for such restrictions.

However, there are key differences. For starters, cigarettes are illegal for anyone under 18. Also, while both are quite unhealthy, cigarettes are far more so, and they provide zero benefit.

Now, that's not necessarily enough to consider it unjustified, but I think this is a slippery slope. What's next? Restrictions on video games to inhibit unhealthy playtime lengths?

We can't have the government protect us from everything...moreover the government shouldn't protect us from everything. We need to learn to be responsible for our actions and to resist the temptation of short term perks with long-term consequences.

So where should the line be drawn? Well, I think food is over the line. Most restricted things, like alcohol, gambling, and tobacco offer little or no benefit, where food at least offers nourishment and is necessary for you to live.

Considering the main point of the no-fly list is to prevent suicide bombings, combined with the fact that it's hard to arrest a corpse, I think the preventative method is a better choice.

(I am in no way endorsing the no-fly list, just using some sarcastic humor to point out the part the parent missed)