Most people don't have to ask. Out of all the comments I read, only yours had any issue with this.

I meant "they", the Slashdot editors. Just in the summaries of a couple of today's articles:
NASA: http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/04/20/2245215/canadian-bureacracy-cant-answer-simple-question-whats-this-study-with-nasa
DARPA: http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/04/20/2146258/hypersonic-test-aircraft-peeled-apart-after-3-minutes-of-sustained-mach-20-speed

You're being silly. If you're on slashdot, you already have a connection to the internet. There's no reason you can't lookup things you don't know.

Then it was already explained in your comment's GP... It's a mod for a game you hate.

It's pretty common knowledge. They never spell out DARPA or SOPA or NASA, do they?

Slashdot is falling apart with this scheme, you're right. WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

You missed the internet when WC3 was in it's heyday. Never checked out blizzcon or the like.
You aren't between 19 and 30 i'd guess.

My point is, any contract can give both parties grounds to sue (and a likelyhood to win) regardless of whether or not anything malicious or illegal was done.

So just because I don't want to sign a document that could be used against me maliciously, I'm a thief in your eyes? You just said there are laws that would make my appropriation of someone else's concept illegal. Why should there be anything more than a record of what was told to me?

So just because you might be employed in the future, you should not engage in public discourse now?

If any company specifically poached from non-NDA companies, there are already laws in place to take care of that kind of behaviour.
Copyright, trademarks, antitrust, trade secrets.

Someone gets into contact with you because of your programming niche.
They probably are going to present ideas that are similar to what you've worked on in the past, based on that assumption.
You sign the NDA, giving them a green light to sue you while employed in your niche, because you're working on projects that are very similar to the idea that the NDA covers. It's more of a CYA move than a moralistic thing.

Hell, I wouldn't sign anything unless it gave me something in return. That mortgage, club membership, tax form etc. all present me some sort of utility in exchange of being bound by their terms.

Also, why is being idealistic bad? Compromise is a concept that's existed for quite a long time.

He's not talking about employer-employee relationships, or a business-client relationship... he's talking about signing an NDA before actually doing business is even on the table.

Sorry, but if you'd rather limit your employment options and increase liability without any real monetary recompense, it's just a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

I think he lets hundreds of people poke around in his innards.

I'm really not interested, but hey, First Post.

I'm licensed for private security in ontario. Seems like a legitimate question, in the right industry. Also, someone who went through the process of obtaining the legal right to carry is more likely to be an upstanding citizen than someone who hasn't, but does anyway.

I think this more sidesteps questions like "Do you have recent experience dealing with this kind of information, were you ever cleared to deal with this kind of information, why did you lose your clearance?"
If they have it already, you know they can receive it again, later. Employees are a long-term investment.

Maybe, but what are the chances someone like that is actually qualified for the position they are applying? KKK/social service or westburough baptist church/medical degree don't exactly have a whole lot of overlap.

The US has double the landmass and a slightly higher GDP/capita, which is probably because the population is less dense.

Why is that a bad thing? Also, he's incorrect, as there are two types of errors, syntax errors and exceptions.