Mod parent up! These days I use a laptop rather than a desktop; it's just more convenient. But it's still my personal computer. I'm not dependent cloud services, or even in some cases even a network connection, to do useful work; and I control the software and data on my device.

I suspect that suppressing reports like that (and of course the Snowden coverage) is ultimately where this is heading.

From TFA:

'U.S. Customs and Border Protection media spokeswoman Jenny Burke said that due to privacy laws, “the department is prohibited from discussing specific cases.’’'

If only they were always so scrupulous in observing privacy laws.

Actually it's not an imaginary problem. Like an earlier poster, I currently live in Ireland. Before the levy, for most people, every trip to the shops meant more disposable plastic bags; just to carry your shopping home. Since the levy was introduced almost nobody uses the old-style disposable plastic bags; indeed many shops don't even offer them anymore. The massive drop in consumption of plastic bags, means a corresponding massive drop in manufacture of plastic bags; i.e. significantly less plastic entering the system in the first place.

Very true. "We're not winning the race to the bottom" is no cause for celebration.

Ah, the ever popular "everybody who disagrees with me is wrong and/or evil" gambit. Currently much in vogue with the NSA/MI5 and US/UK government spokesmen.

That may well have been valid back in the old J2EE days. But I'm guessing you are not familiar with frameworks like Spring (and the evolutions in the core Java platform in response). These days, it's simple POJOs, with annotations and dependency injection; no muss, no fuss. If you're writing a lot of verbose Java code (or you're bogged down in pattern mania) you doing it wrong; and working too hard!

Agreed. This is especially true when you have sizeable development team (or teams), and you're doing continuous integration and deployment. Once you accept the "convention over configuration" approach, Maven is a breeze to work with.

Agreed. The more compact design is way easier to scan for stories (and comments) of interest. Content and reading efficiency are more important than "style" IMHO.

FTFY. The theory assumes Perfect Competition, something that has become increasingly rare in Western economies. There are many ways for sellers to distort the market to their own advantage, and the buyer's disadvantage.

I agree that good investigative journalism is vital to our societies, and needs to be done by adequately funded professional journalists.

But there's a problem. Many news organisations largely gave up on this kind of journalism years ago. As is well covered in Flat Earth News many settle for just parroting generic stories from the wire services. This is why, for example, you often see the same stories (and even verbatim text) across multiple news outlets.

Back in the 1990s I used a Gartner service called "Talking Technology" (launched in 1995); basically a "podcast" on cassette tape, with a set of audio briefings on various technology topics delivered to subscribers at least once a month.

Other than being "on a computer", how is that any different from modern podcasts? Or deserving of a patent?

The thing with HHTHG is that, although the major parts of the plot are pretty much consistent, there are differences in the detail between the book, TV, and radio versions. So they are all worth checking out.

My personal favourites are the books. I've read the first three several times and still enjoy them. Once was enough for #5 though! And I've no plans to read the Eoin Colfer one.

I don't think BMW salesmen will be losing too much sleep over this. According to the second linked article the "truly groundbreaking" AI is not actually that smart; certainly not Turing Test material.

Or the slightly less recent past when Iraq was on "our" side; Saddam's Chemical Attacks On Iran 'Aided By US'.