The difference between this case and a murder is that while it is almost impossible to prove you didn't kill someone (the body could be anywhere), it is quite easy to prove that there is no child porn on your computer. You just give them the password and let them have at it.

The methods that they use to do this are actually quite complex involving creating test patterns and seeing if the correct result is generated. This is often on a much smaller scale than "does each core work" and it could test just the ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit).

The problem with a consumer trying to access this is that the test mode is usually hidden from the user intentionally so they can't break their chip. The way that you get into test mode varies from chip to chip, but can be any thing from a hidden instruction to pulsing the memory CAS and RAS backwards.

These two links go into greater detail.

I think the argument that many of the people who call it a monopoly are trying to make is this:

If I have a Ford truck, I can put non-ford replacement parts in it if they fit (compile for that architecture).

However the the apple app store would be akin to your truck not starting if you don't have all Ford branded parts in it.

Its not a monopoly in the actual meaning of the word as there is no-one forcing you to buy a Ford, but it comes back to the "I bought a physical thing, I want to do whatever I want with it" argument.

I live in Edmonton, not only would you be able to pull the cold air in from the outside in the winter, you would probably have to heat it too (it got below -40c this year).

I work for one of the cable companies(I shall remain nameless in that regard). The amount of customers that fly off the handle when there's a box update and the box reboots to channel 1, when they have set to previous channel, is amazing.

No, the scarcity comes from one entity buying all available resources and hording them. That's artificial.

Having seen memory leaks in every nontrivial Java program I've used (which, admittedly, is not many), I'm not certain about this. In C, memory management is hard, but that means that people think about it. In Java, memory management is implicit (which is not the same as easy), which means that people don't think about it. They don't think about the correct times to use weak references, and they end up leaking memory.

Java also has the distinction of being the language used for the only program I have ever seen with a CPU leak: Start it and watch the CPU usage slowly climb over the next few hours (while not actually doing anything, or taking any use input), until it's at 100% about 3 hours later.

The problem is not that there isn't that they need to raise taxes to pay for health care. Its that the US spends too much on its privatized health care.

Look to your neighbors in the great white north, they spend less per capita than the US on health care and I can get medical treatment without paying a dime other than taxes.

The concept that the government is not responsible for healthcare, as so many people are saying here, is so foreign to me that I had to re-read the sentence several times, just to make sure I got it. A government's primary responsibility is to see to the welfare of its citizens and to space exploration farther down the list.

Maybe you should start putting peoples lives above any other priorities.

I'm allergic to nuts (the people kind). Can I have a different airplane to fly in?

There is also the part that says you are not allowed to profit from crime.

That would probably be more applicable in this situation as the pirate bay is not technically copying anything.

The US is using various international trade agreements to push its views out in the world around them. So it may not be you personally, but it is the government that you as a country have elected.

The money is spread based on popularity (as far as I know) so you could simply think that all your money goes to the artists that you like, and that the vast majority of people who pirate the top-40 artists are paying into the pool for the top-40 artists.

As it is just one big pool, you aren't necessarily putting money in their pockets.

If you want to support more indie artists then simply buy the music directly from them.

Here in Alberta, Canada we pay 5% tax only