The US has like in your comments always had a checkered past when it came towards certain "non-freedom" acts. I think we could agree that all countries have certain tendencies. However, and this is the big however, there were always moments when the Americans stood up and said enough is enough. I am not saying it cannot happen again. What is different this time is that you have an America divided and polarized. Look at voting, that is absolutely insane.

You are either an MSNBC friend and hater of Fox news or vice versa. Fox news spreads the propaganda and calls it the news. Yes yes the "left" is doing this as well. You have movements in the US where and this is really funny in a sad way, that it is legal to shoot somebody and kill them because they "looked" at you the wrong way (I am looking at your Florida). It is acceptable to wave a machine gun around and accumulate rounds and rounds of bullets.

Take a step back remove the American flag, the cheering and so on. What would this be representative of? I will tell you a third world developing country run by a pseudo dictatorship. Americans are not willing to step up and admit this. Sure there are some that say things need to be changed, but they as in America on the whole doesn't want to change. It is always the "other" person who has to change not them. EXCUSE ME the "other" person is you.

Call the hippies lazy, dirty, smelly, etc. BUT they did change America and in many aspects for the better. Where are the Americans willing to stand up now? Oh yeah they are being branded as idiots and lazy slobs and one step away from Nazi-dom because they don't like having a two tier bus system. Again step back remove the constitution, remove the flag and think hard about what the country compares to. I always say if it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, its an effen duck.

BTW I am not happy or shadenfreude as I am a foreigner. I am actually quite sad and disappointed for I like America... America the concept is a very nice place...

Quick question what about the General who lied through his teeth when questioned by Congress and the Senate? Remember he LIED... Snowden did not lie, he just uncovered what was the truth.

Many think that Snowden is the culprit here, but frankly he is not because if it was not Snowden it would have been somebody else. The problem is the NSA was too zealous in its gathering techniques. It was only a matter of time before somebody would have said something.

You obviously don't know your own car makers do you? I grew up in North America, but live in Europe. Want to know a dirty little secret? I can get reliable low gas requirement AMERICAN cars in Europe. Around 1999 we bought a Jeep Wrangler and then took it to Canada. Since it was NORTH AMERICAN built we could import the car without problems. What was interesting was that the Jeep dealership who had to do some minor changes spent nearly 1.5 hours inspecting the car. We thought something was wrong and asked how come they took so long. Answer, "your Wrangler is Awesome it has so many efficiency features and electronics that I have never seen on sale here."

I recently had a discussion about this with an American and the problem is not the American car makers, but Americans. They want from their American car makers BIG FAT engines with BIG FAT chassis. Americans are not willing to go for the reliable low gas requirements cars because they are "wimpy" cars. The cars I drive here are American built and they are not wimpy. They might not have 600 HP, but who the frig cares since it is not that useful anyways. And even less useful in America...

Go figure, eh!

Huh Slashdot was better back then? Really? Colour me pink! I was there in the early days and it is still pretty much the same. Albeit the best improvement that was made is the rating system.

And how is this relevant? BTW did you know that PC's way back in the days of Mac used standard components? It is only Mac that uses stupid custom components giving them some of the worst repair ratings in the industry.

Excuse, but how is the GPL better than BSD in keeping knowledge?

Let's do a mental game here:

1) If a project is not updated then both GPL and BSD remain open source so long as you can find the sources.

2) If a project uses either GPL or BSD and does not make changes then you use those sources so long as you can find the sources. And no a company is not going to keep a link to the sources till the end of time. They will keep that link until the product is EOL. After that they don't care anymore hence information will be lost.

3) If a project uses either GPL or BSD and makes modifications then you might be able to find the sources. I say might in both cases because it depends on how the sources are used. Remember just because a project uses GPL does not mean you will see the modification. It depends on how it is used. Companies have no problems jumping hoops to avoid showing source code. Thus you will have the sources so long as you can find the sources.

Do you see the pattern here? GPL does not ensure freedom. If anything it assures that companies will jump hoops before giving out the sources. Hence I prefer BSD because at least then the end user will get a decent product that has a piece of software that is properly integrated.

I like capitalism, really do. I am a free market kind of guy who is a big fan of the stock market. BUT YOU SIR are a jerk who likes crony capitalism because it serves their purpose!

The free market allows me to buy or sell products according to how I see fit. If the European companies don't like to sell to people who will, in their eyes, see it as an abuse of their products so be it. You can disagree with them, and can even call them idiots! However, don't call them busybodies, and don't say they are making a mockery of civil liberties. For it is their civil liberty to be an idiot (at least in your eyes.)

I am going to have to agree with anonymous on this. Sure you think that nothing can go wrong. BUT if it were, will you be there to figure it out? Are you going to fix it? Probably not because you are already working on the next version of whatever you are working on. And that will be bleeding edge and your answer will be "upgrade it" and all will be fixed. Seen this quite often.

Let me ask what about the permissioning of /opt? Who owns it? http://askubuntu.com/questions/169314/default-permissions-for-opt-directory

Ah yes... So what this means is that if somebody screws around the system and changes the paths you app might break. Or maybe somebody saw a new version of python and decided to link to it. Yes whoever does that needs to be take outside to the woodshed, but it does not stop the task from happening. The problem is not that you can manage things, but whoever gets the box after you and they don't understand.

BTW if I ever have to get into such a situation my best approach has been to install everything under a specific user (meaning into their home directory). That way the user cannot break the app, though the user can have their app broken. That to me is a much better compromise and easier to pinpoint when things do go wrong.

Not so quick... The design of the BB keyboard is original. If you have ever held one in your hand you would see what I mean. There is a slight pitch and the keys are angled a certain way. I am no fan of BB keyboards, but I can see the attraction by some. This is a blatant copy, and does deserve to be sued. For example this is like Samsung and its phones. They are blatant copies. In contrast look at the Sony Xperia's, or the Nokia's and you see original design.

And this is a problem how? It is called competition you know, a free market you know. And guess what I am mucho happier that Google is competing without clubbing everybody over the head using patents. You know like that Fruit company?

And how is this relevent to the discussion? So instead of having a pretty note in the suitcase he gets to battle the border in person? And that is an improvement how?

Actually French films are rather good. But as another poster said, Americans tend to remake French films. With an example being the original French film, "Anything for Her", being played by Russell Crowe or one you should know... "True Lies". Or did you know about "The Tourist"? I am not going to espouse that French films are superior, they tend to drivel quite a bit at times. However, to say that they have no talent shows that you are ignorant on movies.

We have been going through this phase out (Switzerland) and while I was using "neon" tubes and halogens I am switching to LED's. They are awesome. Low energy, last forever, very bright, and do not generate any heat. IMO LED's have come a very long way in a very short time.

Really Netflix works? So tell me Einstein how much of a presence does Netflix have outside of America, Canada, and the UK? OH NOT MUCH! If they are so much the A players and A team and best on this planet why on earth are they not in the vast majority of countries? Oh wait in the UK they have competition from Love Film. This is what gets me with "american" thinking. And I don't want to stereotypify here because not all Americans are like this.

It reminds me of Walmart who thought they could tromp into whatever country they wanted because they were the best. HA! They had their head handed to them on a platter in Germany. Netflix reminds me of this.

Their idea that you only hire A players is actually not a good idea. The growth of a company relies on innovation and innovation as much as managers dislike it does not come from conformity or some check mark system. My wife who is a fairly high manager knows this all too well. Innovation is a damm nebulous thing that comes from the oddest corners and from the oddest people. What is needed is a mixture of people who are hardworking, and dedicated to the cause. No more, no less.

eh?

Saying that home made amateur porn is love and the rest ain't is being a tad bit over simplistic. Sex is there for the enjoyment, believe it or not. Seriously think about it from a biological perspective. If sex were a pain in the arse (heh heh heh) then we would not be doing it because it would be too much effort. For example imagine our society relied on the fact we needed to lose weight. We would have mucho less people right now because even obese folks want to have sex. Thus because sex is very enjoyable we try to do it however, or wherever we can. Some more, some less. Don't believe, read over the Bonobo monkey, google "bonobo monkey sex". Its a hoot, and if that ain't an example of nymphomania I don't know what is.