Wait, what? You actually modded him "Troll"? Why would you do that? It's hilarious. Didn't you catch the part where he went PAST trolldom, going further, into enlightenment? Come on people, have a laugh. I mean really, "chromed moon"? How can you not love that?

Maybe Poe's law is in full effect. When the stance of the opposition is so weird that you can't tell them apart from the people parodying them for a laugh.

And then, children, they say he dipped so far into trolldom that he emerged through the other side, enlightenment radiating off of his shiny bumper.

... unless you specialized in something that's still used, and the company you're at still uses it or some other company out there needs it.

I mean, if the "thing" you did for those 15 years was streamlining TCP traffic in assembly, then you could go make $500,000/year as a quant dev on wallstreet. If it was abstract computer generated graphics in turboPascal... then not so much.

So yeah, it depends on where you are market-wise. Sometimes specializing is a good idea. Sometimes it pays to be a generalist.

Personally? I went with embedded C and every now and then dip into general business applications just so I'm not super-specialized. But so far, low-level C has been a stable bedrock for a career. And I don't think I'm being too optimistic when I say it's probably going to stay that way.

Yeah, no shit. I tried to pick up R when I was putzing about with the rules of Risk. Wanted to find out how to balances this abstracted army-combat thing for a D&D game. Turns out even if you know the syntax and coding paradigms for the language, that doesn't magically teach you a damn thing about statistics.

Pft, please. Really? This is what you think is going on in people's heads? This is the sort of laughable caricature that I don't even have to refute because most people are going to read that and think you're an idiot. You're not helping the reputation of police officers if this is what they raise their kids to believe. You can't even fully stomach it yourself because you know it's flamebait.

Right, that is almost EXACTLY why this is such a problem. Most of them aren't professionals that do the right thing even if the path is hard. To most cops, it's just a job and they want to go home at the end of the day. They will not rock the boat and blow whistles. They will come into an established system that looks out for their own and they will do nothing to stop it because that's the path of least resistance. They are complacent and comfortable. This isn't just limited to the cops. It's one of those more universal problems. I've seen this a lot in engineering. You'd hope they were professionals, cared about doing a good job, and not just there to punch in, turn the cog, and punch out. But no, most people just don't have that fire. Anyway, YES, the initial point you made is utterly true and the root cause of the problem at hand.

HAHAHA, even after I lambast you for assuming an antagonistic stance you still double-down and put up your dukes. And you still don't have any idea why people distrust cops. That's kind of adorably cliche.

Seriously though, ask your dad the question. Post his answer and what sort of conversation you guys had after that. A youtube video would be best. Given the shit in Ferguson, it'll be pertinent and insightful.

I think the we've done about as much of that as possible. I mean, hundreds of thousands of dead civilians isn't exactly "stable".

Would a nuclear Iran be destabilizing? I imagine it'd be as destabilizing as a nuclear Israel. They haven't nuked anyone yet, and hopefully never will.

Seriously though, what do you think would happen if Russia gave Iran a handful of nukes? Spell out the scenario. I'm honestly interested in what you think.

Now we DON'T INVADE IRAN!

And then they lived happily ever after. Seriously, do you WANT to invade Iran? WTF is wrong with you?

Do you want a M.E.R.C.S jamma board?
I gutted an old busted arcade cabinet for a mame machine. The monitor was dead, but the sound fired up, so the board is... probably... ok.
I've got no use for it and it's been cluttering up my basement for a while.

Might as well throw in my own picks:

Final Fantasy VII (Just because it was my first RPG, which dates me)
Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night
Metal Gear Solid
Final Fantasy Tactics
Chrono Trigger
Super Mario Brothers (Just for it's legacy)
Zelda
X-COM
Civ (the first, and possibly IV)
Nethack/Slash'EM/DungeonCrawl
Whatever the latest RTS game is: Dune / Warcraft / Starcraft / WC3 / C&C /SC2
Scorched Earth
Exile
Natuk
Dwarf Fortress
Spleunky
Minecraft
Portal
Gish
Tori-Bash
Kerbal
Thief

Wait... Boardgame/tabletop?
D&D
Shadowrun
Paranoia
Chess

Yeah, that's right mods, label that as funny.

A quick solution to this problem is for the USA to ship a pallet of nukes to Ukraine. Or even just the fissionable material. Even on the sly.

Ukraine would announce it's a nuclear power again and would detonate a bomb on it's soil between the currently contested cities as a giant "BACK OFF BITCH" to Russia.

Then it's Russia's move.

Sane first world nations don't invade first world nations. It's time to remind people of why.

I think I've spotted a bad apple. It just takes one to spoil the batch.

Did you see me insult your dad? Did you miss that 'if' statement? Why are you presuming I'm attacking you? I honestly DO want you to ask your father this question and see what his response is. Hey, maybe he DID report them to his boss. In which case that would make him a "genuine good guy". Maybe. But I'm trying to explain to you that that's not what appears to be the common state of affairs and perhaps you could use this insight to try and understand why people view the cops the way they do. But no, you just lash out at me.

Why is that? Are you prone to violent outbursts? Quick to anger? Do you assume that everyone is an opponent and you need to fight back?

Hey, maybe the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree.

Pft, if they seriously cross the line they'll arrest you, take your camera, and delete all the contents. Or just lose it all.

The cops in my hometown of Omaha got in trouble when a third-party was recording their actions (being rough with someone in cuffs on the ground) who fled when they approached. They chased him into his home, arrested him, and confiscated his camera, which was then "lost". The only reason they got in any trouble at all is because a 4th party recorded it all from inside a building across the street.

End result? 3 police fired, two of which with felony charges against them. Would any of that have happened without the 4th party's involvement?

"Ordinary" people can't bust into the police's office, forcefully confiscate their cameras, destroy all the evidence, and then have a court rule in their favor when people complain. That's a special power that is reserved to the officers tasked with upholding the law.

That's a damn good roadmap.

Ask him if these jackasses ever did any stupid shit that he observed. Did he arrest them? Did he report them? Did he let it slide? Did he cover it up?

If he answers more towards the later, rather than the former, then he wasn't a "genuine good guy". Everyone I've ever talked to with ties to a police department swears that the majority are good apples, and yet the entire police force seems to look after their own when shit hits the fan.

It's a good idea, don't get me wrong. It's about time we used this ubiquitous cheap technology in an obviously beneficial way. It's a good move, and one I support.

But either after this comes about, or as part of the deal, the content of that camera needs to be stored offsite and specifically out of the reach of the police officer. Otherwise we're going to see a lot of data simply go missing at convenient times. To be frank, we can't trust police departments to hold onto evidence that could incriminate themselves.

And any evidence that an officer tampered with their camera in an effort to suppress incriminating evidence should be dealt with exactly as if they had destroyed evidence. Because that's what it is.