Uh, no. But if I got 30 washes, and the car was cleaned 29 times, and one time it had mud on it, I would still pay for the other 29 washes.

They definitely could have played it differently. The fact that the disclosure post was removed quickly may indicate wrongdoing, that he realized he messed up. So, fine, remove the disclosed vulnerabilities from the bounty, but still pay the bounty for the others. If he had submitted each issue separately they would have paid the others that he didn't disclose.

It reminds me of those 'That's now how this works. That's not how any of this works' commercials.

Both my scientific curiosity and my desktop backgrounds thank you.

You mean google astroturfers, right?

You don't get out much, do you? They are firmly entrenched in the enterprise both in the PC and server markets.

So you're suggesting that a better alternative is to set the same password for every device instead of shipping each device with a unique password? I didn't say anything about "foolproof". I'm saying that shipping every device with the same password is not the only option, it's not even a good option.

It's not the only option is a single password for every device. They could just as easily plug it in to something, set a random password for just that device, and have a sticker print out with the password that gets put on the device. I've seen modems ship like that, with a 20-character password that is obviously random for that device (since it's printed on the same sticker as the MAC).

There are four things government is in a position to do better than anyone else: military defense, law enforcement, public works, and the erosion of liberty.

Well, you really should look up the literal meaning of "Symposium"

But were those laurel wreaths not for greek olympionikes and roman ceasars?

I see it as making the notion of a career politician obsolete, so that becoming a politician is no longer a way to lifelong wealth, and as such it would encourage those people to find their wealth elsewhere and leave the governing of the country to people who are legitimately trying to help.

I suggest that we give them a try before making statements like that as if they're facts. Congress (that would be both the Senate and House) have never had term limits since the Constitution was created. I would counter your suggestion by claiming that term limits would help combat the type of de-facto oligarchy that we see today.

Thomas Jefferson of Virgina wrote in 1789 that he saw term limits as necessary "to prevent every danger which might arise to American freedom by continuing too long in office the members of the Continental Congress". That wasn't the first time they were discussed, either. Back when states were ratifying the Constitution in 1787-88 statesmen like Richard Henry Lee viewed the absence of term limits (as well as other perceived shortcomings of the Constitution) to be "most highly and dangerously oligarchic". The Bill Of Rights was created to address the issues that many states had with the Constitution, although term limits didn't make it in. In arguing Jefferson's side, George Mason said about Presidential and Senatorial term limits, "nothing is so essential to the preservation of a Republican government as a periodic rotation". Female historian Mercy Otis Warren, born 1728, said "there is no provision for a rotation, nor anything to prevent the perpetuity of office in the same hands for life; which by a little well-timed bribery, will probably be done". There was also discussion during the 19th century, and also the 20th, but nothing got done primarily because the people who would be hurt by term limits are also the people who need to make them law. At this point it seems like it would require an Article V convention of the states to circumvent Congress and implement term limits as a constitutional amendment.

But, instead of your suggestions about what may or may happen with Congressional term limits, and considering the fact that we have never had them and that Congress appears to not be working for the people, I would suggest that we try them and see what happens after a few decades.

I think everyone needs to write to the people of Kentucky and tell them to stop electing Mitch McConnell. He is the poster boy for what is wrong with Congress. He's been a senator for 30 years. He's been involved with politics since 1964, when he was 22, so essentially his entire adult life. In '64 he graduated with a degree in political science and then began as an intern for a senator the same year. 3 years later he got a law degree, and probably decided that some sort of military service would look good on his record so he joined the Army Reserve and spent 5 weeks stationed at Fort Knox while in law school before being discharged. He assisted another senator, then was the Deputy Assistant AG under Ford, then got elected to his first office in 1977. I can't find any record of private employment not associated with a politician, despite the degree in law. Then he became a senator in 1985 and he's still one today.

The Center for Responsive Politics puts him as the 10th richest senator, with a worth between $9.2 million and $36.5 million. That seems like a hell of a lot of money for a "public servant" to pull down over 30 years, but that's why it seems like career politicians are there to serve themselves and not the public. That's a lot of votes that have been purchased over the years. McConnell is a great example of why every member of congress needs term limits. The notion of a career politician needs to be retired and replaced by ordinary people coming out of the private sector to help run the country, and then going back into the private sector once their service is finished.

Also, he looks like a turtle.

That's OK, ad-pushing technologies will inevitably be met with ad-blocking technologies. Maybe that will lead to an internet business model that does not rely on advertising. There's no law chiseled in stone which proclaims that advertising is the only way to make money from publishing content, there's only a lack of creativity when the largest, lowest-hanging fruit involves irritating your "customers" for a quick cent or two.

I thought it was called Ballmer peak...