Who elected Jeff Bezos to the position "King of Each State's Tax Laws," anyway?

How do we cut this hostile bugger out of the loop? Can we modify the GPL so that he can't use that software anymore? Please, RMS?

It is as if they were the two countries who defeated the Nazis in World War II. It's almost like every other western country collapsed, and only the countries with the best intelligence and geographic advantage to apply it (i.e., water) avoided being occupied by Nazis.

I don't know how many people here have read "Between Silk and Cyanide," but it is worth reading. This system we are learning about (Echelon) pre-dates 9/11 and stems from the lessons that U.S. grandparents received during World War II.

What is this "article" doing on slashdot? The proposed idea is juvenile and not worth debating, but typical of the kind of nonsense that Libertarians think is worth their time to discuss.

Slashdot is not the correct place to post stupid Libertarian drivel. Or, if it is, may I delete my account?

Hardly. MIT operates a national laboratory (Lincoln Lab) and is essentially an off-shoot of the federal government. Yes, all schools take funding. Schools like Caltech, MIT, and others which operate national labs are extreme examples of federal entanglement.

I think that is blatantly apparent, but thanks for having the nerve to point it out.

This Aaron Swartz affair has guaranteed that none of my kids will be attending MIT.

These are not photons in free space being described. These are photons which have excited electron orbitals in some material.

Or maybe I will just use the multiple HDMI inputs on my display and keep MS out of my loop. Oh, that's right: I don't own an XBOX. I don't own anything from Microsoft. Whew.

"Just curious." I mean: I hope they had prior art of every amazon patent, right down to the color orange.

I wouldn't call her advanced coursework easy, but a resource that belongs on this thread: http://www.cs.utah.edu/~mhall/cs6963s09/

Mary Hall is a professor of Computer Science. Her recent work is related to compilers and parallel programming on GPUs. Her professional web page is something like an on-line open course, or the framework of one.

I came here to point this out and I am glad to see you have already done so. Yes, this paragraph makes it clear.

The NSA spies on anonymized communications. When it detects illegal activity, it investigates that as terrorism. When it determines that one of the parties was a U.S. Citizen in the U.S., it hands the investigation over to the FBI.

This provides zero surprise to those of us who have been following cryptome since before the Continuity of Government. Did you know that Kissinger has a position in the CoG?

Seattle, Washington and Washington, District of Columbia were the two cities with live tests of Trapwire.

Trapwire of course relies on facial recognition and other recognition. Seattle, Washington is in the same State of Washington that is mentioned in the posting title as being data-mined for faces from drivers' licenses and IDs.

This is nonsense. Assigning ignorant managers to "supervise" technical people is a hallmark of business-school thinking. Any competent technical person will abhor that environment, leaving the company with a department full of low-IQ workers managed by a know-nothing.

It really sounds like they tried to confront you in a "Now I've Got You, You SOB!" style of transaction. If that is what happened, avoid doing business with that client, ever.

If the client asked you what they should make of the copyright notices, that's one thing. If they immediately called you a "liar," that's another. If the latter is what happened, again, set them straight as to what happened, then don't ever talk to them again.