I was a little miffed when I got the notice about LJ going digital with 6 months left on my sub, but I have tried the Android app and have been pleasantly surprised.

"Son of a bitch," he cried. And so ends the saga of: "The Last Person On The Face Of The Earth To Be "Rick-Rolled"...

First and foremost, it has to account for budget, and the rationalization thereof. It's scary how often suits (and more and more "engineers") say things like "Come on really; how often does that kind of thing actually happen?" This is usually uttered after staring at a couple dozen slides of metrics that detail exactly how often it happens...

I agree with points 1 and 4, but point 3 just sounds like it would come off condescending (you know how we ugly, stupid Americans are). I am curious though on the actual number of French-Majoring drive-thru attendants... But yes, I agree it's our own fault for continuing to give money to corporations (you know, the Job Creators) that outsource and offshore everything. But hey, the invisible hand of the free market will correct all this soon, so I'm not worried (except for the fact that the invisible hand will have a gun or two in it). Oh, and when you tell others "Be nice or shut the fuck up," why not teach by example? I know plenty of Americans who have no issue with bedpans, and they worked their asses off to get the opportunity to change them.

Whether you call it capitalism or communism, it's all just plain Greed. Whether you spout BS and claim it all for the "Good of the Motherland" or "Good of the Shareholders" makes no difference. It's all about power and the abuse of it. Short-sighted decisions made by greedy people will be the end of us (western civilization as we know it), no matter what they choose to call it.

Similar experience w/this Acer. Everything just works out of the box with default install of (k)ubuntu. (for contrast, win 7 was missing wifi and nic drivers, though it handled plugging in to an hdmi slightly more intuitively) And it's powerful enough to be my only machine if needed. Build quality is actually good for the price, though the keyboard could be better. Battery life was equal to windows (2.5-3hrs).

Really wish I could go to microsoft.com, enter my product key and sell them back their license (or donate to charity? I know, I know, they should be using linux, but still).

And for me, it makes no difference. I already avoid all the Starz titles anyway. ~380i in 4:3 pan and scan? F that. It's weird, I've never been able to find one person who likes the cable TV structure as-is. Every single person wants a la carte, and less ads. Yet nothing is changing, except cable is moving to the net for distribution.

A lot of work to be done by cheap offshore resources, not customer service drones making minimum wage.

True, but consumers validated the choice and perpetuated the practice by continuing to give those businesses their money.

The tongue in cheek part is that they were shocked...

It all sounds great; that is until they take you downstairs and you have to watch the 2000 year long "Diversity, winning with combinations!" video from HR whilst strapped into the Pandorica...

You jest, but one has to wonder how many jobs would be created by a "Get our ass to Mars" program. Use that as the whiz-bang kick start to a long term "fix our infrastructure" program.

Point them here. I stream to the 360 at as good if not better quality than I got with cable. The best part? I can watch the highlights I actually want instead of sitting through all of sports center. This plus Hulu + and Netflix cost $21 a month (factoring in XBL sub at $5/mo.), less then half the cost of basic cable.

Not sure how different the systems are, but I got hit with a photo speed trap once back in the 90's. When I went to pay the fine, I went into an office, a guy pulled out an 8x10 of the photo. There would be no way to deny it in any court that makes sense, my face and plate number were clearly recognizable (I wish I'd asked for a copy, the look on my face was priceless). I agreed that that was me, paid my fine and left. I still get shit from friends about how I didn't fight it; that they were so easy to get out of I was dumb for paying the fine. Soon after my incident, "photocop" was retired because of public outrage that "people could not face their accusers". Bullshit. People hated getting caught speeding.

Redlight cameras however, as shown in your example, need a bit more work. But I still believe the main motivator for the "backlash" is the same. People want to drive however they want and not deal with any consequences. It's all those other assholes that are the problem...

But will fan-boys annoyingly insist you pronounce it "Lin-uh-Ten"?