One does not edit anywhere near the number of configuration files and install enough software to justify running as root all the time by a long shot. This isn't the Windows world where over half the software requires running as Administrator just to function.

I spend months at a time never touching the root account on my systems after they've been set up. I haven't seen a box that enabled root logins in over a decade, from any vendor or Unix flavour.

So I call "bullshit" on the theory that there are users out there logging in as "root" for the sake of "convenience."

Microsoft Excel introduced pivot tables in version 5.0 released in 1995. So yes they do keep making improvements pivot tables in each version (up to and including Power Pivots as an add-on for 2010 and included in 2013), but no you do "miss out" on pivot tables at all.

Battery life of an existing device won't go up over time.

If a brand new one has only 30% at the end of the day, a year from now (or an OS update, whichever happens first) you'd better get used to charging your watch at lunch.

Ah, so "right" and "wrong" can be determined by popular vote now?

Not so much "popular" as "fiscally responsible".

Society has a compelling interest in keeping people employed as long as possible - Ideally until they drop dead on the job, but as long as possible in any case. The longer someone can't work, the longer society will bear the financial burden to keep them alive. A decade of SSI, we can readily bear when offset by a 40 year career of paying in to that system. 30+ years of welfare because companies "don't want" to hire competent experienced professionals, however? The numbers just don't work out when we allow that to happen on any large scale.

So yes, we as a society have determined, for our own good, that companies (you remember "companies", right? Legal fictions allowed to exist as a boon society grants them in exchange for the small possibility they will benefit us overall?) cannot turn away otherwise-qualified people because of a few protected categories.
It doesn't matter if you don't want to work with blacks - Too fucking bad.
It doesn't matter if you don't want to work with women - Too fucking bad.
It doesn't matter if you don't want to work with fogeys - Too fucking bad.
It doesn't matter if you don't want to work with Jews - Too fucking bad.

If someone can do the job and you don't "want" to work with them, rejecting them for only that reason breaks the law. They have a "right" to consideration for employment regardless of the age, gender, race, or religion; you don't have a "right" to run a company however you want, simple as that.

GWB never claimed to be a business genius. I think that's the difference.

She could do what she did at HP. Revoke americans of their citizenship until the budget is balanced. Problem solved.

McDonald's in town has a help wanted sign out front saying "hiring 15 year olds". Discriminatory?

Possibly by the letter of the law, but probably not under any reasonable interpretation - 15 year olds fit into a special "pain in the ass" category as far as labor laws go, so McD's intends that sign to mean they will hire 15YOs, not that they'll only hire 15YOs.

No not really, it protect older people that can outcode most people.
problem is that youthful coders are not willing to stand up to management
and say, hey fucker, 40 hours is what you pay me for and that's what you
get.

and productivity ... older coders know how it works cleanly and can deliver
lower bugs. clean code is hard to come by on first development

How many British Thermal Units per hour is she capable of performing when at peak capacity?
For extra credit: What is the BTU/h per stone, i.e. specific power?
Please show all unit conversions and penmanship counts.

Whoah whoah whoah there!

We use standard units around here, none of that "furlongs per fortnight" crap.

You'll need to rephrase that in multiples of Rhode Island, please.

So by your logic, the police should never be bothered with "busting" street-level drug dealers, pick-pockets, or muggers because they aren't the "big fish" in their criminal organization.

I don't give a damn if you're some greedy schmuck who bought into Uber's lies. You are providing the end service, and your activity is illegal, so why shouldn't the book be thrown at you?

It's not like you're innocent. Even if you are ignorant of the law, that has never been held as an excuse in court.

Meh, in this case, systemd might be an improvement.

Remember that several years ago Ubuntu switched away from SysV init to Upstart, which was effectively their own version of systemd.

So really the change is that they've gone from crappy in-house systemd to crappy actual systemd.

The right to face your accusers in court is irrelevant here. They don't present Stingray-obtained evidence in court, just the old-fashioned stuff it led them to.

"Your accuser" doesn't just mean the testimony and evidence against you - How and Why they collected evidence can matter more than that evidence itself.

Just think how much easier it would make police work if they could randomly barge into your house and search for criminal activity without a warrant... Or if they could "find" your DNA at a crime scene by bringing you there after-the-fact to "ask some questions" and you "just happen" to trip and bleed on the scene (but don't worry, an anonymous phonecall assured them you did it).

We have rules in place for a reason. We either always follow them, or they mean nothing.

Law-enforcement officials also don't want to reveal information that would give new ammunition to defense lawyers in prosecutions where warrants weren't used, according to officials involved in the discussions.

Un-fucking-believable - Or rather, sadly all too believable.

That one statement right there almost completely expresses everything wrong with modern American legal system.

Mr. Prosecutor, I would point out that if you would so willingly abandon the core principles of our legal system - The ideas of innocent until proven guilty and having the right to face your accuser in court - Why shouldn't we go back to vigilante mob justice and tar-and-feather your worthless ass for breach of public trust?

But extracting either from seawater does not really make any sense. Some mid-east countries desalinate so they can pursue idiotic schemes to grow wheat in the desert, when they could just buy wheat for far less. California has a few desalination plants, because of dumb policies that vastly inflate the cost of water to urban consumers, while subsiding the delivery of rainwater to farmers growing rice and cotton in the desert.

Forget rice and cotton. We'd be happy if they'd stop growing alfalfa and almonds in the desert.... With that said, even if we got rid of that problem, eventually California's growing population would still require desalination. The drought simply moves that date closer in many places.