I happen to have a Samsung fridge which has been working for over 10 years... I plan to replace it because the paint and the seals are starting to look bad; not because it is failing.

The Samsung replaced a very old Frigidaire unit which basically I threw out because the Samsung had reduced power consumption, not because the Frigidaire was failing.

Now, recently I replaced an LG air-conditioned which was almost 10 years old and started to fail. I went an bought another LG unit, technically the same model, only to find it is a POS. The air conduit is actually polystyrene; I thought it was part of the packaging material, but no, it is a structural part of the unit. Every part inside looks like is as thin as possible without a risk of it breaking on first use. If it lasts a couple of years I will be surprised.

I planned to change the fridge before Xmas, but affer the air-conditioned I paused; it needs more investigation before spending a good deal of money.

Now, I wonder, what brand of fridge could I buy that will not crap-out in a couple of years?

You are saying Jobs = Apple, which is not true. Jobs without Wozniak and thousands of other engineers and scientists, would have a been a sode-pop seller... In other words, he created nothing and took credit for the creations of other people. Google Jobs' insistence of having his name on every Apple patent...

Now, Ritchie, he co-authored Unix. He did not manage the creation of Unix. And he created the programming language C. Personal accomplishments.

See the difference?

Tell it to the Iranians. (hint: stuxnet)

As the hacker borg say: "You will be pwned"

I don't know where in Texas you were, but I was in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio working for a few years.

There is no way to get from one place to another without a car, even if Point A is very near Point B.

After my first visit, I always rented a car. Walking is just out of the question, even if the distance is a few blocks.

But the same is true in other States in the US, for example, downtown Miami is walkable, every other place in Florida, requires a car.

Where I live in Mexico, within six blocks around I have two shopping malls, several doctors' offices, veterinarians, two bars (three, if you count the billiard's place), two phamacies, in short, all the services. I walk most of the time and take my car only if I will be carrying a heavy load.

If you are going to correct someone, at least be sure you are right.

Negligence: A failure to behave with the level of care that someone of ordinary prudence would have exercised under the same circumstances. The behavior usually consists of actions, but can also consist of omissions when there is some duty to act

The Romans had willful negligence, which is called gross negligence in Common Law (English)-based legal systems and dolo (dolus) in Roman-derived legal systems.

So you are wrong, there is willful negligence! And in my opinion BP committed gross negligence because their engineers knew the possible consequences of their acts.

I don't even look at little girls, much less talk to them...Once they are 18+, then we'll see.

Sexism aside; I'm the father of two girls, both of which had computers and other paraphernalia around them since they were born to a geeky father, whose live revolves around coding... And none of them is even remotely interested in computers beyond email, FB or whatever they use now.

One, graduated in business administration with a specialty in hotel and restaurant management; the other is studying Forensic Science (Criminalistics/Criminology).

The first can walk into a room filled with 30 strangers and in 30 minutes have 30 new friends; the latter, has about two friends, because she's geeky, but NOT interested in computers.

As a geek, what is this bullshit that one has to be interested in computers and particularly in coding? There is engineering, math and yes, criminalistics.

Does that include plane tickets?

Contrary to what you think, not all of us have cineplex nearby or the inclination to be surrounded by strangers in a dark place...

The studios make the mistake you are making, it's not only about money; it's about convenience. Make it available and I will gladly pay for it.

I own a couple of hundred movie DVDs and about 500 hundred music CDs, plus perhaps a thousand books; but if I can not buy something which is available thru piracy, then a pirate I become...

Content-producers need to realize it's a big, big world and stop thinking of their little corner of it.

How far back do we go?

Well, the U.S. only goes back to about 200 years, so we don't have to go back very far...

Read some History and get some perspective.

Sorry to burst your buble. Right next door, in Mexico, with a much more relaxed airport security, never had an airplane hijacked... Until 2009, years after the FAA imposed flight restrictions went into effect(1).

On the other hand, in mainland China, there was an attempted hijack in 2012!

If airport security was a solution to plane hijacking, why would a country without any security (Mexico) not suffer from it and a paranoid state (China) recently had to deal with it?

If you recall, in the past (60's-80's) U.S. planes were hijacked to Havana; in the 90's the trend was reversed: Cuban planes were hijacked and taken to the U.S. Which brings the question again, if the totalitarian Cuban police was unable to stop the hijackings, why should it work in the U.S.?

Now see the perverse incentives: a flight taken to Havana was heralded as taken by "people's heros" and gave a lot of cred in certain circles; turn the coin and see the other face: hijacking a Cuban plane and taking it into the U.S. will NOT land you in jail; it will grant you political asylum!

(1) FAA rules apply to all flights landing on the U.S. even if they originated elsewhere. There used to be smoking flights to/from the U.S. (Air France, Mexicana, TACA, etc.) until the FAA ruled that any flights originating or landing in the U.S. had to be non-smoking, regardless of the carrier's flag. The same was applied to security: no flight bound to the U.S. is allowed to land if there are not TSA-like security measures in the originating country . So, in effect, the FAA and TSA determine what security measures are taken on airports as distant as Buenos Aires.

Frankly, I don't care if MS is standing up out of self-interest or for some other cause, the tyrants in D.C. need to be stopped. Period.

You can't apply U.S. laws to the world at large, regardless of your 'legal' standing.

Many U.S. organizations have presence and pay taxes in many different jurisdictions, making them subject to that particular territory's law. Will the U.S. allow some other country to violate U.S. laws because the subsidiary is present, in say, Aman and thus, by extension, the entire organization is subject to Aman's Law?

The answer is no, because jurisdiction is territorial. You can't apply Ireland's law to MS in the U.S. simply because they have a corporate office there, thus the reverse is true too: you can' t apply U.S. law to a subsidiary in Ireland.

Who owns it is irrelevant; corporations are legal entities of their own, regardless of ownership. Ships owned by, say Americans (most cruise ships for example), are registered in Panama, thus bypassing U.S. Labor laws because who owns them is irrelevant.

Trust me, you don't want to go there: it will open lawsuits against U.S. firms, under U.S. laws, against the owners of such ships and other corporations that use underage labor, exceed working hours / conditions, etc. in other countries.

It would basically make International Law obsolete as we know it.

It appears that the U.S. Government is bent in destroying the American economy while 'preserving' American security.

Sorry for the bad news: we were never free.

What has happened is that the elite has shorn any semblance of shame and decided to act according to its power.

It's like they asked themselves: If we have the power, what do we care about appearances?

Think back to satellite T.V. for example, in the U.S. it was (is?) theft to get the signal and decode it, in Canada it was fine to do it, because legally, the waves were in public space.

Typical 20th century thinking.

Bill got to be one of the richest men in the world by understanding that you do not "destroy" your enemies, you embrace them!

What happened is that a Mexican company registered the name iFone, which the court found phonetically equal to iPhone, for the purpose of selling communication services.

The three largest carriers (Telcel, Iusacell y Telefonica Movistar) were prohibited from using iPhone in their advertising, as they cell precisely, communications services.

Apple itself is not prohibited from using its brand name, but can use it only for the purposes of selling the phone, not services.

In Mexico as in other countries, the same brand can be used to sell different types of goods and services; what the court found, was Apple's registration was too broad and that the Mexican company had a narrow registration, which was also prior to Apples'.

The suit came from Apple to force the Mexican company to stop using its own brand; now the Mexican company is countersuing for damages and asking for 40% of the revenue generated using the brand in Mexico.

Link to the registration

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You had me until the cat part.

Everyone knows that a good parent would choose a dog!

Kidding aside, it does change you. I was fooled into being in the OR for the birth of my third offspring (a girl) and that changed me in ways I can't begin to describe: from a typical antisocial nerd, interested only in the latest techno-toy into a real person.

She'll be 21 next week and has been living with me for the last 12 years, after her mom and I divorced, and still think of her as my greatest achievement.

She is smart and iron-willed, so I have not really enjoyed being a single parent dealing with a difficult child, but at this time, I would not change one bit of the story.

YMMV and all that, but being a parent really makes a wonderful difference in your life.

The U.S. government, sanctioned by Congress, declared the Black Hills, and other land, to be owned by the Lakota; then when gold was found there, not only refused to stop miners from exploiting it, the goverment started building a trail and forts on land it expressely had recognized as foreign (treaty of 1851); eventually leading to war between the tribes and the U.S. Army, to be followed by the 1868 treaty.

The 1868 treaty was quickly thrown aside and a new war erupted between the tribes and the U.S.

Please read the Treaty of Ft. Laramie, 1851 and 1868.

Finally, the U.N. passed the Resolution on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which was not signed by the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zeland; four countries that have, ahem, problems with their indigenous population.

Yes, your proud country went back on its word twice and to this day, it refuses to honor the treaties it signed and were approved by Congress.