About a year ago I went on a service call to a customer's house. The wife had gotten one of those calls and wisely called her husband to the phone; he talked to them and downloaded the malware they were offering but did not install it. They called us to 'fix' it. When I got there there was a mild, unrelated adware infection that I cleaned. I explained to the husband that everything was okay now, but I couldn't convince the wife that there wasn't anything wrong; she was absolutely convinced that what the scammers had told her was true & that their machine was just riddled & infested. She got angry to the point of tears with me AND her husband, for believing me, and ran to the bedroom and slammed the door loudly behind her. I hope they're still married...

My point is, simply, that the media *does* influence behavior. In the case of advertising, it's the whole idea. This is not rocket science.

I want to stress right off the bat that I am not in favor of restricting video game content. That said, any time someone comes along and asserts that games, movies, TV, etc (pick and and all) do not influence behavior, I point to the trillion-dollar industry called "advertising". Its stated, precise intent is to influence behavior.

Mel Brooks finally made the sequel to Spaceballs?

It paints an optimistic picture but it sure wasn't well thought out. Please don't misunderstand me; I enjoyed TNG too, but let's think through just a couple of things it featured: (1) Unlimited energy and the ability to create any object instantly like food, clothing and shelter; (2) Holographic VR simulators indistinguishable from reality... Sounds like a Federation full of Holodeck-addicted lotus-eaters to me. Captain Kirk *loved* destroying dystopian societies like that. Once again though, I loved to watch the show too (most of the time anyway).

I would *much* rather help a user by actually being there than trying to explain how the CD-ROM tray isn't a coffee cup holder. I've worked in IT since the mid-90s and let me tell you, it's less frustrating for all involved that way-- except for the bean counters, who have to pay me to hop in my car and do that. They'd much rather pay a less skilled person less money to try to resolve things over the phone. Except for the smallest problems, THAT is the only reason remote support exists. How many times have you called a big company for help with something (not just computers, but anything) only to be stymied by some level one drone who reads from a script? They provide this crappy support because they can get away with it.

Most kids, left to their own devices, either won't read or will read shit. That carries over into young adulthood-- witness the slouching beast that is pop culture. Take one look at the magazines at a grocery store checkout, or the lad mags. The human brain has a limited capacity, that can be filled with good stuff or bad stuff. Things like Hamlet or Great Expectations or 1984 are still relevant today. I'm like you; I could've done without some of the more boring ones, but looking back I'm glad I was given the foundation.

We're getting off-topic, but you're right. And do read 1984. It's as applicable and scary today as they day it was written.

I have a phone with a 3.5" screen. It's just about useless for e-reading. Also, the idea that if all the troubled youth were just given books they'd read them is bogus. They *can't* read and if they could they still wouldn't want to.

In terms of bang for the buck Dobs can't be beat. You'll get more aperture per amount spent. Add a Telrad and you're good to go. Do not start out with an electronic mount; use real charts. Ads for cheap scopes will tout magnification; that's not as important as aperture and light-gathering power. You'll want at least 4", preferably 6". All that said, expect to pay good money for good quality. If it sounds too cheap then it probably is.

Authors who write to get awards are writing the social justice NOW bullshit. Authors who write for readers are having their lunches.

Most accurate science in a movie since "2001". Highly recommended

Nano has gotten me out of a jam more times than I can count when I couldn't get X working. It's simple, easy to use, and works great.

Things started oing downhill went they went fabless

I did a fresh install of M17 the day before yesterday. I had a couple of hard lockups running Cinnamon. LXDE was fine, and installing KDE is as simple as firing up synaptic and grabbing 'kde-standard'. I'm typing this from KDE right now. It's not as polished as SuSE's but it's stable (so far)