Whether it's the regulators overseeing the Deepwater Horizon being captured by the oil and gas industry, or whether it's local politicians being captured by the Finance/Real Estate sector, the results are usually bad for the society. And occasionally, they becomes spectacularly lethal.

To overcome the persistent regulatory capture of the US government, two things must occur:

1) Overhaul of the campaign finance system (so politiicians will be more inclined to work for their constituents not their highest bidder).
2) Term limits (because power corrupts).

And --- even if it did, look at what people with too much time on hands do to this world: crime, gangs, terrorists, cults, drug users --- most of societies ills are AVOIDED by making these people have jobs so they don't have free time.

"Idle hands are the devil's workshop." -- Proverbs 16:27

Don't be put off because of its religious origin - it's the demonstration of a point that has been known for thousands of years.

It's great for the bottom line but not so good for the society.

"Two U.S. officials tell ABC News the U.S. believes that the shutdown of two communication systems happened separately on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. One source said this indicates the plane did not come out of the sky because of a catastrophic failure.

The data reporting system, they believe, was shut down at 1:07 a.m. The transponder -- which transmits location and altitude -- shut down at 1:21 a.m."

-- ABC News, Thursday March 13, 2014

Curiouser and curiouser.

The Web (and Internet) enable the free flow of information. Up till recently, the way to distribute information was radio, television and print. There is huge money and power in controlling the flow of information. Frankly, I'm surprised the Internet has not been more locked down and controlled yet.

Rest assured that it is in the sights of politicians and big business. So, something like a Web Magna Carta would be quite a useful document. At least talking about the concept of trying to keep the Internet unfettered is a starting point. Because an unfettered Internet will go away otherwise. There's just too much money and power in it.

OK, so what evidence do you have that Dell doesn't mark that as $150 for software and $29 for installation, on their accounting system?

1) There is no evidence that they internally account for software as you say. It's speculation.
2) There IS evidence that they are charging for free software.
3) There IS evidence that they actually give a discount for installing software versus buying it from them separately: You can actually buy Office Home and Business directly from Dell for 219 USD. So they're actually giving a discount when they install it, as they only charge 179 USD in that scenario.

What does the evidence show? Seems clear to me.

I just checked how much Microsoft Office Home and Business costs when put on a Dell computer - 179 USD, right there on the Dell site, for a desktop computer. It costs 219 USD at Big Box Mart and Microsoft itself

So uh... yeah. They're charging for free software. It's just taking advantage of the ignorant. Who might be your grandma. Or a firefighter. Or a grocery store cashier.

Economically, the intrinsic value of something is approximately

Nothing has intrinsic value. Individuals decide how much value things have for themselves.

The concept of "intrinsic value" requires the existence of an "Uber-Evaluator" who dictates that intrinsic value. Because that value can and will be radically different to different people at different times. But no such evaluator exists, so I must agree with the AC comment that nothing has intrinsic value. Items can have radically different values to individuals and markets depending on circumstance.

Item: An artist spends 2000 hours creating a life-sized Salvador-Dali-esque image of Donald Duck in marble. Intrinsic value? Determined by who?
Item: An operational car a family just wants to get rid of. They donate it to a car-reseller charity. Intrinsic value of the car? Determined by who?
Item: 27.5 pound block of gold. Intrinsic value? Determined by who? To a starving Ethiopian child, it's without value.
Item: Side of beef. Intrinsic value? Determined by who? To the starving Ethiopian, extremely high value. To a vegan, no value at all.

The concept of "intrinsic" value is a lot like centrifugal force - it doesn't actually exist, but we have an idea of what you mean: a "typical price" fetched in a "functioning market" in "typical circumstances." Is a bubble market a functioning market? Heck, this year's Nobel Prize in Economics (yeah, I know it's not named that specifically) was awarded to three co-winners. One, Robert Shiller has done extensive work on bubbles. Another, Eugene Fama, denies bubbles even exist!

A good tutorial book. A. GOOD. TUTORIAL. BOOK. Or even a good online tutorial. But a tutorial is what is necessary, not a reference.

You can't just pick up a reference book and start coding or solving problems from that. That's not what references are for. You need a good tutorial. A good tutorial is worth its weight in gold in my opinion.

Some recommendations:
For LAMP + Javascript development? Try "Learning PHP, MySQL and JavaScript" by Robin Nixon (O'Reilly).

For Java? The Java Tutorial by Zakhour et. al. (Addison Wesley).

You need to spend time finding a good tutorial. And work through the problems. That then leaves the issue of getting a job. With your existing background, and being conversant in the language, it won't be easy (without experience in that field specifically), but it will give you a definite leg up.

What about certifications? Well, I took the Java 6 Programmer certification test. I'm typically pretty good at tests. Because I prepare well. I did just about every problem in the Java Tutorial book. I got some question/answer sample exam from Oracle. I prepared like I always do. And I got raped. Failed miserably. I was shocked. I have a CS degree with a high GPA and my IQ has tested well enough to join those pretentious high IQ organizations. And I got totally owned. So, just throwing that out there for that particular certification.

But that model fell apart when I tried to learn an OO language. I wasn't prepared for that and am still struggling. Luckily my job doesn't require me coding it, but I need to talk intelligently to my programmers so I am still trying.

Think of an object oriented language in this way: It is designed to stop code duplication and help to group similar functionality. It puts frequently used code in "containers" (i.e. "classes") that you can instantiate. Once the object (i.e. class) exists, you can just call its "member" functions / methods. Similar to C.

That's it. It's a just an organizational tool for the programmer.

I have to say, it does require much more planning to come up with objects and their member functions / methods right off the bat. You can write object oriented languages like C functions, call each one when you need it. One issue I've encountered is I'll sketch out a list of actions that need to get done. I'll start coding. Get the five or seven functions needed to do that. Typically something like building a data structure. I realize somewhere else that I need that same functionality. I don't want to run through the whole rigamarole of going through that initialization again. So I make a class out of it. With one line: Classtype X = new Classtype() [ed. note: the Classtype() is a function call to the "constructor" - a standard function across object oriented languages - which instantiates and initializes the new object) Voila! With that line, all the initialization is done and I can use the object / data structure as I need to, with X->doWhatever().

I think the net result is that it is more difficult to plan out an object-oriented program. Actually... if you want to get forced into an easier-to-use mandatory object oriented language, try Java (as opposed to C++). The structure of the language and the source code forces you to create classes. A good tutorial is "The Java Tutorial" (Addison Wesley publishers, authors Zakhour et. al.).

I worked for one. This fellow was extremely smart, gregarious, and just naturally comfortable leading people. ALSO, he was the one who handled the really tough problems, along with the lead programmer. Interesting thing about the lead programmer versus this manager - both extremely smart but two very different personality types.

B) probably shouldn't consider the democratic process as a kind of war

Politics is war without bullets, to paraphrase von Clausewitz.*

In other parts of the world, where assassinations and the like are common, that definition is a bit more flexible.

The reality is that the top political positions in the US are the most powerful positions in the world. And they are bitterly contested. While the face the parties must present to the public is of little girls with pink bows in their hair, puppy dogs and rainbows, to the politicians and their dedicated operatives, it is a vicious business. And the RNC accidentally revealed a bit of that.

It's like in Vietnam. There was the "Studies and Observations Group" - SOG. A mild name for a commando unit carrying out dangerous and deadly special operations. It's useful to keep the public focused on their bread and circuses, except when it becomes necessary to alarm them so as to rally to your cause (left or right).
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* "We see, therefore, that War is not merely a political act, but also a real political instrument, a continuation of political commerce, a carrying out of the same by other means." -- "On War", von Clausewitz

Google Translate says it means, "Prepare for war."