We've got about the same story. Started working at Paul's TV shop when I was 14 in 1976. Other than playing on my brother's TRS80, my first computers were the IBM mainfame at a community college and the Plato system in the late 70s. (And also did a stint of copier repair. ;)

I've learned at least 4 new careers along the way. The day I stop learning is the day to die.

I've chuckled when youngsters have assured me there was no internet at the time I said I first was on it.

"no one will ever talk about is that there are way to many humans on the earth"

You just proved yourself wrong. ;)

Seriously, that gets brought up regularly. The problems start when you start considering "who" we need fewer of. People have a tendency to assume there will be fewer of the "other" people, but we'll keep the population of "good people like me".

You can insert race, creed, political persuasion, amount of privilege as needed to fit the particular speaker.

In the cartoon world, they call what I did "4th wall breaking". Referring to the reality behind the facade of the comic (or in this case, the fact that the web site we write on indeed is a business.)

Forgive me, but what I thought of during your reply was that it was a wonderful imitation of the studied serious moralizing of Sam the Eagle from the Muppets. ;)

And the mod sayeth: Bad user! offtopic. Thou shalt not comment on the elephant in the room!

No, it's also a thing for two sides to be outraged about and have a flame war. Thus, it's money in the bank for Dice Holdings.

You really should recognize what's important in this world. Short term bottom line and minimizing any legal liability. Occasional intelligent conversation is just a way to lure in the sucker... I mean users.

"Judging others is a surprisingly worthless enterprise."

Unless you have a political difference with them or those who agree with them. In that case there's a huge amount of "worth", read that as "money", involved in judging them. Just look at all of the ad supported news and political sites dedicated to backing up the judgment that "the other side is a bunch of pooty-heads".

No, it's within the limits of the law. The National Guard Military Police units are considered to be troops controlled by the individual state (think the 13 colonies initially). In this case they were ordered onto the street by the state governor.

As for Federal troops, the Posse Comitatus Act deals with using Federal troops in police enforcement and has only been around since 1878. There has been an ongoing tension between what powers belonged to the states and what belonged to the federal government.

Now, in reality, there's relatively little difference between the Guard and federal troops, and the Guard can be "federalized" with an order from the President, and there are several other exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act. But, it falls within the letter of the law.

Because we've already started a US presidential campaign even though the vote is over a year away. Both sides are trying to prepare the ideological battlefield already.

Translation: Prepare for a year and a half of stupid from all sides.

"ALL engineering projects are for the societal good."

I think some here might argue with you about hardware based DRM.

"... cloning..."

I know a more enjoyable way.

" .10 BAC"

Yep. Those dang typos. (I assurre you I wasn't drunk posting ossifer... hic.)

"It's how you drive that gets you into trouble"

I've found that those who drive with blood alcohol levels above 1.0 lead to lots of trouble. Far more than any recent engineering defect I've heard of.

The biggest safety related maintenance problem is usually the loose nut behind the wheel.

No, I was simply noting that technical solutions are limited in solving what are human problems at the base.

The base problem is valuing "easy" over secure.

The real problem to be solved is a bit harder: Finding a technical or human way to block that problem, that's still workable (think about bricked devices from an unknown password that can't be reset) enough to be accepted by users and the companies fielding them.