When you pass a cyclist using a bike lane, YOU are using that lane too. The cyclist in a dedicated lane grants you a speed increase. Or would you prefer the cyclist should be right in front of you using the road at 15mph, and not allowing you any room to pass?

What exactly does Facebook have to offer the New York Times?

Eyeballs. Ad Revenue.
New York Times has a pretty big distribution, 2.3 million people per day.
Facebook has 890 million users per day.

Every browser uses javascript. Mozilla allows people to use plugins, some of which make it much easier to manage js. But bad javascript on a website, can only make that website suck. It's the ActiveX controls built into IE with the idea of breaking web compatibility and getting browser lock-in, along with Browser Helper Objects, which makes the whole browser suck. BHO's are responsible for those million toolbars.

Using IE makes you more vulnerable to malware, because of poor design. There is no fix. IE = Malware in the eyes of techies. No matter what version number they put out, with whatever security enhancements, they have to escape that branding.

Small claims court- You don't need to pay a lawyer, you can just present your side of the story to a judge or jury
Worst case scenario, you lose half a day and get nothing, and spend ~$100 on court fees.
But there is a chance, especially with a jury, that you will get reimbursed the laptops cost, and either way Lenovo will spend thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Who uses the same stock OS that has the specific drivers for that exact model's hardware already loaded..?
Should I instead hope that Microsoft has a generic driver that will work with whatever fancy new hardware features exist?
Or should I instead wipe out whatever software they pre-installed, and then circle right back around to the manufacturers website, to re-install their driver software after navigating 20 different subpages to find the right version?
Here's my legitimate question back- are you buying new models with cutting edge hardware, and using those features?

And yes.. I regretfully write this on my month old Lenovo that I was strongly considering formatting with Ubuntu, but decided to keep on its stock Windows. Lesson learned.

You can say this about every product available on every market on earth. Look at the baker- he didn't grind the flour; the miller didn't grow the wheat and sugar cane; the farmer didn't find the seeds growing wild; all of this is the combined efforts of thousands of human generations. Somebody else mined the coal and somebody else turned it into electricity. Somebody else filtered the water. The baker combines all of these things, some that he acquired at cost, and maybe some that are freely given, and makes his final product and sells it. 99+% of the work was done by others, going back in history for thousands of years to reach this current stage. We call it civilization.

We ALL stand on the shoulders of giants, in every profession, in every walk of life. Why are they not allowed to charge for their work when the baker can?

You clearly haven't spent much time riding in public transit of any major city if you think air travellers and bus travellers are in the same economic brackets.

How many emails do you think they are getting from HQ today? And doesn't the HQ have a history of executing people who do the wrong thing?

If somebody had a bone to pick with a group that operated in China, might they not target that group in China as well? Perhaps it flies under the radar because the scope isn't as large or easily detectable.

Letters have traveled through various postal systems for hundreds of years now. By giving your letter to a postal carrier, you are relinquishing control of it and letting it be processed by a centralized system. Therefore, anyone who sends a private correspondance through a postal system, should have no expectation of privacy. ?

Are network packets really that different? Because technology makes it easier to look at the content of the packet without breaking any wax seals, or having to steam the glue, that makes it ok to look? The 4th amendment protects paper packets, why not electronic packets? The US was founded with personal privacy enshrined as a core principal, so a lot of thick numbskulls like myself carry that expectation across different spectrums.

(Note: In this particular case, I'm not surprised that Uber employees can access Uber data, especially in this example where the reporter called out being late to a meeting with Uber executives while seated in an Uber car)

Hitchiking is actually illegal in many states. Most of them only reference soliciting a ride on the street itself, but some outlaw the whole concept.

None of the hotel regulations apply to taking $20 for someone crashing in a spare bedroom for a night.

Thats not actually true. Lots of states Attornery Generals have filed legal paperwork again Airbnb and couchsurfing homes to class them as hotels, subject to normal hotel / bed&breakfast regulations.

Every single person on this earth is motivated to get food, and have food, and if possible, have even more food. It is genetically programmed to the infinite degree. Particular farming practices, and particular strains of crops may work better in different regions of the world, but every farmer wants more food. The ONLY farmers who may not care about increased yields are suburbanites who have plenty of money and food, and farm as a fun hobby. ALL commercial farmers want more. ALL subsistence farmers want more.

A lot of schools, maybe the vast majority(?), already have video surveillance systems.
Where do you think that video footage of the Columbine shooters walking around inside the school came from??
That was 15 years ago, and cameras have gotten much cheaper and more widespread since then.

I wish them the best of luck in sales to the good people of Luxembourg, Ireland, and small carribean islands. I'm sure their total revenues after dropping the costly US market will improve tremendously.

People who watch no news of any kind, are more informed about current events than viewers of Fox News. For sure you can expect certain kinds of distortion for left and right wing biases from every station, but Fox News takes viewers several steps beyond political slant, to full on fabrications that suit their storyline.

Nobody is stealing 500 euro bills, because normal people don't carry them. If you stole them from a bank, any attempt to spend those bills would get way too much attention. It also follows then that any attempt to pass off counterfeit bills that are huge values, will also get a lot of extra scrutiny, which is not productive. There are more $20 counterfeit bills in active circulation than $100 bills.

That leaves criminals with really only one reason to use the extra large bills, laundering & transferring money. Now, where does the money that needs to be laundered come from? This conversation is entirely about cracking down on drugs, gambling & prostitution.