A combination of benzos and beta-blockers would probably do the job a bit more easily.

The only mistake the GP made was writing "slightly more powerful" than "slightly less powerful". The first Corvettes were (assume Wikipdia wasn't totally shitting me) rated for 150 horsepower. The modern ones are obviously far more powerful, but the GP knows far about automotive history than you (or I, since I had to look it up).

I'm looking forward to 12.3 as well. However, like all updates, I'll probably wait a month or so before actually doing it in case of any residual bugs. Then again, I tend to do do that with any OS, whether it be some flavour of Linux, Windows, or OS X.

Plucky songs may not be useful for "wishing it away", but sometime the right music, the right words, really small things, can make getting through one day possible. Having serious mood and anxiety disorders myself, I must say that on the really bad days feel like serious adversity. And that's just what my fucked-up brain chemistry is doing. I shudder to think about how Swartz must have felt towards the end there, if even the functionality for daily living can be a struggle.

Sure, engineering and build quality do matter, but that's not the whole equation. Depending on one's upgrade cycle, budget, and usage needs, "good enough" for a couple of years actually is. Different users have different needs.

Um... It really isn't that hard these days. Hasn't been for a few years. I don't use the CLI on my Linux systems (all using whatever is the current version of KDE) any more than I do on my Windows installs or my old Macs. Basically, I only use it when it's faster/more convenient. The *only* reason it (Linux) doesn't work for most average folks is because a metric shit-ton of apps that your average Joe needs to use every day aren't ported. And I really can't blame someone for not wanting to spend hours googling how to get something working under WINE. I tend to fire up Windows rather than fuck with that, myself. As much as I hate Gnome 3 and Unity, they're still fine enough environments (well, now that the bugs are worked out). Just like how OS X and Win7 have great desktops.

I have never used Mint for any long period of time, so I may not be as experienced as many others here.. The most I've done with it is run it under VMWare just to play around. I quite liked it, and didn't experience a single problem. Whereas it seems as though Canonical has lost the plot, I think that the Mint folk really care about user experience. Out of any Linux distro I have tried, Mint could do the most "out of the box," and with the fewest hiccups. I don't want to use it myself, but that has nothing to do with the quality of the product, merely personal preference.

Funny thing is that even if I drove, I'd never buy a new car. Damned things lose about half their value as soon as you drive 'em off the lot. I'd much rather buy something second-hand that is in good condition and preferably still under warranty.

Sarcasm aside, I'm sure that the auto industry would do that if they had the power. Unfortunately for the content industry, modern technology basically gives an analogue to Star Trek replicators. Any media can be copied for no cost except for the bandwidth and electricity needed. Yet they fail to understand the reality of the market, and that people will probably pay more for convenience than the actual content.

If you weren't already at +5, I would have given you my last mod point. When I was still taking university courses, I lost count of the number of papers (and not just for science classes, but liberal-arts classes as well) where OO Writer or MS Word decided to mangle formatting. The worst was when submitting outlines. Within an hour of online LaTeX tutorials, I was able to write such and have everything formatted properly. Actual proficiency came far later but even the initial results made me a convert. I started with Kile when I was still a total n00b, and now just do all my documents in emacs. Haven't looked back.

In other words, teenagers who are more fucked-up off the hormones raging through their bodies I mean, hell, I was more than able to find plenty of pr0n back in 1993 when I was 13.

In the UK, they grow at 16.

How I wish that I hadn't commented on this, so I could toss you a mod point.

Don't forget a culture of Puritans. As much as I don't want to see people walking around nude (for æsthetic reasons, considering how most nudists/naturists look), there is nothing morally wrong or inherently sexual with the human body in its natural state. The only saving grace of growing up in a religious household is that for me, sex will always be dirty.

I'm one of the happily child-free, but I actually do fear the day when my siblings drop sprogs and what could happen to me when I hang out with said spawn. I can't claim any understanding of your situation, but I wish the best to you

That's part of the problem of having draconian laws coupled with a sensationalist media. Despite the fact that all crime is only a small fraction of what it was in the era when old-timers tell us that they didn't lock the doors, we have an entire populace that is afraid of everyone.

It's insane what can get people on the sex-offenders register, such as drunks pissing in the alley after last call, or a couple swimming nude in their own pool despite having a 9' privacy fence because some neighbour's crotch-fruit decides to have a peek. In the former case, the guy should get court-ordered alcohol education at the very worst, and in the latter, the brats should be prosecuted for trespass. In fact, a good friend of mine could be labeled a "sex-offender" under California statutes (which have no "Romeo and Juliet" provisions) for sleeping with her then-boyfriend,, and now husband of almost 15 years during the two weeks between her 18th birthday and his.

Perhaps my aversion to having kids myself stems from not wanting to bring a child into a world where I see things as only going from bad to worse