While I do feel sorry for what happened to him .. He didn't kill himself because of broken IP laws .. he killed himself because of a mental state that seemed to preclude any option other than suicide. If he had utilized freely and easily obtainable mental health resources(*) he probably would still be alive today.

* Assuming that such things are actually available.

Is your girlfriend upset that you didn't call the International Star registry and get a star named after her (written in book form in the library of congress) like all of her girlfriends did? Was she upset that you didn't care that much for her?

Well now is your chance to redeem yourself. Don't just name any old star after your girlfriend, get a star sized diamond named after her! If diamonds are a girls best friend, then after doing this you'll never have to "[sudo] make me a sandwich" again, as she'll be thanking you for the rest of her life (well .. maybe until her battery runs down). And all of her friends boyfriends will look up to you like "you da man, dawg!!!!"

Call now .. there's only a limited supply (of paper certificates that we bought in bulk)

Half the time when I'm working on any sort of non-trivial program (that is too large to hold in my head all at once) and I need to make a breaking code change (and one that is not easily managed with refactoring tools), I'll make the change where it is obvious to me and then let the compiler tell me where it broke and hence where I need to make my fixes.

Umm .. you do know that I am talking about the confiscation and inspection of electronics in your possession as you legally cross a border into the US?

Now all the US needs is a similar commonsense approach at border crossings.

Thats what is being touted for the Shandong Tranlin Paper Co. greenfield mill being built near Richmond VA, and to break ground in 2016

Chinese paper company to set up shop in Richmond suburbs

Sure I don't expect 2000 permanent full time jobs, but injecting $2 billion into a community ain't so shabby

There was already a law on the books against what this company is trying to do.

Have you considered that there might actually be a valid use-case for such a law?

Take a look at the google doc. It has a lot of technical information as to why the claims of *this* kickstarter project are suspect.

Just because harvesting of RF energy is a legitimate field does not mean that this product is genuine.

Or to give you a car analogy, just because internal combustion engines are used to drive cars does not mean that you can run a 4 litre V8 engine at full power and get 100 miles to the gallon.

I think that the obvious rebuttal of this Libertarian argument is GM and the ignition switch issue(*). When companies have all the power to disseminate information about their products there can never be an informed customer.

* Or the Ford Pinto where the cost of law suits was balanced against the cost of fixing an issue.

There was a story last week about how extroverts would be the worst possible people to have along on a multi-month trip to mars in a very small spaceship. That is something that introverts are better suited for doing.

Extroverts Don't Belong on Mars

I heard discussion on the radio today, that while the 1999 action went one way, that there has been a change in public perception and that doesn't mean it will go the same way again this time.

Of course I was also listening to a talk radio guy who was claiming that this case is all about the government in Washington deliberately creating a mini-crisis in order to deflect public attention away from the real issues in DC. Seriously.

A few weeks ago a couple of characters in Doonesbury were looking for a new slogan for their company. Their choice was: "Don't be Google". This stuff just adds more weight to their decision.

So don't be Google!