We have a long tradition in the US of respecting patient and client (attorney-client privilege) rights. However, we do not do the same for weapons ownership. Medical history for a good part is involuntary especially when seeking care through Medicare bills (Grandma gets old, she needs medical treatment and you can't really choose to get most cancers unless you smoke or go next to a huge field of radiation). Gun ownership is completely voluntary, no one compels anyone to own a gun in the US. Gun ownership is completely voluntary especially as it relates to assault rifles. Assault rifles have only one purpose, killing people real bad dead. We have the right and a responsibility as a society to make sure we know who owns those weapons, ensure that owners are of sound mind and body, adequately trained to handle the weapon, and that the weapon is being cared for in such a way that it will not fall into the wrong or young and untrained hands. For those that own a .22 rifle for hunting, I have no problem. I don't feel the need to regulate them that deeply. For those that need an AR-15, I want a great deal more background, training, and understanding of that individual.

NYC: They moved our election point so we ended up going to the wrong polling place. When we got to the correct polling place and standing in line for 20 mins, we found out our election district changed. Another 20 mins in line and we got our ballots finally for the correct election district. It sucks, but its your duty to vote.

72% vs 62% for the entire population. Shades a little more towards drone use but not over and above Republican sentiment.

http://www.pewglobal.org/2012/06/13/global-opinion-of-obama-slips-international-policies-faulted/
"Americans are the clear outliers on this issue – 62% approve of the drone campaign, including most Republicans (74%), independents (60%) and Democrats (58%)."

This is going to be slightly off-topic, but it something I have been mulling in my head

Rating research of people who supposed to be also teaching puts them firmly in publish or perish mode and that's not good for students. Universities are both research institutions and teaching facilities, really they should choose one. There was a time you needed all three together because of the cost and learning efficiency, however, that time has come and gone as the number of students entering all three segments has increased dramatically over the last 100 years. Many researchers who happen to be professors don't like to teach undergraduates and many undergraduates would rather have a professor who knows them and is open to them rather then learning in a lecture hall from a TA. There is no need to subject these two against each other anymore. Lifting the grunt teaching will free our researchers to explore and continue to push their craft in addition institutions focused on undergraduate learning will deliver a better, more hands-on education. Face reality, very little of research gets into undergraduate education and the longer we hold up this charade the worse this process will get.

http://www.cisco.com/web/siteassets/legal/connect_cloud_supp.html

I especially like how they get to keep your Internet history. Why do you think this is a good idea Cisco?

Your new Cloud Connect contract ...When you use the Service, we may keep track of certain information related to your use of the Service, including but not limited to the status and health of your network and networked products; which apps relating to the Service you are using; which features you are using within the Service infrastructure; network traffic (e.g., megabytes per hour); Internet history; how frequently you encounter errors on the Service system and other related information ("Other Information"). We use this Other Information to help us quickly and efficiently respond to inquiries and requests, and to enhance or administer our overall Service for our customers. We may also use this Other Information for traffic analysis (for example, determining when the most customers are using the Service) and to determine which features within the Service are most or least effective or useful to you. In addition, we may periodically transmit system information to our servers in order to optimize your overall experience with the Service. We may share aggregated and anonymous user experience information with service providers, contractors or other third parties to assist us with improving the Service and user experience, but any shared information will be consistent with Cisco's overall Privacy Statement and will not identify you personally in any way....

Unless all employees are in the class and assumed to increase their salaries 10% during the time frame; the resulting lawsuit/settlement has little to no chance of being more expensive then if all the companies had been competing for talent as it will be extremely difficult to prove financial damages. I am very disappointed in the DOJ settling this one with little more then a "don't do it again" as they may have been the only way to stop this cold going forward.

"It's not a "health" choice, it's a lifestyle choice."

Your ignorance is deafening. Sorry, but the pill is not just a "life-style" choice. Please educate yourself.

My wife has poly-cystic ovaries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycystic_ovary_syndrome), a pre-cancerous condition. One of the fun things about PCOS is you don't menstruate. So my wife will literally go months without a menstrual cycle but when she does, oh boy. She is constantly cramping, imagine someone grabbing your insides and constantly squeezing. Then when a menstrual cycle starts it does so with even more incredible cramping that she can hardly get out of bed in the morning or even get through the day. Pain meds are the order of the day. Next up comes an extremely heavy and clotty flow that will continue for about 4 weeks that makes her tired and light headed most of the day. If she isn't on birth control she gets to look forward to that 2-3 times a year for a month at a time. In our lives there is no such thing as "lifestyle" choice just pain or no pain.

For those who were in mixed Apple / PC environments at the time (I was working on a college campus); the fact that you could still get Office was a major reason that folks got to keep their Macs and would start trading up to the their iMacs and G3 towers in the next two years. While Jobs gets all the credit for bringing the company back from the brink (and rightfully so) you have to remember where his reputation was at the time, ie weird dude that got kicked out earlier. For better or worse, MS blessing upon Apple made it ok to actually purchase Macs because their would always be a copy of Office to be had from Microsoft.

All the articles coming out about start-ups, being your own boss, writing your own iOS app and making money....sure smells like 1999 - 2000 to this Slashdot old-timer.

+2 for the Bruce Campbell reference!

I was sophomore in college when I found Slashdot, it was 1998. I had P2-266 with 128MB of RAM and 8GB hard drive and a dorm room T-1 connection that I saturated nightly because nobody had a computer hooked up to the Internet yet. I don't even remember how I got to Slashdot, but I know that it has been with me ever since. I don't comment as frequently as I once did, but I do come to the site everyday. In essence, Slashdot and the posting I have done here over the past 12 years is a record of how I have grown and changed as person. From starting out as MIS major (don't snicker Comp Sci guy - I can still run rings around your SQL code), to my first job at Enron, to going back to grad school to get my MBA (yea, a geek in suit's clothing) and finally to my current position - Slashdot has been there. Rob, thank you for what you have done, you gave us all a voice.

HT

That just brought a tear to my eye...

Freshman in college when announced...now married 7 years with a kid.

My UID is from late 2007 to early 2008

Fast question:
Its 1993, would you rather have US Dollars or Chinese Yuan for the next 20 years? If you said Yuan, then you owe me money. In October 2003, the Chinese devalued their currency by 50% versus the USD.
http://www.oanda.com/currency/historical-rates/
Currency Cross is USD (Currency I have) to CNY (Currencies I want)

In that time, the US had fueled the rise of China because of long-term currency manipulation of the Yuan by China. This has fueled Chinese manufacturing boom but completely screwed Chinese consumers by artificially reducing their buying power. So the Chinese now sit on a a huge chunk of US debt because the best way to continue the yuan's manipulation is buying Treasuries and selling yuan which helps China compete. That 50% has moved to 14% even though China's market grow rate has been multiple of the the US over that time almost 20 years ago.

The Chinese can't stop buying debt without putting themselves at significant risk. Of course, if the US goes down as you say - that would loot the Chinese Treasury. The Chinese have tried to diversify out of US debt see all base metals and other commodities, but every time they have increased that commodity pricing exponentially. USD debt is still the largest and most liquid market there is. You can go buy 3 - 4 billion in debt and not make a hiccup. Do that in Gold, Copper, Aluminum, Silver and you can move that market by 10% and cost you amazing amounts.

So we continue this charade. The Chinese talk about wanting to diversify from USD (they can't because they need the currency advantage still and doing so impacts their own). And the US continues to talk about the Chinese manipulating its currency but we don't care because they have to buy our debt.

Of course now all the near-sourcing that was going to Canada has dried up. I know of personally three companies that scaled back or completely abandoned Canadian projects to move US jobs to Southern Ontario and Calgary because of the exchange rate appreciation. Who knows maybe those jobs that moved to Canada will come back over the border. Now multiply that by 1000x when the Chinese can no longer artificially depress the yuan and you get an idea of what will happen to them. Of course this is why the Chinese can't stop buying US Treasuries.

Yea but you are also choking back $500 a month in property tax too (I lived in Texas). So unless you purchased your 2700 sqft house for 150K - which even for DFW is a stretch unless you live beyond Frisco or in Midlothian - your actual costs are closer to 1800 a month.