It doesn't promote the progress of science and the useful arts. It just stops other companies from promoting the progress of science and the useful arts. So everyone has to buy your "art" instead of the other guys. In other words:

4. Profit.

Xbox requires Xbox games, BFD. If you don't like it, don't get an account, don't use it.

I've been on Steam since, well, before Steam existed. Back when TFC was distributed by Sierra. They have the least amount of DRM, often none, and the least restrictive policies of anyone. They have successfully bridged the needs of the user and the wants of the publisher. It isn't perfect, but it is less offensive than any other DRM method, and they have a lot of free stuff. And frankly, I don't mind a company making money for selling software anyway, it's a free fucking country, and part of freedom is being able to sell your wares. Don't like it? Don't buy it.

Unlike any other publisher, I don't feel like Steam is trying to constantly screw me out of more money all the time, and is instead trying to keep me as a customer by giving good service and fair prices. I hope they continue to be successful.

Yeah, I was kind of thinking the same thing.

When my mom and dad were 65/69, I bought them a Winbox simply because that is what everyone else has, so getting software and help would be trivial. That was 15 years ago and they are on their 3rd. Mom isn't here anymore but dad uses Skype, plays poker games (I send them game CDs) and such and he is in his 80s. We Facebook daily.

Sometimes "best" simply means what is most common, or maybe what you, the one who is going to be helping him, is familiar with. For him, the Winbox was handy because he could use it sitting down and the screen is big.

That kind of discipline is great, but our brains are hardwired to seek high calorie foods, to which snacks fit right in. Most people just aren't going to overcome the urge to eat too much at least some of the time.

Case in point, the country with the most fat people is the one with the most "all you can eat buffet"s. For most people, it is easier and better to simply limit the amount of temptation than it is to deal with that temptation when it is 10 feet away...and salty, and rich, and sweet, and chocolaty and....

Excuse me, need to grab a snack....

They didn't put a gun to her head, she made a choice. If you want the big bucks, you sell out, and she did.

No, Karmshock is spot on. It would likely be easier to just put a tariff on polluter countries like China and India, unless those good can be shown to be at least "average" in CO2 output. Same with the US. There are plenty of green companies here, or relatively, the main polluters are the employees, not the employers. Driving cars.

And before people scream "tariffs are bad for developing countries", I would remind them that every imported item created lots of CO2 to cross the ocean to get here. Maybe all countries should charge an extra 4-8% tariff to encourage domestic production. Not enough to choke imports off, just just enough to encourage local production.

What these companies do is serially violate Wikipedia policies while padding with fluff or outright lies. I'm not against paid editing itself, and a few people do it without problems, but the more known companies have methods they use are purely deceptive and they cause a great deal of expense and problems because of the thousands of sockpuppets they create, and the hit and run methods. They are not doing this in an open and honest way, whatsoever.

Trust me. If I know anything, this I know, and I know it first hand from actually working the SPI cases.

This is old news. These methods have been around at least as long as C has. It only works in isolated situations and doesn't make you a good programmer. Or person.

Sorry, but you are clueless. They don't get a "tax benefit", other than they can write it off as a business expense, just as they already do for wages. The only advantage to the employer is that it is easier to keep good employees with reasonable health care. They don't get any other bonus writeoffs.

The EMPLOYEE gets a tax advantage, because before Obamacare, I could pay for my insurance using pre-tax dollars. Now I have to use post tax dollars. Instantly, my health insurance costs just shot up over 35% since that means I use dollars AFTER I pay Social Security, Federal Income tax and State income tax.

OMG, holy cow and all that. Speaking as someone who has started and sold a couple of small businesses, I can promise you that Obamacare will NOT make it easier. There is even a tax for every employee, whether you have health insurance or not. Sorry to burst your bubble (and no matter how you feel about Obamacare in general) but more regulations do NOT make it easier to start a business, no matter what kind of regulations they are.

I'm pretty sure that isn't profitability that is stopping us from getting FTL drive.

Maybe it's xenophobia. Last time we did that in the movies, a bunch of pointy eared illegal aliens dropped by.

Ping time can geolocate? Within 10 feet. I'm about to piss on myself laughing. Ping is more determined by quality of network than distance, and varies according to the route each ping takes. You assumptions assume every route is the same, or is on a cell phone. They are not.

Go play network expert somewhere else, and get off my lawn.

Li-ons and TiGrs and BeArs? Oh my....

Jesus Christ, the signal to noise ratio has gone insane at /.

In the US, the law is dictated by where the call is generated. Some states allow recording, some states do not, some states allow for "single party consent" (as along as ONE of the parties know) and some require notification before the call starts or beeping tones every $x seconds.

He called from outside of the US, so US law is irrelevant here.

Citation needed. I can't even get most webpages to load that fast.