I was going to ask this too, but now I fear I'd have to compete against tons of people whose slacking-off-skills are more advanced than me so I might not even put in the effort to apply.

Unless said company had a regional monopoly and was big enough to lobby to keep the rules favoring them. *cough* Comcast *cough*

Congress doesn't goof off for months and then pretend they were investigating something.

They're more the "hold pointless hearings to make it seem like you're doing something and then go out on recess" kind of folks. Of course, they also will mix in "pass a law you claim with solve X when it really just benefits your favorite lobbyists."

At best, there will be a handful of sacrificial firings with sternly worded statements about how they will not be tolerating this behavior in the future. Then, business as usual will resume.

Don't let them watch movies until he's read the books they're based on.

We did this with the Harry Potter series. We let my oldest (now almost 11) watch the first two movies and then insisted that he read the books with me before he could see any more movies. (He could see a subsequent movie when he finished the book.)

We recently started his with our youngest (7). I let him watch the first movie and now he's reading the first book with my wife. He will be able to watch the other movies as he finishes the books.

In other words, we used the first movie as a hook to get them interested in the series. Not something you can do with any book/movie, but works very nicely with Harry Potter. As a bonus, they can really appreciate what was cut out of the books to make them into movies. As much as I like the movies, the books contain a LOT more details for why things happen and have many subplots that were cut entirely.

My son, now in second grade, was like that too. He refused to even acknowledge that he knew how to read and would complain that reading was "too hard." We were patient and read to him. We also reassured him that him reading wouldn't mean the end of time spent with us reading to him. A couple of weeks ago, he read his first chapter book (in the Bad Kitty series) and it sparked something in him. Over the past couple of weeks, he has read the entire rest of the Bad Kitty series as well as a bunch of other chapter books.

It might be a confidence issue or a desire to keep spending reading time with Mom/Dad. Be patient and keep reading to your child. Encourage him to read a page or paragraph whenever possible. That might help build up your son's confidence in his own reading ability.

Also being interested in how the subject is taught.

Like the GP, I have a son who is ahead of his class in math. He used to love math class and would figuratively devour any math problem presented to him. Recently, his love of math has become tempered, though. It's not that he's getting into harder math problems, but the way the math is being taught. (New York State adopted a system of teaching that requires all teachers to teach the same lessons to their kids in the same way - regardless of learning level.) He doesn't do well with the current system so he's slipping. Of course, at this point, he's slipping from "way ahead" to just "marginally ahead", but still slipping.

A good teacher can take a kid with ability and make him/her excel. A great teacher can take a child who hated a subject and uncover a hidden talent for said subject. A bad teacher (or teaching style) can take a kid with ability and make them hate that subject and not want to put any effort into it ever again.

To be fair, there are the tacti-tards who love to bump fire from the hip. I have seen them at the range.

LK

The same thing happens with civil lawsuits also. If the RIAA thinks they've caught you uploading a thousand songs, they'll sue you for $150 million (the maximum penalty the law allows). Then, they will offer to settle for "only" $3,000 and a signed statement that they give you which basically admits your guilt and forces your silence on the matter. Your options are a) pay for a lawyer and spend time and money fighting the case knowing that you might lose and, even if you win, might not get back lawyer fees or b) settle and cut your losses.

Most people understandably choose option b. It's nice to say you'll defend your innocence in theory but in reality a fight like this would be too much for some people when they need to juggle work, bills, and other aspects of real life. The RIAA counts on this and abuses the legal system to ensure as high a "number of pirates caught" number as possible regardless of whether those "pirates" are really guilty or not.

If you are using mySQL, it would be "Select * from Users limit 1000". If you are using Microsoft SQL Server, it would be "Select top 1000 * from Users".

Because if you can hack into a system and get a billion passwords, you can sell those to "interested parties" for a penny each and retire.

Because: What if one of those 40% decides to become a terrorist and is allowed on a plane or isn't tracked closely thanks to being removed from the list? Can you prove that none of those 40% will ever become a terrorist in the future? No? Then they need to remain on the list just in case they one day get terrorist leanings.

Seriously, though. These agencies, sadly, seem to think in these terms. Any reduction in surveillance or removal from a terrorist watch list - even if the people being removed have no terrorist ties - is potentially letting future terrorists through. Their ultimate wet dream would be the ability to monitor everything about everyone at once. Only then could they provide maximum security for everyone (from everyone).

It could be. Enough other things in my house have wound up to be horrible and needing repair. As much as I like not having a landlord to answer to, there are days when I miss being able to say "X is broken. I'll call the landlord so he can get it fixed."

Don't worry, I'm sure Tektronix will suffer the full penalties of abusing the DMCA. *doles out zero penalties* There, done.

Exactly this. When I went into college, I was convinced that I'd major in physics and minor in math. There was no question in my mind. I took a computer science course because it seemed like the best option on the list of required courses. My second semester in college, I hit into Quantum Mechanics and found myself struggling. As much as I liked physics, I couldn't wrap my head around the equations and was NOT enjoying it at all. Meanwhile, in my computer science course, I was barely paying attention in class and pulling down straight A's. Everything there just clicked naturally. So I switched majors and never looked back. Now I build web applications and while I'll always love physics, I am much more comfortable managing code than managing complex mathematical equations to plot the course of an electron around a hydrogen atom.

When I entered college, I had no idea I'd love programming so much. Were I able to just pick and choose "modules" instead of being required to take a wide variety of courses, I'd never have found out what I really like.