"Would I be able to work with those folks in some useful capacity? Perhaps building products for foreign markets?"

I think it's easier to learn a programming language than a human language, so in practically every country you'll find people who are already fluent in their own language plus whatever programming language you know. And most of them will have learnt English since childhood.

Learn a language for fun, or if you want to see the world, but it won't tie in with your programming in any meaningful way.

Do your employees enjoy not being able to receive personal phone calls at work?

Why would they do that when the burgers are prepared frozen and cooked on the spot?

It doesn't matter if the media has decided she's guilty. She may actually be guilty. What makes you so certain that she's not?

So you're benefiting from other people sharing information on Facebook without actually sharing anything yourself? How about you just don't use it at all?

"I hate the idea of other people using my code and I refuse to use github except to download the occasional package".

What are you talking about? "Chipzilla" is a nickname for Intel.

You say that Facebook users don't understand the meaning of the word "privacy", but that's plain incorrect. Most are fine with the knowledge that Facebook is using their data to fund the service, but are not fine with messages meant for one friend being seen by another friend. That's a type of "privacy" which is much more important to most people.

That's not true. Likes and comments on a post don't change the privacy settings of that post. It's really not that complicated.

I think most people have a pretty good idea what it means, thank you very much.
Facebook has two main methods of communication between users. If I post on a friend's wall, I do it knowing that our mutual friends will see it - that's exactly the point. If I want a "private" conversation, I'll use the messaging feature. Those messages can only be seen by the recipients, as well as facebook's data-mining algorithms.

It's exactly as private as using Gmail.

The second law of thermodynamics states that you can't convert thermal energy into any other form. Sorry.

What's the average IQ of prison inmates, or slashdot readers or CS students? All fixed at 100?

The article is about Taobao, which is the consumer subsidiary of Alibaba.

Can we have a bit of sanity here? The laws are pretty clear that your online activity can only be recorded if the police specifically ask your ISP. Since most Australians are not under investigation by the police, a VPN is hardly a "a necessity".

Your language makes it sound like it's the end of the internet as we know it, when the reality is far more mundane.

a) They shouldn't have offered a lifetime account if they didn't intend to honour it (though they're not legally obliged to), but
b) You shouldn't have paid 'a few hundred bucks' for a service of indeterminant length and value.

Also, doesn't dropbox offer like 2.5gb for free? Why pay for a lifetime service if it's going to be superceded?
Would you have taken a "lifetime" dial-up account from AOL if it was offered?

I have type I diabetes and I can assure you that 100mg of sugar will have absolutely no effect.