Give me the phone's owner and a wrench, I'll have the pincode out real quick. There is an xkcd link for this but my hangover is killing me.

Pretty much my initial response, too.

But you know what, I hadn't made any realistic new year's resolutions actually, but now I am thinking it would be nice if instead of the reflexive elitist slashdot reaction to new users (yes I wrote that out in full) let's just try to help these folks feel at home and somewhat supported in our little world.

My 2 cents: learn shell scripting. It's a great way to apply the shell commands you've already learned and a very natural way to learn some more (control structures, loops, mostly).

when they came for...

Well written, and I think I do get your point. Too bad that it looks, at least from where I'm standing, like the folks who are most vocal about the need for the second amendment are some of the least likely to actually question the recent examples of government derailing.

This is the kind of paradox which fascinates me about American society. Another example is the pro-life/pro-choice debate where some of the staunchest pro-lifers put forth an argument of sanctity of life, i.e. that it is not for humans to decide questions of life and death. But those same folks are, almost without exception, somehow not opposed to capital punishment for that same reason.

And what about the dead kid? Is he being punished for having bad parents? People go to jail for abusing their kids, or at least have them removed from their custody -- how is having guns lying around for them to find not criminal negligence or even a kind of abuse? Whether the kid shoots himself or some other innocent bystander should hardly be a variable in determining the parents punishment, it seems to me.

sure. But this is just one of many relevant google hits for "Hollywood pentagon".

And don't forget the Pentagon. Whenever you see a two bit tv show featuring, say, an aircraft carrier, it is subsidized by DoD. Strings attached of course, so it is effectively outsourced propaganda.

Yes, we lost an amazing writer in Iain Banks. His non-scifi is rather good too, if very grim. I recommend the Wasp Factory.

Sorry for late reply, hope you get notifications.

I am aware that there are extremist elements out there, Muslim and Christian alike -- and elsewhere of course. But I honestly don't think they'll be able to mobilize much support once they can't point to the West and truthfully say, look, they are supporting the regimes that repress us.

When someone like Ann Coulter says something like "we should invade their countries and forcefully convert then to Christianity", I hope most rational folks realize she is mad and don't take her seriously. I just don't see how the few nutjobs in Islam should be taken any more seriously.

And yes, English isn't my first language so perhaps I'm mistaken... But your sig still reads to me as suggesting to people who might want to express disagreement with your pro-NSA position to consider the consequences ("long term surveillance"). I don't actually think you believe there is a guardian angel inside NSA just for you. Which is why I don't get it, I suppose, except if you intend it as a rhetoric trick to stifle opposing views, which kind if clashes with your earlier sig, it seems to me.

Well, there was an earlier report in which there were actually some remarks to the effect that "maybe this is a bit much". On the other hand there was also the impression that a lot of it was less about curtailing NSA and more about preventing future whistleblowers.

And now with this guy's statements.. Yeah, all is once again as I would have expected from a panel full of ex-intelligence types.

I'm still hoping some major campaign contributors will start bitching about how this nonsense is affecting their bottom lines... Because the people nor their representatives seem willing to actually do much about it.

Or even if you don't slaughter people directly, but support the dictatorships that repress them. These people do understand that it is the West who are supporting their tormenters, even if their own populations are not aware of the facts (in the case of the USA I guess this might be because many Americans don't actually follow international news).

This is why the "they hate us for our freedoms" tripe seems to actually fly with a lot of those folks. They seem to honestly not know what kind of brutal regimes their government is supporting and arming -- in their name, and on their dime.

Oh and off topic, but I can't help but notice that our Mr Fjord has changed his .sig. Interesting developmen -- before he was trying to appeal to civility to "guide moderators". Now he is suggesting - nay, threatening -- that if you call him out on his reflexive pro-NSA positions you will make yourself a target.

The company I work at wanted to do something like this for, eg epilepsy patients. Triggered by accelerometers, would automagically try to contact from a preselected list of friends/relatives, using location tracking to find the nearest ones first. Would start to make loud noises and flash instructions on screen for passers by on how they might help. Escalate to real emergency services if need be. Pretty good idea, but we somehow never hot around to building it.

Of course there was potential for false alarms by dropping the device, but in that case it would be no problem for the patient to deactivate it.

This is only a problem for a country which insists on treating pretty much all of those countries as either adversaries or sources of cheap labor and natural riches.

Compared to what, the NSA overall? Their budgets are not exactly well publicized, but on "defense" spending in general, the US is estimated to account for just about half of the planet total.

For an interesting and entertaining extrapolation of a planet without death, I recommend Torchwood: Miracle Day. (British scifi, spun off of Doctor Who, but rather more grim and dark and gory.

Thank you. I was waiting for a 1984 reference to appear... It provides me with a lame excuse to plug another British writer (sort of) I've stumbled across recently:

Arthur Koestler

He wrote about totalitarianism as well, but much more subtle and less dramatic then Orwell. To each his own, but I have a new favourite dystopianist.