We could put Libertarian dogmatism and naivety on the list, but they themselves have little influence, so it isn't like fixing them would fix the problem.

I guess you could call it pathological cynicism, and it expresses itself in many ideologies: government is evil, corporations are evil, America is evil, the West is evil, cisgender heterosexual white men are evil, etc.

The person started off by asking me if it was an excel file, a PDF, etc

That's a reasonable question. Without knowing the level of security required, the encryption facilities that are standard for these file types could be sufficient. The applicant wanted requirements, which is a smart thing to ask.

And why the fuck should everyone know the details of PKI? You didn't say it was a security position. Hell, a little knowledge of encryption can be worse than no knowledge, because then they might try to roll their own.

Something tells me the submitter is inflating his/her own expertise.

Let me know when someone builds a Predictor.

It's hilarious the parent comment got at least two upvotes. Say what you will about geek arrogance, but insecurity at others being smarter than them is a lot more common on Slashdot than its opposite. Or maybe they just prefer to hide in silence and let the mod points do the talking.

I'm perfectly capable of managing my own defense, thank you very much. You crypto-statists with your "police" and "national defense" are nothing more than collectivists pretending to be rugged individualists. You're just as effete as the bleeding heart redistributing liberals.

There are still rats biting children in poor neighborhoods. That money should be spent on them!

For me it's hard to pick between her and Snowden.

I think you meant Julian Assange.

They believe Google exists to make money. No, Google exists to make cool things. The money is a means to an end.

more tolerant, more enlightened, and certainly more technically competent?

would he just shrug and accept his fate?

No, because those mercenaries would be acting like a government that is taxing him, and that would make them evil. He'd have to make a second Galt's Gulch island to protest his first island's statistism.

Feminists are always saying there are no mental differences in men in women. And because of that, the gender disparity in CS must be due to sexism.

Now they're altering the content of CS curriculum to appeal to women, and it is apparently working.

So if women do actually need to be taught CS differently, why is all that dark matter sexism still necessary to explain it?

I very much appreciate my education for having taught me a great deal about abstraction, critical thinking, research, communication

Paging Dunning Kruger, Dunning Kruger, please pick up the white courtesy phone.

Feminists are trying to censor video games. And I don't suppose it is a coincidence that the petition was about a game and an issue Sarkeesian focused on recently.

lol, what the hell do you think refusing to change seats is?

Escalation is the only thing that changes things. Maybe what this country needs is a white nerd to get murdered by a cop. Maybe then the right wingers will be like "Oh, shit, you mean the cop problem is real?"

Then again, the "am I free to go" guy gets ridiculed by the social justice types. They want to pretend that civil libertarians are all bravado, but when those civil libertarians routinely cash the checks their mouths write, somehow they're still in the wrong.