Saddam was a murdering rat bastard, but he was largely secular and as scared of fundamentalist terrorism as we are. Plus he kept Iran in check. We've gone crazy since the Cold War looking for new enemies, and our pursuit of humanitarian war under Bush I and Clinton lead to the mess we're in now. We were friends with Saddam in the 80s because it was smart. He should still be an ally. The Saud family, on the other hand, bankrolls jihad across the world. And our presidents hug and bow to them.

Yes, remember one of America's closest allies, who other Muslims despise.

I'm willing to believe the worst about Saudi Arabia. It's a country ruled by a fucking dictatorial royal family that own slaves, and they act without shame and with utter impunity because they have our protection. I've lived off and on in New York City for years. I've known plenty of Muslims and Arabs. Nice people. I'm no racist. But fuck the nation of Saudi Arabia. And fuck America for being so damn cozy with those monsters. And from what I hear, the rest of the Muslim world can't stand them. Being vile and corrupt and unaccountable crosses cultural boundaries. They're like the tackiest lottery winners you can imagine, only if winning the lottery made you exempt from the law. I'm tired of US wars, but if China, say, were to go and depose their whole ruling clan, I'd be thrilled to the gills. Hell, say what you will about the Chinese, at least their working to develop a functioning country for their people. Obviously I'm not talking about the millions of Saudis who live in the slums subject to the theocratic rule that the royals don't bother to follow themselves.

And let's remember, the Saudis are some of America's closest allies. I guess it's because we talked them out of selling oil to Hitler, but surely there's an expiration date on how long we owe them a favor for that.

The parent post was talking about engineering issues, not end user issues. Computers look different if you're working on their insides.

Yeah, RSA encryption. Against an agency that has poured undisclosed billions (yes b-) from it's black budget into quantum computing.

I've said it before. The only thing worse than being exploited by capitalism is NOT being exploited by capitalism.

The most difficult trucking will be the last to be automated. But plenty of shipping and trucking jobs are no more complicated than the "civilian" driving that Google's cars are already doing. Give them 10 years of working on the easier jobs in real world conditions and they'll have figured out the hard stuff too.

A lot of people in Appalachia would cry a great deal if coal mining were suddenly done by robots not even manufactured in America. Often times the one thing that is worse than having a dangerous, shitty job is not having it.