It doesn't promote the progress of science and the useful arts. It just stops other companies from promoting the progress of science and the useful arts. So everyone has to buy your "art" instead of the other guys. In other words:

4. Profit.

Xbox requires Xbox games, BFD. If you don't like it, don't get an account, don't use it.

I've been on Steam since, well, before Steam existed. Back when TFC was distributed by Sierra. They have the least amount of DRM, often none, and the least restrictive policies of anyone. They have successfully bridged the needs of the user and the wants of the publisher. It isn't perfect, but it is less offensive than any other DRM method, and they have a lot of free stuff. And frankly, I don't mind a company making money for selling software anyway, it's a free fucking country, and part of freedom is being able to sell your wares. Don't like it? Don't buy it.

Unlike any other publisher, I don't feel like Steam is trying to constantly screw me out of more money all the time, and is instead trying to keep me as a customer by giving good service and fair prices. I hope they continue to be successful.

Yeah, I was kind of thinking the same thing.

When my mom and dad were 65/69, I bought them a Winbox simply because that is what everyone else has, so getting software and help would be trivial. That was 15 years ago and they are on their 3rd. Mom isn't here anymore but dad uses Skype, plays poker games (I send them game CDs) and such and he is in his 80s. We Facebook daily.

Sometimes "best" simply means what is most common, or maybe what you, the one who is going to be helping him, is familiar with. For him, the Winbox was handy because he could use it sitting down and the screen is big.

If you ask a transit rider how to get there by car, they may not give you the best directions. Try asking them how to get there by bus. If they don't know the answer offhand, they certainly know how to quickly find out.

That kind of discipline is great, but our brains are hardwired to seek high calorie foods, to which snacks fit right in. Most people just aren't going to overcome the urge to eat too much at least some of the time.

Case in point, the country with the most fat people is the one with the most "all you can eat buffet"s. For most people, it is easier and better to simply limit the amount of temptation than it is to deal with that temptation when it is 10 feet away...and salty, and rich, and sweet, and chocolaty and....

Excuse me, need to grab a snack....

They didn't put a gun to her head, she made a choice. If you want the big bucks, you sell out, and she did.

No, Karmshock is spot on. It would likely be easier to just put a tariff on polluter countries like China and India, unless those good can be shown to be at least "average" in CO2 output. Same with the US. There are plenty of green companies here, or relatively, the main polluters are the employees, not the employers. Driving cars.

And before people scream "tariffs are bad for developing countries", I would remind them that every imported item created lots of CO2 to cross the ocean to get here. Maybe all countries should charge an extra 4-8% tariff to encourage domestic production. Not enough to choke imports off, just just enough to encourage local production.

The question will actually be more like "would you keep driving manually if it meant 80% higher insurance rates?"

Thanks, I got these titles from thomas.loc.gov and it didn't occur to me that they wouldn't be the official titles.

Back in the Win95/98 days, I can't tell you how many people mentioned to me that they had tried defragmenting their hard drive as a troubleshooting step.

You're right about the first part, but wrong about the second part.

H.R.132 : ObamaCare Repeal Act
H.R.1005 : Defund Obamacare Act
H.R.2087 : Protecting Taxpayer Dollars and Identity under Obamacare Act
H.R.2125 : No IRS Implementation of Obamacare Act
H.R.2443 : Safeguarding Children Harmed by Obamacare's Onerous Levies Act
H.R.2682 : Defund Obamacare Act of 2013
H.R.3067 : No Obamacare Subsidies for Members of Congress Act of 2013
S.177 : ObamaCare Repeal Act
S.1292 : Defund Obamacare Act of 2013
S.1497 : No Exemption for Washington from Obamacare Act

Unfortunately not, but if you find one, let me know!

I should mention, in case it wasn't clear, that my comment about Planned Parenthood was an example I made up, not something mentioned in the study I linked to.

What these companies do is serially violate Wikipedia policies while padding with fluff or outright lies. I'm not against paid editing itself, and a few people do it without problems, but the more known companies have methods they use are purely deceptive and they cause a great deal of expense and problems because of the thousands of sockpuppets they create, and the hit and run methods. They are not doing this in an open and honest way, whatsoever.

Trust me. If I know anything, this I know, and I know it first hand from actually working the SPI cases.

According to this report (PDF), there are three distinct groups within the Republican party: the Tea Party, evangelicals (the Religious Right), and moderates. There are stark differences between the three groups, but another poster mentioned "the power of cognitive dissonance" - no matter which of the three Republican subgroups you belong to, you're going to have a natural tendency to WANT to agree with the other two, because you're a Republican. For example, Evangelicals think the government shouldn't fund Planned Parenthood because abortion is murder, and the Tea Party thinks the government shouldn't fund Planned Parenthood because it's wasteful government spending, but Evangelicals are going to adopt "smaller government" as part of their argument and Tea Partiers will adopt the moral case as part of their argument.