So, putting them in plastic containers and just churning out the honey seems like the lazy ass way of beekeeping.

Sorry, but what? Pretty much every technological advance we've ever made has been about someone being lazy.

So, tell you what, stop using the wheel, the lever, an engine, electricity, refrigeration, or pretty much anything which takes the work out for you.

Stop being such a lazy bastard and ignore all modern progress which reduces your labor.

Otherwise you're full of crap.

Would you rather go to a pay model?

Tell you what.

First, we'll kill all of the people who run analytics companies, and destroy all of their data.

Then we'll pass sane consumer protection laws which limit what they can collect about you, and what they can do with it.

Then we might start to talk about how to pay for the internet.

Right now on Slashdot as I type this, Google, Ooyala, Rpxnow, Scorecard research, Janrain, Double Click, Comscore ... all of these entities would be tracking me if I wasn't blocking them.

I'm not willing to accept their bullshit "by visiting this site you give us unlimited rights to track, monitor, collate, sell, and otherwise abuse your data". I have no relationship with those companies, and I get no compensation for being their "product". Which means I will block the hell out of anything which is going to help Slashdot profit from douchebags.

I have no business relationship with these analytics and advertising companies.

Take these assholes out of the equation, or don't even talk to me about how to fund the internet. I'm not funding someone's website with my personal information.

Fuck that.

The notion that some greedy corporation should feel entitled to my data is the problem. Finding ways to accommodate them is not the solution.

Thanks, assholes, now we're going to have to figure out how to block this crap in HTML 5.

Will someone please kick the Google CEO in the crotch?

I'm tired of the internet being shat upon by asshole marketers.

As opposed to the parasites subsidizing their traditional power installation on your dime?

Because you'd have to be stupid and ill-informed to not understand that your "traditional" power companies are already getting subsidies, which mostly serve to prop up corporate profits instead of actually benefiting the population.

So either get rid of the existing subsidies, or stop pretending this is somehow different.

At least investing in renewables has long term benefits to society. Subsidizing the existing power company so they can lobby to keep solar out of the game? That's just stupid, and it's intellectually dishonest.

But, hey, that seems to be how politicians and corporations want it, and the populace seems to be oblivious to the fact that it's a game rigged in favor of incumbent corporations.

Here (NZ), we use a lot of hydro power. In fact the electricity company I use is 100% renewables. The benefit of hydro is you can also use it as a battery

Correspondingly, the major drawback of hydro is ... it is 100% dependent on topology which is suitable for generating hydro.

NZ has beautifully wobbly terrain from what I've seen (which, sadly, has been entirely on TV).

And for rooftop solar? Well, some of us have winters in which our roof is largely covered in snow, and in which we get short days. No sure how effective is when it's under 0.2m of snow. :-P

Not all places are suitable for all forms of renewables, unfortunately.

Though, here the biggest problem seems to be the money from the lobbyists is skewing the playing field for the existing players to be free from having to innovate or do anything differently. Because apparently propping up the business model of incumbents is more important.

Well, two obvious reasons:

1) They want to make the widgets they sell you
2) If they can't, they want a cut of the action from whoever does this.

Patents, especially stupid patents which are mostly just business models, are just rent-seeking.

Some ass at Amazon figures they get a good revenue stream if they can hoodwink the patent office into granting this.

Which further reinforces my belief that patents are mostly garbage and about entrenching corporate profits in law for no good reason.

Don't try to "pass on wisdom". Don't try to saddle her with some deep knowledge you feel the need to impart.

Tell her you love her. Tell her you're proud of her. Tell her she can be a bad ass, or any other thing she wants to. Tell her what is happening. Tell her it's something which happens, and that while it hurts it is a fact of life.

But for the love of god don't try to pass on some parental wisdom she'll be saddled with.

Please note that I'm posting anonymously because I don't want this to be about me. I'd prefer that the focus be on my daughter and how I can best help her. Thank you so much for your help.

Passing on a specific set of wisdom is about you.

You're dying; that is scary, tragic, and will be tough for her to deal with.

Leave her happy videos of you and her and the family, not a proscribed series of messages to be viewed at times in her life. I'm betting she'd rather see videos of you singing Monty Python songs than moralizing from beyond the grave.

Seriously, talk with your wife, talk with your doctor, talk with your friends, talk with your daughter ... but for the love of god don't ask Slashdot what to do here.

By all means do leave behind happy memories and videos to look back on. But don't be so mission oriented. That's just grim.

No, robots should be programmed to do their function, within the constraints of who is authorized to operate it.

If we start having robots which are trying to interpret the law ... we need to immediately destroy them, because we'll have invented robot lawyers, and the world will be ending.

How about we just don't try building robots which are smarmy assholes?

What kind of crap is this? Do we have alcohol vending machines now?

I think Japan has had them for years.

How prevalent they are and where ... I have no idea.

No no no ... this is much more sophisticated ... this is 3D printed (which isn't patented), on a truck (which isn't patentable), using the interwebs (which apparently is patentable), and centrally dispatched.

Can't you see the sheer amount of innovation it takes to combine "with a computer", "on a truck", and "3D printed"??

Stop laughing. No, really, stop laughing ... stop it ... stop it now ... Mom, he's doing it again.

Seriously, as I said elsewhere ... this is NOT an invention. This is a business process, combining a bunch of existing technologies.

So, tell me ... what are the ethical issues on, say, a dildo?

Do you need consent from the dildo? Does the dildo need to be of the age of consent?

If you wanted to hump your pillow, are there ethical issues?

Seriously, we're talking about machines. They're tools, they don't have legal rights.

Until such point we're talking about things which meet some (as yet undefined) level of sentience ... I think the issue of discussing the 'ethics' of how you use an inanimate object is complete and utter crap.

This isn't an invention, it's a frickin' business model.

People have been driving around in trucks for decades making stuff on location -- think welders and machinists. People have been dispatched to drive around and make stuff for decades.

But somehow you can get a fucking patent for "a system and methodology of placing one or more existing technologies in a truck and dispatching using existing technologies".

If the patent office approves this, they should be lit on fire, dipped in shit, shot and then fired.

OMG, we're going to use the intertubes to cause trucks to use existing technologies and then deliver it to you. Seriously?

I know people who work as ferriers (you know, the guys who shoe horses). And largely, this is what they do.

Appears largely be so, yes. This muppet has held the seat continuously since 1987.

So, stupid idiots, with beliefs based neither on reality nor evidence ... get re-elected by stupid idiots, with beliefs based neither on reality nor evidence.

This really is what is wrong with the world ... stupid people elect stupid people.

I, for one, welcome our new giant, plague-carrying gerbil overlords.

That is one crazy headline.

OK, he and his family can use astrology for diagnosis, and homeopathy for treatment.

Seems like over a few years this would be a self correcting problem.