Not Java specifically, but Jini, since Java didn't have a networking stack built-in and was too big (even then) to do cooperative processing/communications w/o requiring a far beefier CPU than most embedded devices could muster at the time (which is why Sun started the whole Jini project in the first place).

You've never ever heard of alt.binaries.*, have you?

Then again, even the biggest, burliest, and most methed-up biker dude is going to at least stop and think before trying to tackle a 98-lb weakling pointing a loaded pistol in his direction, no? Minus the gun, what other incentive would stop a larger dude with bad intent?

Err, it's "Filipino".

But yeah - I think they were talking about 3D-printed guns w/ no added parts, not zip guns.

Not a very apt comparison, is it?

While (back in the day, and even now) building a computer from scratch requires at least an EE level of education plus a crap-ton of actual CS experience, making a working firearm requires a whole lot less.

After all, humanity has been making the things with crap technology since what, the 13th Century or so (counting cannons)?

The whole idea behind a homemade firearm boils down to materials (that can handle upwards of 40,000 psi or more), tight tolerances (so the gases are directed towards pushing the bullet out instead of leaking back through the receiver or blowing past the bullet out the barrel), and a bit of mechanical engineering (so you can build a reliable trigger, a reliable extraction mechanism, prevent jams, etc).

It's something like a whole order of magnitude less complex than building a whole computer from, say, Mouser/RadioShack parts.Hell, zip guns have been around for years, and it doesn't take any specialized kind of rocket science to 3D-print a firearm that allows a metal sleeve for the barrel (or has the facility to screw a barrel into it), or make one sufficiently useful for one shot.

People still use BASH (and yes, it's still hella usable if the task is simple).

If the tool fits and does the job, use it.

I kept thinking "I am the very model of a modern Major Perl Framework..."

Privacy can be controlled (e.g. VPN), so the lesser of two evils is still Google Fiber.

*sigh* - if only I could just use the fiber and be my own ISP with one single IP and firewall. Too bad they only do blocks for that sort of thing (IIRC).

So, umm, what if you were born before Apollo 11 launched?

You. My Lawn. Remove Thyself.

Not really sure if I want to haul bulk fertilizer for the garden in a minivan (or lumber, or trash that the local garbageman won't pick up, or...) ...and I haven't even mentioned what a fully-laden minivan does (or rather, does not do) on the often-steep inclines we like to call highways around here...

The tax breaks are there. The resume-building is there. The gaining of a good track-record is there. What more did you seek?

While war tends to kill a metric shitload of innocent people, there are distinct differences between it and simple mass murder.

I'm not saying that either one is right or just, but at least try to learn the differences. Simple equivocation of the two is a sign of ignorance and/or naiveté. Please stop doing that.

Actually, I saw a program just like that (see above) - the company gets a solid tax break, the inmates' money is put into a savings account in their name (minus a small monthly stipend for housing), and they even had classes to help the inmate learn how to function as a normal human being.

The soon-to-be-ex-con gets a job and a chance to prove themselves. I know of one who not only worked his ass off at the plant, but after he got out they hired him on as a supervisor with a nice raise to boot. Many of the inmates there did pretty well (most likely because the selection process to get there in the first place, the requirement to be a non-violent offender, etc.)

Actually, some states do (did?) exactly that. Long ago, I worked at a poultry processing plant in Arkansas, and many of the workers there lived in 'halfway houses', where they were part of a program to ease inmates of the state prison farms back into society. It was a parole alternative for non-violent offenders/convicts, but they got out of prison earlier, depending on behavior. They were paid the regular wages, worked regular shifts, but went home every day/night in a van, and the halfway house was locked up. If anyone did anything dumb, they went back to the farm, but aside from a few re-integration classes and being confined to the home when they weren't working, they were treated like anyone else.

Agreed.

Now if he named folks like Snowden, Manning, and similar (where folks could actually go "yeah - they uncovered government badness and were whistleblowers", he could have gotten at least some support.

I mean, c'mon: he could have even stopped short and not even named anybody. At first I figured okay, he probably got a bad shake and deserves the compensation for his maltreatment. But nooo... he goes on to let his freak flag fly, and name those dumbasses as his heroes. My thoughts immediately became: "fuck that."

Mind you, the government is still way the hell in the wrong for locking him up if all he did was uncover a security flaw (and didn't sell or exploit it for personal gain), but holy shit...