People doesn't seem to get it. The SSN number is not an ID.

It should only be useful for the Social Security. However, due to lack of alternatives, it's been bastardized as a general ID.

Also, you are a bunch of crybabies. In Brazil, we have:

0- Birth certificate
1- ID (requires 1 to get) (has photo)
2- CPF ('physical' person registry) (arguably redundant with No.1, but required for historical reasons). It has a status, which is tied to your income tax papers. If you do not pay the damn taxes, or if you fail to present proof that you are not required to annually (too low income, for instance), it gets 'dirty' and will not be accepted anywhere until you clear it up. (requires 1 to get, no photo so 1 is required almost everywhere you have to present this). This is what is commonly used as a natural key in databases.
3- Voting card, also with an unique ID (requires 1 and 2)
4- Military enrollment card (requires 1, 2, physical examination etc)
5- If you want to be employed (not a business owner, not in the military), you require something that looks very like a passport and records all your employment history. Rough translation would be 'Worker's wallet'. (requires 1, 2, 3, 4 if memory serves right)
6- Driver's license, if you drive. As it has a photo ID and has (1 and 2) written in it, it can serve as your ID for most purposes

I might be forgetting something, but the above are expected for all citizens. God help you if you are mugged with those in your wallet. It can take weeks to get new copies. And the birth certificate is the greatest pain of all, so almost everyone presents copies when required.

I find your lack of imagination disturbing.

Maybe Droid developers. Meanwhile, the big studios are targetting the iPhone.

There is no such thing as a slow language.

There are only slow implementations.

Forget about batch files, unless all they do is launch better tools and nothing else.

There are many alternatives. You could go with Python, Perl, Powershell or, if you want it really really simple, small and powerful, use Lua. Package it with the app and people won't even notice it's there.

Plus, you can start it up with an one-line batch file, if you want that nostalgic feeling.

Just because most of these scams originate from Nigeria and other african countries. People from the african subcontinent tend do be... black. You do the math.

What, you expected to see a gallery of busty nordic women?

And X-Com reverse-engineered alien craft.

That's what I thought, then I remembered the element is Elerium 115, not 117.

Yes, we should suspend belief from the world around us. But not from the world around the friggin movie.

Granted, it might be possible to design a virus for alien computer systems. Maybe if we spent a lifetime studying them we just might be able to compile a Hello World. Now, to do that in less than a day, bypassing whatever countermeasures they may have, with the assistance of people who had an alien ship for decades and couldn't figure it out... if you don't call that a stretch, I'm not sure what it is.

Yes, Linux distributions will release new packages.

*Because* Windows has no packages, it can't do the same.

So you are seriously arguing that those huge downloads from Microsoft are actually binary diffs? They are not.

Such as... aliens?