It may seem reactionary, but I suspect the debate about whether to end support for IE6 has been going on for quite some time.

I would be very interested to know what percentage of Google Docs users are still using IE6. I would also be very interested in knowing how much it costs Google to support IE6 (the recent attacks notwithstanding). The development costs of supporting IE6 in any sort of web application are not insignificant. I suspect the percentage of the development budget that Google uses to support IE6 is disproportionate to the percentage of IE6 users.

Dropping IE6 is inevitable. Sure it leaves some people behind, but I'll bet the benefits of doing so significantly outweigh the drawbacks.

It seems as though no one is making a distinction between being anti-business and anti-corporation. Personally, I feel that the corporation as a legal entity is indeed a malignancy. But I certainly wouldn't regard myself as anti-business or anti-capitalist. Far from it.

And I've always hated that maxim. It's perniciously simplistic. It's just a pithy way for conservatives to call liberals dumb. It it no way addresses how drastically the terms "conservative" and "liberal" have changed over time.

But just like you I've yet to see a system that I'd rather live under.

I think you've done a great job of articulating your point (although I disagree with your use of the term "by definition"). I certainly share your frustration with our legal system. Having laws that are generally ignored (or of which we are wholly ignorant) engenders a lack of respect for the law.

But what would the "right" legal system look like? I honestly don't know. That's something that I've never heard satisfactorily explained. Could you offer some details?

Clearly something is broken. How would you fix it?

I'd say Macgillivray is right

He makes a pretty common argument that Google News actually helps every news service as opposed to the AP's claims of hurting them (maybe even stealing from them).

I work for a struggling national newspaper. It isn't the New York Times, but you've certainly heard of it. And for our editorial staff, getting one of our stories picked up by Google news is about the best thing that can happen. We love it.

At first I thought this was just a troll. But then it dawned on me that you might actually hold these opinions. Wow.

So I wanted to add my two cents.

I'm a Mac user and I find the implication that I've chosen a Mac in order to be cool or because of peer pressure plainly insulting. I don't think the OS is great, but for my needs I think it's the least bad of the major desktop OSes.

• I can do the things I want to do.
• I don't have to mess with the OS if I don't want to.
• I want my peripherals work with minimal effort.

Using those statements as a guide, OS X was the clear winner. By a long shot. Of course that evaluation is subjective--what you want to do and what I want to do are likely rather different.

Frankly, I don't give a shit whether someone know what OS I use. It isn't a part of my identity and it isn't part of an image I wish to project. It's just a preference. Lighten the fuck up.

Believe or not, it works without frauds in the 3rd world.

..that you know of.