What I see in Google is the only company that pulls off ads and spying *without* being annoying or terrible. I hate companies that inject ads into things such that it gets in the way or makes it harder to do what you were doing. I hate companies that spy on you without your permission and then do sketchy things with the results. Google ads don't get in the way, they tell you straight-up that they're spying on you, and they don't generally do anything terribly sketchy with the results. Thus, they can spy on me as much as they like, if they keep it up and use it for good.

I was just commenting to a friend just yesterday how much I hoped Google would decide to get into the phone carrier market as themselves, as it would really shake things up - if anyone could get mixed cell/satellite communication down to affordable prices and thus make internet finally *truly* available anywhere on the planet, it'd be Google. And I long for that day (i.e. the day where one doesn't have to pay cruise ships their hilarious gouging rate for basic connectivity, for instance.)

I suppose setting up as an MVNO is a first step, but it isn't quite the same. (I like Google, but I'll most likely stick with Ting all the same.)

You know, all that cash? The cash you made from cooking all that meth? Don't forget to tell her where you buried it.

I thought they were going to be 3d printing *delivery trucks*. You know, like "would you torrent a car?" (or in this case, delivery truck.) I was sadly disappointed.

Only if you smoke it... which is not even remotely necessary to gain the effects people go for. :p

Really? I've been pretty fond of SF's public transportation. NYC's is up there, but I like SF's more. LA's, on the other hand, is pretty close to worthless. Not *quite* worthless, but close.

Nitpick: by the time he owned a car wash, he wasn't actually teaching chemistry anymore (too busy at his new job. (Of owning a carwash. Totally that and nothing else.))

It is pretty funny how I think of that show every time I visit a carwash or a fried chicken joint now.

Anything? Call up your professor, then, and tell him you broke theoretical computer science with your proof that you can, in fact, solve the halting problem. [/needlessly pedantic]

Seriously, slashdot? I open the page and it automatically starts playing a video advertisement with no way to kill it except to close the whole page. You know better than that.

That's retarded. People have unprotected sex because it's better. Way better. Even, I would say *especially* people in long-term, monogamous, trusting relationships, who still happen to not want kids at the moment.

While annoying that the default isn't sorting chronologically (I agree completely that this is the only sort that is actually useful), and that you have to re-sort every time you visit the page for a new place, it *is* only a single extra click, next to the default "yelp sort", the "date" link.

Yes. I'd be all in favor of his "conditional" approval. The *problem* with both of these companies is that already, neither of them has much/any competition. If the merger goes through, they still don't. If the merger *doesn't* go through, they *also* still don't.

Much of this lack of competition is legislated. If part of the deal for them to be approved to merge is that they are *forced* to stop blocking any competition, either public or private, from existing, then yes, I'm all for it. What we really need is some actual competition, I don't care who by. I have an amazingly cheap phone bill from a company with amazingly good service, because that market actually has decent competition.

I just read it as, the oldest twin was previously found, and they haven't yet lost him yet. (He "remains found".)

Alternatively, just don't be an idiot, put it all in (diversified) investments, then live pretty much indefinitely off the dividends, even if you live moderately lavishly. I don't understand how people *don't* understand this. (But yes, it does seem like the biggest mistake people have is not realizing that if you give out jillions of dollars to hundreds of your "friends", your money will disappear hundreds of times more quickly. The key there is just don't have friends.)

Betteridge's Law indicates that the answer is "no", when of course, the answer is actually "duh".