>> We have some different ideas around monetisation in the pipeline, but for now we are just focussed on building a community around live education

Translation: we are going to be ad-free to grab as many users as possible until we finalize the sale of the company to an appropriate advertiser. (That's pretty much how these start-ups work.)

Was it wearing a brown shirt?

>> It is sort of sad that the woman in Drudge's "Obama phone" video has no idea that her free cell phone has nothing to do with Obama.

OK, I'll bite. Yes, one part of the conservative complaint is that the federal government shouldn't be in the business of providing free cell phone service*. However, the larger part of the complaint is that local political operatives DO advertise government perks like this as Democrat largesse. In other words, when the woman said that her phone was an "Obamaphone" she was probably just simplifying a version of this well-worn campaign slogan:

"Vote for [Democrat Leader] (Obama) and other Democrats and you will continue to get free or reduced price stuff (like this phone). Don't vote for Republicans because they will cut off your stuff."

>> conservatives...are...more cruel...

Yep, it looks like you're on the same page.

* = Conservatives are mixed on whether A) there should be NO subsidy, or B) a subsidy is OK but it should come as part of one cash handout, which has the duel advantage of teaching people to budget with real money and reducing the number of bureaucrats needed to "manage" these programs. (I'm a "B.")

>> While most Slashdot readers probably enjoy the latest and greatest smartphones and heavy-use data plans, millions of Americans use low-cost, prepaid featurephones

I'm on a low-cost prepaid plan along with my family. We currently have 3x sub-$100 Android phones and pay about $60 a month (total, not each) for about 600 voice minutes (which we never completely use), 500 texts (ditto) and about 3GB of data (which is mostly me streaming music between wireless zones at my home and office).

Though I've been into computers my entire life I really don't understand why anyone would pay $500 (or more) for a phone and then dump $50 (or more) per line per month down the drain - and yet I'm surrounded by friends and relatives who do. What am I missing?

You would have thought the market for this kind of thing would have dried up long ago.

>> Obama administration's push to make community college free top the list of headwinds

I lean conservative, but I call BS here. Obama's push was dead on arrival and largely forgotten.

>> And non-profit universities have entered the online education space, where for-profit schools once held center stage.

I'm not even sure I believe this. To save money and graduate faster, I picked up many of my 100's and 200's via "telecourses" I purchased through my local community college...and that was in the early 1990s.

>> sick of seeing these 'one simple|weird trick' spams

Ditto. Five years ago, I'd say this one slipped through SlashDot's filter. However I'm afraid this is the new normal.

On second thought, it looks like the AV company is staffed with idiots.

>> keys is that they may collide with a legitimate key just by the sheer numbers...when you think you’re building a product for just a few people you don’t hash out these details...

C'mon guys. Your wrote your own clue in the summary. (Starts with "h" rhymes with "trash"...)

>> cracked or pirated version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

Really? Could anyone on SlashDot really be this dumb?

>> you can be a big boy and say...

Kind of depends on the corporate web filter. YMWV :)

Jesus Spaghetti, if we're stuck with f***ing polls on SlashDot, how about one that, I don't know, has ANYTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH TECH. OOOOAAHH OOOHHHH!!!!!

>> some reference that shows the Spanish government was fiscally irresponsible prior to the global financial crisis in 2008

I'll bite. TLDR: they spent too much money and allowed their banks to behave irresponsibly.

"...ballooning tax revenues (from the artificially high GDP growth rate) concealed the Spanish government's expenditures, which were unsustainably high, until 2007. The Spanish government supported the critical development by relaxing supervision of the financial sector and thereby allowing the banks to violate International Accounting Standards Board standards. So the banks in Spain were able to hide losses and earnings volatility, mislead regulators, analysts, and investors, and thereby finance the Spanish real estate bubble. The results of the crisis were devastating for Spain, including a strong economic downturn, a severe increase in unemployment, and bankruptcies of major companies." ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... )

* A clear sky is blue
* The sun will rise tomorrow
* A bear...

>>>> system finds that piece of code and automatically puts it together with whatever pieces of code you need to make your program work
>> sounds like complete fiction
I think we already do with with libraries and dependencies...just not at the executable level.

Yesterday, I found myself saying, "if you know someone who still has cable..."