A reporter from The New York Times, an American of Norwegian rather than Afghan extraction, voluntarily submitted to a test screening with the B.A.T. system. After his fingerprints and iris scans were entered into the B.A.T.’s armored laptop, an unexpected “hit” popped up on the screen, along with the photograph of a heavily bearded Afghan.

The “hit” identified the reporter as “Haji Daro Shar Mohammed,” who is on terrorist Watch List 4, with this note: “Deny Access, Do Not Hire, Subject Poses a Threat.”

lol, the fact that many diseases were eradicated is a fraud?

Yup. The "real" funny part is that Real killed themselves by turning their product into a PC-suffocating piece of bloatware. Real Alternative was a direct response to that exact bloat. I'd be laughing if it weren't so sad for the defendant.

It's sad how failed companies refuse to go down quietly, instead they go legal supernova.

How contrived can you make your arguments? What's a ninth of a mile? In Furlongs. It appears to be a common calculation you need to make.

How about something more mundane? The safety information on a lift says its maximum capacity is two tons. Each of your anglo-american group of passengers tells you their weight in a combination of stones and pounds. Enjoy calculating whether you've exceeded the capacity.

I also am "perfectly comfortable" with both systems, knowing that I can drive 60 km/h or 304.8 feet/minute (what?!)

1999 Have I been reading Slashdot that long?

Ultima III wouldn't let you interact with NPCs - they'd say "Honesty is a virtue, I will not help you" or something to the effect.

Personal experience. As a teenager I bought Ultima III (I think) for the Amiga for $many_weeks_allowance. The original floppy was corrupt, and being an expat in a remote country meant I couldn't get it replaced. A buddy mailed me a pirated copy to replace it. A "fun way" to catch pirates for sure, but there I was with a box, shiny cloth map and a game that would tell me I'm dishonest. Never got to play it. Guess whether this experience motivated me to (a) buy more games or (b) pirate games instead.

</childhood_trauma>

I understand the rationale behind copy protection and DRM, but they can make life hard for legitimate users and end up counterproductive.

Sure, you've lost 100,000+ young men in golfing accidents around the world.

http://americanveterans.homestead.com/links.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_the_United_States

Looking at those I noticed more civilians have now died in Iraq than you lost soldiers in WWII. Nice.

Each time a new president is elected in the US, I ask myself which part of the world will get a taste of American exports this time. I'm certain I will not see a single presidential term during which Americans aren't involved in a military conflict somewhere. It's remarkable how you manage to keep the population motivated.

I found the recent US political debate following the Giffords shooting quite remarkable, journalists exhorting how Democrats and Republicans should recognize each other as humans and should try to settle differences in a civil manner. The rest of the world will have to wait to get the same recognition, it seems.

This really takes the cake. How about you stop "stealing" the use of all the public services being paid for by all other hard working people?

Haha, true. There's a high probability that having a Swiss bank account correlates to being Swiss yourself.

However, It looks like this isn't just a list of bank accounts: the documents "detail attempts by wealthy business leaders and lawmakers to evade tax payments."

I don't care if he's a monkey and likes to play a recorder with his butt.

It's a Good Thing (tm) this information is being made public.

These negative responses are almost as juicy as the leaks themselves. You've left us wondering whether you're a tax evader, a Freedom Fry? Or maybe it's just jealousy or a secret crush... not trying hard enough to be an astroturfer.

I've never understood how Italians accept this, and many other things. It's an embarrassment to Europe.

Absolutely. And she still doesn't understand copyright. *rolleyes*

"I got lazy and went to the www and "found" something. Bleary-eyed I didnt notice it was copy written and reordered some of it."

I remember the same, but IIRC the companies involved were fatalistic about it - they knew the score but again "could not afford to miss out". The problem is, the same technology will later appear in your own market in much cheaper Chinese products.

It happens in other sectors as well.

Worthwhile reading for tech companies planning to "partner" with Chinese businesses:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1955426,00.html

"Has anyone used LibreOffice (it's installing as I type this) extensively?"