I don't remember any of the book titles, but I do remember borrowing many BASIC books from the local library, entering all the sample code into GWBASIC and then playing around with it to see what I could make it do. I suppose if I'd never found those books I probably would never have gotten into computer programming.

After that there weren't really any books; when I moved onto Pascal I learnt from some tutorials I found on a BBS, then I learnt C from internet guides and Java from university. Who reads books anymore when all the information you really need to learn this stuff is on the internet, easily locatable via Google?

I can tell you that I personally picked this option because it points out the irony of these sort of questions so well; everybody who supports these policies seems to think "yeah, they should do that to all the bad people" but never seem to stop to consider that other people might consider _them_ to be bad people. Smoking, public drunkenness, littering - where do you draw the line?

A better question is "Would you support your DNA being put on file to help in solving crimes?" After all, someone you are related to could commit a crime and your DNA could help find them. This question however really drives home that its not just other people's privacy that is in question, but YOURS too.

How do you know my wife??

You've obviously never been to Australia. In Australia, everything seems to cost roughly twice the US price. Example: iTunes tracks in the US - $0.99. In Australia - $1.99, even though the Australian dollar is roughly the same value as the US dollar.

You mean like a skylight? I hear they're quite popular.

Actually I saw RMS speaking at Melbourne University a couple of weeks ago, and he recommended HTC mobiles running Android, because apparently you can remove the non-free software and everything that is left is GPL.

So ... if they had more iPhones in Afghanistan the war would be over?

Can you stop yourself from replying to replies to your posts?

I've done all of these things and never used Facebook. Do you have a point?

I know I hate it when my e-mail address randomly changes itself.

Not possible. Remember that "agreement" that the government reached with Telstra? They agreed to "sell" their customers to NBN Co. when NBN rollout is complete in an area. This means that once NBN is available in your area you will be forced to use it or use nothing, because all alternatives will be removed by law.