I'm not sure what OS and version of Chrome you are running, but mine never crashes (though I use Opera and Firefox primarily). In fact I work for a pretty large company who uses Google apps for just about everything. While I miss Visio (Google Drawings is like "dia" and very primitive) everything else works just fine.. no crashes, no memory hogging, etc..

The reason I don't use Chrome is because I don't trust Google, and in most companies I have freedom to choose my web browser.. where the office type applications are not nearly as flexible in Corporate world.

And as for Microsoft's whining about not having access to the OS layer of Android to run it's applications, I suggest they learn what the application layer is and learn to live in it. Having access to every layer of the OS today is why they are still insecure after well over a decade of security people telling them to fix their stuff.

The history of Germany, France, England, Spain, Russia, Cambodia, China, Korea, Rome, Athens, Egypt, and that list could go on and on. In other words, it's not possible to provide a citation for basically the complete history of the world since the advent of Governments.

Surely we could nitpick about all of the various problems Governments have caused, but that big government leads to the ends of societies is not questionable with even a cursory understanding of History.

Oh, and before you try it.. Revolts that lead in restructuring a government (and beheading of old rulers) that retain the name does not imply that those governments are still the same.

You ignored my question. Is someone that wrote a "Hello World!" program competent enough to understand a Web browser (using your example).

If I take your first post at it's word, a person can not understand anything that happens unless they write code. That measure as given is completely arbitrary, obviously skewed to make you appear to be all knowing. Give me something to measure that is fair, and I might actually (and probably would) agree with you.

The pompousness comes from your original perspective: You are a coder so nothing that happens is a mystery on a computer. Unfortunately as written that is complete BS, and you know it. Writing something like a Browser is a massive undertaking, so you are just as stuck as the non-coder unless you can make time to figure things out. In other words, the mystery is there for you too but you seem to refuse to acknowledge it because of your chosen line of work and arbitrary measurement. And maybe you write Firefox, but then a Kernel is a "mystery" by your standards.. or a Network protocol, or a Word Processor, etc...

So what do you call them?

By any other name the sheeples are still acting like sheeps

They do not like to think, they do not like to think so much that they let others to do all the thinking for themselves

And when that happens, someone else do come out and does the thinking for them ... that someone is nothing but the authority

So the authority tells the sheeples that what they are doing --- that BLANKET SNOOPING THING is "good for them" because it will "protect them from the baddies", you know, them "terrorists", them "pedophiles", them with "bad intentions"

And the sheeples bought that shit wholesale --- with line and hook and barrel and everything in between

You want your democracy, so be it, but do not tell me that calling a spade a spade is undemocratic

We can call the "Sheeples" a "Rose", or a "Tulip", or even "Alfalfa", but that name change ain't gonna change their character, not even a bit, Sir !

Sir,

I do agree with you that we do need hope, but we must *NOT* forget the fact that 'hoping' ain't gonna do us, or anybody else, any good, especially when what is happening now, from top down (well, the governments are *ON THE TOP* of the people, no matter which government, no matter which nation)

Nowadays governments treat their citizens with contemp

They suspect their citizens so much that they actually take steps to ensure that every single thing their own citizen does must be checked, categorized, and actions must be taken on whoever they suspect (for whatever reason)

Hope in itself is no longer sufficient to fight those fascist, my friend

We no longer live in the 1960's, Sir

We no longer live in a world where the government listens to the people

No man. We are living in the world where the governments DEMAND to be respected, or else

That's the reality all of us are living in, no matter if you live in Canada or China or Saudi Arabia or America or Great Britain, it's all the same --- you, a citizen, better be a sheeple, or we will mark you, we will follow you, we will watch your every single move

It's not just these type of environments that are strict. Well established companies have the same practices, because the only way to have controlled growth is to adhere to a set of standards. Sure, standards change over time but not quickly. For posterity, controlled does not imply restricted.

If there were gangs out killing cops, they would not be in need of an application like Waze to do it. The two NYC cops that were killed a couple months ago were not tracked by anything. The killings were by what appears to be a vigilante that wanted to kill "any" cop.

They psychology behind that is a different thread and story, but the point about being "tracked" is valid. Cops drive in marked cars and wear uniforms. Someone actually "hunting" them would not need an application. In fact it would probably be stupid to do so, because of all the data the application tracking (it would limit suspects).

Haha, of course you immediately jump to the false accusation in an attempt to try and salvage your original failed logic. Of course you can't rationally back your original bullshit, so have to resort to additional fallacy arguments to support your original.

For your information: I have had 0 accidents, 0 tickets, and been driving for over 30 years. If I was a "road-rager", I would at least have had something happen in over 3 decades of driving. I'm not the "slow" guy either, because those guys get into at least as many accidents as the speeders (and most studies show that they cause more accidents).

I gave the points where you were wrong. Invalid generalization, therefor your logic is also invalid. There is no way to salvage broken logic, so scrap your opinion and start over.

Dear Sir,

I may have been thinking too much. In fact, you may even say that I am paranoid - but at the stage that we are in today, that the blanket snooping activities into almost everything that we do online and off, we do need to question why the authority's need to do it, rather than accept what they are telling us by default

Yes, they tell us they are 'looking for terrorists' but is that true?

I mean, if they are 'looking for terrorists' the obvious target for those 'terrorists' are those from a particular religion (that peaceful one, to boot)

But is the authority looking into that group only?

Far from that. They are snooping in on ALL OF US, on our email, on our surfing pattern, on the site we go to, on what we download, on our phone conversation, on everything everybody is doing

Then why are they doing it?

Surely the 'looking for terrorists' excuse ain't gonna cut it no more, there gotta be more than what they are telling us

Yes, I am paranoid, I admit it. But you can't blame me from being paranoid

I am from China, a country which is being ruled by some really despicable regime. At the point when I left China the entire society was in turmoil. People were being pulled out on to the street and beaten, sometimes killed, just because they were labeled as 'anti-revolutionary'

I have had that kind of experiences. Most of you do not. I know what the authority is capable of doing, and what they will do to maintain their control over us, the peons

The more I look at what's happening in the so-called "Western countries" the more it resembles that despicable regime that is controlling China

Yes, I am have been 'overthinking', as you put it, but I rather be paranoid and right and be well prepared (as well as knowing what preventive actions to take before the shit hits the fan), than be totally unprepared and suffered the consequences

But it's all up to you guys. What I am telling you is what I, and many millions of older generation of Chinese had gone through --- we do not trust the authority, we do not trust anyone but ourselves

If you guys insist that the authority is to be trusted, that they are doing what they are doing for 'the good of the people', then that's your right to do what ever you want to do

But when the shit hits the fan (which I fervently hope it will never come true) don't blame me for not forewarning you guys

It happened in China, it could happen, and I repeat, it could happen elsewhere, including the Western countries

Understanding how something works does not require in depth knowledge of the "something". I know many people who are very competent with the use of a web browser and never wrote a line of code in their life. They check links in email, write their own rules for sorting mail, etc.. etc...

I did not take your last paragraph as a "c'est la vie", I perceived it as an insult to anyone knot a coder. Re-reading, I still perceive it that way due to your choice of wording. You never wrote a database from scratch, so how can you possibly understand one given your own definition? Or does writing a "Hello World" program count as enough "knowledge" in your mind so that technology a person uses is not a mystery?

For posterity, I get your point but it's written in very pompous language. A person does not have to be a coder to be intelligent, a person needs to be intelligent to be intelligent.