That ship has sailed, and is not coming back. When the American Government is indistinguishable from any other type of criminal, you are well advised to protect yourself from them all.

"Proprietary" means:

1) Support can be pulled at any time for any reason, and there isn't a thing you can do about it. See Visual Basic (it's so bizarre that you argue against your point, but don't even realize it).

2) You are locked-in to the vendor's whims, and there isn't a thing you can do about it.

3) You are restricted to the vendor's supported platforms, and there isn't a thing you can do about it.

4) You have no idea what is going on under the hood, and there isn't a thing you can do about it (under threat of fine and/or imprisonment).

There are more, but I don't have time.

Having programmed in GTK+, Qt, Java, and C#: I find C# to be the most painful for database interactivity. Its data bound controls (to me) are infuriatingly convoluted, complex, inefficient, and inflexible.

I find it far, far easier to use a tool that generates database models, create readers and writers based on those models to abstract them away from the application, and then use those readers/writers in the mainline application. The payoff is immense.

The closest fit for you is Java (since C# started life as Microsoft's attempt to make a Windows-specific version of Java). The two best IDE choices then become Netbeans and IntelliJ (do yourself a favor, and skip Eclipse).

If Bill Gates cured cancer and gave the cure away for free:

1) The first cure would be free.

2) The cure would be designed to reactivate the cancer, this time being more virulent than the original, but this time it would be immune to the free cure.

3) The second cure would require activation and frequent repurchases, or the cure would be rendered inert (killing you). You would be required to repurchase the cure for the rest of your life.

4) You would be required to purchase cures for diseases you don't have, but taxing your indocrine system to the point that random body parts start failing.

5) Bill Gates would issue patches for the flawed cure, but the patches would inexplicable cause new diseases for which you would be required to purchase 3rd party medicines. These medicines would themselves drain 60% of your body's useable energy, and unpredictable times, while unsuccessfully attempting to address the fundamental design flaws of the cure.

6) Bill Gates would promise that the next version of the cure will solve your problems, but that it is not covered by any licensing agreement you may currently have. The promise is false, but you don't seem to remember any of the other false promises he made, so you purchase the next version of the cure. This somehow makes things worse, but Bill Gates blames you for using 3rd party medicines.

I could go on, but I have work to do.

It's not necessarily drivel. A "permanent" ban means that it will not have to be renewed periodically. It's permanent unless overridden.

So this company commits fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, illegal conversion, grand theft, and extortion (and probably a litany of other crimes I can't think of off the top of my head), and all they're going to get is a finger wagging???!!

I agree. I wanted a somewhat sophisticated shopping app, so I browsed the Google store for one. There were a TON of shopping apps, but they were all very simplistic (but with good looking GUI's). These simplistic shopping apps (no more than two or three functions) were woefully inadequate for my needs. However, they had thousands (or hundreds of thousands) installs.

So I wrote one over the course of about two years. It allowed me to track my shopping at every store I patronized, automatically compare prices for items I bought at any of those stores, report on where my money went over any arbitrary period of time, etc. I was even ready to create an subsection to integrate the data into my financial database. It was so useful for my wife and me that I decided to sell it on Google Play.

Last I checked, it sold about four copies in about as many years. Granted, I was expecting low sales because my Android UI design skills were crude at best. But I was expecting to at least make some money from its sheer usefulness.

I concluded that very few people want to use their Android devices for anything but entertainment (even in their shopping apps). They will flock to the vapid but pretty apps, and ignore useful apps that don't have a flashy GUI. I started redesigning the UI to be more vapid-compliant, but then my first son was born. Maybe after my two boys are old enough to keep each other occupied, I'll get back to the redesign.

ssh issues that message for other reasons, too, such as when you install a new network adapter. In that case, there is nothing wrong.

It's unusual to see such a blatant case of the pot calling the kettle black. North Korea's cultural arrogance just can't seem to comprehend that not everyone thinks as they do about mocking heads of State that do absurdly dumb things.

For some bizarre reason, North Koreans seem to think that worshipping stupidity is a virtue. Idiocy deserves to be derided, and their leadership is chock full of idiots.

Do you understand the difference between the Internet and the Web? Do you understand that the Internet has far, far more uses than Youtube, and that the latter is a very minor aspect of what makes the Internet useful?

That aside, your statement is grand hyperbole. Even if every insignificant actor in every insignificant film distributed on the Web rose up and successfully demanded the removal of every film, the Internet and the Web would be no less useful than it is now.

Many teachers grade on a curve, where the highest grade in the class becomes an "A", and everyone else is graded relative to that "A".

Even if no *other* crime had been committed, the officers involved should be charged with:

1) Vandalism.
2) Unlawful destruction of private property.
3) Assault.
4) Battery.

All of which may be possible, and for which the normal protections police enjoy while performing their duties may not apply, because the officer was acting outside the scope of his lawful duties.

You were wearing the a bulletproof vest produced by the same designer who made the Emperor's new clothes.

The Flu vaccine is no more effective than random chance, but it's a huge money maker for the pharmaceutical industry.

Sadly, given the stupidity of the Human race (and Kentucky in particular), I believe you have just started a new conspiracy.

But maybe not. Given the same stupidity of the Human race, it's likely that no one lacking enough brain cells to believe such a thing would know who Stephan Hawking is; given that he isn't moving a ball from one part of a grassy field to another.