This is marked funny, but think about it for a minute. Our computers, phones, tablets -- even watches -- are collecting way more information than this Barbie is and yet how many people think these ubiquitous machines are creepy? Not many. The lesson here might be this: the shape of the surveillance device doesn't make it creepy -- what it collects is what makes it creepy. Oddly though, very few people are creeped out by their own phone.

Two conclusions based on "shape irrelevant":

1) Barbie, phones, computers etc. etc. have become extremely creepy surveillance devices (this is where I am, which is depressing, because I've loved technology for so long).

2) Barbie, phones, computers etc. etc. are surveillance devices and surveillance is totally not creepy -- just don't care.

To mix and match 1 & 2 though, making barbie creepy and siri not, is inconsistent and illogical.

I've been studiously buying official boards because that means money went back to Arduino in some way (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/FAQ , scroll down a little to the official board part).

However, if they're just going to be burning their time and money on litigation -- well, I'm not so keen on supporting that and I think I'll just start buying clones.

I'm not religious, but curiosity got the best of me so looked up all your citations and I just don't see it:

Luke 1:41-44:
https://www.biblegateway.com/p...
We all know Mary has a magic fetus, and the fact that it's nearness to another fetus, which jumps in the womb in response, seems a special case. Most fetuses aren't exposed to gods.

Psalm 51:
https://www.biblegateway.com/p...
"Shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin" -- so sex is a sin that sets in motion a chain of events that leads to people. That seems pretty thin, especially when the writer near the end talks about how god doesn't care about burnt offerings, and then four lines later about all the burnt offerings he is going to give god. If sex is a sin, so are the products of it. Doing an abortion would be a corrective action and should have god's support.

Psalm 139:
https://www.biblegateway.com/p...
This one seems basically at odds with 51 which decried conception as a dirty nasty sin. Now we're hearing how the writer was "knit together in my mother's womb" and how awesome god is at knitting. When does a ball of yarn become a sweater? That isn't answered here. Is a partially completed garment the same as the marvelous completed garment? That isn't answered here either. What is jarring though, is that right after explaining how god is the uber-knitter, he goes into talking about how much he wished god would help him kill and destroy all his enemies. Psychotic.

Jeremiah 1:5
https://www.biblegateway.com/p...
Sounds like god is talking to a specific person who will be a prophet to all nations. I'm guessing Jeremiah was that dude? Is there any evidence that all people in all times and places were getting this special attention from god, to be prophets to each other? If they all know the same stuff -- why would they have to be prophets to all nations?

Hosea 12
https://www.biblegateway.com/p...
So this sounds like a denunciation of some dude name Ephraim who became rich using scales calibrated in his favor, made a treaty with Assyria, trades with Egypt, and by the way, the people who live in Gilead really suck, they sacrifice bulls! About the only part I can see related to abortion is that Gilead grabbed his brother's heel while in the womb (I assume they are twins, else this gets really crazy), but it comes in this long stream of insults, kind of like calling him a motherfucker even if not literally true. I don't really some much on topic here -- it's just a big long insult and people say all kinds of shit when insulting people.

For the most part, the fire department doesn't drive around stripping off insulation from electrical wires or drilling little holes in gas pipes under your house. Sure they _theoretically_ could, but the CIA is actually at this very moment doing this exact thing.

The biggest part of this story is a poisoned Xcode, and it's not even mentioned in TFS. WTF?

The security researchers also claimed they had created a modified version of Apple's proprietary software development tool, Xcode, which could sneak surveillance backdoors into any apps or programs created using the tool. ...

The modified version of Xcode, the researchers claimed, could enable spies to steal passwords and grab messages on infected devices. Researchers also claimed the modified Xcode could "force all iOS applications to send embedded data to a listening post." It remains unclear how intelligence agencies would get developers to use the poisoned version of Xcode.

https://firstlook.org/theinter...

I think a lot of people aren't expecting a handout from their own gov't, but at the same time, aren't expecting to actively thwart and hamper their ability to be self-sufficient. The whole H1-B thing is like workfare for foreigners coupled with forced unemployment or reduced wages for locals.

Ignoring the assholes making fun of you for being interested and explaining why, you can start learning right now:

igs: http://pandanet-igs.com/commun...
kgs: https://www.gokgs.com/

I know you can play the Gnu Go Server on kgs, if you want to avoid playing with a person for a while. You can also install it on your computer: https://www.gnu.org/software/g...

You are correct, however, if the GP wants to uses sakes, he could write it "for fucks' sakes".

Really? /. is the mediator of all things moral I guess?

This guy had a point and correctly analyzed the military uses of this technology long before it was widely part of the public consciousness. What he says is still true and it doesn't take much thought to envision some pretty horrific self-locomoting autonomous weapons that GPS makes much more likely. The problem slashdotters may have with this guy is that he might be a luddite (or he could have just been a visionary protestor without an inherent hatred of tech) -- but in looking like a luddite, there is a knee jerk reaction. Like most knee jerk reactions, it's rather poorly thought.

There is also the possibility that /. has been subverted into a pro-government, pro-military, pro-establishement mouthpiece by the numerous shills of such groups. Maybe you're one of them.

I use my twitter account mostly to find news on rare occasions (one per month approximately), barely ever write. I don't even have a facebook account at all. I am part of the general public. Because some people use twitter and FB to self-expose everything, is not a basis for supporting government intrusion into every person's private life.

Here's the way to stop it. Gather some DNA from high level politicians. Replicate enough of it so it you have useful quantity. Spread it around crime scenes, porn, whatever. Make sure that politician is in a DNA database.

Yeah -- subpar. Every time I ask FedEx or UPS to mail a letter for me for less than 50c, they laugh.

Yeah -- Obama being basically a GOP posterchild in every other policy -- how ironic. After 8 years, fucking finally he does something a liberal could be proud of.

Finally!

(actually, one word is impossible due to the lameness filter, and honestly some other words would be good, like: hahaha, die bastards die, suck it, etc. etc.)

Even here, on /., a comment in support of the Constitution and privacy is downmodded. Things are pretty hopeless.

Well, the bickering is helpful if it exposes Hillary Clinton as the vanguard of the Democrats' transition into the New GOP. I don't know what it takes for people to see that she's a right wing bloodthirsty neocon willing to ignore information in order to start useless war. Maybe this will help, from way back when she voted to go to war in Iraq:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

• 1:40 HRC enters room
• ~ Code pink intro: war in Iraq will harm American and Iraqi families and cost a lot.
• 6:30 HRC parrots the WMD arguments, blames the danger to Iraqis on Hussein, ignores harm to Americans, financial costs, and the fact that Iraq was not a threat to the US nor involved in 9/11.
• 8:52 HRC lies about careful review of WMD info. HRC never even read the National Intelligence Estimate which while suggesting WMDs existed, also contained significant disagreements with that conclusion that a reader not interested in a particular outcome would have agreed called the whole thing into question.
• 10:00 Audience member: not up to the US to disarm Hussein, up to the world community, Iraq has no connection to terrorism, not only are Iraqi people in danger, so are US people, and will harm the economy. It's reckless.
• 11:14 HRC: The world community would not take on difficult problems without US forcing the issue. Goes on and on about Bosnia. Segues into how GWB tax cuts are a bad idea.
• 13:29 Interesting note on the negative effect of the tax cuts: "Here at home, this administration is bankrupting our economy forcing us to make the worst kinds of false choices between national and homeland security, which they don't fund ..."
• -- IOW, HRC would have preferred GWB raise taxes for more war and domestic surveillance. --
• 14:12 HRC is given a pink slip
• 14:20 HRC goes off: "I am the Senator from NY I will never put my people at risk ..."
• -- Yeah, like Saddam had anything to do with 9/11