Complete with unsupported (unsupportable?) assertions ("perl is dead! DEAD!") on completely wrong-headed propositions ("A programming language can die," which apparently means that "the cool kids don't want to get their precious genius minds dirty with it because it's too mainstream.")

And yet here I am, participating in the conspiracy by commenting. I hate what Slashdot has made me become. I should have walked away months, maybe years, ago.

So your suggested solution is a time machine and self-support?

I'd like to introduce you to Bossy, the Spherical Cow.

Pickup lines by male Orcas.

"Hey, Baby, you've heard about Orcas, right? We're whales, Honey, and I do mean that in every way. Yeah. Once you've gone black and white, you never go back. And white."

The driving need for sparc emulation is avoiding Oracle. Seems like a real need to me, and a real service in fulfilling the need.

The government says it's not cruel. And they intend to make it not particularly unusual.

Passes Constitutional muster to me! <rubberstamp>

WARNING: GOVERNMENT-CRITICAL SARCASM DETECTED. ON-LINE IDENTITY "IDONTGNO" SEIZED IN CIVIL FORFEITURE. CARRY ON CITIZEN, NOTHING TO SEE HERE.

And that isn't specifically just the military background, although the military culture has a way of incubating a "just follow orders" mindset. There are others who are clever and intelligent and actually mission-oriented enough to make the conversation go like this:

"But that request is insane."
"Not my call."
"It'll do the opposite of what's intended"
"That decision is above my paygrade. So let's come up with Plan B and save management from themselves."

Sad fact of life: management is sometimes too stupid to make the right decision, and the right decision will not be made against their explicit direction. Period. Unless you're the kind of guy who's willing to go to jail to prevent those unworthy bean-counters from sullying your network.

So the best service you can render, if you care about getting the mission done rather than buffing your ego or getting the hell out of Dodge, is prepare damage control.

And then charge your estate for "early termination".

Arkanoid had an actual backstory, for $DIETY's sake. That puts it about 1,000,000 miles ahead of Tetris.

And more accurate, for very little more typing, for GPP to have typed "I don't know anything about Ebola, but I'm scared and loud!"

Right. It's April 1st Old Style*.

They recoilled away from Soviet Communism so hard they overshot back into Tsarist Imperial Russia.

*No, not really. Don't be whoosed by a feeble calendar joke. The bit about 21st Century Tsarist Russia, though, that was serious.

Maybe an immigrant traveling back to the home country for a visit.

Maybe to attend a funeral.

Meanwhile, typos and poor editing still done by a drunk marmoset.

No, wait. A drunk marmoset would actually be a significant upgrade. Give it a chance!.

It's approaching troll event horizon, with trolls trolling trolls who troll trolls trolling other trolls. Ridiculous.

On one hand, I'd welcome empirical evidence that black holes actually exist, even if it requires every troll on Earth to do it. OTOH, 4chan has spewed forth many notable elements of on-line culture, so its loss would be lamentable. Sorta.

I'm conflicted.