We've done everything we can in our Active Directory network to overcome roaming profile issues.

I believe that a lot of Windows users (including administrators) simply don't understand anything beyond the personal computer. They just don't understand a world in which one can sit down at another machine, log in and continue working just like they had sat down at their regular workstation. It's an alien concept to them.

a Ubuntu wants $105/desktop per year for a system that hopes to someday be as stabil and robust as MS Active Directory and Group Policy solutions that are (essentially) free with Windows Server...

CALs are free?

But I would most people to continue paying for cable tv. Someone has to foot the bill, making tv shows and content is expensive.

How about the people who watch those shows? Why should I pay for the most expensive group of non-premium channels (ESPN) when I never, ever watch any ESPN channels? Today, my choice is limited to paying for ESPN or not getting the channels I really want (BBC*)

Maybe they are given magic powers by Leprechauns and allowed to vote by the number of Trolls they fellate?

How do you think routinely ruling against the executive branch affects the prospects for a judge who wants to be appointed to the higher courts?

Oh I understand the issue just fine. But, they have to have a minimum level of proof to do the seizure and they also have to defend the action in court if/when the property owner objects.

Neatly proving that you don't have a clue. Read this and see how asset forfeiture happens in the real world.

and that requires that they actually have some level of proof that illegal activity was going on.

You haven't been following this issue very much, have you? Siezures have been made where there was no proof, only suspicion (based on the flimsiest of evidence). As the owner, you don't have the right to challenge the siezure -- the siezure is made against the property itself.

I don't expect that I have much to worry about, but that probably has more to do with my socio-economic status and the color of my skin than any other factors.

HA! Try to get rid of me now.

It only takes one PHB who thinks that programmers are a fungible commodity.

What's surprising, based on this article, is the minimal checks that the BBC's geolocation blocking uses. It's purely DNS based. Just set your nameserver to a UK-based DNS nameserver and you can fire up and watch programs using the BBC iPlayer.

The ITVPlayer, in the other hand requires the actual program streams to be pulled using a UK-based IP address.

For people with the technical skills, a London, UK based virtual private server can be rented for about $10/month and perhaps less.

Civil forfeiture consists of your property being the defendant, and you have no standing in the case.

It's things like this which convince me that the majority of the Supreme Court justices don't give a flying f*ck about the text of the constitution. Instead, they make up ridiculous justifications for any pro-police/pro-government/anti-civil rights judgment.

The IRS scandal is pretty much all hogwash. But it was handled badly.

Then what was in the "lost" emails? Something doesn't smell right.

Where is "Environment"? I've never heard of a place by that name. Or was the headline about ambient mercury in "the environment"?

Headlines miss out words all the time. Film at 11...

It's not even that expensive... there's usually plenty of Economy Plus available ranging from $50-$80 on a cross-country flight, down to $30 on a two hour flight (not exact, just my recollection)

I qualified for lifetime Gold in American's frequent flyer program some years ago and now I always get my pick of the economy plus type seats, but without having to pay extra for them.

Maybe if the airlines want to cram so many folks into the space, they should look at preventing the seats from reclining at all.

I assume that you never fly on long-haul flights (especially overnight)?

Which means you don't actually konw how one could possibly reproduce such an issue, but you're going to offer your opinion that I don't know what I'm doing.

Based on the fact that I have performed many successful installs of Ubuntu on Thinkpad laptops and you have not performed a single successful install of Ubuntu on Thinkpad, my opinion of your abilities is quite reasonable.

pop Windows back in

No indication that you put a drive containing Windows back in. Also, "dump" is not synonymous with "remove". As for "professional", see my comment above.