More like management not speccing it, or allowing it if it's brought up.

Being allowed to put that default functionality into an appliance is not within the purview of the programmers. That would absolutely have to be okayed by people higher on the food chain. Most companies won't do things like that because it increases support calls by users who want to just plug something into the wall and have it work.

There have been a number of leaks of classified documents because of stupid behavior by people who should know better.

In many cases, it is absolutely the best way to get stupid behavior stopped.

Cue all of the "Oh noes! Can't blame the victim!" Yes, you can. Stupid behavior with perfectly predictable negative results should, indeed, be blamed squarely on the victim. Fuck people who say it shouldn't.

ICMP messages are routinely filtered out by routers.

It means that targeted malware can be controlled without any telltale backdoor data transmissions.

No, not a problem in general, but not all malware infections are of the long-distance, anonymous hacker sort.

I agree, though I wanted to point out that early highrise steel workers rarely used safety lines. It's one of the reasons that construction firms went out of their way to hire Mohegans, as for some reason they didn't get the vertigo that's common amongst most of the rest of the human race. Actually, they still fill the ranks of steelworkers to this day.

Actually, a significant part of the discussion is about how this has nothing to even do with space travel, and is completely inapplicable to anything having to do with orbital flight.

The point was pointless whining, I'm pretty sure. Moving the goalposts is par for the course.

And every dozen generations or so that "magic" becomes commonplace.

Because eventually the human race will need to expand beyond the borders of our atmosphere if it is to survive. Then Earth probably won't be destroyed tomorrow, but it is inevitable.

Put quite simply, unskilled labor is not worth nearly as much as skilled labor. Pretending it is amounts to nothing but utopian dreaming.

Then again, the people advocating living wages do frequently live in a fantasy land. What is considered a "living wage" in my city is roughly $18/hour per person to achieve what those in support of it deem an acceptable standard of living. Having spent the last 5 years supporting myself and one other on a fixed income amounting to roughly $6/hour net (or $3/hour per person relying on that income), Now that we have a full-time income in addition to that, it comes out to ~$7.50/hour net per person in the household, which is enough for us to live, pay off student loans, and still save money every month.

I get that those on the far right are out of touch with reality, but let's not pretend the same isn't true of the far left. It takes far less to live comfortably on than anyone I've ever talked to who was in support of a "living wage." What it comes down to is people wanting to subsidize their "wants" and their lack of financial discipline by calling them "needs." Yes' the Federal minimum is a joke, but so is every instance of a "living wage" I've ever heard someone support. Both sides of the argument are dominated by a minority of loud voices from the fringes when what is needed is rational discussion by those on both sides who can differentiate between what people actually need vs. what they want in order to keep up with the Jones'.

I can't remember the last retailer I've encountered in the US that charges restocking fees...

Except they never actually have taken their ball and gone home. There are plenty of examples out there where municipalities have rolled their own networks out, and the cable and telco companies still operate there. I'm not aware of a single location where the cable companies have left, and the telcos aren't legally allowed to leave because of Federal law (not that there's any evidence they would if they were able).