"These propaganda sessions for Putin" is a false are decidedly pre-staged propaganda comment typical of mass media PR=B$, sounds like it means something until you stop to think about it, something that propagandists never want you to do.

Let's look at the reality. Ask yourself should you be given the opportunity to publicly question Putin publicly live on TV would you say yes or no, obviously a person of Snowden's courage is not going to say no to that challenge. Now Putin knows full well that being challenged by Snowden publicly will work well for him, if Putin is capable of articulating himself well against the challenge, for a political representative it demonstrates confidence, skill and self control to the electorate, all vote winners.

So the interview occurs, the reality only an election show piece if the politicians is not an empty talking suit reading off a Teleprompter. Now how many US politicians would be willing to stand up to potential detractors on live TV, would Uncle Tom Obama the choom gang coward puppet of the corporations stand up to Snowden, nope, reality Snowden is permanently barred from returning to the US under the threat of sexual humiliation, torture, extended imprisonment and murder, they are that afraid of him.

The biggest tools in the shed have always been politicians owned by outside interests and what makes Putin more interesting is that he is definitely not owned by outside interests and is not just a puppet reading off a teleprompter like so, so, many US politicians (remember puppets will always have difficulty taking on public challenges because it give no opportunity for their masters PR agents to provide the answers).

You and I have both been here on /. since before Google was a publicly traded company.

hey fuck-wad, it WORKED about 100 yrs ago and its why we now have a (more or less) standard 5 day work week, vacation time off, sick time and holiday time.

you guys who deny the very real benefits our grandfathers fought for should be so ashamed of yourselves. seriously, go study just a wee bit of history and see what the work conditions were like before and after unions (in the US, at least).

arrogance of youth, I would assume, on your part. but you wait, they'll come for you when you are of logan's run age.... and then you'll wish there was something there to help you fight the man.

This is the same factory, molds, parts and people making this keyboard since Lexmark did the original one for IBM. There is good reason to call it the same keyboard.

Can you make one with stone knives and bear skins? But seriously, compared to having to "advance" the lead by grinding down the case of my primitive Ticonderoga, I thought my first mechanical pencil was a technological wonder.

And after all, we're talking about long-lasting technology. The longer it lasts, the older it gets, right? If someone were still using their great-great-grandpa's John Deere steel(!) plow bought from his blacksmith shop in Grand Detour, I guess that would win.

Now let us add a constitutional amendment to correct the second amendment.

I am sure you would agree to the idea of a gun license to keep arms, right mate?

My 11C and 32C (darn you and your extra memory, Mr. 32S guy. I shoulda waited.) still work, but alas, they are not working all that hard lately. I'm not sure I've ever changed the batteries in the 11C . . .

the entry level scopes from hp and tek are now rigol and atten; chinese brands. rigol is ok but its NOT hp or tek!!

the last 'very repairable' scope from tek was the 2465 series and I'm seeing a rebirth of interest in the old analog scopes. check out all the chatter over at eevblog and you'll see what I mean. a few parts were having problems (20 yrs later) and after you replace some leaking electrolytics (just a few, not all) and replace a battery backed nvram chip (that holds calibration settings!) you are good for another 20-30 yrs. the battery in my Dallas nvram module is 20 yrs old and only supposed to last 10. I backed it up to a file, installed a new version, restored data from file and now I have another 10-20 yrs on that new battery/nvram module.

I am VERY sure that the rigol scopes won't last even 5 yrs in a heavy use environment. the company won't have spare parts, they are all specialized and it will cost a fortune to mail back to china, if you could even GET it fixed, 5 yrs after model was intro'd.

the smart money is on buying older used gear that has a huge community of owners and techs and who know how to keep the older gear running. for tek, there's a yahoo group that has some older tek employees monitoring it and offering help for those who are reconditioning their gear. you will NOT find that from the throw-away chinese brands and models.

smart money - for us hobbiests who can't depreciate gear in a few years time - is to buy older used gear.

Google gives us great products and services, and minds the privacy that we actually care about. With the data they aggregate they provide services that would be possible in no other way. Google is just not creepy. You know what is creepy? The marketing company trying at great expense to sell us the idea that Google is creepy. That is creepy. Who are they?

nice one!

It is never a bad idea to have contingency plans for likely scenarios. Things change.

You keep repeating the same lies as if re-posting them will magickally make them turn true.