The people I have seen who don't know how to use computers are generally very poorly educated or are just poor. Usually the two go hand in hand.

Lots of different reasons for this. Laziness is one of the less common.

A lot of what you describe is voluntary, and regional. For example the state of Massachusetts has one of the best education systems in the world.

http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/n...

Other aspects of it have a lot to do with the bimodal population distribution, for example the lack of passenger rail. If you look at other aspect of the US rail system for example freight you will quickly find the US is absolutely world leading. For example the US ships 10x more freight by rail than Europe does.

Ultimately what counts is economic output. There is no indication whatsoever that the US economy is declining to third world standards. If you spent some time in the third world as I have you'd find the idea ridiculous.

Anyway, I have better uses of my time than to waste another minute with you.

Part of the problem with the recent agency flubs is lack of focus on the part of the agency, something that is the responsibility of Congress.

For example the Secret Service was once a part of the Treasury Department, and had a relatively narrow set of missions. However with the creation of the monumental cluster fuck known as the DHS, the Secret Service was uprooted and badly placed under the DHS, then saddled with all sorts of diversions.

Similarly the CDC has been loaded up with all sorts of ridiculous crap like being made responsible for bicycle lane safety and policing of farmers markets. This is a world leading organization that must function at the highest level possible. Loading it up with cruft will destroy it.

Recently I've seen a lot of yammering about some of the people that are seen on TV including Freidman and Fauci, to the effect that they are incompetent and should be shown the door.

I'm sorry but this makes me want to throw up. Anthony Fauci is one of the greatest Americans of this age. His work on HIV/AIDS has saved millions of lives. He is one of the most cited scientists in the world. It is disgusting that he should be subjected to the hysterical politics of the moment.

We knew what was going on when you ran your anti-IBM campaign, sometimes even positioning yourself as arguing on behalf of our community. It was a way to lend credence to IBM and MS arguments during the SCO issue. To state otherwise is deceptive, perhaps even self-deceptive.

Florian, you would not be devoting all of this text to explaining yourself if you didn't feel the need to paint your actions in a positive light. That comes from guilt, whether you admit it to yourself or not.

Go write your app, and if you actually get to make any money with it you can give thanks, because it will happen despite what you worked for previously. Keep a low profile otherwise because your credibility is well and truly blown and you can only make things worse. And maybe someday you can really move past this part of your life. But I am not holding out much hope.

While this is a Fox News topic, the comments are not as bad as what you would get there.

For example not one reference to Obola yet.

Finally a way to eliminate creationists, Republicans, anti-vaxxers, organic food consumers and climate change deniers from the human race!

Since when are glitchy and unresponsive web sites exclusive to governments?

It took Amazon about 8 years to figure out how to get through Christmas shopping season without blowing up.

Even earlier AT&T's phone system would routinely crash on Mother's Day.

Handling large scale distributed demand surges is a non-trivial problem.

So are we giving up on the idea of some sort of low metabolism sleep state?

Nah. Some frozen sperm is all that is needed. The rest of a male is unnecessary.

So, I see this as rationalization.

The fact is, you took a leadership position, and later turned your coat for reasons that perhaps made sense to you. But they don't really make sense to anyone else. So, yes, everyone who supported you then is going to feel burned.

You also made yourself a paid voice that was often hostile to Free Software, all the way back to the SCO issue. Anyone could have told you that was bound to be a losing side and you would be forever tarred with their brush.

So nobody is going to believe you had any reason but cash, whatever rationalization you cook up after the fact. So, the bottom line is that you joined a list of people who we're never going to be able to trust or put the slightest amount of credibility in.

And ultimately it was for nothing. I've consistently tried to take the high road and it's led to a pretty good income, I would hazard a guess better than yours, not just being able to feel good about myself.

Meh, it's easy to find people with skill. With values, OTOH...

You have a point.