Perhaps you should be building your own computer, eh? It takes time from you in the form of research and construction but you get to decide on the parts, the hardware and how much it costs. Really, this is Slashdot, building your own should be the logical conclusion for every electronics dilemma.

This is indeed troubling, It shows that we need stronger control over our election system. Elections that are won or lost by a fraction of a percentage deserve a fraction of a fraction of a percentage error margin and clearly we don't have that. I would be hesitant to believe the outcome of any election until these sorts of messes stop happening. Excellent link.

These are some pretty wild accusations to make without proof. I'd love to see some sources.

One could argue that corporate weather satellites would create a monopoly. We know how well those work out,

I would be very much displeased if someone released information regarding my private life for all to see. However, freedom of information should flow both ways. If information on everyone was released, all sexual partners, all drugs they've done in college, all the strange porn they've looked at on a whim, I expect we could get past this puritanical set of morality that Americans have and realize we're all a bit odd.

Right? And those american Indians, occupying our land for thousands of years and then complaining when we came, gave them diseases and kicked them off.

Maybe it's feeding trolls here but this is correct. The budget wasn't the president's, it was put forth by an Alaskan senator. We're all civilized people here, perhaps we should check that our sources aren't from far left news sites next time. Here's a source from a local newspaper, not some dreadfully slanted news site. http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_20640869/senate-rejects-budget-passed-by-republicans-house

So lying for the express purpose of causing harm to someone is okay? I can agree that those who actually cause the harm by believing the lie are ignorant and foolish but the liar played some part, even if that part was pure intent, I would expect punishment for both parties.

I've had similar trouble. Dreadful downstairs neighbours who thought it was entirely appropriate to play loud music at all hours of the night, I could quite often hear the lyrics through the floor and windows. Brownian noise worked tremendously well but you have to remember that you're only covering the noise up, you have to be okay with noise somewhere between an industrial fan and a jet engine. (If you pretend really hard, it sounds like the ocean,) I used a modest stereo. Perhaps, if you have one laying around that can produce enough sound in the desired frequency, you can give it a test. If you require some source for background noise, I used http://simplynoise.com/ Brownian noise with oscillation.

Arr, fine. I'll respond, though I suspect this is a troll. Freedom of speech does not cover shouting fire in a crowded theatre. Freedom of speech does not cover incitement to violence. Calling a specific group of people violent is freedom of speech, just as much as those people can call themselves non violent and the original speaker an idiot. (Note that this is the response generally accepted in polite society and the response that most sensible, educated people had to this video.) Calling for the man who made the offending remark's head to be chopped off is direct incitement to violence, thus, bad for society as a whole.

Indeed, but the onboard memory is often anemic. 8GB isn't enough for everyone. Certainly one could see the value of a large offline music library and a slew of videos to keep the kids entertained on trips when network access may be spotty.

I might mention one thing you're missing, the price of new technologies often decreases sharply. We may have a generation of wealthy uber-babies but with them leading the way as early adopters, the next generation could be quite a bit more pleasant for everyone. Now, tell me truthfully that you don't want a generation of wealthy that lacks sociopathy and mental illness. Imagine the good that could be done (Or rather, the bad that wouldn't be done.)

$400? Are you eating caviar for every meal? It used to be that I was able to get by on $100 per month, it's a bit more now that I'm eating healthy and working out. Beans, Peanut butter, pastas and multivitamins are most of my diet, though there's always pot roasts of carrots, potatoes and cheap steak. Oatmeal is excellent for fiber and plenty of dishes with veggies can be made cheaply.

Pardon, sir, but free speech might just be the most important thing in a democracy. People vote based upon opinions formed from knowledge. If there is no free speech, there is no free dissemination of knowledge. I can't speak for China but here in America, it is a necessity. I'm quite vexed as to how someone with such a low UID came to have such odd opinions.

I will have to agree to this, though, the pills that kids pick up at raves aren't always MDMA. I would assume that most stories of overdoses come from ecstasy heavily laced with stimulants. If MDMA were legalized, it would be quite a bit easier to get something safe.