Does this bother you as much as it does me?

given how partisan this issue is [...]

It is unfortunate that so many of our laws are so poorly written that one's political stance can have such an effect on the interpretation of the law.

"Well, this is what they wrote, but what did they really mean, and how can I twist it to meet my own personal political views?"

The devil is in the details.

I think this is a good example of the problem of bad communication and expectation.

When we are told that something is designed to be biodegradable, we expect it to be gone in a few years at most. But where do we get that expectation from? As a consumer, I've never actually heard a manufacturer say, "My plastic will biodegrade in six months," but somehow even I expected some kind of degradation after a few years.

So maybe we need some better communication from the people who make the plastics, so that we, the public, can be more aware of what to expect.

Or maybe we can stop using plastic for everything.

Honestly, I see this as a wise move. There's an incredible risk of providing a game that won't meet the extremely high expectations; and who knows what kind of staffing and office politics might affect development and direction. Also if there isn't that divine spark of creation, that burning vision to create, then the result will be, at best, lackluster. Halflife and Halflife 2 were obviously projects of passion.

Without passion in your work, you're just doing the daily grind. That doesn't lead to an inspiring product. It leads to what 90% of game companies churn out every day. The same old crap.

I'd love a HL3, sure, but only if it is fantastic.

I must be lucky. In over 20 years, I can count hard drive failures on one hand.

Of course, now that I've said that...

Aren't regulations great? When they're no longer convenient they can just *Poof!* make them disappear. When it is convenient to have a new regulation, *Poof!* it appears just as easily.

We need less regulatory fiat in our government. This is the kind of stuff that should be codified into law.

Clear, concise law at that. Not 2,000+ pages of crap nobody has read.

Fool you once, shame on him.
Fool you twice, shame on you.

That, and the fact that a lot of popular music already sounds the same. Even the famous composers would borrow themes and techniques from earlier composers, from popular folk music around them, from liturgical pieces, etc., etc.

Music is not created in a vacuum. It is impossible for a modern musician not to be influenced by other music.

Now waiting for those "River Sounds With Birds Singing" CDs to be sued by some animal rights organization on behalf of the wildlife...

Switzerland exported 28.6 million watches in 2014, none of them with smart capabilities.

Of those 28.6 million watches without "smart" capabilities, exactly zero of them had a battery life of 18 hours or less.

The same applies with Perl. And PHP. And Java. And Go. And Ruby. And Python. And Javascript.

I've also seen good C/C++, PHP, Java, Python, etc.

You can write crappy convoluted code that uses odd, unusual frameworks and features in every language. It isn't the fault of the language - it is the fault of the people (ab)using it.

Not only that, but think of the people on board a plane. Most flight attendants will go their entire career with nothing more dangerous than some turbulence. Sure, they're trained for emergencies in theory, but when something really bad happens in the middle of the ocean at 30,000+ feet, especially for the first time, even trained people will freak the fuck out.

And that's the trained people. Imagine the general public realizing something is wrong. They're not all going to sit there quietly with smiles on their faces.

I don't know what an "appropriate" punishment is for illegally downloading or distributing someone's content, but ten years sounds incredibly excessive unless you're running a vast, far-reaching network, distributing content to a million people and charging them for the convenience or something like that.

Some Average Joe sitting at home, downloading a bootlegged copy of the latest Hollywood movie... I don't know, a $50 fine maybe?

The thing is, the Internet has, and will continue to change, how media can be distributed and consumed. The old model of ticket and physical media sales just doesn't seem viable anymore. I think the media companies are going to need to find other ways to pick up revenue. Advertising in the movie itself, of course, is an option, but I think we're missing part of a bigger picture somewhere.

Someone, someday, is going to figure it out and make a bazillion dollars.

Well, hell, why not? Just remember that it's Climate Change now though, not Global Warming. Among other amazing things, Climate Change is responsible for:

ISIS: Yup, somehow, Climate Change was one of the reasons we have ISIS.
Crime. Climate change is also responsible for more rape.
Prostitution. Yeah, see, climate change may increase prostitution too.

I know, I know, this comment is a little snarky, but even the people here on Slashdot that are hardcore global warming types can see that there's a whacko fringe in their camp that is beyond ridiculous.

What things do you need to do that you can't do with, for example, Chrome?