I can understand things like "I pride myself in the fact that I have not watched more than one episode of the show" or "more than half an episode of the show", but you are basically telling us that you are an idiot. Judging things as bad by how popular they are is not in any way better than judging things as good by how popular they are.
Are you at least consistent? I mean maybe the "idiot" comment was harsh, I could perhaps call you a person of "strange principles", if you have also never watched things like LOTR, Avengers, Toy Story and you actually liked /. beta.

I don't think the problem is software patents. The problem is stupid patents. Like, I patent exactly the same thing everyone does, *but on a bicycle!*. The examiners seem to have completely forgotten the basic premise, which is that you cannot grant a patent to something that a person with an ordinary skill in the art could come up with based on prior art.
Of course to completely solve the problems a general patent reform would be required, which could address the software issue better among others, but even within the current framework things would be so much better if the USPTO applied some sanity.

Yes, it seems to me that instead of paying for hundred of lawsuits on ridiculous patents perhaps somebody should start going after the USPTO instead? No idea if there is any legal way to do it, but since all problems start from the USPTO itself, that's where any effort should be concentrated...

Is TFA like the summary? What does ISP-level net neutrality have to do with promotions and product placement? The whole REASON (yeah, feeble attempt at a pun) there is a discussion about net neutrality is that ISPs should ONLY do the transferring of packets, regardless of what they are, since that is what we are paying them for. Should they be allowed to inject promotions and ads somehow? WHY? HOW?
The summary then goes on mentioning something about rock and roll that is even more irrelevant... Unless the summary is completely wrong of course and TFA is an insightful diatribe...

Ok, if you give essential patents for free, won't you also have to give insignificant patents (e.g. slide to unlock) for free? I know Apple is not much related to this regardless the summary, but they, for example wanted to charge others something like $20 for insignificant design patents, when at the same time they wanted to get basic communications ones almost free...

I mean, for centuries there has been a movement to reform the spelling of English itself, to make it sort of consistent and thus easier to learn. Even though the movement was backed by important people and it was certainly not nearly a "departure" as a whole new language would be, it never gained any traction.
So, even forgetting about the unfeasibility and just starting to tackle your questions we do come to some moot points. E.g. "what characteristics would a new language need?" The main one is usefulness - what you will gain by learning it. So, a brand new language is the least useful. Then, other questions like "How could the language be made as easy as possible to learn coming from any linguistic background?" have no real answer, unless you optimize at least for some linguistic background. Do you want to make it a bit easier to East Asians, or you'd rather aim westerners better?

The problem would have gone smoothly if they had used tried technology. For example, instead of 747s they should have gone with DC-10s, as they have successfully been converted in the past even for interstellar travel. And you could always go with sharks of course... No missile deployment stands any chance against a sharknado... with lasers...

People think I sit relatively close to my main 27" screen and I just measured and I am at a distance of about 58 cm (almost 23 inches for the metric-impaired people). If I went any closer and tried to watch something full-screen, I would have to turn my head right and left to track things. Don't get me wrong, I love monitor real-estate, so I have a second monitor (portrait mode) next to the main one, but I do indeed turn my head to see it. So 20 inches for a 30" monitor is a bit pushing it, therefore I really doubt whether you could actually put that 40" monitor at that same 20 inches distance and call it a usable desktop. Sure, it would be nice for the "Imax" experience, but I think that if you want your display to cover that sort of angle of vision where you have to turn around, you might as well just get separate monitors and become more productive since they will allow you to group things together / better organize...

Or just check where the call originated from? AFAIK all legitimate 911 calls have a location that is provided by the cell phone network to the 911 center. If the call is some sort of anonymous VOIP call that you can't verify where it originated from, DO NOT send the SWAT without figuring out what's going on...

Assuming a jury that is against the ban (which is not that certain anyway), the jury traditionally gets specific instructions from the judge. The judge will of course explain them it is not a matter of what they believe, only a matter of whether they think the defendant violated the law. There is little chance a jury would "revolt". A federal law is needed to stop this ridiculous protectionism. Car salesmen do not add value, they only add cost and woe.

Bring back the ponies...

The ponies were GREAT! OMG, bring back the ponies! I bet even these lame attempts at humor (because I can't actually call them attempts at April Fools) would look much better under a ponies theme!

comparing something to one of the most dangerous modes of transportation (1+ fatality in 100k hours of flight is dismal compared even to cars that are thought dangerous) is in generally not a good thing.
Hey, guys, don't worry, we don't crash more often than Windows ME!

They say it is larger than the 747, but the comparison is meaningless, since they should be comparing the cabin of the airship to an airplane - otherwise we might as well add the length of the jet fumes to the length of a plane. In fact, the lift capacity of the huge airship is quite disappointing, it can only carry 10 tons of cargo. For comparison a 747-8 can carry over 150 tons...
I like the idea of airships in general, but I can't say they would be a game changer, weather, lift capacity, speed, cost, all being factors. The huge advertising space I guess is the one advantage I can see.
Coming from a country with many islands, the one mode of air transportation I thought would make a comeback someday is seaplanes. They seem to me like the best way to transport a few people from one small island to the next (I would pay a premium for that service over the hassle of an airport), however nobody seems to think about seaplanes anymore. Oh, well, maybe I'm biased from growing up with "Tales of the Gold Monkey"?

According to Sergeant Detritus there are chicken stories at human parties...