I think you know the answer to your question of why certain technology must be outlawed or taxed more. It's because by the time the technology becomes cheaper than fossil fuels we will have already done the damage.

I'll meet you half way and say, lets just get rid of all the implicit subsidies for fossil fuels that already exist and then tax people on the externalities they create. Hell, that in and of itself might be enough to make renewables cost effective.

I'm reasonably sure we're past the point of no return, so it might not even matter.

Yes, criminal copyright infringement is that way. Civil infringement is a strict liability tort. That means you're on the hook even if you took reasonable steps not to infringe and did not ever intend to infringe.

So you could still be on the hook for the infringement of copyright if a copyright owner took you to civil court. Going to federal PMITA prison would require mens rea.

Echoing SiriusStarr, make sure you install the tweak tool and get familiar with the shortcuts.

I complained like crazy when Debian Sid went to GNOME 3.0. I moved to XFCE + Compiz for awhile until I decided to give it another try. It took a few weeks to get used to, but now that I have retrained myself and gotten used to it, I wouldn't go back.

I don't think its for everyone and the fact that 3.0 was very unconfigurable is what gave everyone a heart attack. It's getting better. Some people will never like it, and that's fine. Different strokes for different folks.

If they're in another country, it's hard to get them to pay anything in a civil case, DMCA or otherwise. I don't know what to tell you other than "talk to a lawyer".

Yes, that's generally the case. On an "at will" contract, you can be terminated for any reason that isn't explictily illegal. If the employer believes they were fired for an illegal reason, they have to make the case. The assumption is that terminations are for legal reasons absent evidenct to the contrary.

The "double standard" is because EULAs are designed to restrict what you can do with a piece of software over and above what copyright does to restrict you. The GPL and other FOSS licenses give you rights you don't already have.

I respect the GPL because it recognises one thing that EULAs never recognise -- the unlimited right to run the program.

I've got a Math degree (not Math Education, mind you, just plain Math). I couldn't find a job to save my life for awhile, but sooner or later I took a tech support job and was moved up to Quality Assurance and may one day move into development.

One thing I *want* to do, but just don't have the fortitude to do is take some of the actuary exams. If your wife is a standard math nerd, doing actuarial work should be right up her alley.

I guess she can really do whatever she wants. A lot of place will just take anyone that isn't an idiot that has a degree. I'm sure anything that she wants to do will be rewarding in and of itself.

I'm not too bothered by it all. As a wise man once said, I don't mind if I have to pay, so long as the people who've been pocketing my premiums also have to pay. Of course that was about insurance, but the same principle applies.

I don't care if I get anything out of it, just as long as the cocksuckers have to pay.

Even though the U.S. dollar is experiencing rampant inflation in 2012

This is a false statement, unless you consider low single digits to be rampant.

The CPI and BPP bear this out. The CPI is done by the government, so if there was enough of a conspiracy, they could conspire to keep the official numbers down. I don't think any alleged conspiracy could reach the BPP.

That is exactly what they do, however instead of calling it a civil union they call it marriage. It's incredibly confusing for most people. Doubly so when the people who do the "state" marriage is performed at the same time as the "religion" marriage.

I agree though. If you want "tax/property benefits" you get "civil unioned". If you want God to sanction you, you get "married".

Agreed.

It'd be like saying you're going to boycott the federal government. The only way you can do it is to move to a different country.

The difference is very relevant here. Stallman believes that developing closed source software is morally wrong, much the same way that some folks believe abortion is morally wrong. The Open Source "movement" believes that opening the source leads to technically superior software. Linus open-sourced Linux because he thought it would be more useful that way, not because he thought that he was doing something morally right.

The OP here apparently came to an agreement with his partner that they not open source the good parts of the code. His question about it being "wrong" to open source the "good stuff" seems to come from a moral perspective. From a moral perspective, I think he's on fine ground. If he's worrying about making the most money, it depends on what he considers his company to be. Are they are hardware shop first and a software shop second or is it the other way around? If it's the former, open source it all. If it's the latter, he should close everything up if money is the only issue at hand.

You must not know the joke.

A Libertarian is a Republican with a conviction for possession of weed.

In many cases some free software licenses conflict with the terms of app stores. For instance, Pidgin can't be ported to the iPhone for this (and other) reasons.

I don't know of any authors who refused to publish their apps to an app store because of issues not related to licensing. Do you know of any?

If I go on vacation to Ohio, my home state wouldn't be able to collect tax on it.

Correct. That's why I said that they can't.

However if I buy something online from home and the retailer is in Ohio then there would be an argument as to where exactly the sale took place. I suspect that would be at my home as that's ultimately where I take possession of the goods.

That isn't the issue at hand. It's an interstate transaction, and your home state is not allowed to tax that transaction. They can (and often do) tax your use of the item.