Spend a great deal of effort becoming humble and courteous. In every interaction you have with somebody, be patient, and humble. Your work will speak for you, and people will gravitate to your opinion out of respect for your work. People will feel comfortable approaching you, as they will learn that you will be the exception to the "nerd arrogance" rule. Personally, my sense of humor is aimed at myself a lot of the time. I provide IT support to a small business (about 75 employees) and feel so appreciated that I try even harder to make sure I never let my sarcastic side damage my work relationships. If you need help becoming humble, get married, and have kids. :) That worked quite nicely for me.. Nothing wipes away arrogance quite like changing a diaper on a child with explosive diarrhea.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/quotes?qt=qt0433100 "I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar."

I'm not an engineer, but if the craft (like the one envisioned) is much lighter than the space shuttle, is the re-entry heat still such a huge obstacle? Just spitballing here, but say a low-orbit vehicle just starts 100% throttle at a vector that is 100% opposite to the direction it's travelling: if it's light, it can decelerate rapidly in space, then just fall to earth and use the wings to glide in when it's in thicker atmosphere, right? Maybe I'm way off here, just curious if that would work.

I've got a public comment, best expressed with a single finger. Yeah! You're number 1 FCC!

It's interesting to me that this is the same problem facing PC's, where there are hundreds of different versions of open source OSes vs. Windows/OSX.

Ok, so we pay to release CO2. Pay whom? And what is done with the money to reduce the effect of "global warming?" There may be actual man-caused global warming, but what's the solution? Arbitrarily raising the price of breathing? That's just retarded. Global warming as a research science is good and fine, global warming as a tool to funnel money into questionable political entities is NOT fine. Follow the money and tell me if you think the motivation is still pure.

Ok, I'll support it, as long as it leads to me getting my flying car.. :)

I would think this actually makes it easier to figure out who's not on the up and up.. There's no way the military and DHS will give up primary radar as a security device, and all they'd need to do is compare the two data sets to find people flying with transponders off. What I do see this impacting is personal aviation.. I may be paranoid, but it seems like one more way to take away a freedom by forcing somebody to buy something they can't afford...

... which is EXACTLY what they want, so you become wholly dependent on the hard teet of the gov't, and the party of entitlement will then never be voted out.

Why are you surprised? Those of us that work hard and succeed are taxed more to pay for the lazy, those of us who pay our medical bills are paying for those that receive ER care for free, and my property taxes are paying for a failed school system that I wouldn't let my kid set foot in. It was only a matter of time before somebody figured out a politically sell-able way to tax those that are ignorant about security online. Just wait, I would bet my right testicle that eventually there would be an add-on that helps compensate companies for lost "revenue" due to piracy which would require a slight rise in the "online safety" tax..

What a fantastic way to ensure a free press: have them paid by the very institution they're supposed to be the watchdogs for. I'm sure they won't forget how to be objective and unbiased though... /sarcasm

You must live in California.

This entire firestorm is a smokescreen for the real issue: in a democratically elected representative republic, our representatives create laws that are either voted into existance, or dissapear. I'm a conservative, and a resident of WA. I believe that the public petition should be public, as all it does is bring the initiative to the voter. It's conceivable that somebody signed the petition that doesn't agree with R71, just to have it brought before the voter and be dismissed. The entire gay marriage argument is moot, as this ref. has nothing to do with gay marriage, but civil unions. If the gay community wants the laws and traditions of our state to change, they need to change enough minds to make it happen on the ballot, or move to where it's already legal/in place. My beliefs as well as those who disagree with me are irrelevant in our country and state, as beliefs aren't law. You want it changed, change it the legal way. I'm not a bigot, I moved here to raise my children in a way that I want, around people that think like I do, because it's a free country and I sill have the right to do that. I chose this area for a reason, and there are plenty of places in this nation that are not like this place. I didn't stay in a highly liberal area and try to change their minds. I guess my point is that if you don't like the way things are where you are, try to change them the legal way or move. Why is it impossible to believe that there are always going to be different types of people in the country who can't agree on everything? Is it really wrong to live around those who believe likewise by choice, instead of trying to strong-arm those around you into adopting your way of life? Even as a conservative, I make no judgement calls on how others wish to live their lives, I simply choose to live mine differently, and away from those who I disagree with.

Man, I must be really lucky: I'm the in house IT for a small company and the owner/president is very adamant that he wants everything to be licensed and compliant. I'm starting to think that I work for the only legal and legit small business left... They'll have to pry me from my job here with a crowbar.. :) It's nice sleeping well at night.

My laptop users at work got hit with this pretty hard, Symantec endpoint 12.5 didn't even wimper when they installed it. The users were particularly upset as they thought they were actually being responsible by making sure they had "all the security software updated." *slaps head* My desktop users were fine, as they don't have admin rights.. This is one huge PITA to remove, I gave up and just re-imaged for 'em.