"Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute. Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Trade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo. While the Congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to settle the conflict..."

I remember an interview he gave discussing playing Saruman. He said he was a huge fan of Tolkien and re-read the trilogy yearly. Wow, and I wait about every five years to do it...

and stock up on grenades!

And I remember seeing something in a forum where Ubuntu devs claimed screensavers were a "windoze" thing that Linux desktop didn't need...
WUT!?!

I've been using Mint for about six months now and I think it is the best Linux desktop I've tried.
Forgive me now as I tell you I have no idea whether I'm using Gnome, KDE, Cinnamon or Raspberry Pie.
It is the gui that came with the default install, and I like it.

However, recently I've seen problems popping up, two specifically:
1. When using Google Maps in Chromium it usually brings my system to a complete halt. This is a recent problem, so I'm assuming some update is the cause, either with Chromium or Mint. When this lockup happens the only thing I am able to do is switch to a console and reboot.
2. When the Software Update runs in the background it slows things down tremendously. I can either update, or close the updater. If I leave it open without updating the system stays extremely slow. Like the Chromium problem, this just started in the last month or so. Before that everything was. Nothing new has been installed, except for the normal updates of course.

I'm hoping over the course of time another update or some such will correct these problems.

This kind of
pinko-commie-"feel-good"-new-agey-yoga-euro-"we support diversity"-SJW-enviro-whacko-unAmerican-antiFreedom-"GrEEN"-"compost-lovin"-"prius-Drivin"-Obama-votin-quiche-eatin-Kale-growin Bullshit will never fly in this here YouNitedStates of Merkica!
No seree! We loves em airports loud as F#$K!
We want that noise, that white noise, blasting into our every fiber, shredding any semblance of calm, any remote chance at a quiet backyard bbq without the sound of Jim coming back from his business trip to El Paso.

Exactly.
Thats why the panic inducing pablum about how we are running out of food, and that we have to use their seeds and their chemicals to have another "green revolution"(even though that has caused our water supplies to be drawn down to dangerous levels, as well as chemical pollutions affecting our entire ecosystem)coming from the mouths of Monsanto and other Chemical-Industrial-Complex nutjobs is absolute bullshit.
End of run on sentence.

I couldn't agree more about "there aren't temporary trends". Human enjoyment of music is pretty much as you explain it.

However I have to point out that this renewed focus on short songs is strange, being that going back to the beginning of 20th century pop music, songs were regularly 2-3 minutes in length. Take "Michelle" by The Beatles for example. It clocks in at 2:40. Sheer brilliance in less than three minutes. Short songs are nothing new.

On the flip side we have a band like Rush that has consistently created longer songs that "remain interesting" and usually don't adhere to the AABA song structure. For bands like Tool that make this attempt, it usually falls flat.

Opeth is pure genius.
They are prog without sounding like they are trying to be prog, which most bands in that genre can't do well.

Yes, the radio version and the LP version, may they never meet!

Bingo.

Most on /. don't know that in the 80's there was a movement of making short songs, especially in the punk and hardcore bands.
Short songs are nothing new.
Look at most of the early Beatles catalog. Those were short(and sweet) songs.

The length of a song doesn't dictate it's quality.

FTFY

Yea, /. had a story about the IRS and SS sites a while back.
Make sure your log in and create an account for the Social Security Administration too.

It really is getting ridiculous how frequent this shit is happening now.
It's almost to the point where people don't even pay attention:
"Oh wow, another big financial institution got hacked... Another fifty million Americans data is in the hands of criminals... What can we do about it?"

The average American is at their wits fucking end trying to keep up with all their accounts, passwords, blah diddy fucking blah shit they have to keep track of. For most of us this isn't an issue, but you can guarantee that for the vast majority of Americans, they are flying blind when it comes to all various requirements for being secure online. Oh, and lest I forget(how could I?) all of these security problems we encounter daily are always for convenience of the user(Trust Us!). Convenient apps/plugins/sites/tools to make your life easier:
"Isn't your life easier with our no security, pro-hacker enabled widget? Why, within a matter of moments of using our widget your personal data, financial data and medical data will be in the hands of our trusty hacker/malware infested servers in DerkaDerkaStan, where our trusty staff of well trained consultants will bleed you dry before you can click the X in the upper right hand corner. Why, to deny such a widget would be an affront to America, to the very meaning of Freedom and Capitalism!"

To be less hyperbolic, think of what it takes to have even a modicum of security online. We've got to have hardened browsers(NoScript, AdBlock, etc), we have to have different id/pw combinations for all important sites(that one really messes with people...), we have to have an account with a credit monitoring/credit agency(Equifax, etc) to monitor our financial accounts, we have to have up to date settings, firmware on our DSL/Cable modems, we have to have our OS security settings correct, AV/AntiMalware, etc, etc, etc

Have fun with all that, average American(it's bad enough for "advanced" users).

Well, we know which group Rickey and Julien fall into.

The penguins have confederate flag bumper stickers on their trucks.