We had a deal - those creating works get a period of time to capitalize on those works, after which they go into the public domain, and in exchange for those works being given over to the public, the public agrees to not violate that copyright without facing penalties.

Most works are no longer being given over to the public domain, therefore it's absurd to punish people for pirating them - a contract has to offer something to both sides.

WRT to software piracy (specifically games) - DRM put the nail in that coffin for me. When it became easier to install torrented, cracked games on release day than it did to install legally purchased software, I gave up giving a shit.

That said, contribute to open source (either funds or assistance), and definitely support projects where there isn't an obvious profit motive just the creation of neat tricks.

I won't even dignify "patriotism" with more than a laugh.

Can't pay a competitive wage. Can't offer benefits remotely close to what private employers will offer. Lose a ton of personal autonomy from matters trivial (no 420) to absolutely vital (Wanna move to a different state? Nope. Wanna quit? Nope. Wanna change jobs? Nope.) Be beholden to whatever high-functioning sociopaths make it through our joke of an electoral season.

Oh, you might get to play with some cool toys that you might not have access to as a civilian, I guess. And those who don't have any skills to start with might get some training out of it, though, to be honest, if you're old enough to join a service like this and you aren't at least somewhat self-taught already, you're probably not actually going to ever be good enough to be more effective than "the enemy" at what they will want you to do. You'd get a few competent journeymen out of it, I guess.

I have issues using website with crude names. FF/abe takes me the rest of the way.

Netflix plays at 1x speed. For some things that's ok, but for anime especially, i don't think i could survive it. I usually watch subbed, between1.3x and 1.77x. I also want to watch interesting lectures (online universities) whilst riding on my bike, but they switch the format to multiple videos of a few minutes each, which doesn't work so well for these ends.

I don't really watch recent tv shows, unless they really catch my eye. Recently, saw once upon a time and arrow, both which had great first seasons (well, ouat was great, arrow was just good enough to watch) but bad second seasons. Flash was unwatchable even in the first season. At least bad movies are fun to watch to some extent (special effects, short story) and that's where netflix ought to come in.

I just need to take a break from playing games now and then. :)

I'm listening to you just around the corner.... :)

If this is what noone in the office makes you do, what has thepiratebay's ship being sunk made you do? I'm checking out netflix. (*gasp*)

Fedora, CentOS, Fedora, CentOS.

I have nothing to say. :)

Talk about cartoon villains!

You're adorable.

Given that the criteria I listed for "men who can't" have nothing to do with the criteria you used, your comment doesn't really make sense. But, what the heck, I feel charitable - please go ahead and feel like you told me off most righteously.

And, by the way - the "cartoon-quality villains" I "made up"? Read any story on slashdot that talks about women in tech or minorities in tech and tell me people exactly like the ones I used as examples of "men who can't" don't exist.

Men who can, do. Men who can't, blame women, feminists, people of color, H1Bs, and pretty much anyone but themselves.

Based on mentions that they will tow it into place, that's a billion dollars for something that would be used for a few weeks and then left to sit for the next 25 years. Better to spend a few million dollars towing it into place. Less cost, and less machinery to go wrong over time.

You would think with that volume of gas you would be up there with a nuclear sized detonation.

It has a capacity of some 430 million liters of LNG. At an average density of 0.463 kg/L at -160C, that's 199 million kilos of liquefied methane. At 22.2 MJ/L, that's 4.42 billion MJ, or a shade over a megaton of TNT if it were to all go off at once.

Though I doubt that's possible. The storage facilities will have separation, so at best there would be a chain that would dampen the impact somewhat.

It's not quite nothing--he did retweet it to give it some attention--but I thought it was iffy myself, and I am certainly no fan of Assange. I keep him on one of my Twitter lists just because his delusions amuse me (and because he sometimes posts something interesting). When something this unusual pops up, it's best to look into it a bit further.

I use sentences of my own creation. In the case of mandatory password changes, I will sometimes use some piece of trivia. For example, I might use the counties of a state. It reduces the entropy somewhat, especially if someone finds out what the reference is, but it allows me some room to work and embeds a new bit of trivia into my head.

I do use password managers (a couple of them, actually), and I know there are some enterprise password managers out there. There's a danger to stand-alone managers, but a well-managed enterprise should have all of the core passwords securely stored somewhere.

I would think that any laser reflective off a metal rail would lose focus and be scatter far too much to burn a hole in anything. This is a gut feel though and not based on hard math.

1) They're*
2) Dear God, people, attaching lasers to anything makes it epic cool. What the hell has happened to Slashdot?

Wouldn't it be easier to mount brushes or something?

Maybe, but not nearly 1/20th as cool as lasers. Please turn in your nerd card at the door.