When has Assange ever advocated overthrowing any governments? Seriously, where did you read this? He may have said he wants to take down regimes/administrations, but who doesn't want to do that? (The Republicans have openly said they want to ruin the Obama administration.) From what I've seen he just believes in open government to maximize the knowledge that citizens have to enhance the democratic system. He and Wikileaks are succeeding brilliantly at this task that the traditional media have failed miserably.

Hilarious editorial blasting this idiocy here: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20101202/OPINION01/312020019/1055/OPINION/Editorial+ (h/t PZ Myers)

Why would they do that when Pulse Audio has worked out so well?

I commute through New York Penn Station twice every day. I don't think I've ever NOT seen "Free Public Wifi" on the list of connections on my Nokia N900.

How about the impact of the added weight on your fuel economy?

I wasn't referring to this particular incident, where the homeowner happened to be home and was able to escape the house. Is it really beyond your imagination to envision a situation in which someone could be trapped or unconscious inside a burning building, unknown to rescuers? Or that there could be a paperwork error and someone's $75 payment didn't get recorded and it doesn't get sorted out until your house, all your possessions, family photos, etc. are in a smoldering pile. In this incident, three dogs and a cat were burned to ash while firefighters stood watching. This is sociopathic dystopian libertarian government policy befitting the third-world, not the United States of America.

1. The policy is if there is human life at risk, the department responds and rescues, but only fights the fire enough to effect the rescue

How long before they let a house burn down that they were so sure didn't have anyone in it but then oops! they find a child's blackened skeleton in the rubble. And let's not forget that in your drier areas of the country a nice uncontrolled house fire could very easily start a region-wide wildfire. Forget the Four Horsemen, this kind of thing is one more sign of a dying empire.

The fun thing is that Facebook going down slowed down other sites too. I was reading an article at thenation.com which has buttons for sharing on Facebook. The article was three pages, and every time I changed the page it wouldn't load until a request to Facebook (api.ak.facebook.com) timed out, which was about 10 seconds.

The inverse is true for me. If I really like the content (a movie or song I love), I just can't stand to watch or listen to it at low quality. Just the other day I was listening to Bowie's "Life on Mars?", my favorite Bowie song, but it was an MP3 sampled at 96 kbps and the compression was so obnoxious I had to stop listening. On the other hand if I'm watching some idiotic YouTube video for a quick laugh, I could care less how nice it looks.

I suppose I just stated an opinion. It was an opinion based on the idea that supposedly the stock market is there to provide a means for people to invest in companies that they determine will produce goods that someone will purchase. You can't determine this in any meaningful way when you are having a computer make these decisions on a millisecond basis. It's casino capitalism and produces nothing of worth. I differ in your opinion about who does useful things. Artists and entertainers (including strippers) produce art and entertain, which may not be as significant as technology development or food production, but it makes people happy, so that's worth something, in my opinion. I disagree that most government workers are doing nothing good, they drive buses, enforce regulations to protect consumers, collect revenue for proper functioning of government, etc. Some of them are worthless, in my opinion, like the DEA agents raiding marijuana dispensaries in California for example. Really though, for something to be illegal it should have a negative effect, rather than just a positive one. In my opinion, millisecond trading has a negative effect.

Those programmers and those brokers are doing nothing of worth to society. They are just playing games with currency. If our government wasn't in complete collusion with Wall Street, millisecond trading would be illegal. The issue isn't that the programmers aren't making enough money, it's that their jobs and the jobs of their bosses should not even exist.

Wow, second post in a story about education and the union bashing has already started. That might be a Slashdot record (or maybe not).

You mean one dollar and NINE CENTS!

My thesis has a quote from his wife: "He didn't want to believe, he wanted to know."