I'm a programmer, a former Protestant, and now an Orthodox Clergyman. I found this article to be very entertaining. Now I know why I've always liked BSD and OS X.

I'm inspired to read one of Charlie Stross' books.

So, in other words, the machine will tell you, "Hey dude, you might as well talk to this homely girl, because we've analyzed your interests and your apparent attractiveness and you're not going to do any better than this".

For years, traditional news outlets have headed in the direction of airing or printing stories designed solely to elicit a reaction from the audience. The pattern has become, 1) Say something provacative. 2) Invite a reaction (tell us what YOU think). It's all designed to sell more ads. What is happening now is the logical, inevitable conclusion of this pattern. The old saying still appies, however. If something is too good to be true, it probably isn't. And I would extend that to say that if something is too bad to be true, it probably isn't. It will get worse before it gets better. After years of being essentially lied to from every direction we will, out of desperation, start to believe only what we want to believe, and assume that everything else is a lie.

That is PRECISELY the first thing I thought of, and you beat me to the post. Man, that show freaked me out the first time I saw it, when I was a kid.

Hmmm. It might be worth the 200-mile trip I would have to make to get some.

Yeah, that's kind of what I thought when I saw this story this morning. Wish I could mod you up.

I had packages delivered both by UPS and FedEx last week. All were right on time. In fact, one of the FedEx packages was sent 2-day air, and actually arrived at its destination, 1500 miles away, a mere 19 hours after being sent.

I've always loved crosswords. I have the NYT app and play every weekday. An unfinished crossword turns me into a veritable Sheldon Cooper. I cannot rest until it is complete. As much as I like to play them, I cannot build one to save my life. My hat is off to those who can create crossword puzzles.

Yeah, it probably erases a lot of good memories too. Every few years you see something like this where the supporters of ECT try to come up with new reasons to justify using it.

Memories of bad romances? Hell, that's a good thing. They keep me from making the same damn mistakes I've made in the past.

The author makes a valid point when he says that there is no evidence that her account was hacked, but what if it were. Indeed. What if your account gets hacked, or someone sets up an account pretending to be you, and then they post something provacative or outrageous. A lot of damage can be done before you even have a chance to respond.

The NSA will announce that they've helped to capture those responsible for the recent Target debacle in an attempt to bolster their image.

I'm not ignorant. I'm just paying attention. It's like the character Hari Seldon's observations in Asimov's Foundation series. You start noticing problems with the little things -- a burned out light here or there; a pothole that never gets repaired; road signs that get knocked down and are not replaced; etc, etc. Individually, they don't amount to much, but they are indicative of poor planning, bad management, and indifference.

I don't know why we Americans would even bother discussing the issue. We're never going to get back to the moon, manned or robotically. While China and India are sending spacecraft there, our government can't even build a working website, and our finest minds are squandered on ways to get people to click links. We'll be lucky if we can keep the bridges standing, the roads open, the water clean, and the electricity flowing by mid-century.

That's a good point. I remember building a model of the YF-17 (the forerunner of the F-18) when I was in junior high... in 1975... almost 40 years ago. However much lipstick you put on the pig, you can't get around the fact that it is a pretty old design.

I see that a lot of the comments suggest lengthening the yellows and the pause before green (one even suggested I pull my head out of my ass). The problem is that they have done that where I live and people STILL are coming through the red light, even when the green has been on for a couple of seconds. The only way to avoid an accident in my city is to wait a couple of seconds after getting the green, to make sure all the jackasses are through running the light, before entering the intersection.