Oh, for moderation points. Not funny -- insightful.

...unlike C# which Microsoft seems to enjoy having confusion surround (see the HTML/JavaScript fiasco) or Java, which Oracle seems intent on bringing confusion, branding, and licensing to, C++ has managed to evolve for how many years now? Under a committee of people no less?

Say what you will but I've recently decided to go back to my roots and work in C and C++ just for that reason -- there's never a loud outcry that the languages will die a horrible death or go anywhere. In a world of uncertainties I'm tired of having to wonder what language I'll need to master next.

The last time I flew was when they confiscated my entire collection of medicine: 3 bottles of insulin (I traveled at the time for weeks at a time, sometimes two flights a day), Lithium, Zoloft, syringes, my glucometer, Adderall, and some Xanax. It came out to about $1,500.00 worth of meds. When I objected, they cavity searched me because I was "acting suspiciously". When they were done and I threatened them with a lawsuit, they told me they could put me away in jail for so long that no one would ever hear from me again and to "shut up and get on my plane."

Was the last time I flew. The TSA can bite my ass, and if one ever tries to search my car (which they claim they can do as well; I'm too lazy to look up the link) while I'm driving it without a warrant, he'll regret it. I drive everywhere now - drove from St. Louis to Seattle for a conference. I trust no one. All of you have these pretty arguments about rights and whatnot; the shit that happened to me isn't going to happen again, and it isn't going to happen to my children. That's not a right. That's a goddamned guarantee from me.

used products but as someone who has multiple XBL accounts in the house. I'm not paying the publishers extra money just because my son, my daughter and I like to have separate achievements. Figured this out when I went to play the latest NFS... worse, I own it on my PC but there's no way to go, "Hey, I own two copies of this, let me play!"

Fuck the people who do this. The games are already shoddy pieces of crap which are unimaginative, buggy, and overpriced - now you want more? I'll just stop buying - for me, my son, my daughter, my wife. 4 consumers, lost. See you on the flip side, suckers.

Thank you for recognizing the difference. I'm tired of having people tell me that "if you weren't so fat you wouldn't have diabetes." Sorry -- I've been a Type 1 diabetic for 28 years. The obesity is a partial side effect of the large amount of insulin I take, itself a side effect of insulin resistance, which is a side affect of my lengthy history of it.

Type 1 diabetes is believed to usually develop because of an auto immune disorder... making it genetic rather than a failure to maintain physical fitness.

Mod up. I trust the scene and all the elitist jerks in it who value prestige and honor in it way more than the money grubbing publishers. (Note: Not the developers. Most of the developers are damned cool and I want to support them. The publishers are the problem.)

You're obviously not a parent. Or any sort of individual responsible for teaching a child. My child, my rules -- consistency is one of the key issues with parenting, and having those rules undermined and changed on a whim because of a school administrator only serves to subvert the authority of the parent -- a fragile entity at any point in a child's life.

The government is stepping way over the line with parenting - constantly. The GP's reply was succinct and to the point - they're my children, my problem. Until schools allow us to divert our tax dollars to a private school and until school officials are not public officials they do not have the right to dictate to me what my children do. Just in case you missed it -- they work for us. Me. They're not an untouchable entity to which I must bow and scrape.

One example: my wife buys food for my son to take to school. He doesn't like it, so he doesn't pack it. He goes to school and ends up skipping lunch. The food's there -- but in your world the government billing us for him to eat what the school provides is just dandy. We can't force him to take his lunch -- take away their food, you go to jail. Take away their freedom, you go to jail. Take away their game system, you go to jail. The government is making parents into individuals who have all the responsibilities but none of the power -- while conveniently ignoring their own continuing abuse of powers.

The "letter of the law" is not intended to be zero tolerance. These teachers and principals and other officials always claim they're following the letter of the law, but police officers let speeders off with a warning every day -- or ignore the jay walkers -- or the people in the financial industry routinely flipping the SEC the bird while they manipulate away billions of our dollars. Claiming the "letter of the law" is being followed is just an excuse to piss on the individual on question, and not even bother to call it rain.

With the way the world is going we're all going to burn in the next century; that fire may be religious, or indignant, or nuclear in nature -- I don't know.

"People should not fear their government, their government should fear the people."
"There is no justice. There is no balance. Violence isn't the last resort; it's the only resort."

Big Bang Theory?

In all seriousness I find myself fighting this battle with my son every day. He refers to things as gay, as retarded, as any number of slurs routinely spewed forth by the teenagers today. I've told him many times in the past that I don't care if he uses the verbiage, but I want him to consider what he's using and why. He would never use the word retarded around his grandmother, who's a special needs teacher. He would never use the word gay around a family friend who is gay. Yet as soon as those individuals are not around he slips back into using the verbiage.

I also believe schools today have a great deal of responsibility when it comes to bullying today. They've removed all of the social resolutions to the issue. You can't return the names, lest you both be punished equally. You can't punch back because you'll be suspended along with the instigator. When I was a teen and someone called me a name or picked on me I made a conscious choice and either 1) acknowledged that there was nothing I could do due to greater intellect, size, or numbers, or 2) beat the living hell out of the individual, usually with environmental aid. [There are no rules to a fight.] Now the schools have removed that choice and the only feeling a teen has is helplessness -- they have no choice, lest the system punish them.

As a side note I have told my son that if he is picked on he is to fight back. He is never, EVER to start a fight or make fun of someone -- that simply isn't right, especially when the target is someone who has no choice in the matter. As soon as someone starts that fight though... he's to finish it. He's won three times [13, football player, 5' 6", 180 lbs], and I've defended his actions twice -- he's never been suspended for defending himself because I've told the school I will sue them into the ground. [When administrators stop trying to apply zero tolerance policies to the world I will stop threatening to sue public institutions -- that's the only threat they'll listen to.]

Remember that when we remove all the avenues of resolution that only one remains: violence. To ourselves or others.

...and all I see are the same types of statistics that are strolled out by the ISPs when network usage and congestion become a problem. "Blame the top 3%!" "Bandwidth hogs!" "Piracy accounts for 75% of lost revenue!" Whoops, that last one slipped in but I think you get the point.

There are always going to be maximum and minimum users - the whole idea is that, on average, you can handle the load. If you can't handle the load the problem is not the end user - it's you.

AT&T has received plenty of money with which it could expand it's infrastructure. It could relieve the bandwidth bottleneck by releasing the iPhone exclusivity. It could have realized that unlimited users are going to consume as much as they can. Now they're on the hook and they want to blame the user? No, that doesn't float.

(And if I see one more "unlimited*" notation I'm going to scream. When did unlimited get redefined as "limited to ..."? Why is that not false advertising?)

I'll pay the extra money just so I can have a cheerful cashier, a clean rest room, and a brightly lit store. As well as Target's contributions to the community and schools.

Begin looking for another job as soon as possible. Document your communications with your manager and attempts to get them to go legit. But leave as soon as possible.

The reason is simple: a company who believes it is okay to do what they're doing is not going to appreciate what YOU do. Your raises will never be good, the respect you garner from upper level management will be negligible, and you will always be treated as a second class citizen that is there only because the world requires it. The companies that do what you're describing are those who view technology as a "necessary evil" and "money sink" rather than the enabler it should be.

*if you're not licensed to drive.

You own the software, but you're not licensed to use it. Kind of similar to the "you can have a circumvention device, and you can have a product on which the device works - both are legal. Using the circumvention device to remove the protection is illegal, however."

Car analogy: you can be given the keys to your parents car, you can have access to their car, but it's not legal for you to drive it if you're licensed to drive.

Yea, in Missouri I can vouch this definitely happens. I had to get my car repaired, they cleared the codes but said I had to drive a minimum of 500 miles before I brought it back in for inspection. I asked him how I was supposed to drive with expired plates (nothing like procrastination, eh?!) and he said not to worry about it. If I got pulled over explain to the cop and he'd know what was going on.

IMO these codes should have been released a long time ago. Then again I don't like DRM or any sort of other lockin either, so...

My credit score is ~600, from three issues.

The first is from AT&T and a fight I've had with them. They cut off my cell phones when my account was paid in full, then billed me for three months more of service, and a cancellation fee - TWICE. ($100.00/month, $600.00 cancellation fee x2 = $1,200.00, plus interest and charges = $1,500.00.) When I called to ask them why this occurred they told me I "needed to learn to pay my bills." My boss has signed a notarized affidavit indicating that he tried to contact me on my cell phone and was greeted with the "this number has been disconnected" message. I'm not liable for a cancellation fee if I didn't break the contract. (Psst. They did. This also occurred with OneRate back in 1999 with AT&T. I called to update my billing address. They told me they had to charge me a $200.00 cancellation fee. I asked why; she said I no longer qualified for OneRate. I said I want OneRate, I'm not cancelling that. There was no provision that I had to stay in the service area for the plan to stay in effect. That was the benefit of it. I won that fight, at least.) I've had to order the bill collectors to cease and desist per the FCRA in order to have quiet at my home -- but they still report to my credit. This one is not my fault, although if I get another collector next year... well, I may just have to show them what workplace violence really is.

The second is from CompUSA. I had a store credit card which I paid online. In October 2007 their web site went offline (because they went out of business). I had destroyed the card, didn't even know who issued it, and was unable to make payments. When a bill collector contacted me in March, 2008, it was a firm that wanted to play games - the first message on my answering machine was talking about me going to jail for not paying my debts. I whipped out a tape recorder and recorded every call with them, which I then forwarded to the FTC - and never paid them a dime. The debt was sold in February, 2009, to another collector - which I promptly paid due to their professionalism in collecting the debt. But I still have the other collector on my record. This one is, admittedly, my fault -- I should've taken the time to find the credit card issuer and make mail payments.

The third is from XM Radio. I cancelled them two years ago. I'm on my fourth BBB complaint to try to get them to stop billing me and reporting me as late on my credit, and to stop them from harassing me at home. When I call their customer service I get hung up on when I request a manager, or when I request to cancel my service. This one is not only not my fault, but stupid - the CSRs for XM Radio are rude, unintelligible, and should be shot.

Funny thing is, I work for one of the major U. S. Banks in their mortgage software development department, and these three things were already on my credit report when they hired me - and they did pull a credit report.

The idea behind the credit reports is sound, but it's been abused and stretched and is much larger than it should be.