You know, I almost always seem to have a flamebait or troll mod in my list of recent modifications. I've been thinking about that, mostly passively, and I don't really mind one bit.

If I wasn't making people unhappy I wouldn't be making people think and it seems that that is my job. I guess it is that some people don't think and that's when I get modded down and that's okay too. Hell, I don't even spend my mod points.

I still have excellent karma and it is usually an up and down thing. I get modded down on posts where I don't agree with the current groupthink here and, well, that's okay. I posit ideas and rather than opt to argue the merits of those ideas they simply continue groupthink and usually it works out that in a day or so I'm modded back to normal.

In short, sorry but your favorite app isn't the best, your open source isn't the best, and your favorite OS is not the best. The best is what works for you and thinking that you can take away other people's right to choose is just plain retarded. FOAD

There are a cluster of people who, for their various reasons, think that all software must be free and open source. They claim that the people who author this stuff have no choice in the matter or that they shouldn't and they follow the steps given to them by Lord RMS faithfully.

Then they do things like love Google who, by all accounts, is in no way open.

They talk of things like freedom... What about the freedom for the authors of the the IP to decide? We have the right to opt to not install something. We even have the ability to do anything we need to do without touching a single line of proprietary code (as yet untested in courts but for the sake of simplicity we'll all work with the idea that it is free code).

If a musician wants to join a lable who is a part of RIAA then that's their choice. They are granted rights. Why do people think that that they can take away those rights? Freedom ends at the tip of your nose.

I was looking at some FSF (I'm going with Full of Shit Foundation here) stuff today and they're insane. If I code up a handy dandy application and put it on my server to do my business on my personal property with my clients I have absolutely no obligation to hand that code over to anyone and anyone who thinks that I should have to is, well, insane.

The reality is that I'm far more likely to hand it over than to not but the idea that I should *have to* is patently absurd. Do your own fucking work if I don't want to share and if I patent it then I probably want to be paid for my work. (Patent trolls suck balls and shouldn't count.)

Do you fucking think or do you just do what they tell you and call it individuality?

I was at the VA hospital (Togus) yesterday and left a wallet with about $400 in it in the canteen. I had to return today and we noticed it missing just prior to leaving the house. I wasn't worried about the money, it was the ID, canceling cards, and the general hassle.

It took a while but eventually we found the people who are in charge of the lost and found department (it is no longer the facility police should anyone actually ever need to go there) and they actually were able to help us. It is amazing but true - everything was still in the wallet.

All of the money was there, all of the cards were there, and it was safely under lock and key. I was very impressed and my faith in humanity has been restored.

From the New York Times comes this tasty bit of idiocy that takes tech too far.

I envision more accidents as people check for spaces and then rush to get to the free spaces before they are available but I guess I'm a cynic.

So, well, here I sit thinking about this. See, well, I have moderator points. Most of the time I let them go and don't even use them and I don't think that I've ever once used them to mod someone down.

Do you mod the people down? Is it worth it?

I usually use them, when I use them, to mod people up or at least their comments are modded up.

I typically use them, again when I use them, in a thread that I have to read and understand where they are coming from. I try to make it so that I have an unbiased view when I'm moderating so that means I don't moderate people in threads where I think I feel strongly about the views or subject matter.

Do you use your mod points? How so?

Thoughts? Anyone? I'm mostly, well, a lurker who comments once in a blue moon but lately I have been more active as I am hoping that my voice is able to be counted with the rest that feel the way I do.