I completely agree, except the part where you said she wouldn't get quite as many accolades. She wrote the first compiler. That's fucking seminal! Who else can claim a first that big?

Oh my God, your friend says he got yelled at one time by an IRS agent for deducting something he shouldn't have, and then completely ignored the IRS and still didn't pay it? WHAT MONSTERS.

I don't think I understand your point. How is anybody being denied "academic freedom?" Who is stopping these PhDs from studying whatever they want? Or by academic freedom do you mean "the freedom to make somebody else pay them for their studies?"

This isn't a dig, I really feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle because I just don't get the outrage, particularly with this statement: "The idea of academic freedom being available only to those who have already made their most significant contribution (and therefore get tenure which is supposed to provide academic freedom) is an idea that needs to be discussed. It is a problem." If I only have a small pool of money to pay tenured professors, why wouldn't I want to select the ones that have proven themselves?

This is generally done by the same people who use the term "elites" derisively. There's a culture - often promulgated by Libertarians - that people who aren't directly enhancing some corporation's bottom line somewhere don't deserve recognition or respect. The fact is, someone who has made significant contributions to their field deserves some job security.

It's not that these naysayers have a better system for who deserves tenure (or, if they want to eliminate tenure altogether, a tenure-like protection from Administrative whims). They don't want anyone to have such protections, because then scientists who tell inconvenient truths about politics or science ("Hey, did you know Climate Change might be a problem?) can be easily silenced by politically or corporate-backed powers.

Is the tenure system perfect? God, no, but what system involving human pecking order is? But it's pretty good, actually, for the most part! They're a reason the western-style educational system has been rocking it hardcore for hundreds of years now. And the fact is, the attack on professors, tenure, and the scientific elites in general is mostly coming from the corners that are trying to tear down science as an edifice in general.

There are many career paths, such as professional sports or marketers. But let's use a really inflammatory example to belittle higher education yet again.

There's a difference between being wrong, and people thinking something is wrong. For instance, it doesn't matter how many people think Global Warming is a hoax - they're wrong.

Similarly, it doesn't matter if a billion customers think Taiwan is part of China. The real objective truth is Taiwan operates independently. The clue might be that the Taiwan Government is the one complaining.

On Android, I have a lockscreen widget and the camera app is accessible without unlocking.

Scalzi actually does fairly hard sci-fi mostly. Check his Old Man's War novels. They're good.

Yes, obviously, one company should own a trademark on any product containing the work "Sky" in it.

It was sarcasm. Sorry if that wasn't clear enough.

When, as a woman, she had the audacity to attend a convention.

"In Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws who Hacked Ma Bell, author Phil Lapsley calls his book 'the untold story of the teenagers and outlaws who hacked Ma Bell.'

At this point, I think the editors are trolling us.

You know what's the worst part? The number of people who deny systematic discrimination exists. Every time a study comes out showing blacks and other minorities get more jail time on average for the same crimes (or in many cases go to jail at all for crimes their white counterparts get a slap on the wrist for), the usual suspects will make vague denunciations of the problem, and then whenever an individual example comes to light, try to make others the badguys for pointing out racial injustice and/or want insurmountable evidence that THIS INDIVIDUAL case was an example of racism before they'll even consider it.

Then they'll usually engage in some light victim blaming, just to spice things up.

You know what I call those people? Racists. Sure, they might not be as bad KKK members burning crosses, but they sure are doing their best to ignore racial equality issues.

I know Slashdot likes to confuse us with it's hyperlink placement, but I just feel like pointing out that puting the link to TFA on the text "a city that more closely resembles the real world" makes absolutely no sense. That's where a link to a story about the Nissan Leaf DLC should go, at best. The very next sentence, "That's undoubtedly why EA decided to partner with Crest Toothpaste. Yes, toothpaste." is where the hyperlink to go since the hyperlink leads to.... a story about Crest Toothpaste DLC!

I mean, come on! Is no one doing basic proofreading here?

Does anyone even know what the jokes were? A "dongle" joke could be anything from a lame hammy pun you might catch on a sitcom to outrageously misogynistic rape-humor. It's kind of hard to form a valid opinion of the whole thing without that bit of info.

Actually, according to this article in Wired the PS4 will be able to do it both ways. Publishers have the option of "registering" their games. Guess which they'll do? This is just a marketing ploy for Sony to be able to say "We aren't disabling used games, the publishers are!