Reducing cost through optimization of manufacturing can be more important than lots of original research, for instance the recent boom in photo-voltaic solar has much more to do with the plummeting $/W for panels made with decades old technology then it does with the constant stream of announcements that some group has eeked out .5% better efficiency out of cells made of unobtanium. I'm not saying that basic science research or materials science research should be halted, just that people who poo poo people making a better/cheaper widget just because it's not new and sparkly are missing the forest for the trees.

Try to convince a Manager hellbent on joining "The Cloud" and you know the answer is no.

For a chuckle, have him explain what "The Cloud" is before you do. At least it provides some entertainment before you try to convince him he's about to sink his business.

Discrimination? Who speaks of discrimination? We're just asking a few harmless questions. And of course you may opt to not answer, that's completely within your rights. And of course not answering, or providing an answer we don't like, will have no influence on your chance to be employed whatsoever...

So? There are full blown fascists right now in the State Department, hellbent on derailing the United States Constitution and nobody gives a shit.

As to ending up in jail or dead, nothing I did was illegal. He brandished a weapon at me and I showed him I had a bigger one.

Escalating a fight when you don't need to is stupid and, in most places, illegal.

As to your second point, I looked for a point in it... and couldn't see an actual argument in it. Please rephrase.

Nuclear war is a bad thing, since it'll kill you. Promoting behaviour that leads to it is stupid.

As to your third point, I have millions of years of natural selection humming in my veins. I am not some skittish herd beast. I not a rat. I am not a rabbit.

No, you're just some dude with serious impulse control issues and delusions of grandieur.

I am a homo sapian. A man. I'm the ape that cracks atoms and marks his territory on the moon.

Claiming credit for other people's achievements is not the least bit impressive.

Come at me.

Why?

And about 1 in 1000 actors succeed and become movie stars.

It takes hard work, connections- and a lot of luck.

Unless you have all three, you lose.

Your story is atypical.

Dropbox has Condoleeza Rice on its board of directors. If anyone remembers, she was Secretary of State and also the president's National Security Advisor during the Bush administration. She basically allowed torture, and is responsible for Guantanamo. She had no problem with torturing people without even doing a basic check to see if the person being tortured was guilty of the crime he was being tortured for. And you want to talk about spying? She was part of the administration that developed the PATRIOT Act. The justification being "it's ok to spy on foreigners" .. Oh and we can DECLARE you a foreigner without any due process by making you prove your Americanness. She was cool with torturing foreigners without giving them any sort of due process, so why would you assume that she wont torture citizens if she was scared into doing so? We already know she doesn't think people need privacy.

Women make up a tiny proportion of developers, but we still see passion plays like this in forums where developers dwell on a daily basis. So, who precisely is harassing who here?

See, the thing is, you're reading that I actually need .docx, which I haven't actually said anywhere

No I caught that, but decided to making the point that docx (actually the harder HR requirement to meet) is still a very low practical barrier.

But mate, cheers for the MS Office sales pitch.

By providing 3 ways to avoid buying it altogether? and one final way that costs less than a premium coffee?? Yeah... Microsoft is paying me well to shill for them, LAMO. :p

I was not trying to kill him, I was simply sending him a large amount of high speed data.

People HATE windows 8 because they are trying to force a touch interface on it, most people do not buy touch montiors so it is less than intuitive.. now they want to make it even more touch oriented? unless they are going to send me FREE 27" and 40" 4K touchscreen monitors it's not going to be worth a damn.

STOP TRYING TO UNIFY THE PC AND TABLET/PHONE WORLDS! I am so sick of companies trying to do this, it's a failure an utter failure.

Hell, if I put a Raspberry Pi inside the scooped out guts of ENIAC, it would be just like ENIAC was streaming a movie... right?

I'm thinking of pulling the beads off an abacus and throwing a Raspberry Pi to show how an abacus can stream movies... and then maybe hollowing out a stone and showing how cool streaming could have been in the Neolithic...

Sarcasm mode off

You are of the opinion that nothing bad happens to men and it always happens to women.

Nope. I'm just doubting the OP.

You are doubting the OP solely on the basis that the OP is a male, since that's the only information you have about him. That only makes sense if you're of the opinion that nothing bad ever happens to men.

"This led to a situation where the only way the parties could get more voters was to compete for those ideologically between them leading to a race to the middle".

I think it's more that most active voters have come to believe that no candidate or party can be credible or viable unless it spends billions on PR.

True enough. But it's hardly a "nanny state" they are aiming for. More like a gradual, unobtrusive return to something as close to slavery as they can procure.