Sounds like somebody hasn't heard of secondary markets. He can most definitely sell his shares pre-IPO (FTC regulations notwithstanding, which would certainly come into play now that an S1 has been filed).

Indeed. Some stuff happens from weird ways that users try to do things that developers simply wouldn't think to test. Case in point, bug I found today: someone bought a six-month subscription by entering 0.5 as the quantity on a 1-year subscription. Our code wasn't expecting non-integer quantities, but happily did the math to get the line-item subtotal. When the data was stored, the 0.5 quantity went into an integer column, which the database cast to an integer by rounding down and suddenly qty * price != subtotal. It was caught and quickly fixed by a data integrity check, but a QA/dedicated testing person that thinks of weird user interactions like that could have prevented it from going out to production in the first place.

Now we have one more thing added into unit tests so it won't happen in the future, but there you go. The code was not untested, it was just used in an unpredictable way.

Did you read the details? You can get it unlocked, but it still only works on AT&T (unless you're satisfied with T-Mobile's EDGE network)

The procedure is reasonably accurate. Although to further minimize downtime, you dump your pre-move database while things are still running, keep the remote site up with replication, and don't write-lock it until you've switched your DNS (you've been dropping the TTL over the last couple days leading up to the move, right?) and put a static "site moving, refresh in a minute" page up on the old site. Obviously too simple for something of Facebook scale, but it worked quite well for a site with a handful of servers.

Of course, Ubi's setup for DRM servers will likely be wildly different than a bunch of web servers and a couple of DBs. I imagine a bunch of open connections with almost no data flowing over them

This kind of counterfeiting is a lot closer to theft than piracy. I know the guy selling $5 Oakley's out of a shoebox on the street corner isn't selling authentic goods (although I have no doubt that some people really are that ignorant), but I may have no idea that my money isn't making it back to the claimed manufacturer in the case of somewhat cheaper-than-usual NFL jerseys. Chances are I was just trying to get the best deal but engage in a legitimate transaction. Counterfeiting isn't a lost sale so much as a hijacked one. Contrast that to pirating digital goods, where no money is changing hands.

As noted in an earlier comment, I don't think this is a good of efficient use of my taxes. But if the money is going to be spent somewhere, I'd rather it go after counterfeiters (money going to the wrong party) than pirates (no transaction; could lead to one in the future). Given my choice, it would go after dangerous crime, or nowhere at all in the form of a lower tax rate.

Not that I support this kind of action, but it at least proves that bills like SOPA are unnecessary. Rights-holders already have a legal means to deal with infringers. It may be inefficient, but I think most slashdotters would agree that's preferable to the alternative.

It's what Thomas Jefferson said to do.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/105.html

There are thousands of valid arguments against the TSA and you pick travelers forgetting to collect their loose change? And as a source of funding? The TSA employs nearly 60,000 people. $400k covers about three (their budget allots on average $139k/employee; source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_Security_Administration).

Bribes go a long way, but not $8.1b long.

I'd be as happy as anyone here to see the TSA disappear forever (and, ideally, subject to criminal trials for impersonating police officers, sexual assault, and many other things) and replaced with a reasonable and actually effective set of security measures, but let's use reasonable arguments.

Actually it was already on the list and the campaign just issued the PR as yet another example of why. Odd that you read it as "just got added", as the first half of the sentence you quoted made that fairly obvious: “That is why my ‘Plan to Restore America,’ in additional to cutting $1 trillion dollars in federal spending in one year, eliminates the TSA."

http://www.ronpaul2012.com/the-issues/ron-paul-plan-to-restore-america/ plans for a DHS spending freeze, including "Transportation Safety Administration Privatized".

TSA members are not law enforcement officers. They are still rent-a-cops, like the guys at the mall: they may have additional security privileges but still have to call in actual LEOs if there's an incident they believe warrants someone being arrested. This is a common misconception; it's apparently bad enough that a House bill has been proposed so they won't be able to have cop-like uniforms: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/12/strip-act-targets-tsa.html

Because airports have lots of real cops that are easily accessible, they can still make your life (or at least your day) pretty miserable with ease, but on their own they're just expensive thugs.