And just why do you want to know where I work? So that you can complain to my boss that I made you look stupid and that he should fire me for that?

No, he wants to know where you work so he can complain to the politicians that your company is costing his company money.

Which is exactly the strategy that Cary Sherman of RIAA suggested when SOPA failed.

If it's about "Hollywood vs. freedom", Hollywood loses.

But if the debate can be reframed to "MPAA vs. Google", or "RIAA vs. Telcos", Hollywood wins, because they can just point the finger and say "Look, we're only saying the things we say because we work for Paramount, Universal, and other MAFIAA organizations. But you're only saying that because you work for Google, a telco, or an ISP, you're a lobbyist just like us!" and with the debate framed in a context that the politicians will understand, Ari and Sherman can easily demand a law that transfers wealth from "Northern California" to "Southern California" (by transferring the cost of preventing piracy from "Southern California rightsholders" to "Northern California companies whose customers happen to infringe on those rights").

No wonder we spend all of our time in the basement. It's the only place we can get any of the really interesting shit done, and almost no one wants to join us.

Old joke:

Three NASA engineers, one from headquarters in Washington, one from the Johnson center in Houston, and one from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena were discussing whether it was better to have a wife or a mistress.

The HQ guy said it was better to have a mistress, because they are more understanding of the long absences required of a NASA employee. The Johnson guy retorted, "Oh, no, one must always follow proper rules and procedures, and marriage is the proper procedure, so it is better to have a wife."

The JPL engineer replied, "No, it is better to have both. That way, you can tell your wife that you're with your mistress, your mistress that you're with your wife, and go to the lab and work."

I will absolutely sell my most recent graphics cards, they're still worth some dough and it really helps to offset the cost of upgrading all the time. I call it "trading up", and usually I can get away with buying a $200 video card and make $100 back from the old card. (Simple math: new cards only cost me $100 that way!)

But I just gave away my old K6/2 400 Windows 98-era retro-gaming box. It's so old that I couldn't even donate it anywhere, and one of my co-workers wanted one just like it. No more Mechwarrior 2 or Rogue Spear for me.

Last time I checked neither x-ray machines nor CT scanners are considered food or drug so why is the FDA involved? I could see the FCC or OSHA but not FDA.

In addition to drugs, the FDA is also responsible for clearing medical products and devices.

Here's this year's list of newly-approved devices so far. If you're going to stick it in your coronary artery, your cardiologist probably wants to know that people smarter than him have spent a lot of time asking a lot of hard questions about it.

Not every device gets the full treatment. But even if you're coming up with a minor tweak to something that's comparatively low risk, it must be cleared under section 510(k): last month's cleared devices. The paperwork's simple compared to a new device approval, but even the 510(k) clearance process means that something as simple as "STERILE LUBRICATING JELLY" is sterile, biocompatible, made in a factory that follows good manufacturing processes, etc.

If it sounds like a horrendous amount of paperwork, well, it is. But the alternative - random uncleared devices without even the practicioner knowing what's in them - is far, far worse. There's a reason that both prescription and over-the-counter medications have standard packaging and labeling requirements, undergo multiyear-long clinical studies, and take the better part of a billion dollars and a decade to bring to market, and why quack 'supplements' advertised on TV and in your email's spam filter have a big disclaimer that "this product is not intended for the diagnosis and treatment of any disease".

If it sounds like TSA used the loophole of "these backscatter X-ray machines aren't intended for the diagnosis and treatment of any disease" in order to circumvent FDA scrutiny, well, I'd have to agree with you there, too. But what's more important: the health of the traveling public, or securing cushy careers for HomeSec bureaucrats?

Except we call his relative's cages "cubes." Now, excuse me, I need to go have my banana for lunch.

In lieu of (+6, Sad-But-True), please accept this cartoon, which hangs on my cage wall: I'm the next contestant on the hot new game show: Who's the dumb ape?