Why pay anyone? I press +1 minute on my remote three or four times, and ads are skipped. Do we really need to invent technology or pay humans to counter this very minor inconvenience?

I'm going to click that because I like your style.

bit.ly much? Is it reasonable that I check the outcome of every shortened URL for referrer data?

To this day you can see the effect on BBC News stories on the web - notice how the first 100 words give a summary of the entire story with additional information in the rest of the article. Obviously that's good, concise journalism but it's also done so that the first 100 words (or even the first sentence) can be lopped off and placed into a medium where space is limited.

Here's my biggest issue: in your country you are allowed to wander round with loaded, concealed guns and you are allowed to discharge them and kill people under certain circumstances.

Would you use a false name in the phone book too?

It makes sense from a kids perspective - much easier to hide a phone. Or just the sim - by day you insert the family sim, but by night...

I had to do a Google search and read a random blog post to find out how to add shapes to a picture in Gimp. This and its stupid name are some of the things which prevent mass adoption of such products. The response from the Gimp authors on the shape issue was according to the blog, "we don't think you need that function". This is a third reason why mass-market adoption is but a pipe dream.

I'm not sure what's more depressing - that this 6000 year joke is made EVERY time such a story appears on slashdot, or that it's modded +5 Funny EVERY time.

If your wish is to marginalise the religious then the best course of action is to just ignore them.

I agree it's a bizarre stance. It's a bit like saying I want all the benefits of being in the phone book, but I don't want to listed by my real name.

If you want to remain private, then don't join the club. Or would you prefer to eat your cake as well as have it?