I want a copy of your criminal record, as well as your financial records...

You get police protection in your city, yes? You also have money in a bank with FDIC insurance?

That's all paid for by the government.

Also, I want access to your travel records....you drive on public roads...also, you are protected by the US Military....

Where do we stop?

Studying individual student records, including hobbies, likes/dislikes, etc. won't help judge school progress...

I've been dealing with this for a couple of years now...

I send back replies to people who are emailing me explaining they have the wrong person, and either mark the junk accounts as spam, or contact their customer service and ask for them to remove my email from their account.

Sometimes, the companies will actually comply, especially if it's for some children's website... (COPPA is a big deal).

For the ones who don't listen, or can't remove me, I just keep tossing them into the bit bucket.

Listening to NPR last night about this, they mentioned that the majority of the recipients already work for very large, well-funded institutions...and the money is going directly to the scientists, not being specified for actual research. So...how is this helping science? If they wanted to help scientists, they should make the money available as grants and give them to scientists who need funding.

Wow...I've been reading for far long than I've been posting, but I'm not sure I remember how long...

To have worked in one place for so long, and to affect so many folks...wherever you go, it'll be a step down.

Good luck to you!

I was in Middle School at the time, and was watching with my class on a TV at the front of the class. That "Y" shape haunted my dreams for days...

It still affects me, even now...It's strange what sticks with you.

So...my iPhone should connect to any cellular service? Or....I can plug in my iPod into a linux box and the linux box has to recognize it and work with it without any additional software? Or....I can stick a DVD for a Windows game into my OSX system and play the game? Or, must Apple make every mobile application run on an iPhone (or even every application, period). That statement is so vague, it's ridiculous.

He also did columns in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. They were always interesting, always intriguing, and always entertaining. He was a great man, and a great teacher. Time to go see if I still have his books...if not, time to go hit a bookstore for them. RIP, Martin.

FTA: "any proprietary software is a computer that you don't control". How many people know half of what's going on with "Free" software? How many people not "into" tech know why free software is any different? And, how much free software is actually so thoroughly audited that everyone knows everything it does?

At some point, you have to take someone's word that the software you are loading on your computer is "trustworthy", unless you're going to write it all yourself. And even then, how much of that code is going to be your own, and how much will be copied from elsewhere?

Free software isn't inherently more trustworthy, it simply moves the trust relationship around.

There's still self-respect and honesty.

You may stab me in the back, but I will still treat with you fairly, for my sake, not yours.

But don't expect me to trust you again.