Instead of "using the content ID match system", how about they use the "DMCA notification" so that everyone has their fair claim and response under the law and, if needed, in a court rather than letting Google just turn it into both a heavy-handed big-guy-versus-little-guy squashing and "monetizing" opportunity?

That's the entire point of all of this. They just want to be sure that the government is the only one Google is invading the privacy of citizens on behalf of.

Don't worry, the idiots keep pushing for european style "high speed rail" in America, too. They're somehow convinced it's the economical solution to pollution and traffic while they put their heads in the sand about the actual corruption and incredible expenses it will actually have (not to mention, it own't be high-speed at all, if they ever get around to it... you know.. you do have to actually stop and let people on and off after all).

If Microsoft positioned themselves as not only critics of Google's disregard for privacy (see countless statements by Schmidt, for example) but as actual champions of lobbying, legislation, standards, and technologies that always favored the consumer's right to privacy, security, and choice/notification, they could really win me and a few other people over.

Merely pointing out how someone else is super shitty and shady, alone, isn't enough.

Like any government agency, police departments don't exist with the main priority of protecting and serving. Their primarily purpose is to generate revenue.

Sometimes come when you call them.

When I first moved to denver, I was getting used to the area and had to attend a week long meeting on the other side of town. Instead of taking a car, I figured a cab would be much nicer and a bit of a stress reliever. It took three hours for a cab to arrive after I called it for the 45 mile trip, on my way out there. The first morning, it took almost two hours for a cab to show up to take me five miles. For the trip back at the end of the week, I waited in the cold for six hours and still nobody came. I called another cab company and told them that the first cab company I called still hadn't shown up so I was hoping they'd perform better. They told me "sir, cab companies don't allow this - if you already called a company, you need to deal with them" and hung up on me. I eventually had to walk a mile to a different location, give them a different name, and wait ANOTHER six hours and make a call to remind them I was waiting for a cab almost every 45 minutes for those six hours. After a total of about 13 hours, my cab finally arrived and drove me the 45 miles back home.

These were not in remote areas, either. These were in heavily populated areas that people would normally do business in and travel around from out of town.

It is absolutely not what I am used to in the coastal cities I've lived in, where you don't even have to call a cab. You just hail one. It stops. You get in.

You are confusing germans and austrians. While it happened in the US once recently, those guys pretty much have the market cornered on kidnapping people and keeping them in underground sex dungeons.

Driving dangerously should be the issue, period. We shouldn't need to make five thousand laws for five thousand contexts. If you are reckless and dangerous on the road because of texting, talking on the phone, parenting your children in the back seat, watching videos on your laptop in the passenger seat, or just sheer stupidity or old age -- it should all fall under the same category and impact your license to drive.

The only reason a few items might sensibly be specifically classified and identified is because of the intentional choices that go into them. For example, nobody accidentally drinks and drives or accidentally texts while driving.

If it carries such a stigma, why are we letting people have countless offenses and still be allowed to drive?

Here's the simple solution that people are too chickenshit to enforce:

Caught driving under the influence? Lifetime suspension of license.
Caught driving with a license suspended due to DUI? Ten years in prison.

Sound harsh? So is putting an intoxicated idiot behind the wheel of a giant metal death machine that can speed in excess of 120mph and take out innocent people driving to work, home from dinner, or to visit their friends.

Thinking about your mortality is valuable when you have all the time in the world ahead of you. Thinking about it when it is an immediate certainty is a detriment.

I understand the cynicism, but I don't see what benefit there is to an uber-billionaire who no longer runs anything except a philanthropic organization where he gives away his own money, to worry about "emulating compassion and humanity for the media".

Ultimately, I don't care, either. Actions speak louder than words. Emulate whatever the fuck you want, as long as you're giving away hundreds of millions of dollars to solve fundamental problems in the world and try to build a structure with which your money will provide the most long-term benefits continued far into the future.

I don't think that's what he meant. It isn't personally constructive. A yacht may seem stupid to you, but it was important to a dying man and gave him something to occupy his time and energy, which is valuable in a time like that. Sure, maybe he could have spent his remaining months in his frail body overseas handing out cash or something, but whatever.

I've long been fascinated by the evolution of Bill Gates. I cut my teeth in this field as an engineer at Netscape, where I watched along with the rest of the industry as Microsoft did what they did to Netscape and all of the following legal proceedings and DoJ activities ensued. While I still respected the story and beginning of Gates (reading everything I could about him, when I was a teenager), I hated Mr. Borg with a passion and everything about Microsoft. It was what drove me to the arms of Linux and, ultimately, Unix (and my career therein).

Then, he decided to move on from just leading a tech and business army and raking in cash to making finding a way to properly use that cash for the betterment of man. We saw a completely different side of him. Perhaps a new side of the guy that game with maturity and wisdom. I gained a completely new respect for him. I still disagree with some of his views, completely disagree with some of his former business practices, am frustrated and dismayed with a lot of Microsoft's current endeavors and decisions . . . but as a man -- I've come to have a lot of admiration for what he's doing. He's a great example for the rest of the world's wealthiest in doing something truly constructive and beneficial with their unimaginable wealth.

Americans love a success story and we love a story of personal redemption. The only thing we love more than hating someone is them turning things around and giving us reasons to be in their corner. This is one of those stories. And, personally, I find his activities a solid reminder in my own personal life to remember how fortunate I am in my career. As a direct result, I make a point of doing what I can to support things like Engineers Without Borders. I bet many other engineers out there have found the same respect and inspiration.

I also find it sad that, for as inspiring as I found Jobs as far as business and design, there is simply no similar compelling feeling in that same way, after his passing.

It's not just a matter of bad form. It's just a matter of something most people would never want to do, Gates included. It's exciting and driving to compete with a rival and to egg that rivalry on. When a respected rival passes -- especially one who was part of this back and forth spurring on for decades through something as amazing as the revolution of computing -- it's a huge personal loss. It's something and someone you miss.

I don't understand. How does an organization as big as Time not have the resources to just write their own comment/forum/whatever system? Whatever happened to this? Every fucking site uses Facebook or Disqus, now. Rolling your own is trivial and strips you of dependence on third parties and lets you retain the data.

Also, who are all of these idiots posting on articles and things, via Facebok, using their real name and saying the most vile and horrible shit. Are they seriously this stupid?!