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I'm assuming no one has yet noticed that the $99 fee is not going to last forever. From Microsoft's sysdev portal:
Microsoft is pleased to announce that, for a limited time, VeriSign is offering the ‘Microsoft Authenticode’ Digital Certificate at a substantially reduced price by following the link below.
Moreover as others have mentioned here, it's not guaranteed that any hardware manufacturers will include the capability to register one's own keys. I certainly haven't heard of any yet.
In a recent interview with an Iranian Linux publication, RMS had this to say about the very issue addressed here - it's an opinion I share.
"LR: What's the best way to advocate Free Software? Some Free Software users engage in technical debates with Microsoft and Apple fans, trying to convince them GNU/Linux is more powerful. Another group focus on philosophical and cultural aspects of Free Software and try to make people care about their freedom. Which of the two mentioned approaches are more effective?
RMS: They are both "effective" but they lead to different results.
If you convince people that some free software is technically superior, they might run some free software, but they will remain ready to use nonfree software in the areas where that is technically superior. They will continue to judge an important question based on superficial issues. This is just a partial success.
However, if you convince people that they deserve freedom, they will start rejecting nonfree software whether it is technically inferior or technically superior, because they will see that free software is ethically superior. They will understand the important question and judge it right. This is a full, deep success.
Another weakness of technical arguments is that nontechnical people probably won't care about them at all. But they can understand ethical arguments. Ethical arguments are the only way we can convince nontechnical people to become free software supporters.
I figure that users can judge for themselves whether program A is more convenient than program B. So I don't try to convince them about that sort of question, except when someone has preconceptions about free software and has not tried it. I focus on talking about freedom. "
Tasers are a non-lethal general purpose alternative to going hand to hand with someone or shooting them. The chances of getting hurt, either the officer or the suspect, in a fist fight are much higher than when a taser is used.
Tell that to poor old Robert Dziekanski.
Wow. One famous Taser victim. Care for a larger sample size?
False dichotomy. Stay in school, Bud.
Ok, should you ever be in the process/act of breaking the law and failing to comply with police officers' demands to comply, which method would you prefer be used to subdue you?
no problem, look at how Taser International's massive legal team can get all the maimings and deaths by electrocution swept under the run by buying off judges and doctors and county coroners. The military-industrial complex can steam-roll over peons, it's just operating costs and part of the business plan.
The term for the Taser and other similar law enforcement devices is "less lethal". You are much more likely to perish or suffer permanent injury from a high speed lead bullet than a Taser strike.
Nonsense. It's the addressee that matters.
US Code Title 18 Chapter 83 Sec. 1702 reads
(snip)
Thank-you. The very same law (though worded and located differently, of course) exists in Canada. I've had to remind employers and their subordinates that they were NOT permitted to open my mail, regardless of the address of their business or the placement of "c/o" in the address field.
"Freedom is still the most radical idea of all." -- Nathaniel Branden