It sounds like a great idea - let's admit that private information about an individual is property of that individual. They have the right to sell it - or in my case to *not* sell it.

Want to charge me for gmail instead? Ok, sign me up. Just don't data-mine it or sell it to a third-party. The same goes for facebook - I'd gladly sign back up if I was allowed to be the customer.

I think it's a reference to the complementary buffet...

I think the point everyone is missing is that credit cards are already utterly insecure. If you haven't been a victim yet you've just been lucky - there are a lot of CC's out there and only so many theives.

The only way to fix it is to block CC companies from writing-off fraud losses while preventing them from passing them onto the consumer. Right now, they perform a cursory 'investigation' only for the purposes of justifying the write-off, effectively passing the costs back onto consumers(taxpayers).

Yeah but you could use tidal action... Sure, it limits the rate of clean water, but it's free.

Hell, if you had a cistern below sea-level then gravity would do the work for you - you'd only expend energy to pump up the water. Humans are used to that, so it's really like having free groundwater.

15 year S/W guy here. S/W is a great field and it's been good to me. Let me say this though - there will come a time in the next 50 years where we see peak S/W employment.

It is only a matter of time before automation, abstraction, artificial intelligence, code reuse and standardization reduce the need for humans to employ specialized or arcane knowledge to instruct computers.

My advice to young S/W guys(or anyone young for that matter): Assume you'll be switching to a lower paying job in 20 years. Save your money, invest it wisely, don't buy the latest thing, etc.

The difference between England and the USA seems to be that in England they arrest you as soon as you show intent, while in the USA they have FBI informants coax the guy along until he passes the 'thoughtcrime' stage.

As an American, I think it was wrong to arrest the guy. They should have monitored the guy and given him a chance to change course. Apparently they're not aware humans are capable of that in England. Meh, like I needed *another* reason to stay out of England...

In the US, if he had attempted to go through with it(purchasing weapons is usually where they get them), he'd probably be going to jail for a loooong time. In Britain, they grabbed him before he really did anything and gave him a light sentence - assuring he'll be back on the streets and even more isolated/pissed-off. Given that it's England, the guy probably doesn't have many rights so he'll be under surveillance for the rest of his life. Regardless, I think what the English did was counter-productive.

Haha... I just posted this in the other apple story, but it seems even more appropriate here. Hope you got some modpoints, mactards...

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Hahahahaha... fuck you apple fanboys. You know, it's been sad to watch otherwise smart folks bend over to suck Cupertino's cock. Some of us knew all along that Jobs would be even worse than Gates if he only had the chance.

Apple, as a company, reminds me of some hipster asshole who steals his ideas from some unheard-of artist, and then gets pissed when people start copying him in return.

Hey - what was Apple's position on SOPA/PIPA anyway? Hmm.. seems like they were strangely silent. Good thing you signed up for their walled garden. I hope they're still around in 25 years when you want to reference that iTextbook that can't be viewed on any other manufacturer's device.

Hahahahaha... fuck you apple fanboys. You know, it's been sad to watch otherwise smart folks bend over to suck Cupertino's cock. Some of us knew all along that Jobs would be even worse than Gates if he only had the chance.

Apple, as a company, reminds me of some hipster asshole who steals his ideas from some unheard-of artist, and then gets pissed when people start copying him in return.

Hey - what was Apple's position on SOPA/PIPA anyway? Hmm.. seems like they were strangely silent. Good thing you signed up for their walled garden. I hope they're still around in 25 years when you want to reference that iTextbook that can't be viewed on any other manufacturer's device.

This.

Sorry sci-fi fans, but there don't seem to be any compelling reasons for sending humans into space. Providing an earth-like environment is extremely expensive. Humans mess-up, have emotional break-downs, get sick, and they can't eat their own poop for very long.

Let the drones go forth, and work on making sentient machines.

I'll second the request. What I've generally found is that there is a gulf between the things taught in a standard calc I/II class and what is needed to understand most books on Fourier transforms. I've got a few books on FTs, but damn if I can understand them.