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Since you refuse to clarify, and I, being relatively ignorant, must rely on the dictionary definitions, I don't understand the point you are trying to make:

From those definitions, it appears that it is possible to be a misanthrope and not be sociopathic, but that one of the defining characteristics of being a sociopath is some level of misanthropy (or, at least, misanthropic behaviour). Of course, rather than berating the original poster, perhaps you could attempt to bring clarity. On the other hand, perhaps you were trying to exemplify the misanthropy suggested in the original post, in which case I apologize for missing the joke.

NFC payment devices actually use the same technology inside the US, too. I'm not sure where the people who are whining about fragmentation are coming from.

Whether you're using a card or your phone, you have to get something out of your pocket either way (which only takes two seconds anyway, unless you keep your phone on a belt clip). Typically all you have to do is unlock your phone and touch it to the device, no need to open an app (although depending on your security you may be asked for a PIN).

And if unlocking your phone really bothers you that much, it's possible to modify an Android phone so that the NFC transmitter is on even when it's locked, but that's kind of insecure since somebody could just brush a reader up against your pocket when you're not looking.

The attractiveness of using your phone is that it works just as well as a card (if not better, since nobody can access it unless your phone is unlocked) but you don't have to carry around an extra card.

To be fair, in order to take advantage of that, you have to:
1) Actually create a physical key based on the one you took a picture of, which also requires special machinery to do.
2) Find the house the key belongs to.
3) Take the time to go there and actually gain physical access.
4) Hope there aren't separate keys for the deadbolt and knob.
5) Hope that the house doesn't have an alarm system and nobody is home or watching you who will call the police.

All of that put together is prohibitively time-consuming and dangerous. To take advantage of a credit card number you stole, you have to:
1) Go type the numbers into a field on the internet.

And you're done. You don't even have to actually use the number yourself, there are black market credit card number dealers who will gladly take it off of your hands. By the way, some people actually do have electronic locks for their homes.

Also, that is all completely irrelevant anyway because the original poster said there are no advantages, but there clearly are, even if you personally don't think they're worth it.

They'll wind up using the same sort of protective techniques the superstitious used to use against witchcraft --- being careful not to shed any blood, skin, hair or nail clippings when engaged in their illicit activities.

I can see a scene in a science fiction movie (God forbid it really needs to happen) where the protagonist's best friend, despite the padded, blood-absorbing armor which they were when conducting sabotage against the state is injured, so that a single drop of blood drops to the ground --- while the protagonist looks on in horror and sadness. Then, the doomed buddy simply announces, "I've been blooded. Give me all the ammunition you can spare." and then goes off on a berserk, suicidal assault of the pursuing authorities.

No, I'm suggesting you're Luddites because your first reaction to a new technology is to disregard it without actually learning about it and then justify it after the fact.

I already stated a number of useful practical purposes of mobile payments. Convenience, security. I'm carrying my phone around anyway, so carrying extra pieces of plastic in my wallet is just a liability. You can steal a credit card by looking at it. If somebody swipes your wallet, you're never getting your cash back. And if somebody wants to pay me for something and doesn't have exact change on hand, that's also trivially easy to do and secure. I'm not seeing any disadvantages except for tin foil hat paranoia about not trusting a company with your personal information, but I'll bet that your bank is already way scummier than Google is.

Sometimes I'm amazed at how, for a site aimed at nerds and technology enthusiasts, Slashdot can be very conservative when it comes to new technology.

I mean, this poll doesn't even have an option for "I already use one regularly." It's incredibly common in many countries, and even in the US, it's a viable option in many locations. Many pharmacies, grocery stories, fast food locations, and so on near where I live accept Google Wallet. And why not use it (or something similar)? I don't have to carry around several different cards in my pocket to pay from different sources, and it's impossible to steal my credentials without also stealing my phone. If it does get stolen, I can easily cancel it without affecting any of my bank accounts. My phone keeps a transaction log that's more useful and more convenient than my bank's web page.

But, of course, the first comments on Slashdot are from people insisting credit cards are perfect, carrying around cash is better because it's anonymous, or saying they won't tolerate any closed source software on their phone.

Fortunately, you don't need showers. Bicycling != sweaty. And sweaty !=stinky.

People stink because they cover themselves in chemical perfumes (perfumes, soaps, shampoos, moisturizers, etc) that have limited 'life' before they start to decompose. People stink because they use fabric softener on their clothing (see above...also, fabric softeners are basically fat. Which goes rancid...) People stink because they toss their sweaty clothes into a hamper instead of airing them out.

I'm American. I ride a bike every day, in a city that goes from 0 degrees to 100+ degrees. I don't understand this obsession with sweat. If I'm going somewhere and can't show up sweaty, I slow down, or I get there a few minutes early and cool off/dry off just by...uh...standing around...

People seem to forget that biking is more efficient and thus for the same energy used walking, you can go several times faster, which means for the same energy you are less likely to get sweaty.

The earth's internal core is about 6000 C (source), and carbon in diamond form boils at 4027 C (source).

So, yes, diamond is still a known material.

On the other hand, why should a private corporation be obligated to provide you with a platform for your speech? If you run your own web forum, would it be ok for me to fill up your forum with, say, posts advocating White Power, or would it be reasonable to ban me? I shouldn't even need to post the obligatory XKCD comic here.

Pretty sure nobody said that. If you'd bother looking at the article at all, you'd see that references to specific sites that are known for pirating material are being flagged. Go ahead and talk about Blizzard's updater all you want.

What are you talking about? Please show me any indication at all that somebody has been banned from Steam and rendered unable to access any of their games because they tried to talk about torrents.

And you make the BEST points, in the same way that Hitler had the best final solution! See, I can also use extreme, irrelevant hyperbole!

In the course of one post you went from being somebody who didn't understand how free speech works to somebody who is using extreme hyperbole to argue against something that didn't even happen. Good job.

That's one thing I've always been mystified at --- when the English Channel tunnel was finished the machines were run a bit further and entombed --- why weren't they run up to the surface and put up for use on other projects?

The term you are missing is "Lifting body" --- it has control foils and is able to steer in the air using them (as opposed to using thrusters as capsules must).

Or, real life for kids who missed shop class.

The "Maker" movement labeling really annoys me (and I'm still annoyed 'bout when when stackexchange changed the name of the Digital Fabrication beta in mid launch to some new age maker bullshit).

I build stuff, both by hand and using tools, I share what I make and learn, including the files ( http://www.shapeoko.com/projec... ), I volunteer as best I can ( http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/i... ), and try to improve how we document and build machines (when the Shapeoko 2 was featured in Popular Mechanics less mechanically inclined people became aware of it and found traditional assembly diagrams hard to read, so we had to update the diagrams so as to make it obvious where "hidden" parts were located: http://docs.shapeoko.com/conte... ).

I'm not a "maker", I'm just a guy w/ a workbench at one end of the laundry room and a couple of CNC machines and 3D printers scattered around the rest of the house.

William

No Flash here, but it still began playing in Safari --- fortunately I always have my speakers muted.

Land area of France: 640,679 sq km
Land area of U.S.A.: 9,826,675 sq km ---- even removing Alaska (1,717,854 sq km) one still has a much larger area to cover

Population density of France: 119.37
Population density of U.S.A.: 34.06

It's not surprising that a service which requires one to build infrastructure is more expensive in the U.S. than in less densely populated countries --- and that's w/ a significant portion of the country still not having service.

I'm an assistant professor, the lowest rank. And I'm in the humanities My salary is just very slightly over $50k. I am paid more than most of my colleagues because my institution was bidding against another similar institution. A starting humanities prof will earn in the mid-40s, as of now. A few years ago it was the low 40s. I'm getting the numbers based on what I know about several R1s, one very, very well-endowed, and from lesser schools. Event at the highest rank, I--and my colleagues at peer institutions--will never see six figures. I don't have any polemical intent. This is just FYI because I hear crazy figures thrown around. In the humanities, you have to hold a quite well-supported endowed chair to hit six figures. I know it's different in STEM. At my school, which is more or less bankrupt, a lot of the STEM folks start in the mid 70s.