ATTN Amazon.com customers:

Terms of Service Update:

In the unfortunate circumstance when our website is hacked and all of our customers' login information and credit card information is stolen... it's not our fault.

Thanks for using Amazon.com!

Seriously? A person asks an honest question (and somebody thought it was insightful, because it got posted!) and people find it necessary to try and enlighten the submitter by telling them that their question is stupid. Sometimes the condescension and arrogance of of slashdotters are as frustrating as splinters under my fingernails.

If your wife tried to bring you into her life or something she's interested in, would you consider it an attempt to rob you of your interests or individuality, or could it actually be a gesture of love by inviting you into her world? I happen to also be a gamer and would love my wife to game with me, but if she asked me to go on a photography outing with her, I'd be all over it!

Whoa, whoa, whoa.. Who clicked insightful on this one?

Instagram has not had ads since it began in 2010. That's the whole point. Thus far they HAVEN'T made money. For three years, Chad's been maintaining a crapload of data for free. I would say that's rather generous, wouldn't you?

That said, I won't pretend to feel sorry for a business that's been sold for a billion+ dollars. They have enough green tissues to blow their noses with. But I won't hesitate to criticize 8 million users who get angry when they realize that online services aren't free. Nothing's free, kids...

I can appreciate your desire to eliminate a class of poverty in America, but the issue is complicated - as history demonstrates. So I pose a few questions to you.

Does freedom allow people to make poor decisions?

If someone would rather not work and be poor, is it best to force them to work, or should we just let them be poor and figure it out on their own?

If such people (as referenced above) exist, then is it best to give them money and equalize the classes or to educate them and empower them?

Is America a place where anyone can succeed by persistent hard work and self-discipline? If not, can we make it such a place?

Does a government exist to impose equality across the peoples, or to empower people to better themselves?

Is it possible to force an equalization of wealth across a nation without eliminating freedom? If not, is it worth it?

It's because of the wave nature of electrons!

Whoa, hang on, it's because of the particle nature of electrons!

Pssssh, fools! Relativity! E=MC^2. You're welcome.

Wait, wait - I got this - we have this cat in a box and it dies, or something... I'm pretty sure this has something to do with it.

Hold on, I think it's because of innumerable, invisible vibrating strings that permeate the universe.

Noooooooo, it's from this thing called the Higg's Boson and once we understand it, it'll explain it. Ah, shit. Now there's two.

Well, no one really understands gravity, so it is probably caused by whatever causes that. Um, dark energy/matter, perhaps?

Well, at least there's a parallel universe wherein we do figure it out.

Just because something's complicated doesn't mean we don't try to figure it out. If we see a trend or occurrence in a scientific discipline that is unprecedented or poorly understood, then we try to find the a reason or cause for such anomalies. In this case, finding a cause (or several causes - which is more likely to be the case) could help us prevent similar incidents in the future and potentially save lives. Isn't that worth the speculation? Besides, societal trends, regardless of the complexity of a society, are still less complicated than theoretical physics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=HlZRcxvGIWE&NR=1

Thank God someone will be out there to defend us against stuff like this.

T&C's exist because bad laws exist, so we give websites the opportunity to get around them.

Maybe we could just let people learn to be responsible with their information and let the market work like it always does. If a website leaks your information, then don't use it. Why should we have the right to sue them?

...and regardless of the size, color, or style of the font, people will still ignore it.

I don't get it.

Consumers throw their personal information like water balloons at as many websites as they can and then we feel it's somehow the website's fault when they drop one. If you don't want your privacy balloon to pop, hold onto it.

I assume you're referring to human's nature to create?

What about human nature to be selfish? Hell, what about the human nature to survive by having a profession that is actually lucrative? It's easy for us, the consumers, to demand that all creators do their work for free because we only look at the exorbitantly wealthy publishers who profit from them. Do I like copyright laws? No, I don't, but to jump blindly to the other extreme is just naive. Just my two cents.

Just a thought... what if your boss reduced your pay by 50% and told you that "if you're only doing it for money, then you're doing it for the wrong reason"?

Of course the only reason I write is because I enjoy it. And submitting any of my work for publishing would have reward in and of itself, but to do so would require that I devote an enormous amount of time that I could otherwise spend earning money and providing for my family, which, right now, I consider the more important task.