You are very much and sadly correct.

I have, every time the revised TOS pops up, hit "decline". If I try to start one of the games I actually have currently installed I get the pop up. Hit "decline" and it closes down. The games are not launchable. I haven't tried to reinstall anything I have purchased from them, but just downloading and installing a game I purchased will, I assume, not even be possible without agreeing to the new TOS. Of course, even if I could install one, I would not be able to play it anyway.

I've been going back and forth with Steam Support on this and not getting any definitive explanations to my questions. The only thing I am told is that unless I agree I cannot access any Steam services. Sure makes me feel robbed to not be able to access the games I paid them for already. Not like I use them to play online or intend to ever again make a purchase from them, so they can cut me off from using any of their services aside from being able to access the games I paid them for.

I have also sent some emails from Valve's contact page. Gabe Newell is on vacation until the 24th of this month. I wrote an email to one of the points of contact he recommended in his vacation auto-reply. Haven't heard anything back yet, but it hasn't even been 24 hours at this point.

There is Open Mule.

http://www.codenautics.com/openmule/

It runs on Windows and Macs...There is an announcement about a coming Linux version, but that was back in 2007. So might very well be that no one is actively working on the game anymore.

In case there are Elite fans out there who haven't heard of it; check out Oolite http://www.oolite.org/. It's an open source version that is nicely done. Available on Linux, MacOS & Windows.

I think the main reason they don't throttle the customers with the limited plans is that they very much wish to see those people go over the limit so they can then charge them for additional usage.

Does it even need to be a person?

Perhaps that part of the job can be done by a small treaded bot or a drone eliminating any personnel needing to get close to the target.

Or trying to pay off some huge karmic debt.

My friend, glad you received a 5 rating, but I truly believe it should be as Insightful. Not Funny.

I too hate being called a "consumer". I am a bloody citizen.

In my opinion, you said it perfectly. My hat is off to you, Sir.

Wow, troll much? Copying a file (especially one that I've already decided on moral grounds that I will not pay for) is NOT stealing because the company doesn't lose anything from it. In order for there to be theft, someone must lose something while another gains. They lose nothing by copying a file.

I don't get people like you - why don't you care about your rights? Why don't you care about having control over the property you pay for? Why are you so eager to be beaten down and forced to do things against your will? It's completely illogical.

The names of spies must be kept secret for many of the same reasons.

In criminal investigations the identities of informants must be kept secret.

It's not an option to release that information. Because if the government did not protect that information, the government would have no informants, spies, or intelligence capability.

I'm guessing that the CPU limits are generous and are more about filtering out bad algorithms than bad languages.

Unless, of course, running time features into the scoring...

Yeah, but from the article:

...

Maybe it's just badly worded or written, but he's making it sound like he's found the panacea of virus detection. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on viruses which a) don't have a known signature and b) don't try to keep themselves in RAM (i.e. don't mind being swapped out.) I would think that if the virus can overwrite parts of the OS in memory that it would not detect those, either (e.g. it could overwrite services which are commonly started but uncommonly used and live in their process space--autoupdaters would be good candidates for this.)

No, but we should have access to past data -- it was once common for the archives of the presidential offices to be opened to the public a decade or two after the end of a particular administration (W. ended that tradition). The only two items on your list that should have a longer period are the launch codes (which are not changed so frequently) and the personal information of soldiers (which should remain private for the sake of the soldiers and their families). The rest should be made public knowledge in a timely fashion -- military equipment is constantly upgraded, troop movements are no longer sensitive after the end of the war, and guard schedules should be changed frequently. Why should this information remain secret forever?

You forgot one of the more esoteric ones.

Nice exercise in absurdism. Taking the case of "nuclear launch codes" and stretching it to "a shit-ton of classified documents" is exactly the kind of thing that causes problems. No-one is talking about handing out employee ID codes, or disclosing how government buildings are laid out. We are talking about things like secret prisons, military pollution (such as my own groundwater being contaminated by the Ai Force dumping degreaser on the ground at a local airfield for 30 years), testing of chemical/biological warfare agents on US military personnel (and CIVILIANS we now find out, with a french town receiving LSD spiked bread some decades ago).

What is at stake here is secret governmental policies intruding upon the freedoms of citizens.

In fact, come to think of it, yes, ALL of that data that you are talking about should be revealed. This includes passwords and nuclear launch codes. They can easily change the codes and passwords (and security patrol schedules) prior to their release. If that is the cost of making sure that innocent people aren't being raped and tortured by our government in some third world hell-hole, then that is a small price to pay.