I think the reason Ubuntu instructs the user to reboot is that relatively few Ubuntu users would understand that they don't need to reboot, they "just" need to manually restart services A, B, and C, kill Gnome, and then log in again... That sort of thing is far beyond the capabilities of your average computer users.

Besides, who really wants to look through dozens of updates to figure out the affected services? I know I'd rather just reboot. It takes far less time than reading all the update notes and then trying to remember whether any services that depend on those updated packages (but were not themselves updated) need to be restarted as well.

The problem is, it isn't the school's responsibility to get kids to school, it's the parents' responsibility. Think of this from the kid's perspective. If your teachers don't trust you, you have no reason to trust them, right? And if you don't trust them, why would you want to listen to what they try to teach, or do as they say?

Schools should not be forcing kids to do anything at all. If the school is concerned that a student's absences are impeding his learning, or provide any other concern, they should go through the kid's parents. If a student is behaving disruptively, then nothing the school can do will improve the situation; that must be resolved by the kid's parents. No good can come of allowing schools to do more than simply teach the students.

Kids may not be fully developed, but they're far more intelligent and perceptive than you give them credit for. They are, in fact, capable of making good long-term decisions, if their parents teach them how to do it. They are, in fact, capable of understanding why they should attend school and put some effort into it, if their parents teach them why. They are, in fact, capable of understanding why they should behave respectfully to their fellow students and to teachers, if their parents teach them why. These are not problems resolvable by GPS tracking devices or detention, they must be resolved by good parenting.

Parents who want schools to do their parenting for them are causing far more trouble than anything else. Parents who do not accept responsibility for their child's behavior -- by attempting to force schools to take on that responsibility -- are giving that child a very poor message: "we don't love you enough to take care of you." I'm sure I don't have to explain why that would tend to worsen a child's behavior, rather than improve it -- and as I already pointed out, good parenting is the solution, not draconian school-instituted punishments.

From the parents' perspective, yes; but schools have no place deciding how much freedom or privacy students have, least of all after school hours, away from school property. This GPS tracking crosses the line rather blatantly, but requiring an 8pm check-in is even more ridiculously invasive. My wife and I are the only two people who have a reason to know where our daughter is at 8pm.

There be dragons! It is an extremely bad, dangerous idea to allow schools to take over any aspect of parenting; schools should teach the curriculum, nothing else. It is not the school's place to decide a parent isn't "keeping the kids in check" well enough for the school's taste.

When my daughter goes to school, I intend to see to it that the school does not overstep its bounds. I don't care whether the school thinks I'm too lax; it's not their business how I raise my child. I certainly don't intend to simply let her run amok with no discipline, but it will be my discipline, not that of some uncaring school official. If circumstances dictate that she must be tracked, I will do the tracking as I see fit, not the school.

This was precisely my problem. After elementary school, I quickly became bored with the curriculum in middle school, and with only one or two exceptions, it got even worse in high school. I probably averaged a B- through high school (and even then, only because my parents were not pleased when I got Cs). But I wasn't dumb, by any means; my SAT/ACT scores were high enough to get me a full tuition scholarship for college despite my poor GPA.

In other words, my problem was apathy, and apathy is not solved by removing fun from the classroom. The few classes I actually enjoyed were classes where I was *encouraged* to have fun; I particularly enjoyed the jewelry-making and basic electronics classes. I loved the yearly statewide high school programming competition put on by a local university my first two years of high school, but what teacher really cares enough to put in the time to help prepare four kids for a one-time competition? It didn't help that the teacher put in charge of that was really the golf coach and remedial math teacher. Suffice it to say, despite my pleas, we did not attend the competition my senior year.

People like to say that high school is supposed to prepare kids for college. In my case, that wasn't even close to true. By the time I got to college, apathy had become a habit, and I'm sure I don't have to point out that apathy doesn't produce good grades in college.

Agreed. Removing kids' privacy is obviously the goal -- hence the requirement to check in at 8pm. Schools should not know or care where kids are after school.

They don't always need or want to identify you personally; often, they're most interested in seeing which groups of customers buy which products, and how often, because that lets them plan what inventory to stock, when they should have sales to drum up more business and what items to discount, and so on and so forth.

Demographic information like that is often more valuable than knowing the actual identity of a particular customer.

In the US, at least, credit cards don't usually have PINs; debit cards do, and they go through Visa or MC's networks too, but they pull money from your bank account, rather than a line of credit. Of course, that's fine, if you always have enough money...

How does one file a formal complaint?

Your zip code is a very poor choice for authentication.

Stores ask for your zip code because they're interested in customer demographics, not authentication.

It's in Visa's best interest that merchants not request ID; remember, credit card companies work very hard to make sure the merchants assume most of the risk. From Visa's perspective, they want customers to have an easy time making transactions, and not requiring ID makes it easier. They don't particularly care if someone rips off a merchant.

Hahaha. Thanks, I need a laugh :) I think I might do that from now on...

I tell stores "you don't need my zip code" when they ask. As far as I can tell, they just enter "00000" into their terminal instead.

I use one particular site just once a month, to make a loan payment, and I can never remember the password. I got tired of having to reset my password through the "forgot your password" thingy every single month, so eventually I chose a password something along the lines of "ThisSiteSucks!". Then I IM'd it to a friend of mine, telling him to remind me of the new password if I ask.

Of course, my password for that site is in our IM logs now, which is where I look it up every month, but the worst that could happen would be someone making loan payments for me, which I wouldn't really complain about...

American Express, for one. Here's a fun screenshot I took a while back. The "password strength" meter is also humorous; it just chooses the number of bars based on how many letters and numbers there are; it doesn't bother checking if the password itself is strong. For example, it gives "aaaaa555" the highest rating.

There's some other site I use regularly that also has the same policy, but I can't think of what it is at the moment.

I've never understood this "no spaces" rule that seems to be mentioned everywhere. You're going to hash the string anyway, and spaces are as hashable as anything else, so why prohibit them? I should be able to use a full limerick as my password, spaces and punctuation included...

You don't need one device for each password, if the service provider provides a phone app for you, like Blizzard. I'd be perfectly fine with adding an 'Auth apps' folder on my phone and sticking all the 'keyfob' apps in there, and I would gladly make use of it.