Two questions: (1) Are you within the US? (2) Did you have any Google-related cookies present on your system? (including Google subdomains like YouTube, etc.)

(1) Australia (thank God)
(2) Nope. I cleared all cookies/cache before doing this.

And since new Google account users are reportedly now forced to join Google+

Not quite. There are ways to create a Google account without Google+ being tacked on.

For example, if you go to http://mail.google.com/mail/signup and create a Gmail account, it will automatically make a Google account as part of the process (of course). However using the above link does NOT automatically create a Google+ account. I know this because I did so yesterday, as I specifically wanted to make a new Google account without G+.

Of course, you need to know this either through research or someone telling you beforehand. All other ways of creating a Google account seem to force G+ unfortunately. Google sucks sometimes.

Why would I? I work in a wonderful job, yet I'm leave in Europe. Did you have something to say? :)

I've noticed a few things from all the news footage available of Kim Jong-Il:

1. Kim is generally doing one of three things: pointing/gesturing at something, watch someone pointing/gesturing at something, or clapping. Never speaking, never doing something actually interesting.

2. People in North Korea LOVE clapping for some reason. All the political footage involving Kim tends to involve a shitload of clapping. If the leader is clapping at something, everyone else is that's for sure. Maybe everyone's really happy over there?

Either the guy has never bothered to speak on camera, or the regime was afraid he'd say something stupid.

Is Windows THAT GOOD so the purpose of all those GUIs are to become a perfect copy of it ?

Actually, it IS that good. I've always thought Windows XP managed to obtain a very nice interface that allowed efficient window, program and file management. Windows 7 just added extra stuff but still kept the basics because if it works well, why rock the boat? Linux doesn't have to be totally different in GUI - GNOME 3 and Unity should be enough evidence that trying something different for the sake of change isn't necessarily going to work out well.

So, checking it under Views-Toolbars did not work?

There is no native status bar toolbar anymore. There's the "Add-on bar", which addons can use if they want (such as Status-4-Evar), but without said extension the add-on bar is just a horizontal bar of nothing.

I run bleeding edge ARCH

It's hard enough to support Linux sometimes and you're running a bleeding edge distro? That kinda means you should be accepting of the fact you've made yourself more difficult to target than a more typical distro like Ubuntu or Mint.

Well if you're one of the newer generation of technically fragile Linux users who can't handle a few .run/.tar.gz files that use statically-linked libraries anyway so you don't have to worry about dependencies, be patient...

http://twitter.com/#!/humble/status/146833629279043584

(yes that was a troll, but at least I gave some info in it. I guess I just can't believe people using Linux can't handle non-package software, particularly since you're finally getting some decent games for a change).

Black Mesa

Big deal. I'm a physicist. If the shit hits the fan just give me a gun and a crowbar and I'll take care of things. Don't worry about firearms training either - as a physicist in a desperate situation I'll magically obtain amazing combat skills that go beyond what the US Marines are even capable of, so I'm sure I'll be fine.

So basically, we're heading for the wall.

I'm not naive enough to believe that things will somehow magically get better and human nature will finally suppress its ugly side for the betterment of mankind (and the world), but at the same time I refuse to believe the end is nigh. It's not natural to believe that nothing will get better, and to give up, to me, basically reminds me of the film "Children of Men". If you have it set in your head The idea that the future is doomed not too far away, well then screw having a life, screw having children or getting married. What's the point if there's no chance of things processing as a species. It's awfully depressing, and so I don't subscribe to the idea that we won't find some way out of this mess. Only because if what you say is try, then who the fuck cares anymore.

The reason I decided to even try Adblock Plus in the first place was because of a particular (Flash-based) ad on deviantART which was ramping my then single-core CPU to 100% and not only jamming up my browser, but was also causing the normally invulnerable-to-lockup mouse cursor to stutter as I moved it around.

More to the point, I originally used ABP not because of a hatred of ads, but because of a single ad which was bringing my computer to its knees. So I don't see this change as a big deal - it's easy to change and the classification of an acceptable ad sounds like one which is unlikely to cause performance issues.

I use VLC for playing DVDs and sometimes the occasional file that Media Player Classic - Homecinema doesn't play (though if I were running solely Linux I'd use VLC entirely for videos). I never use it for audio files though - the GUI simply does not have the functionality I like that a dedicated music player has, such as being able to list the most frequently played tracks.

OK, I went to the site. I have a dynamic IP but I know for a fact I haven't disconnected anytime in the last couple of days, so if the site was worth anything it should have picked up my downloading of the finale of Boardwalk Empire at the very least.

What does it think I downloaded:

"Cyprus Isles - Hard Fucking Dogging.wmv"

Good work.

Well, RMS did say once that pedophilia was misunderstood and not that bad if it was consensual... so yeah, the fat fuck can die in a fire.

Off-topic, but it's probably not a good idea to label your "my pr0n" directory as such. If it's just a general cache of porn, then call it "pr0n". "my pr0n" suggests it's actually porn you did yourself, which might not be quite so interesting to someone borrowing your computer.