You could start off with your common-or-garden variety spam filter and increase the linguistic sophistication for your defences from there ...

C'mon, given the technology that exists to spy on you everyday, CAPTCHAs are a really dumb way to deal with this problem. I mean, if we can land a man on the moon ... oh yeah we can't any more, forgot.

Each time I swear it was an Aztec chant out of the Necronomicon to raise the evil dead.

Well that explains the Poltergeist at my place, but it still doesn't help me access the damn site!

Ahem. Tell that to these companies: http://www.nceo.org/articles/employee-ownership-100

You seem to think that this is some experiment. When in actually, employee-owned companies are the most stable and oft times most profitable like John Lewis Partnership. http://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/

It also competes favorably with hand warmers. Seriously. These things get hot. At least the one I played with did.

Just curious. They're such a powerful organization that it's difficult to imagine anything short of a strong Federal Gov't reigning them in. I know the argument is that they can only survive because of a Strong Federal Gov't favoring them, but I really see that as a chicken/egg situation. In this case I think they GS chicken came first. e.g. the gov't is a convenient tool for them but in it's absence they'd have plenty of other ways to exercise leverage on us all. They control a good chunk of all wealth in this country after all, and in general you do what the Rich guy says because if not you get fired, and in America your entire quality of life depends on your job. The golden rule: He with the Gold makes the Rules.

So I say again, any Libertarians gonna step up for 'ole GS?

because people love sports and will gladly pay. As soon as you try to get them to pay for gov't and corporate oversight the corps move in with billions and scare the hell out of everyone.

Yeah, but my point was that now that they're all owned by a few big corporations they've stopped doing that. The Malfeasance and corruption benefits the mega corps. And if you think the mega corps aren't interested in your local politics you're dead wrong. Local elections decide how the districts get drawn for state elections. That's how the corps have locked in the House/Senate. The only election they can't completely own is the Presidential, but since it's just one they can pour so much money into it (over $1 billion last time) it doesn't matter.

Indeed, tragedy of the meta-trap.

I'm with you.

Conceivably, a local game warden could enable the community to maximize their overall pelt yield — though, in this particular environment, I imagine that the pervasive threat of regulatory capture could make the position cost-prohibitive to fill.

You are comparing a Boston newspaper with a cable television entertainment conglomerate?

That doesn't compute.

I won't even begin to approach how off your analysis of Fox News is.

Seriously. What information do they have that is at all useful? In the old days we had muckrakers telling us all the awful things our politicians were doing. These days since they're all owned by big corps they don't want to step on any toes. After all, you won't last long if you say bad things about the boss. It feels like all they have left is sports news I can get from the source, some 30 year old comics and classifieds full of H1-B bait :(.

I don't see communism as inevitable. That assumption is based on the idea that there's only so much people will put up with. But if you lack the power and resources to do anything about it then you'll put up with anything. You don't have a choice. If 20 guys with riot gear and the training to use it want you to do what they say, you're going to do what they say. No amount of wishful thinking will change that.

Recycling can't really be done on the backend like that. It requires too many chemicals and produces too much waste. You can't get people to design products that either last or are easily recyclable because in a 'Free' market those products cost more. If you subsidize them you've got socialism again, and if you're going to do that I still think you might as well go whole hog and do it right...

it doesn't work on Windows, much less Linux. I know, I know. They'll fix it in software. But that said, right now my shoulders are at rest while I type. The same is true for when I reach for my mouse. Give me one of these and now I end up moving my arms/shoulders into uncomfortable positions. Plus I lose all tactile feedback. If they want to give me a mouse w/o a mouse it might be cool. But I'm still not sold on the whole 'Minority Report' thing.

The method I use is to put the sick fish into a small container and add a little bit of clove oil, which causes them to become lethargic and go into sleep mode. Afterward, alcohol is added, vodka or whatever,

Now I am hungry.

if we're willing to accept solutions to the problems that creates. I see two problems: 1. lost jobs and 2. price increases when competition goes away.

Basically, the modern capitalist economy breaks down in the face of progress. I realize it's hard to get past that realization. In school I was never taught even the concept that there were alternatives to Adam Smith style 'competition makes everything better' capitalism. I don't mean I wasn't taught competing systems, I mean the notion that there _were_ alternatives wasn't taught. Capitalism was and is a tautology.

Automation is making labor obsolete. It's taking longer than we expected. Some things turned out to be trickier. But it's happening. So what are we gonna do? We still want all this stuff (books, movies, appliances, etc). The first world got by for 20 years or so by sending our slums to China. But we're running out of work. Foxconn's using robots now. China's losing out to poorer East Asian countries. We're all in a race to the bottom.

Given that our entire society is built around a 'if you don't work you don't get to eat' model, I really only see two options. Socialism and redistribution of wealth or abject poverty for all but a lucky few. (BTW, If you're reading /. in your spare time you're not one of those lucky few. ).

I'm open to alternatives, but all the ones I've heard from my libertarian buddies are either pipe dreams where people share their wealth in ways they have no reason too and never have in all of civilization, or just boil down to a round about way of achieving socialism. When I point that out they usually change the subject or just say 'well, screw it, I got mine. Let 'em die'.

I keep hearing this argument. That we shouldn't use the gov't and democracy to better our lives because the corps will abuse it. Newsflash, they already _are_ abusing it. Seriously. You have absolutely nothing to lose here. There's only to possible outcomes there. Does it really matter if the jackboot at your neck is a Free Market Jackboot (tm) or belongs to the gov't. At least with the gov't option you had a chance...