Sony used to have a TV stand that had a built-in entertainment system (speakers, subwoofer, receiever, DVD player - this was before BluRay) back when I sold electronics in the mid 2000s. No one bought the thing because it was overpriced and what happens when something breaks? You have to take the whole damn thing in to get something fixed.

But, this is IKEA, so it probably comes in 1500 pieces and uses cartoon drawings of people putting it together that you'll want to slash in the throat before you get done putting it together.

About five years ago, in an airport in Virginia, returning from a weekend in Williamsburg, I was pulled aside because there were bricks of opaque material in my bag. I was questioned for about 10 minutes about the contents, then a dog was brought over to sniff my bag. The agent then took my bag around the corner, and when he came back with it, said I was good to go.

The bricks? Three pounds of fudge for my family. :|

Well, it's an amendment to a bill that's supposed to make the FCC more transparent, then you basically throw in a clause that says, "but, hey, if it's for online privacy, they just ignore all this shit we've been working on. Fuck transparency when comes to online privacy."

So, basically, the FCC can craft some corporate-friendly bullshit, call it "to protect online privacy," and not have to tell anyone until after they've made the rule.

Except, they're not open sourcing .NET, just MVC4. .NET will never be open sourced, because it ties too much into the OS.

Why do you find it odious?

If you want privacy, don't subscribe to a social network. Simple as that.

How does that make them ethically bankrupt? Is there some sort of forced sign-up that I'm not aware of?

I am actually glad they require that, so I don't have to endure stupid screen names like "KOOLDUDE" or "@yourmom" or even "Pionar".

Quit with the hyperbole, Chicken Little.

From reading your post, it seems that the biggest cause is people trying to run web servers who don't know how to and probably shouldn't be.

And what makes you think free access to books is a right?

Freedom of speech doesn't include freedom to free (as in beer) access to someone's writings.

The reason the manhole covers had locks installed had nothing to do with security. It was because Indianapolis Power & Light substations, which are underground in downtown Indy, kept exploding and blowing manhole covers 20 ft in the air.

There were 4 such explosions last year.

Financial loss isn't just lost revenues, it could be the cost of re-engineering parts of the system in which the private, proprietary algorithms are no longer private and proprietary.

It could also be the cost of extra security measures needed to combat any holes that were exposed by the source being "in the wild."

That's kind of disingenuous. Low-income people have lots of deductions and credits. When I was a poor broke college student earning $15,000 a year in a part-time job, I actually had negative tax liabilities, one year to the tune of about $350.

Not saying I'd rather be poor again, just saying, it's not as extreme as you make it out to be.

You seem to be confusing federal sales tax with state and locality taxes.

The US has no sales tax. At all.

Individual states and localities do.

Here in Indiana, the sales tax is 7% (except on food items), then in my county there's an additional 1% food-and-drink tax for restaurants. Thanks Colts!

The first thing I noticed in TFS was the unmatched parentheses.

True, but I also have known officers attacked by meth heads who are tweaking and have read too many stories about people here in my state of Indiana being killed when meth labs inevitably explode.

So, I do know both sides and don't have a position because I know enough to know that I don't know enough to have one.

Hence, the third sentence of my statement.

I was not commenting on which is best, I was just pointing out that the GP was using self-sourced figures in his argument. I have no opinion on the war on drugs nor the prohibition of alcohol in the 20's, as to this point, neither has a direct effect on my life.