There are no UFOs / alien abductions / meteors in the civilized places of New York City, or Los Angelas.

And that's because the last time they tried to land in both New York and Los Angeles they were found in an alley naked and beaten with a garden hose up their ass and their spacecraft stripped on cinder blocks. So much for "civilized places"....

Disclaimer: I am a state employee whose salary is publicly posted...

That out of the way, most if not all those salaries posted are very, very misleading. It is gross salary+travel+incentives+any other state money that employee has received including payments made for health coverage and retirement. It doesn't include any deductions such as taxes, co-payments for health and retirement, garnishments, etc...

If the job is shit to begin with, no amount of incentive will keep employees very long. Burn-out is one of the biggest problems in employment with the most "productive" individuals getting abused to the point where they either leave or have health issues related to burn-out like heart attacks.

So salary is a very little part of the equation to keeping employees. Treating them like people instead of expensive commodities to be disposed of is another.

I rewarded my daughter for tidying her room. At no point was a contract, written or otherwise, created.

Actually, there was the moment you agreed to pay her for her cleaning services. Verbal, but still a contract.

That was a fluke just lie the Virginia / West Virginia split at the same time. It was allowed to deny the South manufacturing and resources during the lead up to the insurrection known as the Civil War. I doubt a state could pull it off today just like I doubt they could pull off a succession from the union.

Anyway, one goal of civil disobedience is to get arrested and play the martyr and get on the evening news - expect and embrace that aspect if you engage in civil disobedience.

Or to challenge the law that got you arrested in the first place. No other way to challenge such unjust laws without being arrested for violating them. To create even more havoc the best thing for arrested protestors to do is demand a jury trial. Tie up the courts as well.

That seems highly unlikely,

You don't even need to go as far as you did. First they have to get by Article IV Section 3 of the US Constitution:

New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.

It did work but not technically. The true purpose of SDI was to bankrupt the USSR to hasten its collapse. As a propaganda tool it worked perfectly. It also worked in the sense that it put a lot of contractors to work developing technology that would never work and they didn't have to account for it. So basically Ronnie gambled that they would go broke before we did. Of course, he put it all on the government credit card and a reckoning is coming soon but woohoo! The USSR is dead!

I don't own a 3D printer but I would imagine that cooking parchment would work.

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/tools-and-techniques/parchment-paper-questions.htm

Simply tape it down to the plate and print on it. In theory (yes, my theory) that should allow you to easily remove the ABS and it shouldn't stick to the paper. Of course, I disclaim any and all liability should this fuck up your machine or project.

OK... I'll bite...

Exactly what changes occurred because of OWS? What was the outcome of all those speeches and all that angst besides a possible criminal record for their troubles if they were arrested?

Last I checked, the banks are even bigger than before the crash ensuring another bailout when the next bubble breaks because they truly are too big to fail now. Foreclosures are still continuing albeit at a smaller pace due mainly to the credit freeze and sheer attrition. The wage imbalance and wage stagnation is still as wide or wider than before the protests. And all the measures put into place to assist those that were affected the most, are being defunded by Congress as we speak and even the levels before the crash are being trimmed down. Things like cuts to the food stamp program, unemployment insurance, and other programs for the poor.

So exactly what was accomplished during those protests?

#4 does... Namely legacy reasons.

I have a perfectly fine multipage scanner here that doesn't have drivers for Windows 7 and the manufacturer is out of business. You do know that Windows 7 implemented driver signing right? So even if you do find a legacy driver it probably won't start because it won't be signed. And don't give me this "Linux is your route" because no driver exists for it there either. So my choices are toss a perfectly working, expensive at the time and in demand scanner just to update from a working OS to one that doesn't or stick with what is working.... Hmmmm Hard choice that one.

Or the obvious solution to both your replies...

On demand bug fixes paid as needed. That satisfies it for both MS and the customer. But MS is unwilling to do even that.

Extending support for people who actually paid for the licenses once is one thing, although of course that has to end eventually,

Why? People paid good money for working supported product. Just because Microsoft wants to bait and switch doesn't make it right. I hope some deep pockets corporation sues the bejesus out of them to force this issue.

because a one-time payment can't support a development team in perpetuity.

Oh, so that's your reason to allow them to bait and switch. Look, they should have charged a proper amount to cover whoever does support. It isn't the customer's fault that Microsoft didn't price their product accordingly.

Be that as it may, one solution to the problem you gave is to force Microsoft to release the source code to legal licensees if they are unwilling to support the product they sold. That way at least someone can support it for working hardware. But oh, that would stop the bait and switch... Can't have that!

are stocks currency?

No but they are treated as such. Just ask every CEO who is paid with stock.

Market directly on websites relevant to your product. Selling viagra? You might consider the AARP site
        Market via Facebook and their "social advertising" platform. Analysts in the know are betting whether Facebook might conquer google.
        Banner ads on general interest sites people go to to waste time (I'm looking at you slashdot)

Inefficient because Google is already there. Just try and find a site that doesn't use Google adsense and google analytics. Good luck to you there.

And active competition is not something a monopoly has to do.

Yes it does to maintain its monopoly. Anyone entering the market is either bought out or kicked out by the monopoly.