I hope that if these commercial entities die off there will be an expansion of homebrewed music exchanged over the net.

The laws of physics are simple compared to trying to corral the fine print of the US health insurance industry. I think my last health insurance policy was 300 pages of legalese gibberish.

There never was democracy. What you had was Big Brother but he was so poorly organized that you thought you were free.

Consider that Richard Wagner's music was pretty much anthems for the 3rd reich and his position with regard to the Jews was confused at best. The Israelis recently lifted the bans on his works for their philharmonic. I think artists need a little more slack. 'Ender's Game' is good work, maybe not 'Der Ring des Nibelungen' but I'll see it regardless. I'm a fan of his writing not his politics.

They're nerdy now but when they get stylized by Gucci and others they won't be. They'll just be more expensive and trendy. People will get over the nerdiness anyway; a large number of people will use anything if it gives them an advantage.

I read a sci-fi story called 'Waystation' from Amazing Magazine in the 50s that said that Earth's great contribution to the galactic community would be coffee but we know that they'll also come here for the sex, drugs and rock & roll of course!

Remember also that once you release your killer app and get even a handful of clients, someone out there is going to copy what you've done and one-up you in some way. Then you're going to find out how competitive the software industry really is. You might consider registering a provisional patent first. I think that gives you a year to file an actual application. It's cheap insurance.

In reality, I've seen that local judges 'craft' the laws the way an elementary school teacher applies rules to keep a playground under control. I live in The South and it's particularly that way down here.

Lossless sounds better and analog/vinyl better still on good equipment.

I think it would be great if people could transport themselves from place to place by telephone! All I need is a physicist to iron out the details. (I also have other ideas; invisibility, a brain booster and x-ray glasses)

...and with the current backlog, the open source project should expect to have its patent app reviewed in about 10 years.

Agile is just a buzzword made up by the business end to try to convince the programming end that hitting a moving target is efficient and better. That's the way the business end works; promise to satisfy whatever the client wants in whatever time frame nets the contract. There is no substitute for knowing exactly what you're trying to do before you start and no substitute for knowledgeable IT personnel in the contract process so that expectations and timeframes are reasonable.

The little bastards! They're a menace! Can't they try them as adults and go for the death penalty? Or at least life without parole?

...I'm going to attach it to a stray dog. Let the chips fall where they may.

I hear that the possums vote republican.