I am always amazed that people technologically minded, and for this reason one would imagine, prone to use reason to reach important decisions, can fall so completely for something that is a scam the size of Vegas.

This reminds me of the furore about vaccination and autism "based" on what clearly was spurious evidence, and even giving some credence to the evidence, minuscule odds against.

People don't understand odds, probabilities and statistics, add to this a lack of understanding of basic epidemiological research, add mumbi jumbo that adds to precious little and you have a recipe for disaster.

Don't pay for this please. There is no science backing such choice, at the moment it is all wishful thinking,

Where somebody else is probing it can be done or in a place where you have no idea if it will work and you have to assume all the risks ?

No brainer.

.... he funded prohibitionist politicians.

Drug dealers know exactly who is more convenient to their interests.

Honestly chaps, it would seem to me that /.ers have the worst partners in the history of mankind.

If I say to mine I am working from home, see you at 17:00, she says "yeah, no worries, see you then".

As for getting out of the house, again, honestly, do you have a life at all? Why should this need to even be mentioned?

As for the close the door nonsense, it looks to me like a bunch of teenagers are discussing how to get their homwork done instead of seasoned professionals discussion a serious topic.

This is my 2 cents of advice: be profesional. That is it.

Is taking down a gangster one of the greatest achievements you could come up with to defend an small government?

As for winning wars vs. Germany or Japan: any serious historian will tell you that the cornerstone of those victories was the USSR, the country with the biggest government back then, bar the Nazis perhaps.

No evidence whatsoever about harmful effects has been found.

There are plenty of Catholics that understand what is reasonable and what isn't about science.

Many of them, very devout, use their heads and thus use contraception for example.

At some point they clearly have decided that god is the only explanation for certain existential key questions, but that , thankfully, doesn't (shouldn't) apply to this particular topic.

Calling somebody a liar is not really on.

If one needs to correct somebody you have to learn to do it graciously and without humiliating that person if possible.

Lets say I would explain what was good about the situation and what was wrong about it.

There is absolutely not a shred of credible evidence that electromagnetic waves cause any problems.

To top it all, when people complain they are so selective (forget about their cordless phones, whine about WiFi) as to be really amusing.

We in Latin America are very familiar with this behaviour.

People that got the upper hand in business by all kind of dubious means start all kind of charitable work and sponsoring of the arts.

It is called a PR exercise.

One can't deny that these exercises can have benefits, sometimes immense ones, but they can't rewrite history or palliate the pain and anger of the people who suffered previous bad behaviour.

What would impress me is if Bill would use his quite reasonable leverage to undo some of the damage his company did, for example stopping Microsoft patent trolling expeditions, bribing the necessary politicians with the respective campaign donations in order to change the idiotic copyright and patent systems in favour of the general public, or some other gesture saying "mea culpa".

As it is, to all those who remember the other BIll, it is too much to ask to forgive (which I can) and forget (which I can't).

There are national laws and international treaties dealing with the particular issue of copying because, guess what, it is not stealing and it is recognized by the legal codes of most nations and th respective international treaties.

Frankly to have to keep labouring this point is like discussing if the Earth is flat or not.

I have.

They build infrastructure of Pharaohnic proportions, fully functional towns if needed (amenities, parks, cycling lines, public transport, living quarters).

In the US people are barking at President Obama for trying to build a fast train.

That is the difference.

If you buy a computer preinstalled with Windows *the EULA* offers you a refund.

It is part of the deal, why should you go and buy elsewhere if they are offering you upfront something that you want or need? (a Windowless machine).

One should go elsewhere if they made perfectly clear they won't give refunds for unused copies o WIndows, which would be interesting from a point of view of consumer rights, since it is illegal in most localities to sell one item (the computer) only and only if you buy another (Windows).

Microsoft could solve this problem by doing what Apple has done: produce their own computers and stop licensing to manufacturers. Of course this would bring the competition that MS does not want: Dell, HP, and others putting their collective weight behind another OS (most likely a variant of Linux or even Solaris or BSD).

The EULA and the refund offered are not gracious favours, is MS's way to avoid the route down proper competition in the desktop market (which may be dying anyway, so job done, they would have dominated that industry during almost its whole existence, by almost whatever means necessary).

It is time that some of you folks take a reading comprehension course.

The EULA that comes with the software *guarantees* a refund if you don't want it.

All what people want is that this unilateral pseudo contract is honoured by the party imposing it.

This has nothing to do with how other items forming a computer system are sold, this has nothing to do with how a computer manufacturer and Microsoft reach a deal.

Would you act the same way with a trader that is known to be unreliable and abusive?

Would you be so forthcoming with a dentist that every time causes you pain?

I don't see why one should give a free pass to Microsoft, they have barely changed their business practices and they keep using their muscle to bring into submission other companies (and it is not like if these things happened long time ago, the patent bullying of companies distributing Linux is happening right now, that is right, Microsoft is earning a crust from Linux just because others know they don't have the financial resources to fight them in court).

And saying one should forget about Microsoft and instead concentrate on Apple is puerile, one can inspect and put into question what both companies (and Google, and Facebook, and many others) are doing.