We're not talking about forcing anyone to do anything -- but JavaScript is programming code too.

The FSF's goal is for all the software a user runs on their computer to be free software -- without a license, the software would be full copyright and not in a fit state for modification. This is completely within the goals of the FSF.

Most Facebook users use a browser written in C++ -- they don't know that either, yet free software browsers and rendering engines remain in common usage.

Out of interest, what do you disagree with?

There were three special episodes - I know because I watched the first two and skipped the last (exactly as I did with the Star Wars prequels!)

Although I love the early series 1-4, 5 at a push, it had changed a lot since the writer split and I just lost interest.

Apple get called draconian because of the things they do.

Being a good citizen in free software doesn't just mean doing those things in your own self interest to do, of which we agree Apple do a lot, but also not doing things that might be perceived as in your own short term self interest that are unethical (of which Apple also do plenty).

Don't worry, you're only a danger to the public if you had sexual thought about somebody < 16 years old...

It isn't bad, I just feel a little disappointed that computers are commodities these days and people don't need to understand things. Sure it is a form of snobbery, and I'm sure there are similar groups such as mechanics who feel very similar. But over time we've evolved into a situation where people are no longer encouraged to experiment, or use trial & error to solve computer problems. You see this most obviously in schools where kids are taught little "recipes" on how to use Microsoft Office, but any error message is cryptic and best ignored..

I'm still quite amused by the current crop of "hackers" who think they're all that but never built their own computer from chips and raw PC boards. Building a PC these days is something grade school kids can do.

I've been thinking that for a long time now, even though I didn't start that far back myself.

I started with the z80-based ZX Spectrum, and then graduated through a series of early PCs. The earliest one running GEM with a hercules (monochrome) graphics card.

As there wasn't much real software about then if you wanted it you wrote it yourself, reading the programming guides, and Ralf Browns' interrupt list.

These days there are people grown up who've never known anything before Windows 95; they grew up with the GUI and an environment which just worked. They never had to tinker, they never understood from the ground up how the PC works, and have little incentive to experiment. Back in my own personal olden days you had debug, you had built in support for programming. Nowadays its' all hidden away.

Don't even get me started on people who don't understand what pointers are, or how they work...

I don't really read news sites myself, I read stories that I found links to. But I don't really go to a newspaper site and just read all the stories. So it would be NOT 1 pound per day, but 1 pound per article. So I just wouldn't.

I think this sums up most people's interactions with online news very well.

I do read almost every story on the local Edinburgh newspaper website every few days, but I only do that because it covers local news. Otherwise I read articles I see linked to from places like Slashdot, Reddit, or email from friends.

I imagine the immediate effect of a paywall is that fewer such links will be shared, unless there is something akin to lwn.net's "make a free link" which allows a subscriber to share a protected article for free for a period of time. (That is something I love about lwn.net; and I have a paid account there.)