The good news is, the smart kids will - given the opportunity - teach themselves. It's really interesting how many times I hear stories similar to my own. In fact, I was talking to one guy who got his start programming the same way that I did: a hand-me-down TRS80 in elementary school. :)

Really? Not available? That's funny. I have a few reference books on my kindle, and a few books written by scientists. There are thousands of non-fiction books available for Kindle.

You probably get more minerals in your water drinking out of a stream than you would this stuff. I guess nature should be scolded for adding salt to the water.

It's easy for me and it's easy for you - it's even easy to use once it's set up (assuming they are vigilant). But if I told my (very non-geek) girlfriend to encrypt her e-mails, she would have no clue on where to start. I could certainly help her but the problem is that not everyone has someone to ask or would even care enough to do so (obvious, since most people don't encrypt their email).

I definitely agree that everything should be encrypted, it has a great deal of benefits (aside from my opinion that cryptography is just fascinating). It's problematic though, since most people don't think that way - now we're back at square one, how am I supposed to send an encrypted e-mail to someone without a public key? Even if they had one, we still run into some problems with people not paying attention to what they are doing (did they verify that the fingerprint I gave them matched before they trusted my public key? Not likely).

I think computer security in general is far removed from many people's minds outside of paying their 40$/yr to Symantec. E-Mail encryption? They simply don't care.

That's actually really creepy, more so since the email was just a joke email.

I always stick to the "email is not secure" motto. Encrypt something that needs to be protected. If the person doesn't screw around with e-mail encryption (let's be honest, it's not easy and most people would give up on it; they don't think there is a need), then I'll at least use an encrypted zip/rar file and stick it in my public dropbox. They can get it there.

That's not entirely true. Quite a few banks out there subscribe to services that act as bank-account specific "credit reports". If you owe a bank money (overdrawn accounts, fees, bounced checked, etc), they can report you to these types of services and other banks may not be willing to open an account for you. Granted, some bank out there WILL give you an account but some will not.

Please go to red hat's web site and download a copy of RHEL for free; just tell them you don't want support. Won't that work? No? How are they still in business with companies like Oracle taking their software, rebranding it, and selling it? The point is, it can be done. Does that mean it is a great business model? No. I work for a software company and our business would fail if we licensed our software under GPL (mainly because our competitors would be able to take code that was difficult to develop in order to comply with government regulations).However, even under a "public domain after you've squeezed the money out" model, we would never release our software because we are continually building on it. It's the core of our business.

What are you talking about? With most open source licenses, I can sell it as-is as long as I make the source code available. I can modify it to my heart's content and sell that modified version. If everyone followed your model, things like GNU/Linux would never exist. We have companies like Red Hat raking in $900m+, certainly making a profit, using software that isn't theirs (copyleft software).

I wish that I could understand that sentence but without becoming insane. Your mind must be a wild and interesting place.

Yes, they do. Since when does the bill of rights protect your from your parents? I was under the impression that they were restrictions on congress. The first amendments says nothing of being able to say what you want to your parents. However, the government would not be able to censor someone or arrest someone for exercising protected speech, even if they were a minor. Again, I think you are a bit mislead on what the bill of rights actually is (protection from the government, not exemption from parental oversight).

I can't believe that it a real movie. Wow.

I was a "dual-booter" on my desktop (Windows for Games, GNU/Linux for everything else plus nix on the laptop) for around 11 years. About 7 months ago, I threw away my Win7 install and went pure GNU/Linux. There very few things that I miss, mainly games. I've been tempted to try Cross-over, but would really like to see some big titles on Linux.

First of all, "you don't know me" is appropriate in this situation. I grew up far from a cocoon, well below poverty level, frequently living in shit areas with bad influence. However, I put myself through school, and now make enough money that I am comfortable and can support myself and my girlfriend. Second of all, my point is not to compare my job to a police officer, but to point out: If you can't handle the job, you should not be doing it. I'm friends with a few cops, some of them do it for the money (some of them make upwards of 60,000-70,000 a year; which is damn good for not having a degree). Some of them do it because they love the work. None of them behave this way. If your temper or mental state doesn't allow you to do a job with the professionalism due the position, you shouldn't be doing it. Police officers also have authority, firearms, and a rather large fraternity. They should be held to a standard that does those privileges honor, not disgrace.

For folks that use windows, just grab virtualbox (or some other free VM) and install a copy of Debian or Fedora or Ubuntu or PCBSD or any other free *nix distro. Tada. :)

I deal with people that infuriate me all of the time at work. Guess what? Part of my job is acting professionally and courteously toward my coworkers and to the clients that I speak with. If I don't, I lose my job. A police officer, being in a position of authority, should be even more cool-headed and professional. I don't want some hot-head with a gun going off because some dick in a sports car called him names.