I've been running KDE4 since 4.1. I've never had much trouble with it; I dunno what all the bitching is about. Until then I ran KDE3 with no problems.

One of the big reasons I've stuck around academia so far is that once you have tenure, you can study whatever you want and get paid for it. And until then, you're studying things that are generally harmless but might end up being genuinely useful. It's never too late to head back to school and grab a PhD.

I mean, really, who looks at that beard and thinks, "I'm gonna steal from that wizard. No way his bag has any exploding magical components in it or anything."

How does that work?

Game publishers the world over probably just thought to themselves, "Oh crap." Publishers of any medium are less needed every day, and I think a lot more people just realized it. Why even bother, if you're a big enough name, to try to get funding from a publisher when you can cut out the middle man?

I am extremely ok with spider farming being infeasible. Accidentally wandering into a spider farm is the stuff of nightmares.

Why should they do that when you're going to pay for 150+ channels anyway? Cable/Satellite won't change until more people start cancelling their subscriptions.

18-40 is a pretty broad demographic.

This is a committee, guys. By definition they never get anything done.

Slackware, my friend.

I think it's fairly obvious that Facebook's enormous success is at least in part because so many businesses have gotten on board. Even little mom and pop stores have "like us on Facebook" stickers everywhere. Which in turn makes people, even old people and such that aren't usually so tech-savvy, want to check out this Facebook thing. Which makes more businesses want to sign up, and we have a nice feedback loop going.

Yes, people need to be on + for its success, but Google has just taken too long to get the ball rolling. There was a brief surge of interest when all sorts of people were trying it out, but then everyone but tech people simply went back to Facebook where they can play games and get malware and be marketed at.

By advanced calculus do you mean multivariable calculus or an undergraduate course in real analysis? I know quite a few US universities call their undergrad analysis courses "Advanced Calculus."

I subscribed to Linux Journal because I wanted to support a Linux publication. I can get everything I cared about from Linux Journal from a variety of blogs that I already subscribe to, for free, via RSS.

Fun fact! "Respect" is arbitrary.

Yeah, people not showing up for things is a dick move. But if anything, faking a phone call is actually a more respectful way to duck out of a conversation. Let's review the alternatives. 1) Wait around for the other person to wrap it up when you have better things to do. 2) Tell them to their face that you have better things to do. (Disclaimer: I have never faked a phone call, because I can't lie worth a crap. But I can understand why people would do it.)

When you start generalizing and blaming "young people" for things, you have finally lost all perspective but your own. Also, you can have your lawn back; I'm going to go do fun things somewhere else.