And one has a vested interest in remaining under the radar of Chinese law enforcement. Or any other country's law enforcement, for that matter, especially a foreign country's.

Given the short range and low bandwidth (424 kilobits/s) of NFC technology, this is more of an esoteric attack than a practical one. I think I'd notice someone shadowing me with a hand at my pocket to connect to my Nexus S via its NFC chip and pull data from it...
Still, it's a show of force (and vulnerabilities).

At the very least, that part is true. The basic aim of any politician is, and should be, to get into power, amass as much power as they can, and keep it. Which is all well in an ideal (emphasis) democracy, since power comes from the people, and the better off the general populace is, the better off politicians are, and the more likely they are to be kept in power.

I think you're looking for a man-portable version of Metal Storm (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8hlj4EbdsE). That, or a bullet-based version of that area-effect attack from Deus Ex: Human Evolution...

As I said, I'm not a programmer by trade, but source code itself isn't affected by "scheduling differences", is it? I thought the appropriate compiler would take care of that when compiling the executable.

This compiler could include the most important libraries that are needed for OS functions, with and it might not even have to deal with device-native libraries, given that they are already abstracted by the operating system. From there on, the programmer could include all platform-specific versions of the core libraries, and the compilers at the end-point would simply ignore the dependencies from the wrong OSs (sort of like the pragma flags of C/C++, I guess?). At least, that's how I view it, speaking as a layman...

And as long as the proper libraries/headers/whatnot are supplied, how is a program written in, say, C/C++ for Windows different from one written in the same language for Linux?

[IANAP] Ideally, the most important libraries would be supplied with the OS, and you would only need the hardware-specific ones (which should already be on the system, since you're using the hardware), so that the same source code would compile the same way across all platforms, no code changes needed. [/IANAP]

To put it another way, I was thinking of printing assault rifles, not pistols. I know they're trying to print the whole thing out of plastic, that's what I think won't work due to plastic being too weak (structurally) for the task at hand.

Point taken, gradual steps. In my defense, I was viewing this in light of the printed AR-15 lower receiver, and thinking of ways to go from there.

3D printing kind of implies plastic extrusion these days. But if you have a way of printing solid metal (and not laser-sintering it), please, by all means, do contribute!

The problem with the current paraboloid bullets is that they are long (to accommodate more mass for a higher impulse). This causes the drag force to act behind the center of mass, and this is what tumbles the bullet eventually. When spun, the bullet stabilizes itself against drag effects to a degree, much like a thrown football.

If the aim is to shoot, we can stick to rubber bands. I think the aim here is to have a workable gun: accurate within reasonable limits (say, 75-100 meters), and lethal, or the very least, damaging. A tumbling bullet is not accurate, and likely slows down enough to be non-lethal even.

If these criteria are not met, I see absolutely no point in a printable gun. If they are, they can be a great tool for national defense militias: a network of such printers could churn out these low-grade weapons quickly and cheaply, arming militias and citizens to kill their attackers and likely take their weapon. In a sense, it could be an evolved, more usable version of the Liberator, that can potentially double as a backup weapon even after its initial use.

Agreed. If the plastic firing pin can trigger the primer, the overpressure doesn't blow the chamber and the breech apart, and the rifling doesn't transition to smoothbore after the first round, it might be worth it. But you need stronger plastics for that, and that may be past the printer's ability to liquefy and print.

To be honest, in today's society and with the current medical tech, our biological evolution has almost ground to a standstill: medicine can enable even those with the most malicious mutations to stay alive and strength and reaction speed no longer increase our chances of getting laid since they're not survival traits any more. Survival traits are now more social than physical, and as such, can be learned.

Yes, but not disputing the forum itself. In your analogy, I'd equate the internet with the forum, not with the government (after all, the internet is the means for dispute, not the subject), with internet fora being subsets.

As he goes on, he goes from anti-Google to griping against "insultingly simple websites", which make up an increasing percentage of the internet in his opinion (reading between the lines). At least that's the impression I get from the rant, hence taking it to be against the internet in general.