Ah yes.... there's little Timmy (the Dickens one, not the Slashdot one), saving to buy "Beserkers: The game with real bloodspurt(tm) certified by the NRA for massacre training, endorsed by Ted Nugent" and he's at the GameStart store and he's 14 cents short because of the tax.

DAMN YOU, Republicans! How dare you deny a child a game because of your endless taxes! It's like how in Florida you've run the cost of a carry permit up to ~$150 so people who live in poor, crime-ridden neighborhoods can't afford them.

Mitt Romney, this is all your fault. Grrrr.

Do you really think so? Don't you think Slashdot readers in general are more likely to compete with Matt than to hire him? I do.

(shrug) I followed the usage on the guy's website. That doesn't mean it's right or wrong. Or worth a long discussion.

200 years ago, more or less, there was a heavily-censored online service called Prodigy, which had one adults-only section called "Frank Discussions" where you could talk about (gasp) sex 'n stuff like that.

And one day Prodigy closed Frank Discussions, prompting mucho whining from subscribers about how they closed "our" discussion board.

Yo, peoples: It belonged to Prodigy, not to you. Slashdot belongs to faceless corporate masters and used to belong to Rob Malda. If you don't like it, you can always do the Rusty Foster thing and start Kuro5hin or some such. Otherwise, it's not yours. And those little Facebook games aren't yours. They never have been. If the evil corps want to shut them down, too bad. They're proprietary and/or copyrighted stuff the owners can do with as they wish no matter how evil you think they're being.

Do you understand why free and/or open source software is a good idea now? :)

Nor did I, but my wife did. And after a year or so, when she had built up to FarmMansion with sharecroppers and huge herds of various animals and a hot tub and so on, she got bored and stopped.

It's irony, dudelet. RTFM. See? It's dumb, and it's on Slashdot so smart people can laugh at it.

10 years and you haven't figured out that Slashdot jumped the snark long ago?

Snark has been a Slashdot feature since day one.

Heh.

In fact, for the cost of an unlocked iPhone I could buy an HTC Android phone and a .22 pistol and get a Florida CCW and still have enough money for a whole lot of whiskey to drink at home so I don't have to go out and expose my precious smarty phone to criminals in the first place.

Yeah!

Whatever. Somehow I doubt that the black market resale value of the HTC Android phone I bought from Virgin for $149 is anywhere near the black market resale value of an iPhone.

We weren't talking about a paywall for Slashdot, but about the New York Times and possibly the Washington Post, which is reportedly *considering* a paywall.

Most middle or working class occupations are suffering from *declining* pay. Holding steady is good these days. And think of all the people who were making $50K or $75K a few years ago and are now working for $10/hour or less.

Here, I'll help:

1... 2.... 3... 4... 5... 6...

Count your blessings! :)

I *have* had several heart attacks and am in poor health. Mostly retired, just doing a little part-time work for Slashdot and a few others.

Am I supposed to call you an insensitive clod now? Nah. Too trite.

Seriously, in 2010 I had a heart attack, got stents put in, and 5 hours after I got out of the hospital I had congestive heart failure and died. Got resuscitated, but all the tubes the EMS guys stuck down my throat left me with more rasp than voice.

198 passenger-miles per gallon on the wall
198 passenger-miles per gallon
Take one gallon down and pass it around,
197 passenger-miles per gallon on the wall

197 passenger-miles per gallon on the wall
197 passenger-miles per gallon
Take one gallon down and pass it around,
196 passenger-miles per gallon on the wall

196 passenger-miles per gallon on the wall
196 passenger-miles per gallon
Take one gallon down and pass it around,
195 passenger-miles per gallon on the wall

I don't use hearing aids but I'm dependent on eyeglasses. Bifocals in my strong prescription start at $140 from chain "discount" opticians that advertise on TV, around $120 from a couple of local chains that tout themselves as bargain eyeglass purveyors, and cost me less than $40 from an online optical dispensary -- which does NOT charge me extra for 60/40 (far/near vision percentages), while the local opticians do.

The transcript is posted and was all along. You may need new glasses.

What about a marijuana or hash gun? If you made one, would the 2nd amendment cover it and its ammunition? Would the NRA pay for your defense if some socialist commie marxist Obama-appointed judge tried to pry your Ganjagun(tm) from your warm, live hands?

GANJAGUNS FOR AMERICA!!!