Withdrawing support is all fine and good. But companies who don't like SOPA shouldn't just rest at not supporting it. They should be actively against it, and make it clear in public statements, along with why they're against it. Whether they believe in free speech not being infringed (unlikely), don't like that SOPA will break the internet in the long run, or they just say they don't support it because it will cost them money, they need to say so. Any of these reasons are valid, and public awareness would increase.

Nixing support is most likely for the last reason, but this too can show the unaware that SOPA is NOT just about "protecting copyright." It's about incurring real financial costs in order to support the whims of a chosen few. Then it can be further explained that the monetary cost is only the beginning, and that it will be abused to silence dissent in ways that make the DMCA look like a jaywalking fine.

Everyone, not just the techies, needs to be made aware of exactly what SOPA and it's evil twin are, and the threat they represent. If you have non-techie friends, explain it to them in terms they will identify with. Going into all the talk about protocols, blocklists, etc, will probably garner the same reaction it got in the House...i.e. "I don't understand this because I'm not a nerd." But if you show them how it will impact their daily lives, they'll get the picture.

It's a pretty grim picture given that congress doesn't listen to the people they supposedly represent. But if enough of those people start voicing their disagreement with it can still be stopped. That's why the word needs to go out to everyone. Forget Linux on the desktop, make 2012 the year SOPA is buried in a deep-dark hole never to be seen again.

Actually, it wouldn't be slander at all. That line in Spider Man from Jonah Jameson was actually spot on. "Slander is spoken! In print, it's libel!" It's all defamation, but they're still two legally distinct offenses.

And sadly enough, it would be a completely different story for a kid today. The mother would scream her lungs out and floor it to the ER in her SUV (endangering tons of people along the way). Once there, she would scream at the charge nurse for having to wait behind a multiple-GSW patient who is bleeding into his lungs. After finally seeing a PA, she would get the same advice most people used to take for granted - put some ointment on it, keep it cool and dry, and make an appointment with the family doctor if it doesn't get better in a couple of days.

Oh yeah, and you better believe she would call for a MASSIVE lawsuit against the manufacturer of the iron because it was "too hot" and her precious little snowflake is now "permanently disfigured."

On a typical day, I usually end up using five different keyboards.

1. My computer at home
2. Video capture/editing system
3. Audio recording system in broadcast room (only because the above doesn't have a line from the mixing console)
4. Laptop recording from FOH console in Audacity and running Sennheiser WSM to monitor on-stage mics (RF levels, battery life, frequencies, etc.)
5. System controlling audio/video in the atrium

That's not counting the servers I interact with through vSphere. Although I guess those would count on the rare occasion I have to go down to the server room.

Instead of the hassle of bringing in TV cameras, they could just route all those CCTV's to the broadcast trucks. I'm sure there's plenty of existing network infrastructure in place for that system anyway!

And it amazes me how they do it day in and day out. I drove from here to Austin, TX last year in about the same amount of time. Even stopping for a couple hours to meet up with a friend for breakfast (since I left home at 5am), I was fighting the urge to run idiots off the road by the time I passed Waco. I don't see how they deal with that kind of stress and annoyance all the time.

But to keep things on track, this trip would not have been possible with an EV. Even with the supposed 320 mile range of a Tesla S, I would have had to stop several times to recharge, and the trip would have taken closer to three or four days. I'm glad they're working on options to decrease charge time to something in the range of a petrol fill-up, since that's going to hold EV's back as much as anything else will. The technology WON'T be widely available yet, nor will any quick-swap stations. But unless they start working on the technical issues and logistics NOW, it will never happen at all. Every new technology has to go through similar growing pains, and I'm hoping this one survives them and helps us burn less oil and spend less to transport goods and people.

In my own little ideal world, all electricity would be from fusion/wind/hydro/solar (i.e. "clean" energy), all passenger cars/trucks would be electric (with the same range/performance as petrol), and the only reason we would need to burn anything for propulsion would be long-haul freight or air travel. But I'm realistic enough to know that won't happen in my lifetime. Maybe for my children or grandchildren...

This car has range and performance similar to the Leaf and the upcoming Focus, yet will cost less than 1/5 what either of those overpriced toys go for, and also looks better. What's your excuse?


(Sidenote, if I can get a tax credit of up to $7500 from Uncle Sam for purchasing an EV, does that mean I actually MAKE $500 to drive this thing? They'll probably cite the "up to" part and give me a whopping $20 for this, but I can dream, can't I?)

Every time they act like they're adding more privacy controls, along comes yet another feature that makes it that much more difficult to control who sees what. The annoying ticker on the right was bad enough, but now being able to see who's unfriended you at any point? I expect this will start a LOT of drama over "OMFG Y U UNFRIEND ME!??!?!?" type stuff from people who normally wouldn't give a crap. Most likely it will be the "friend-whores" who just collect friends to have a higher number. One drops and they have no idea who it was. But now they'll be able to see who decreased their precious friend count, and start all kinds of crap over it.

Col. Grossman,

You're already relegated to being nothing more than a footnote in history. Your buddy Mr. Thompson has been disgraced and disbarred. Just admit that your "games are evil murder simulators" campaign has failed. Why can't the two of you retire somewhere out in the middle of nowhere and leave the rest of society alone?

Sincerely,
Gamers Everywhere

All fine and good, but why should I HAVE to opt out of something like this just to protect my privacy? What makes these marketing troglodytes think they have a right to track my browsing habits by default?

Can we? Please???

If it does, I guess we've solved the mystery of how to make sure a photo is actually removed from Facebook instead of just removed from your profile and stored away in some archive forever...

Maybe I'm just behind the times, but I honestly don't understand the point of these "cloud services" for things such as music. I have a Dropbox account, but I use that for tossing files to friends without the hassle of running an Apache daemon, setting up an FTP, or choking an email server with large attachments. I don't understand the need to have my entire collection available across every device I might possibly want to use.

But that brings up another issue. If this is anything like iCloud, there's going to be a 5gb or so limit. I don't have a huge amount of music, but it far outstrips that paltry offering. But in reality I don't WANT all my music with me at any given time. My MP3 player is used for running. It's a 4gb model, and every song I could possibly want while working out is already on there. I don't need to synch more. My phone has 12gb of memory built-in, and I stuck a 16gb MicroSDHC card in there as well. Even with tons of apps and videos, there's still enough space for the vast majority of my music collection if I wanted to take it with me.

So what, again, is the point of synching to some cloud under someone else's control, when I can just plug a USB cable in for a few seconds if there's a song I REALLY need to put on either device? And that's saying nothing about how Best Buy will probably butcher it into uselessness just like everything else they've gotten their hands on...