Will they ever allow us to hide the useless download bar? And will there be a version that doesn't gradually suck up all our system resources?

Would the follow-up be Noninvasive Oral Compound Obstructing Wall-Blocking Organisms, Yahoo? (It's really hard to come up with relevant medical terms that start with "Y.")

One big difference: Governments generally have some accountability to the people, at least on paper.

Since Congress, now a wholly owned subsidiary of the telecoms, wants to give them a direct connection between their hands and our pockets, and since the FCC and Congress cannot seem to agree on who should control what, I propose that the correct answer is that you and I should control the Internet. We need to figure out a way to build very inexpensive weatherproof low-power WiMAX routers that we can install rapidly--pretty much everywhere. We need to seed them in so many places that nobody can take them all down. The airwaves are the property of everyone, not just a select few. It's time we proved that.

Well, if you're gonna rock out with a metaphor, I always like the Kevin & Kell approach: referring to Windows as a "scratching post" for malware. Posted from my Windows 7 desktop---oh noes!!!

The original definition of Plug and Play as a marketing term was the concept that if a user plugs in a hardware peripheral, like a printer, scanner, microphone, etc., it should tell Windows what it is and Windows should automatically make it work. As far as I know, there were never any documents identifying Plug and Play with, say, software, much less malware code.

Then don't use them to license your products. They're pretty useful to others, though. Or did they hurt you in some way? Show me on the body of your work where the bad licenses touched you...

If I don't write software in the first place, then how is it my problem if Windows isn't well-written? If I buy a car, it's because I myself can't build one. If I buy an operating system, it's because I myself can't write one. Speaking frankly here, it's pretty fatuous to assume that everyone who can use a tool reasonably well has to be able to make that same tool. How many people buy screwdrivers if they can make their own?

Idiocracy.

Governments have a responsibility to do that to protect the rights of their constituents. Governments do not inherently and SHOULD NOT have rights. Ever.

VideoLAN wrote their own damn code. By your logic, then, AOL (oh, excuse me, "Aol") have no complaint coming. -- Remember, you can't spell "asshole" without AOL

Personally, I seriously doubt that the individual shareholders had too much to do with the gundecking of the safety protocols that led to this debacle. Solution: we find those responsible, which most likely will include the current occupants of the head offices at BP, Transocean, and Halliburton, put them out in the Gulf and let them come back when they've properly cleaned up their mess--not before.

I've got a solution: Upon conviction, sentence ALL of BP, Transocean, and Halliburton upper management to clean up the Gulf. Duration: Until it's at least as clean as it was before April 20. Take whatever BP owed them under their contracts before their convictions, PLUS all their current assets and split it up among the cleanup crews who aren't there on a chain gang. They get basic food, shelter, and medical care--and neon pink, orange and yellow HAZMAT suits so they're harder to lose track of. It's for their protection, after all; we wouldn't want them to get lost. After they're done cleaning up the Gulf, they're free to save up to buy property along the Gulf Coast.

Owing more on your house than it's worth has a negative impact on your credit rating, whether you're current on your payments or not. So any employer who does what you say ("checks credit ratings") will view you negatively.

Unless I'm not looking for work because I like my current job and don't have any respect for your opinion.

Rental prices are down compared to last year. Also, it's been 2 years now that landlords have taken tenants who have gone through the foreclosure route. You've been living in la-la land if you haven't noticed it. Landlords are settling for a lot less than they used to.

Yes, insulting me further is just about guaranteed to win me over to whatever it is you're saying. Did you miss the part about me not wanting to change houses OR jobs?

As for the rest, it's all been in the news for the last year. Just look for it. Or don't you know how to search?

I never had the need to search. The burden of proof was on you. Yes, your facts are lined up so that if I wanted to do something I don't want to do, I could do it with somewhat less of a negative impact than I thought. Of course, if I moved, I could keep my job and still change over, but I still don't want to move, because I like my house, underwater as I currently am on the mortgage. So yes, I know how to search. Do you know how not to be obnoxious? Please prove it.

Again, I don't want to move or change jobs just so I can risk my ass on Hillsborough County streets. In fact, because you've been so irritating about insisting that I change my lifestyle to suit you and ride a bike everywhere I go, I'm not saving up for a %^&* black Cadillac Escalade with 22" spinners, extra chrome, Truck Nutz® and your $%^&* email address printed in 400-point type across the back.

And a matching one for my wife in gold.

My lifestyle may be carbon-neutral even without the twin GMT-820s, but at least I'm not an Internet Environmentalist(TM) who goes around imposing his lifestyle on others. I'm not here belittling you because you can't drive. I'm here belittling you because you're too thick to understand that a)Hillsborough County roads are not safe for cyclists; b)I'm not ready to change residences; c)I'm not ready to change jobs; and d)when someone gets obnoxious about wanting me to do something, no matter HOW good it would be for me and the universe, I have a tendency to do the exact opposite. So how about you get on your kitted-out touring bike or whatever and pedal down to your natural food store and buy a nice tall glass of completely organic, animal-suffering-free, carbon-neutral STFU?

"Lust for cheap oil"?! We just want to work to earn money to feed our families and have a place to live! You're attacking the wrong people.