White clothes enhance size/fatness, black clothes hide it, and hide you too. Which is also why many nerds wear black clothes =P

So why not express that to them instead of complaining about it on Slashdot? Tell what you like. They can't read your mind.

Obligatory xkcd: http://xkcd.com/610/

You mean pretty much everyone? Because girls go out shopping together, either with friends or their boyfriends so that they can get their opinions on how something look. Likewise, many times men have their girlfriend or wife buy them clothes.

And you know what, there is nothing wrong with that. It's socializing and often in life it's good to get other people's opinion on things because most of the time your own are self-constrained and wrong. I guess in introvert geeks mind asking other people for help shames them as they feel it's some kind of competition to be aware and knowledgeable about everything. In normal people's mind it's ok and actually makes them feel good that someone else values their opinion. This is basic human socializing.

I know geeks (and those with asperger's syndrome) usually think in this kind of 0/1 binary way. Since it's just data and your copy will directly only generate cost of the bandwidth, then there must be no other costs involved, right? That, however, is far from truth and I find people with this kind of reasoning to be either extremely stupid or lying. Sure, pirate if you must, but at least be honest about it and stop lying to yourself and others.

Gaming industry is pretty much coming to this. Instead of DRM it means games that are so integrated into online world that there is no way to pirate them. It also means F2P and Facebook games. Many slashdotters hate this, as can be seen on Diablo 3 stories and stories about Facebook games. However, it is entirely result of the rampant piracy. I guess this wasn't the answer people were looking for when they said game companies should innovate and provide better product instead of using DRM, but well, they just got themselves to blame.

I'm not so sure. I have bought some music, but this has always been if I really cannot find it for free (pirated). Part of it is because it's more convenient and faster, but mostly it is because by doing that I have more money to spend on other things. This seems to be same way with tons of people, so yes, what RIAA and labels are saying about piracy is not that far from the truth. Most of casual piracy is indeed because people can get away with it and "save" money by pirating.

I have also recently looked around iTunes and it seems like they have pretty much everything available, and more, like podcasts and remixes etc. If iTunes works any way similar to the mac app store, then there's no reasoning about convenience either. Buying is just a click away and everything works fast and quickly. Faster than pirating actually. The funny thing is, I live in a country that quite openly sells pirated software, movies and music. You can go to established, huge malls and most stores are selling pirated versions at cheap prices.

I do also go out more to venues and to listen live music (especially if dining out - which is almost every night as it's the way here, most people don't cook at home and want to socialize). However, I don't think it's because I've got better access to free music by piracy, but just because I've grown up and it's usual thing for young adults to do, especially if dating, and especially here.

But piracy really is a huge problem. Something needs to be done about it. I don't think the huge fines RIAA/MPAA puts on people and destroying lives are the right way, but someone needs to come up with better solution to the problem.