Hoorah! You voiced it more eloquently than I did up-thread, I agree completely.

Well, I'm drunk, so I tracked down this email address: publiccomplaints@soca.x.gsi.gov.uk and sent them a note protesting their legal threats for just visiting a website for the first time in my life and asking them to send an agent to track me down here in the US. Of course, any agent they send to my home will be welcomed by me, my dogs and my Second Amendment rights.

I see I am not in before the cloud is good/cloud is bad discussion, but I do want to say I am glad Sky Map has a chance to continue. It is the first thing I use to show older relatives what smart phones can do.

I do work for an IT company. I no longer do desktop support.

I am a happy man.

Yep. Big time. Think about it. Do you REALLY know more about IT (your job) than that accountant knows about Accounting (his job)?

I will happily tell you and Mr. Accounting that Mr. Accounting knows more about accounting (his job) than I do (not my job).

However, I am positive that I know more about IT (my job) than Mr. Accounting (not his job).

My father, who is pretty savvy, fell victim to this. He's pretty good with computers for someone 73 years old. I had recommended VLC to him, he googled it, and got crapware.

After fixing the problem, we both contacted the VLC developers, who were kind enough to reply. We suggested they seek legal recourse, but although they were aware of the problem, they were not inclined to pursue the matter. Total respect, their code, their choice.

I felt bad that I recommended VLC without specifying videolan.org. Now I do.

...how to put it politely? Nope, can't think of a gentle way to say it, so quite bluntly, you are an idiot.

You may be the best programmer in the world, but without studying the things you now consider to be a waste of your time, you do not know how to think or communicate.

Being better at what you consider your job is not everything. You need general education to be able to handle all of the other work-place and meat-space things that are not programming related.

Cool, happy to help. I am glad that you get value out of NOAA's services. NOAA is one of the things that I am very happy to pay taxes for.

NOAA is currently seeking submissions to a survey of how they are doing. If you like their stuff, as I do, please go to the survey and give them an honest review.

I consider myself fortunate to have seen him play live, must have been about 1986. He was one of the finest guitarists ever, IMHO.

Before seeing him live, I had heard many of his recordings. Knowing that he like to use tape effects, etc. I thought that some of his fast riffs were done with double speed tape, as they sounded super-humanly fast. I was amazed to find that he actually could play that fast, live, without error.

The only other guitarist I have seen play live at that level is Robert Fripp, but that's a story for another day - King Crimson, Discipline tour, 1982.

OK, that's fair. I'll admit to defensiveness after seeing many posts bashing the Arduino.

I see I did not get in before the Arduino haters. Yes, I know, it's a simple board, I understand that it's not a PIC or whatever embedded thing you prefer. I accept that. But it's a nice, easy to use board. It's fun. You can do stuff quickly with it. It's good for quick little things. I'm sorry that us Arduino users don't measure up to your expectations. I'm not going to tell you that you are wrong for your embedded choices. Can I get the same courtesy?

Seconded. Thinkpad, always. I've been doing front-line small business IT for twelve years. Over that time, the Thinkpad line has proven itself. Yes, hardware is a commodity and you do pay a bit more for a Thinkpad. The difference is in the support and service. Lenovo has done a fine job keeping up their end of the bargain. You may be able to find a cheaper laptop from HP, or better specs from Toshiba, but when it needs fixing, and it will, Thinkpad.

They are asking for open access to networks that were privately funded, like Comcast's _access_ network. The government didn't help AT&T (or any of the component companies SBC, Bellsouth, etc) run copper lines to houses nor wire fiber to digital loop carriers in neighborhoods.

Just my opinion, and please pardon my bluntness.

Bullshit.

Easements, government granted regional monopolies, etc.

Comcast et. al. have all received plenty of government assistance in the construction of their physical plants.

has no background - https://www.google.com/