I don’t buy the BSA claims that open-source requirements “raise costs” or “reduce access to best-in-class security solutions”; open-source software is notably lower in cost (most of it made freely available, while some distributors just charge for support) and have better visibility for finding and closing security bugs. As for conflicting with trade agreements, those are political decisions that can be renegotiated.

The experience reminds me of why I seldom upgrade the software on my computer (or mobile devices for that matter) unless absolutely necessary. I had a lot of custom or 3rd-party software on my PC, and any major update to the core OS or libraries would threaten to break compatibility requiring an audit and possible rebuild of all those programs. After spending some time with Fedora I switched to a Red Hat Enterprise subscription specifically for its long-term support model; at least until RHEL 6.3, they worked to make sure that any updates to packages included in the distro were at least ABI backwards-compatible across minor version changes.

Linux users tend to be keenly tuned in to issues of freedom, be it freedom to control the use of your own computers or freedom in politics. This feels like the corporate tech elites are trying to restrict our freedoms so they can control our computers (e.g. “Trusted Computing” and “Digital Rights Management”) just like they’re largely controlling social media.

Many more of our inherent rights cannot and should not be sold at any cost — life, liberty, due process of law, free association, that sort of thing. There are limits to any rights, but these cannot be sold or traded lest we revert to slavery.

Take doctors and lawyers for example. To use their services effectively requires sharing a measure of your private information with them. However these professions are legally bound to protect your privacy by not disclosing it to any third parties without your express, written consent.

Does the term “rerun” even apply for on-demand streaming services? That usually refers to shows that are broadcast over the air any subsequent time after their original broadcast date.

I used to work for a Web hosting company which had a rather shady manager, who would regularly check the prices on their competitors and adjust their own prices to be right between the top two cheapest providers — no regard for the company’s actual costs or quality of service. It was a brain-dead simple algorithm, and no actual (intentional) collusion involved.

I’m still opposed to “electronic” signatures in general. It’s harder to prove that a document “signed” on the Web by typing in your name or some other well-known text was actually signed by the person they claim to be than it is to prove a written signature is authentic. Even documents that are “signed” by entering a password are only good so long as that password hasn’t been compromised.

The linked survey from last year shows that about half of respondents who want to eliminate the twice-yearly time change want permanent Daylight Savings. It also shows that a little more than half prefer to start their day when it’s light outside than when it’s dark. That’s a contradiction; it tells me that a significant portion of the population doesn’t really know how time works. You can’t have it both ways.

The caveat of Tesla’s FSD safety record is that only drivers who have demonstrated a high degree of safe driving habits are allowed into the beta program, and while FSD is active the driver is constantly reminded to keep their hand on the wheel and pay attention. That skews the results.

I have no plans on buying a “next” gaming console. I’m perfectly happy with the PC, Wii, and Wii U I’ve already got, and have plenty of games I haven’t had time to finish yet.

This “exclusive content” is a prime example of how vertical integration leads to a monopoly. Producers bar their content from all providers except their own, blocking fair competition. There ought to be a law against that.

The type of text editor you use — Eclipse, Emacs, Nano, Notepad, vi, or some other IDE or stand-alone editor — can have a large influence on whether your code is intended with tabs or spaces, as most code editors have their own defaults for indentation. I would speculate that the type of IDE or editor a programmer uses has a higher correlation to salary than just tabs vs. spaces.

The first home computer I used was the Atari 400/800 at my junior high school.

The first home computer my family owned was an Atari 400.

The first home computer I owned is the Atari ST, which I still have along with an Atari 800 XL that I bought second-hand later on.

How about 200 countries?

“The US remains the only industrialised country that has not adopted the metric system as its official system of measurement.” [Wikipedia]

“The NIST has identified the United States as the only industrialised country where the metric system is not the predominant system of units.” [ibid]

It’s not humans in general that are so stubborn, it’s just Americans.