I run a small 3d printing company and can recommend using Sketchup. we have paid for the professional version (only $500) but even for free it is great for most designs and easy to learn. Just follow a bunch of tutorials and within a couple of days you'll be designing things no problems.
For my day job i use solidworks but it's expensive. however you can just download a pirated version for your own use.
Blender is also great but a bit hard to learn, once you do though you can create great models. it's worth putting in weeks in to tutorials and practise. the problem with blender is there is no easy way to scale things correctly. if you are designing things to print in 3d i would start with sketchup and work your way up from there when you hit it's limitation of design. but if you are good with sketchup and use the many addons that is available for it form the public you can do almost anything.

I don't disagree with you and in the context of this article and think it's ridiculous that this is allowed to happen.
But comments meant nothing unless from informed people, though slashdot does have a substantial well read base, I would only take them with a grain of salt, most people are just complaining they don't like it, doesn't mean it might not be the right thing...thought it could very well be the wrong thing.

Though I do wonder what benefits they are getting out of these things?
Maybe there is some sociopathic reason, to use your example of potholes, because i do love examples:
The pot holes they fix save 100 people a year for the sake of sacrificing one person.

Do I think it's right that the US has it's arms here? hell no!

But I do also not know the reason why even though there is common ground of people not liking it why it was still done? On this case I think I am uninformed as there may be many benefits due to some agreement that we are getting out of it that like the example above it's better for more people then we can immediately see as we only notice the people getting sold down the river.

It's important people stand up for what they believe, but my general point was people generally are uninformed and will just vehemently oppose something they do not understand.
For the moment I don't like it and don't think it's right...But i'm uninformed and not going to take it at face value until it can be explained what...if any the benefits "filled potholes" may be.
If it's really is that bad, then i'll get up on my soap box (aka FB and twitter haha) and complain to the world(the few people who will see it) how screwed up i think it is. On this one if there is no greater than benefit i would be a part of a petition if it was at all possible.

Understand all you say about taxes, it was just a point that sometimes people don't understand the importance of certain topics and ideas. You can't pay no taxes and expect the world.

I also believe in the US it is more the tax breaks to the rich/business not the taxes going to the rich which has been the major issues (Lived in the US for 3 years, I'm from Australia, recently moved back 4 weeks ago to Oz).
That is my understanding from talking to the general population from big cities to small towns, I had to travel a lot for work to all kinds of places and almost everywhere I went people complained about paying tax, most had no idea they pay less then most developed nations, they all thought they had one of the highest tax rates. But you are spot on for why people think that, because they don't see where it's going and see what seems like their taxes feeding the rich...but that would be uninformed logic which is what my point is. Yes a lot is 'wasted', but a lot is for good and if there is an increase it increases both, that is just the nature of the system, which is also not going to change soon, the USA has a very complex tax system.

Though the example of my daughter I think is a good one, you asked "Why can't we have cheesecake and coke at every meal?" and the answer is you can...but do you eat like that? would you let your daughter eat like that? the answer would be no and the reason is because you are intelligently informed on health, you also want what is best for your daughter. I liken this to people all wanting something but they are uninformed, do not understand the consequences of what they want and do not understand that it may not be feasible or viable. So the theoretically (but not always!) informed/government says no...if it's a good government it would also give the reason why it's not good/feasible.

All up, in my long winded way I was just pointing out that we can't have everything we want as our wants are many times stupid and uninformed.

I am in now way supporting what the article is actually talking about, in fact I am extremely against this idea of being able to extradite for minor offences and having the US arm of law so long.

I'm just cynical of people :) after spending 90+% of my time travelling and meeting people around the world in all situations I don't have much faith in the common person :(

I may be a bit cynical here, but I generally think people respond to hype and fall for shite, an example but by no means a good one is just looking at the amount of people who fall for fake fb stories and get all riled up about it when it's not even true. This actually annoys the hell out of me. But I digress...
The point I was trying to make is just because the people want it doesn't mean it's right...Almost everyone in the US I meet tells me how they get taxed too much when in reality out of the OECD countries they are 4th lowest out of 33 countries OECD Tax rates ..just ahead of Mexico, Chile and Turkey..they want to pay less taxes but is that really the right thing for the country? NYT-why US People are wrong on tax rates
I could go on with examples...my daughter wants to eat nothing but cheesecake and coke...doesn't mean it's the right thing for her(or the people)...
Links are example only to back up my argument that many people really don't know what's good for them, feel free to add counter links as why people know best and I'd be happy to discuss :)

So how late is too late?
I read the opinion piece and...well..it's stupid. He says it's a good thing, but it's too late and will take too long to implement so lets just not do it at all. Insert car analogy here is one so wants...
We should always strive to improve even if we're a bit late to do so. A better late then never approach I think is best most of the time...Yes I know, there is plenty of times too late is too late.
The mind boggles, maybe someone else here can shed light on why? Maybe there is a better alternative now?

But I like fire! Fire is fun!

I always worry about these ideas, they seem good in theory, but in reality you can just end up with a cane toad problem..i.e. when the algae has covered all the oceans we have no pollution...but also no fish....
anywho...maybe we can just set fire to the algae if it gets out of control...

That one is the "My Imagination" option ;)...unless it's your choice not to work...
I know many that work at home...but suppose that could come under walk as they don't have a "Spin/slide on your own wheelie chair" option...

True, they would have to re-write a lot, but they have already developed the code to do all that...it just runs on the servers instead of your own computer. I could be pulling this from my ass but I do remember they had discussed online vs offline single player during development so they may have laid most of the ground work early one too for a possible update. Either way, it's not impossible for them to produce. There are still major lag issues, especially outside the US, like Australia where my dad lives (I've been based in the US for a couple of years now). My father has been playing Diablo since 1996 when I introduced him to the first one...since then he has played it almost everyday eagerly awaiting the latest release. Likes to zone out he does... however he is having major issues trying to deal with the lag, he had mastered the others but this has just killed it for him. Unless these can be addressed by magically Blizzard investing in servers for low populated countries(doubtful)...then offline mode is the only possibility. I am thinking I will point dad towards Torchlight, it seems like a good alternative.

I think your comment needs a little more explanation, there is a Pro version of SketchUp that costs already.
I see no reason for them not to keep offering a downgraded free version and continue selling a pro version.
We are actually about to purchase the Pro version in the next couple of weeks as we want the extra functions it offers.

However it does seem like Google is narrowing it's focus which can be good or bad, willing to hear more conversation on that as I truly don't know...

This is what came to my mind, as well as other companies involved in the US that have developed and deployed such systems.
I am not sure of the companies and can't be assed right now doing the research but if someone else wants to chime in with a list I would love to read it.

I would like to add that when I did Sex-ed (1994-Australia) they taught us how 95% of boys (read here 'all males', though they used the word boys) masturbated
However, when discussing the female anatomy they pointed to the Clitoris and exclaimed: "This is called the Clitoris, We do not know what this is for..."

So I went happily home telling my dad what I learned that day, he was rather shocked and pulled out one of his Penthouse magazines to teach me about this 'unknown' Clitoris thing...The next day I went back to school and decided to tell the teacher and the class what I had learned about the Clitoris and how Girls can use it to masturbate too.

I quietly got in trouble and was told that I shouldn't of said anything...but it never went past the teacher so I didn't really get in trouble because I guess they knew I was right and my dad would of let all hell break loose at the school for such one sided teaching.

What is wrong with selling something if a customer or person likes it?
It's just an address, although I find it similar to a customised number plate, nobody really cares. Not sure about the rest of people on /. so I'll pose this question:
How often to you manually type a web address like this?

I know that I don't, it is usually copied and pasted, linked in an email, linked from another site or I get automatically redirected. If brands officially register a .brand address then at least I know the website I'm visiting is legit.

I'm up for all science solutions like this to help addicts. I grew up in a neighbourhood surrounded by heroin, meth and you name it addictions. It was ruining most peoples lives and most wanted to get rid of it. This reminds me a little of Gattaca, building in 'options' that make you less likely to be addicted to anything. If they continue with addiction vaccines I would be happy for my children to be vaccinated as my family has many addictions that I would hope my kids never fell in to. I would hate to see them end up like this just because they experimented at some stage in their life and this could greatly reduce that. Will be interested to see how much it helped human subjects. I also think something like this may one day end up mandatory for those who have been convicted and sent to rehab...step one on the rehab path, get your vaccine...

Hmm so seemed great, been playing with it but it refuses to play music that is in my library and keeps launching last.fm which then just plays music 'like' what I asked for.. Also not too good at telling the difference between Muse and News..I will forgive it for that...still love my N1.. If anyone figures this whole playing music from the library thing let me know, would be real handy while driving.