Here's the thing. This is like a microeconomics modeled market. If the click rate is inflated by 25%, I'll wager the payouts compensate by being deflated by 25%. Advertisers are willing to pay for clicks, and will probably adjust their prices accordingly.

One of the few times I feel comfortable saying online that the free market will handily solve this problem, without worrying that I'll end up sounding like a lolberterian.

You have to be aware of the actions that the NSA has taken previously, the statements they make, and how their words don't match up with reality.

So, I'm quite sure that if they say that they're not allowed to request info from an ally, they are telling a very sanitized version of the truth. They in fact don't request such info from an ally.

What they don't say is that if an ally just happens to give them that info, they can't have it ... so that's almost certainly what they're doing.

They're not asking for anything ... but they still end up getting it.

No, not really. It is a bit overreaching.

I'm getting pretty tired of seeing extension cords snaking through parking lots and parking garages.

I don't think the issue here is just five cents; some places can't handle the capacity this puts on their systems or wiring, or perhaps they don't want the liability of you screwing up your car thanks to faulty wiring, and suing you for it. And hell, what if some bright person uses a cord that's too light of a gauge for the current, and ends up starting a fire or hurting someone?

Charging should be done where appropriate, not wherever anyone wants.

weed & ativan. there, research done. we can all go home early.

Ability to tune for performance on know hardware; better permissions structures; ability to get support from the company; data security, replication, backup; clustering; not wanting to reinvent the wheel using man-hours when you can more easily pay for a known working solution that is well documented ...

etc. There are a lot of reasons.

So, two of those articles have nothing remotely to do with the conversation at hand.

Are you insane, slanted so far you're horizontal, or just stupid?

This argument has been bandied about for almost a decade, now. Simply, the market base for Linux users is simply too small (and the subset of that contingency that uses Wine for gaming is even smaller yet) for any conglomerate consideration of that markets buying power to matter worth a damn to any of the large studios.

Small indie houses, maybe. But nobody is going to go out of business not selling to the Wine userbase.

The reality of the situation sucks, but given past trends, it's safe to conclude at this point that it will never change.

Laziness and complacency. Innovation is hard. It's long been show in the technological marketplace that copying someone else's ideas (and thus letting someone else spend their money on R&D), then selling a knock-off, is a financially viable business model.

RIM just hasn't made a good copycat, yet. If they're able to ride out the storm for long enough, they'll figure out the right balance of rip-off and shininess to produce a viable product again.

the story you're referencing was a bit more nuanced than that. the students blew off a standardized test that didn't matter; that was part of it. also, she wasn't just ranked one of the worst. she was ranked the absolute worst teacher.

amazing.

I don't think so. They've been under attack for a long time, and have always had an irreverent attitude to the Powers That Be. They've always seemed indifferent to how they are viewed by ISP's and governments.

I don't believe there's anything ulterior to this, they probably just don't like DDoS's. No reason not to take them at face value on this.

So, are you advocating that we do nothing? We tried that, and it doesn't work.

Perhaps the point here is that it is recognized that this action will not cure the problem, but might help reduce it. Frequently, these type of complex issues can't be fixed by just one thing. But we can't do nothing. We have to at least try.

Way to give away our lead in space.

just like we gave away our lead in nuclear engineering. oh, and physics, too.

and education.
and manufacturing.
and medicine.

is there anything we're the best at anymore, other than incarcerating our own people?