It is a bad example to set and I agree with Stallman and FSF that there should be laws preventing another anti-competitive , anti-trust ploy from the repeat offender Microsoft.

> This stuff is beginner's level Karma knowledge- you reap what you sow.

With all due respect, I believe you are referring to 'karmic retribution' rather than what karma means in Buddhism, in which I believe it has a negative connotation. I've always held the belief that Slashdot and others used the popular (sorry, incorrect) meaning of the term karma.

Samsara is the cycle of reincarnation that keeps us from Nirvana, a Buddhist's ultimate goal. Desires (I'm forgetting the term) weigh us down with karma, thus holding us in the cycle of samsara.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma#Buddhism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_(demon)
http://www.sutrasmantras.info/glossary.html

Therefore, I don't care is Slashdot gives me karma,but I would like people to notice the amendments (11-29, 11-30, 11-31) to Massachusetts MGL's last summer regarding the wiretap law, restraining orders, and having the RMV follow rulings from MA courts of law:
http://www.mass.gov/ago/government-resources/initiatives-and-other-ballot-questions/current-petitions-filed.html

Thank you for bringing sigrok to my attention. Cut and paste would have prevented your mis-spelling, and it's sorta important to get that particular word right.

http://sigrok.org/wiki/Main_Page

"The sigrok project aims at creating a portable, cross-platform, Free/Libre/Open-Source logic analyzer software that supports various logic analyzer hardware products. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL. Design goals and features include:"

http://www.mass.gov/ago/government-resources/initiatives-and-other-ballot-questions/current-petitions-filed.html

"Below is a list of initiative petitions filed with the Attorney General's Office and the Attorney General's certification decisions." See Initiative Petition 11-31. It got certified last summer, a good sign for the voters next time around.

I was tortured with a handcuff on only one arm by a Trooper trying to get me to resist. As I had stood in front of his cohort's police car moments before so he wouldn't drive away with the key to my bike, I had clearly started video recording him out of concern for being run down by him. He returned the key when Trooper B showed up, who sadly did not get to call the tow truck on my account. Did my phone make record of the entire encounter?

Glik has returned my call on a couple occasions and I celebrate his reasonable compensatory award with him in spirit. His ACLU lawyer also returned my call. I'm not a lawyer, but Wendy Kaminer's book about the ACLU "Worst Instincts" gets some validation from what I've observed. Perhaps it takes the added value of a lawyer to assist the ACLU--or does it take a lawyer to get them to serve their function? I'm not done with this episode although the statute of limitations has passed. You see, there are some outstanding matters to still be addressed.

Massachusetts is troubled place when you get a view on the behavior of Commonwealth employees from police, RMV, to judges. What relief we get is a market of cowardly attorneys and legislators that double-down on attempts to improve things. I live in a troubled place, indeed.

J. Toby Knudsen

For this reason I sponsored a voter Initiative Petition (three of them) for the MA 2012 ballot to amend MGL ch272 S99:

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=cagoterminal&L=3&L0=Home&L1=Government&L2=Initiatives+%26+Other+Ballot+Questions&sid=Cago&b=terminalcontent&f=government_initiativepetitiontracking&csid=Cago

Chapter 272, section 99, subsection (D) , item 1 is modified by inserting the following paragraph after paragraph (f):

g. for persons to record a public official in the course of performing his duties in a public place. For the purposes of this definition, a ‘public place’ is any venue where said public official does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.