Lawrence Lessig(rootstrikers,creativecommons,eldrid v ashcroft, etc)
Bruce Schneier(security related concerns, as well as electronic voting)
Nate Silver(fivethirtyeight.com)(several people have already mentioned Tannenbaum(my favorite))
Jon Stewart(alway entertaining usually insightful)
Pete Ashdown(ran against Sen. Orrin Hatch, may be doing so again(Will annouce on the Nov. 11th, also founded an ISP in 1992 and runs a non profit dedicated to repurposing computers(I have been involved in this campaign in the past and sit on the board of the non profit with him)) pashdown@pashdown.org
Rick BoucherForced out in last election but always a big supporter of copyright/patent reform.

I wish I could share all of polling stuff I know(just left a job for a major pollster after six years), but about all I can share is this.

Message testing is not push polling. It is message testing. Yes, it can be hard to tell the difference, but if they are asking for statistical information, it's probably an actual poll, not a push poll or voter identification.

Sounds like you're Mormon, though you probably wouldn't enjoy how they socialize either....

Funny according to wikipedia we still have a sound money system. Like all tea party supporters you need to look these words up before you start repeating them. They don't mean what you think they mean. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_money What I think you meant to suggest was that the US buy up $945,137,926,818 in gold and keep it in store in a safe place, but you should say that. Not "return to sound money" the US uses sound money. This why I can't stand talking to Tea Party people they use all these words that make perfect sense to them, but never seem to mean what they think when I look them up....

I did not grow up watch Star Wars. I have absolutely no nostalgia attached to them. I watched the original trilogy for the first time in college, in 1998. I watched the remastered versions. They are ok movies not bad, but not great. Same with the newer trilogy. They all have annoying character and plot holes. Get over it. If you had watched the original three for the first time as adult, you would have thought they were over hyped(which they are).

I think part of the problem is how shy many /. readers are. Leave the house, go somewhere where you can meet girls, that would appreciate your qualities(I don't know try a book club). I think a lot of the problem is people pick who ever show any interest in them. Rather than going out and showing interest in others, but if you go out and show interest in others you will be surprised how many women were waiting for you to do that(stay in your league, make sure they are the type of girl that appreciates what you have to offer).

Once you do that then....

You need to decide what you want out of life and what's most important to you, and what doesn't matter so much.

I would never watch a romantic comedy on my own, but if my girlfriend has one she wants to watch, we watch it. Then sometimes we watch action movies.

"no major compromises" is a term a friend once said to me, and I think that's really the way to do thing. No one will ever be exactly perfect, but don't settle for someone who won't match with you on the REALLY important things.

I've had several people tell me I shouldn't worry about similar political views, only for me to find out later that they care which college football team their wife cheers for(I of course want a girl who doesn't care about football games).

Now back to porn.

Some people think it's inappropriate to emphasize sexual related things, personally I think that's stupid. Sex plays an important role in relationships and you need to on the same level. It is perfectly valid to end a relationship based off of different sexual view points.

There are people who believe that sex should only be used for procreation. There are married people who are ok with each other having sex with other people(sometimes in the same room, sometimes not). There are people who believe you should live together and have sex for several years before getting married and there are people who believe you should wait until you are married to have sex.

You need to decide what you want, and if you want to watch porn with your girlfriend, then bring it up at and appropriate point and move on if she disagrees. It's really not that hard to find a girl that would go for it(I live in one of the most conservative parts of the country, you can't legally rent porn here, but I know women that enjoy watching porn).

Decide what's most important to you and keep looking. It was tempting at times for me to settle for less than I wanted. I'm a bit of a social out cast so I got really lonely at times, but it was worth the wait.

The same jerks that you went to high school with will go to college. You still won't be the popular one or dominate the scene. You will how ever be at a bigger place where it's easier to ignore and avoid the others. Find your place, find your clique. I wish I had done that sooner. The local lug was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Don't waste a lot of time dating a girl that doesn't make you happy. Get involved in the things you care about. The jocks were still coming into my work and making fun of me when I was 24, but at least I left work and hung out with my fellow geeks.

I grew up along the wasatch front. So I had a giant lake on the west side and mountains on the east side. When I went to college I lived on the east side of the valley. When I graduated I moved to an other valley, but still on the east side. I used to get confused by driving on the west side of the valley. I now generally know where I am if I'm in one of those valleys, but if I go anywhere else I have to go by the sun.

Maybe not the best solution for this particular job, but man am I glad we started using Dokuwiki for all our scattered documents.

Regarding Bruce's contact information I think I have the largest claim to nerdiness. I have his cell phone number in my phone(yes I have used it), a girl I like was looking through my contact list and asked who he was. I told her he was a guy I knew in Portland. She went to school in Portland and would like to move back. So I claimed that I could use him to get a job in Portland(Don't really know him that well). So I actually did try using Bruce's contact information to get a girl. Try to beat that for nerdiness!

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