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You are Fucking Ignorant.

" temperatures plummeted to their lowest levels in decades in some locations of the Northeast at the start of Valentine's Day."

Let's go through that again. Lowest level "in decades" instead of highest ever recorded in over a century. In some places in a relatively small region instead of the whole world. On one day instead of a month.

But if you want to look at Valentine's Day specifically, there were lots of places with record highs (and not just in decades) too. Like Tuscon

So, it's like the Internet, but in the sky? Let's call it SkyNet!

Hey you can't do that! Channel 4 in Tucson already claimed that name!

I hear they plan on adding neural net defense capabilities soon.

Right, their security is far beyond what any criminal organization can ever penetrate. Sure. Pull the other one, it's got bells on.

Now compare that with the number of special needs kids and higher insurance costs for schools.

Now compare state to state, I grew up in Vermont so I'll put it against say North Carolina which is still better than Arizona. With such a disparate range of spending I don't see how you can make your statement with a straight face. Even in VT they've been cutting spending removing sports and music and paying teachers less which meant forcing out older teachers to make room for cheaper younger teachers.

Hell, here in Arizona the problem is probably the worst as they've cut lots of teaching positions. They are even cutting Kindergarten. The cuts don't end there.

Your point about the police being the correct authority is valid, but you know even the police can be a bunch of fuck-ups:

    http://www.kvoa.com/global/story.asp?S=10544157

Next, taking advantage of FREE rainwater or drilling a well will be seen as a "Leftist" (read; untaxed) action.

Open Source software just raises the bar. Nobody charges for a simple notepad like application--that becomes the standard or "base". The value you get by just having a computer. Open Office, raises that bar, so that a presentation and a document are the basics of what you get when you buy a computer.

This only forces "Solution Providers" and software companies to raise the bar to try and persuade customers that they provide enough value that it is worth paying for. That sounds like market forces to me.

It is interesting that, with the almost Zero cost of producing copies of software, that most "decent" applications, cost about $500 (the ones you might base a business on). And that this now exceeds the average cost of the computer. You are still going to need about 3 or 4 applications (like content manager or PIM, database, document and presentation, and a decent email/calendaring application for a Salesperson, for instance) to actually be productive.

The hardware is a smaller portion of that cost. No complaints. But is cheaper computers a sign of "Socialism"? No, that is real competition and improvement that we like in Capitalism. Software being, in general, impervious to deflationary costs savings, points to the Network Effects of Monopoly, and is the sort of capitalism that government needs to regulate so that Capitalism remains beneficial to the populace.

So, I see OSS as a consumer response to balance Oligarchy forces in many First World nations like the United States. OSS might have just remained the province of geeks and hobbyists if the government were doing its job.

I can see a parallel with this and the move by the Minutemen trying to guard the boarder with Mexico. This is like Open Source Security, due to the fact that the government is more persuaded by business interests than consumers and so therefore only makes a pretense of securing our quality of life and rights. I don't know if the Minutemen are vigilantes or the absolute right sort of patriot who says; "enough, I'm taking government into my own hands." But I know that almost every report is calling them "Yahoos" and "Vigilantes" --so it is likely they are responsible and doing the right thing. Now, pretending that they are securing the border and not preventing the citizens from ACTUALLY securing the border; here is the NeoGovernment response

But I do firmly have the opinion that those who create Open Source Software, are the sort of citizens that we need. Those that seek to give more than they take. Who want to make things better more than see what they can get. More my sort of Patriot and hero than those normally paraded about. Is sacrifice and civic responsibility "socialist" unless it is part of a Church function? I think that is the real talking point.

Secondly, this probably isn't just about a few kids swapping files. The article mentions "piracy", not "file sharing", and historically the FBI hasn't been involved in minor file sharing investigations.

While the article seems to be making all sorts of guesses about what is going on, the fact is that the warrant is sealed and no one has said much of anything so far. As others have pointed out, this could be over anything from compromised servers to child porn. Why don't we wait to see what is going on before everyone assumes that this is about file sharing?

Just to give you an idea of how little anyone actually knows, check out a few of the other stories from other sources...

I also find it interesting, that as Michael pointed out in the story, there hasn't been a single mention of any other raids, yet the article claims that "Federal agents in Phoenix and elsewhere in the country raided schools and other targets in a national crackdown on pirated music CDs and movies." This raid happened yesterday, so there should have been some news coverage of other raids if they took place. Where else in the country?

The only fact that can be traced to anyone is that "The raids came on the same day that Justice Department officials in Washington announced the creation of a new Intellectual Property Task Force to step up copyright enforcement." Everything else seems to be the reporters guessing what happened by guessing that this is connected to the Justice Dept's announcement.

Until I get some more information beyond "The FBI was investigating actions by individuals that have something to do with the Deer County School District" (the only real information in the article), I'm taking this as a bunch of BS by second-rate sensationalist reporters.

On a lighter note, I enjoyed the reference to the district's "COMPUTER COMMAND CENTER" - perhaps they meant the server room?

Whoops! This one's better.

I went to a medium-sized liberal arts college where I majored in theater. While there, I worked in tech support and eventually managed the helpdesk.

After graduation, I got a job at a large software company as a Program Manager on a ubiquitous productivity suite.

That product shipped, and I decided it was time for something different, so I became a news producer at a mid-size market TV station.

The point? It doesn't matter what you major in. Make sure you're well educated, and can adapt to new environments. Learning how to learn is the best education of all.