""Because we can" the neckbearded Linux dweebs living in their mother's basement will tell you in between LARP sessions and shoving greased up Yoda dolls into their asses,"
OK, you sold me on the lifestyle. Is there a particularly suitable Yoda doll?
Outlawing booze is proven to backfire, but punishing drunks has some useful effect. After all the issue is behavior, not booze.
If the drunks (or anyone else) do crimes, punish the crimes harshly enough that people will be afraid to commit them.
I do agree on legalizing cannabis though. Most smokers will never be harmed by it, and those who smoke too much are the sort of people who should be kept docile for the good of the rest of us. The MASSIVE consumption of cannabis in the 1960s/1970s is ample demonstration of its benign effects. Remove it from the black market and, as with alcohol, you de-fund criminal empires. Let everyone grow their own and it won't cost much of anything.
" 'secure wiping', or lack thereof, is the issue. "
The desire to wipe with software instead of the trivial amount of effort to physically smash and/or incinerate the media is the issue.
Compared to important data, media costs are trivial. Wipe media by destroying it thoroughly and you won't have to wonder about forensic recovery. Drive shredders and the like are spiffy, but a few dollars worth of common hand tools can destroy any drive.
"Unfortunately, better working conditions aren't retroactive, and the possibility that things will be better in China in a century or so is of no help to the human beings being fucked over right now."
They are still doing vastly better than most Chinese through history. This is the price of progress, and considering Chinas condition in 1948 the country has made amazing progress.
We cannot compete with them unless we drop our wages and join economic battle the old-fashioned way. There is nothing we can do they cannot do cheaper.
"Why don't you guys just install a proper rooftop / loft aerial and get a decent signal without all the fiddling? In the UK all most buildings where people live have an aerial and tv points in the rooms, in the same way each room has power sockets."
I've had rats as pets, and they LOVE peanut butter.
For enemy rats, wear gloves and mix lots of rat poison into peanut butter. Bait traps with balls of the mix, so even if they steal the food they are snuffed.
I'd let senior leadership embrace whatever hideous goatsificated disaster they want and ensure I didn't get blamed for it, then let someone else's fail be my job security.
I work to obtain money, and while working for smart people is nice, I'll work for cretins if necessary. There are strategies for doing this that lessen stress (apathy rocks) and making massuh value your ability to save his bacon.
Geeks are often idealists. That's adorable until you have bills to pay.
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""Because we can" the neckbearded Linux dweebs living in their mother's basement will tell you in between LARP sessions and shoving greased up Yoda dolls into their asses,"
OK, you sold me on the lifestyle. Is there a particularly suitable Yoda doll?
Outlawing booze is proven to backfire, but punishing drunks has some useful effect. After all the issue is behavior, not booze.
If the drunks (or anyone else) do crimes, punish the crimes harshly enough that people will be afraid to commit them.
I do agree on legalizing cannabis though. Most smokers will never be harmed by it, and those who smoke too much are the sort of people who should be kept docile for the good of the rest of us. The MASSIVE consumption of cannabis in the 1960s/1970s is ample demonstration of its benign effects. Remove it from the black market and, as with alcohol, you de-fund criminal empires. Let everyone grow their own and it won't cost much of anything.
" 'secure wiping', or lack thereof, is the issue. "
The desire to wipe with software instead of the trivial amount of effort to physically smash and/or incinerate the media is the issue.
Compared to important data, media costs are trivial. Wipe media by destroying it thoroughly and you won't have to wonder about forensic recovery. Drive shredders and the like are spiffy, but a few dollars worth of common hand tools can destroy any drive.
If it's an older laptop or the mechanical hard disk died, go for it. Addonics make SATA CF adapters so you are not restricted to IDE CF adapters.
"If we can ban sales of pictures of people having sex to minors and impose other draconian punishment, then why is obscene violence any different?"
Religion condemns pleasure it does not control. Violence OTOH is intrinsic to the superstitions of the desert and they favor it as a tool.
Malware that actually thinned the herd would make for a more robust herd.
"the first thing that came to mind reading your post involved a blood-spattered "furry" (as in a dude wearing some fluffy costume)."
Your ideas intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
"It's unfortunate that it is."
That's a matter of opinion.
I want Microsoft to chase its customers away, and this may help.
"If you're not up for filing down a few points on a torx driver, you have no business fiddling around inside a laptop anyhow."
True, and if you have a Dremel and a fine abrasive bit you can trim the torx even more easily.
He could give another person limited power of attorney to enter his property with a camera (and possibly police escort).
He should have emptied or frozen all his accounts instantly in any event
"Now they can make money re-educating the same students they educated before!"
This assumes the students retain anything in the first place...
The people who ARE the cheap labor will not benefit by being replaced by robots.
"Unfortunately, better working conditions aren't retroactive, and the possibility that things will be better in China in a century or so is of no help to the human beings being fucked over right now."
They are still doing vastly better than most Chinese through history. This is the price of progress, and considering Chinas condition in 1948 the country has made amazing progress.
We cannot compete with them unless we drop our wages and join economic battle the old-fashioned way. There is nothing we can do they cannot do cheaper.
"Why don't you guys just install a proper rooftop / loft aerial and get a decent signal without all the fiddling? In the UK all most buildings where people live have an aerial and tv points in the rooms, in the same way each room has power sockets."
This was once common in ancient suburban America.
"If the average slashdotter's spent half the time working to promote open source to the average consumer,"
The average consumer can afford Windows, learned on Windows, and does not need to invest the considerable time to learn anything different.
When there are replacements for everything they use on Windows that run on both Windows and Linux Joe Sixpack _might_ give a shit.
We already pay fuel taxes, the money from which _should_ be used to fund road repair.
Adding separate billing is absurd and imposes an additional compliance burden on users.
"And how many people have pocket calculators now?"
So many we don't track them because they are taken for granted. They are scattered about home and business. There is no need to carry them about.
"Hey, I'm a DNA provider too, baby."
They can have my DNA when they pour it from my cold, dead keyboard.
I've had rats as pets, and they LOVE peanut butter.
For enemy rats, wear gloves and mix lots of rat poison into peanut butter. Bait traps with balls of the mix, so even if they steal the food they are snuffed.
They should have kept to standard designs, dropped the price, and made Palms as common and cheap as pocket calculators.
"Our parents somehow survived."
I didn't survive, you insensitive clod!
"I would not consider the An-124 to be a viable commercial aircraft,"
It's "viable" enough to be subcontracted to ship MRAPs to Iraq and A-stan for (presumably) a handsome profit!
http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/jan/05/air_force_hires_russian_jets26735/
"I think I have issues."
If she's hawt you do not have issues.
If she looks like Janet Reno you have issues.
If she looks like Janet Reno and dresses per your description, post pics because you are not alone.
"Get out. Run while you can!"
In this economy?
I'd let senior leadership embrace whatever hideous goatsificated disaster they want and ensure I didn't get blamed for it, then let someone else's fail be my job security.
I work to obtain money, and while working for smart people is nice, I'll work for cretins if necessary. There are strategies for doing this that lessen stress (apathy rocks) and making massuh value your ability to save his bacon.
Geeks are often idealists. That's adorable until you have bills to pay.
Bundle that with AOL and sell it as "Windows Trailer Park Edition".