What makes you think Senators would make better projectiles?

They can call the new service Johnnycab.

I logged in just to see if I had points to mod you up.

So what? The Magna Carta was written 800 years ago, and we still value many of the principles it contains. Much of the beauty of the Constitution is how well engineered it is, and how much of its framework still works and applies today, including the 4th and 5th. The fact that the founders couldn't foresee our technology is irrelevant. What you don't seem to understand (most people, actually) is that the Bill of Rights doesn't grant people rights.

It states that these rights preexist, AND EXPLICITLY STATES THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO POWER TO INFRINGE UPON THEM.

Whether we are to be secure in papers in our houses, our strongboxes, or letters, or text messages is simply a game of semantics. These are all communications we intend to hold privately ... and therefore the government has no right to them.

Sorry to reply to myself, but just after I posted, I recalled one of my pet peeves - please don't allow any autoplaying ads. I promise I'll allow you guys through adblocker (hell, you guys need to recoup your investment somehow ... ) if you'll just get rid of those damn things.

They are nothing but disruptive bandwidth wasters. I actively avoid companies who use them.

Any ad network exec that wants to inflict those on someone should be kicked squarely in the crotch.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but yeah, what AC said.

I've seen a couple comments requesting no downmods, eliminate trolls, get rid of AC. All have some valid reason for saying so, but to give in to that would be detrimental to preserving one of the more important features of /. - the opportunity to come here and not be too coddled. I get that we want to favorably alter the signal to noise ratio, but I don't think that's the way to go about it.

When I hear someone say "Get rid of AC," I interpret that as "Children should be seen and not heard,' where adults == people who have taken the time to register, and who have some form of local reputation on the line. You're not wrong, but you're missing out on some priceless truth from time to time if you do that.

You will never eliminate trolls as long as you have the internet. Wasting too much energy in that regard is unwise.

Think carefully before tweaking the mod system. It ain't perfect, but it has achieved a remarkable balance.

"Slashvertisements", articles buffing some *amazing-cool-new-product-service-thing*, need to be reduced. There is a big difference between a new technological discovery or application for said discovery, and the latest gizmos that somehow involve technology.

Get the polls the hell out of the main article feed.

I've seen whipslash respond to the Unicode and HTTPS requests, so no need to drum on those.

Yes. Sad to say, but any day our government manages to avoid further eroding our rights, it feels like a significant victory.

I used to answer these phone call polls, and then I'd harangue them for over half an hour with a detailed explanation of my political opinions. I never asked to have my name taken off their list, but somehow I stopped getting calls. Must be a coincidence.

From what I saw, it looks like they are using the Oculus. It is more restricted than the normal view from a football helmet? I love my DK2, but it sure doesn't give me a whole lot of peripheral vision.

Whoosh, amigo. Whoosh.

Morally speaking, testing on lawyers and politicians would be preferable to using rats. However, scientific consensus is that the lack of a high-functioning nervous system in most politicians and lobbyists, et al, means that any results would not likely work on real humans.