Honestly? Yes. If I wanted a cheap linux box there were and are better options. Slashdot is a terrible market indicator on most everything because of the overwhelming libertarian (with a small L) view that obscures the reality that most people don't care.

Actually there is very little evidence that businesses choose location based on taxes. Certain businesses like Amazon habe a certain hinge to their business around it but most businesses could care less. See New York City for a perfect example.

Did you honestly say nothing is better or cheaper when socialized? We've proven for decades utilities, healthcare, and a vast amount of social welfare can be done better when there is no profit motive.

I'll try to give justification for them...and where they went wrong.

RIPD - Good concept, bad production made it seem like Dead people MIB. Role originally written for Zach Galifanakis went Jeff Bridges which is fine but shows how poorly this movie was written out.

After Earth - Coming of age movie, sci-fi. Could have been a nice solid action movie but letting actors decide that their children should be stars as well is a recipe for disaster.

White House Down - Popcorn movie. I really don't see anything wrong with it except for it being one of too many.

Pacific Rim - Just stop making it dark and neon. It didn't need to look like a Daft Punk video and drop the two as one concept. It would have worked fine as a simple action movie but the mechanics were overly complicated.

Lone Ranger - Don't hire Johnny Depp, don't make it a comedy, let the Lone Ranger be not only good but great at what he does. Good westerns are rare since Tombstone and Unforgiven but 3:10 to Yuma was alright. If anything the time is ripe for a few good westerns and maybe a trilogy of lone gunman-type movie franchise.

Honestly the movies largely suffered from overcrowding and poor writing. The Harry Potter and Hunger Games series aren't stellar reads and in 20 years won't hold up against Hemingway or Tolkien but they have coherent plots and likable characters which goes farther than most. I really feel atleast RIPD and the lone ranger were salvagable at an IP level. The others probably should be let out to pastor.

Nice attempt to plant a seed of conspiracy while offering no proof. The machines are electromechanical wheel counters, like an old tabulating machine. They can be rigged but require additional reels and a secondary piece to manipulate them. It's why they're practically unhackable.

Idiots who don't understand fiat currency make me sad. Basically we dillute the money supply as a proportion of the GDP. In other words we base our money off of our collective labor rather than some arbitrary metal we deem rare enough to care about.

Only if it actually impedes you physically. Following you is considered an impediment but again itnwould be up to a court to decide. Simply asking and their answer is strictly voluntary.

That large diverse group keeps a consistent record of bigoted behavior. I'll defend parts of Pennsylvania to the hilt as liberal bastions but I recognize the state as an ultra-conservative T in the middle. Florida has large retirement communities, liberal urban centers, and rural conservative stretches. The state's consistent record on race has been abysmal to say the least.

Lets call it what it is. Exceptions prove the rule more often than not. This case is classically Florida justice.

To boot, whatever she was doing it wasn't expulsion worthy and to go after her that hard seems to suggest racial bias or hardened paranoia. In either case the ADA should be questioned for her increasingly disproportionate decisions and perhaps be brought up for disbarment if this is more than just a small pattern.

It's actually a poorly thought out business plan to bait and switch with ads. But nice try at being cynical. If profit is based on sales it relies on keeping the device viable, ads diminish that.

It's called the noble savage, dolt. It's specifically a reference to literary works where a person from a 'lesser' civilization is viewed as more in tune with nature and inherently more moral due to the lack of greed, money, or other social ill. It was generally used as a juxtaposition to industrialized man who saw himself as a social elite.

There is plenty of proof from anthropologists proving that small societies tended to have less social ills because there is a more interconnectivity within the group so that any faux pas or crime would cause ostracism. In other words: The OP was right and you're misusing a term you couldn't even spell right.

The internet is less an issue of paid adverts vs. Free content. What the pre-2000s internet was was a series of largely university and privates pages where academia was the top of the heap. It was social by the late 90s but the commercial internet really didn't quite exist. Post-2000s the rise of better HTML and protocols allowed the internet to grow into a full virtual world democratically dominated by corporations and uneducated masses alike. The world of academia lost the war and there is no shame in that.

What were seeing is the internet fully democratized with all social elements. As it stands until criminal activity becomes so disruptive as to make the internet unusable it will remain and even then the firat response will be to better secure it rather than kill it.

We mostly need to worry about the internet breaking into corporate intranets more than anything. Secures fifedoms where MS, Apple, Google, and Amazon reign. Apple is already starting down this path with stricter protocols and allowances with both physical devices, proprietary OS/mOS, and stifling competition where it can. Amazon is starting to follow suit. It's the most likely scenario. Not one I wish either.

Very little of our oil is saudi, as in next to none in the US. We import mainly from Mexico & Venezuela. Oil is a global commodity that few governments have sought to nationalize to bring an end to middle east domination.

But I digress..

Or for people that like larger screens, people who don't like apple's OS, or for people who don't think a laptop should cost a month of a mortage. But that's neither here nor there, carry on with your status symbols.

What kind of class are you in? In science classes the texts are nothing without an explanation or transistion. In social sciences the texts are great but lack the minutia of discussion. I just don't see a class where the professor is just some exam proctor. Maybe you're just conflating your ego a bit too much as if the professor was in the way of your intellect.

You're making some pretty strong assumptions. First that professors care whether students read the material, we don't. This is big person school and you should be doing what we assigned as it is nominally expected. I'm the biggest giver in my department, if young adults come to me and ask for help or a more thorough explanation I always give it. This is a really great metric to see if assigning a reading is worthwhile as to see if the majority reads it or refers to another source. Second the alternatives you give seem a little outlandish. Hacking an ebook isn't exactly grade school knowledge and at most a kid is more likely to download a PDF of the book from a torrent site than break the encryption on the software.

This is why people get paranoid over nothing. Professors in general are more hurt when you don't read than angry. We wonder why we screwed up more than you.