My mother said the same thing when our family got its dishwasher. It might have been the chlorine bleach that's present in dishwashing detergent.

Am I the only one who doesn't have a problem with other theater goers ruining my experience? I haven't had a problem with rowdy or disruptive audiences since I stopped going to ghetto theaters.

I would mod you up, but sadly, I have no mod points.

Last time I checked, the IRS would let you download PDFs of the tax filing forms, and these PDFs were the kind you could fill information in the blanks. When I still used the 1040EZ form that's what I did. I'd print one out, do it by hand with pencil and paper, then when I was ready, fill out the PDF then print it out, sign it, then mail it in with my W-2, etc.

My state had PDF forms too but they were the kind you could fill in data.

They (employers) want people with a STEM degree and paid experience to go along with it, but they only want to pay those people wages commensurate with someone who's fresh out of college.

I think what he meant was "grow up without free music" (other than FM radio). I grew up when music wasn't free. You had FM radio, you had friends who'd share their CDs and records, trade tapes, maybe see a live show if you could afford it. Having a music collection meant a big investment of money, unless you could make lots of tapes off of other friends collections.

Anyone remember holding the tape recorder up to the radio to record their favorite song?

As many votes that Ron Paul gets. Well, except for disbanding the NSA, I don't recall him saying anything about that.

In the old days (think Ellis Island), all you had to do was show up and say "Here I am". You didn't need a immigration attorney, and years of paperwork.

You mean just using Tor, while not illegal, will become one of those things that can cause you problems? They'll think you have something hide? When does it all end?

Its not just NSA that you're hiding from, its your ISP and others. Who knows, maybe 5-10 years from now when you go to apply for a job, besides the drug screening, credit check, social media background check, they'll want to examine your internet usage to make sure you're not doing something your employer doesn't approve of.

Does anyone remember the controversy (one of many) about Windows 95 when it would do the same thing? When you went to register it, it would supposedly tell Microsoft what programs you had installed. When I got my Win95 machine in December 1995 I watched carefully to see what it did. The phoning home and telling them what you had installed was voluntary, and the only program that Win95 could accurately detect was MS Office 95. It couldn't detect any of the DOS games I had installed, nor did it seem to recognize the 3rd party email apps, etc I had installed.

You're absolutely right. My older brother is a licensed engineer who operates heating systems. He had to learn mechanics and physics, the real thing.

On Slashdot and other fora people seem to think only civil engineers who build bridges are real engineers. If a steam engineer doesn't know what he's doing the boiler could blow, taking out an entire building full of people.

I grew up in the 1970's and had to listen to my parents complain about how great things used to be and how they sucked now (then). Didn't hear it so much in the late 1980's. When the recession hit in the early 1990's it was in all the newspaper editorials that the US was a fading empire like the Greeks, Romans, and British before us. Basically everything we're hearing now. Once we bounced back and had a big economic boom in the late 90's it wasn't the case anymore. Then the recession of the early 2000s hit and it was the same thing all over again. Our empire such as it is may be fading but whenever there is a economic downturn, we hear the same complaints.

I graduated from a Maryland High School (a Catholic private one though) in 1984 and I'm pretty sure Algebra II was required as well, along with Geometry and Chemistry. I don't remember if Trig was required or not. People who were bad at math struggled to get the requirements out of the way. They would take one year of "Algebra 1 part 1" and then Algebra 1 part 2". Most everyone took Algebra 1 Freshman year, Algebra 2 sophomore year, Geometry/Trig Junior year (1 semester for each course) and were highly encouraged to take either Pre-Calc or Calculus 1 their senior year. I took Calc 1 but it was nothing like college level Calc 1. What took us 3-4 weeks to cover in high school we covered in 1-1.5 weeks in college. The pace was way too fast for me and I had to drop the course.

Graduation requirements come and go with whatever is in fashion. Studying a foreign language was optional back then but it might be mandatory now. One religion class I had made us do some volunteer charity work and I think now it is a requirement for graduation, although I don't know if this applies to state schools as well.

Even though foreign language was optional when I was there, we were told that some colleges required it and we were encouraged to take two years of it. They offered Spanish, French, and Latin. I really wanted to learn a cool language like German, or Japanese but they didn't offer anything like that.

I agree. Back in the old days all you needed was a computer, web browser, an internet connection, and maybe a few plug-ins. Now you need an app for this website and an app for that website, etc etc.