I think it depends on what kind of disaster we have and where the self sustaining outpost is. If the disaster is that our solar system is bombarded by enough gamma rays to kill all life on earth and our outpost is on the moon, we're still extinct.

In a world of insane, draconian laws being misapplied, less enforcement of laws is a good thing

Say that a little louder, and their importation will be banned.

If the officer had stayed out of the doorway (as he should have been legally required to do) there wouldn't have been a problem. The big problem is that police are given such extraordinary protections under the law. Assault on a police officer should not really be any different than assault on any law abiding citizen. No malice and no real harm should not equal seven years in jail.

You could always change the combination to 12345. It's always worked for me.

Are you suggesting live performances by adult film stars? Oh, boy. I can see it now. Gentleman, you can "perform" with [insert popular starlet] on stage for $100. That won't stay legal in most places.

I disagree with the idea that people don't care about graphics, plot, etc. My wife started playing games with things like The Sims, but she has grown as a gamer and now plays things like Mass Effect, Fallout 3, and Starcraft 2. She loves the graphics almost as much as the story line. That's not to say casual games like Plants vs. Zombies aren't enjoyable, but for the longest time my wife believed the blockbuster games would be too hard to play and just watched me. The VATS system in Fallout 3 made it much easier for her, and has broken down her casual game barrier.

By the way, yes, my wife is awesome!

According to their supporters list, the Document Foundation has backing from Canonical, Google, Novell, and Redhat, along with many smaller names. Novell already has their own version of Open Office, called go-oo, with some extra stuff added for MS Office compatibility, so they for certain have paid developers working on this. I imagine the other three have developers working on this as well. With these heavy hitters behind it, I imagine Libre Office will succeed and Open Office will be forgotten.

Did anyone else notice that the iPhone apparently has a credit card reader in it? Wow, I guess they really are revolutionary devices!

Could you have something to measure the draw on your battery? If you have your radio off, lights off, etc. the same every time you start your car, everything should be the same. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a device like that should draw something.

What I'm really wondering is what happens when that little extra draw is just enough to overtax your electrical system. Does the FBI have to pay for damaging your car? Similar note; if you are in a wreck and the device is damaged, does the FBI claim damages too? If their (presumable lithium) battery explodes or shocks a rescue worker, will the FBI just deny all knowledge and leave the car owner with all the responsibility?

I respect that law enforcement has a very tough job, but in this case, I'm not sure the end justifies the means.

No, it's like your doctor coming to your house unannounced and uninvited, kicking in your door, and charging you for a house call. Best Buy is refusing sell a PS3 unless people pay for the upgrade. You don't get to watch them. They've already unboxed it, lost a cable or two, and put the firmware version that was current at the time. Do they even guarantee it's still current when you buy it? If Sony releases a new firmware at 5pm, does anyone really expect a PS3 bought at Best Buy to be up to date at 5:30?

My dad had a 1990 Camaro, and I helped him change the spark plugs once. We spent about eight hours. The mechanics cringed and said it was at least a three to four hour job for them. This was not a job designed to be easy to do yourself.

On the other hand, PS3 firmware updates are meant to be done by 6-year-olds who can barely read but can press X. The hardest part is setting up wireless, and that's negated by putting the updates on disc.

A better comparison would be a dealer charging you extra to set your radio presets to the available local stations. It's trivially easy to do yourself, and if you ever go anywhere besides the town where you bought the car, you'll have to do it yourself anyway.

The problem is that some ISP will mistake your BitTorrent client downloading Sintel for a botnet and have the random ports for 30 of the 32 peers you can find blocked. Then, a new botnet will use a new zero day attack and masquerade as something users are guaranteed, such as iTunes radio. As soon as that is patched, some new game will use a different port that's blocked and tick off another customer. It will be a vicious cycle, because ISPs can't dictate what software you are allowed to use. Botnets and worms, however, have no legal purposes, and no sane law-abiding person would want to have their machine be a zombie on the internet.

Perhaps a phone call would be better than an email. I've always found it hard to send once my service has been interrupted.

As ISPs go, they already are taking the wrong kind of people going at the wrong speed off the internet (read: p2p users or anyone who goes over the arbitrary download limit). This would be like towing the guy going 5 miles over the posted 70mph speed limit, but not even giving a warning to the guy with the unmarked wide load as he sideswipes other drivers while speeding down the road with a bunch of stolen cash from the latest heist. I don't like what they are already doing, but they should try to protect their network from botnet traffic. What I'm trying to say is that yes, it is a slippery slope. The problem is that the ISPs in America jumped straight to the bottom and missed this needed step on the way there. And for the record, if a machine at my house were to be infected by a botnet, I would appreciate a call from my ISP saying they have suspended my access until I'm cleaned up a lot more than I would appreciate not knowing at all. I would also appreciate not getting verified botnet activity coming down from my ISP.