galadriel

I also don't allow any app requiring those details (unless they are needed obviously, like VoIP), but I think what most companies want is the unique serial number, so they can keep a track of how many unique devices are used by them. But since Android does not gives permission at more granular level, I simply don't install any such app, or don't upgrade one which ask for it.

As for Facebook, I am using Tinfoil for Facebook app (It is a website wrapper, essentially). It was faster than whatever app Facebook managed to write.

Wait, but two post above you said that government involvement is bad because it will turn emergency rooms to DMV. I thought state of Massachusetts runs the DMV, and hence they would be utterly unqualified to give health care? Am I getting something wrong?

Because most of the police force in US in maintained by local government, like cities or counties. Since laws vary from state to state and cities to cities, it is helpful to mention where the incident is taking place. Mentioning NYPD tells you a lot of things at once- that the incident is specific to New York city (since state and federal authorities were not involved), and that it was done by local police force of New York city, which has very distinct operating pattern and policies from some other police force, like one in LA (the LAPD), or some small rural police force.

As to why LAPD and NYPD are famous, that must be probably because these two cities have incidents that are worth national/international discussion. If you start reading more local US news, they usually mention which police department is involved in the case, like the county head or State attorney, etc.

And I would credit /r/askscience for it. They have shown how wonderful banhammer is, with mods that don't hesitate to use it.

Most banks require a Government ID to open an account, and additional IDs when giving out credit card. I don't see how it is different. And I think you can still use cash if you want to.

Where are you getting this stupid 20,000 year figure from? Even with current tech, we can travel at 0.1c easily, that is without any extra effort made in actually travelling outside our solar system. Near-by candidates are within 20ly, so at min it would take just 200 year, or 3 human generations.

And if it might give you some peace, there are thing called machines that can be built to contact other civilization without sacrificing your hypothetical children.

Google will never fix the situation on devices it doesn't sells itself, because it cannot. They cannot force manufacturers to provide update, because most consumers don't care. If you want a well updated phone, get a Galaxy Nexus. Apart from it, the only other phone in market guaranteed to be updated is iPhone.

Better yet, consider switching to prepaid, and you will be less annoyed every time your carrier withholds the update. Most of the international versions do get updated, even if their record is not as stellar as Google/Apple.

If experience of India and Pakistan have to show anything, developing Nuclear Weapons is not a big deal, except when there are systematic attack against your infrastructure and scientists by foreign powers. Heck, I would wager that any decently educated engineers and physicist with government backing can build a nuclear bomb. The domain knowledge is not very exotic, either.

That's exactly what Marginal cost is, the change in total cost to produce one more copy of the same product.

Well, T-Mobile prepaid has 5 GB data for $30 at their 4G speed. Also includes unlimited SMS and 100 minutes of talk. Pretty decent deal for me.

Because Apple has a billion or so dollars to throw away for getting a factory started that will build the said screens for them. And that all PC Manufacturers are fighting a dog fight for the razor thin margins at end of sale spectrum.

Quite a large number of people pay to pirate, like those who paid for Megaupload, and those who pay for Usenet access. The charge is almost what Netflix charges (~10$ a month), but the selection and quality is much better (for pirated content), and catalog is also better. And better yet you don't loose the stuff that can be watched because some licensing agreement failed.

I think even if Piratebay starts charging what Netflix charges, it will remain a huge website.

If it is India, you are probably too poor to be literate, or if literate, you have very little time to engage in privilege of reading books. So the answer is I guess, you don't. Pretty much like you don't get (decent) healthcare for poor in US.

But why stop at taxes then? The same argument can be applied to say, theft. I don't want to steal, but I would not force anyone from stealing.

And before you bring in the obvious thing that stealing harms people, so does not paying taxes. Not paying taxes means that people take from society without giving back their fair share. Not paying taxes means million of kids sleeping hungry for no fault of their own but being born in to wrong parent. It means crime running rampant, as there is no police to stop criminals. If someone can come up with a society where everyone can pursue happiness without having to pay taxes, I am all ears.

As for now, not only is it moral for you to pay tax, but it is also moral for you to "force" people to pay their fare share, if you want to maximize utility and happiness in society.

While I understand your concern about foreign travelers, I think you are a bit naive in defending acts of your border security. It should concern you that these people have absolute authority to perform any search and seizures at their whims, and also can deny entry to anyone. Legally, a US citizen cannot be denied entry, but they will use any possible power they have (which is vast) to keep you out of your country if they want to. [1] All in name of freedom. So watch out next time you use your freedom of speech while returning to your own country.

US is still a country of nice people, and my interaction with border official has been nothing but pleasant. Although there is a lot more security theater than when travelling to other countries, the officials from TSA, CBP and other agencies have been courteous and professional. However, it would still be a bad idea if you think that denying entry on jokes is fine.

As to your claims of US being #1 in freedom and no place for anyone else to go, I am pretty sure that countries in Europe will be more receptive to your entry even after all your jokes, because they usually don't pretend to have a security theater to "protect" themselves from "terrorists".

[1] http://www.aclunc.org/issues/government_surveillance/u.s._ci...

If someone sincerely believes that piracy is theft, then they should simply demand that piracy be equated to theft at all level. This would then imply that piracy would be dealt as any other theft is dealt.

This would involve the owner making a police report about this theft, and state machinery getting search warrant to find the "stolen" article. Once the stolen article is found, it will be "replaced" back to the owner.

This would then be also beneficial to defendant, because now he would have the right to lawyer, and if he is unable to get one, the state will provide one. He would also have presumption of innocence, and if found guilty, his punishment would be jail time. If there is fine, it would have to be proportional to the "theft", and not some $250,000 for immeasurable damage.

Very likely, three strike laws and such would also apply, which ensures that anyone committing "theft" repeatedly will most probably see long sentences.

Why have different laws on book, if piracy is theft and can be dealt as such? And what about all the expiration of ownership? My great-grandfather's ring is still with me, and its ownership did not expire 70 years after his death. Perhaps all literature should still be owned by the estate of the dead, after all, it is property that is being stolen in plain sight everyday.

How many suicides would it take before Foxconn is out of business? 1, 10, 1000, .... ? . People already know of dozens or so suicides that have taken place in Foxconn. If people kept on buying stuff regardless, what difference would more suicides make?

Call me cynical, but everyone loves cheap products much more than far removed suicides of random people half way across the globe.

As a intern, my visa was quite straight forward which involved going to German embassy and getting the visa 2 days later. The trickiest part of getting work visa in Germany is to get a ZAV, but that is waived if you are a guest scientist, which also includes students of science coming for research.

I have no idea about Spain, but going to Portugal for similar reason was PITA.

I thought NIV was usually used with application for EB2 Green card. Is there a NIV category in H1B too?

One way would be to that the companies interview you in your countries. This usually happens with on-campus recruitment.

Other way is that you are on some other visa (other than B-1), that does allows you to solicit, give interviews, etc. For example at the end of F-1 study visa, you can go around and shop for some time to get a job, and the company will then sponsor for your H1B.

Just guessing without the details of the case, Comet most likely had a license to sell Windows pre-installed on their computer, but not for supplying a recovery disc. Microsoft is well within its right to sell Windows which ever way they like, as long as they don't abuse their monopoly.

If Comet felt that their customer were not getting a good deal and that Microsoft was monopolistic, there are other recourse in law, which do not involve violating copyrights.

> This is absurd. I was originally considering moving to the US for my postgraduate studies, however, after speaking with peers I decided against it, as other countries that offer far more favorable visa terms exist. Currently, my leading option is New Zealand, bundled with their student visa is a permit to work 20 hours a week, and a year's residency after the completion of your program among other things.

US has almost the same case, as far as STEM students go. You can get a F-1 visa for 5 years, which includes permission to work 20 Hours on campus, or 40 hours off-campus for work related to your education (like a internship or something). Once you are done with 5-6 years of your PhD, you get Optional practical training time(12 months), during which you can take a job, etc. If you are in STEM category,you get another 17 month extension. So in all you have about 2.5 years after your studies (assuming you join a PhD in CS).

As far as students are concerned, US has a very good visa program, but getting a visa to stay after 2.5 years of work seem to be the tricky part. They are not very enthusiastic about keeping students in which they invest a lot of money and time.

If you are in US, try buying from Microsoft Store. They have a website, and few scattered individual stores. And then there is always Apple.

Most probably he is talking about the fact that proper time for all events in Photon's own frame is zero, i.e. a frame that move with speed of light will notice that all events are instantaneous.

One also has to remember that the direct election of senators happened because virtually every state was selling Senate seat, ala Blagojevich style.

16th amendment passed because people wanted Congress to tax rent, interest and property income the same way as their work wages were taxed.

State governments would never need money and interference from Federal Government if they were to build there own highway, maintain their own airwaves, launched their own Moon mission, agree not to prosecute minorities, have their governor not stands in way of kids attending schools, etc etc. Over period of 200 years, both technology and working of States has led to more power getting concentrated in hand of Federal government, because people wished so.

Perhaps the framers thought states would act more sensibly, but that is not what seems to have happened. This also leads to side effects like Federal government regulating what crops I can grow in my home, even if I have no intend of participating in any commerce at all.

I would be inclined to consider MS Windows had monopoly on market of desktop OS, and that particular market had little government oversight, essentially a free market. And Microsoft did what any rational monopolist would do, use it's monopoly power to stop spread of any other OS (by deals with OEM,etc), tried to enter other markets by use of monopoly, etc etc. Standard oil comes to my mind as another monopoly, but the market of petroleum was essentially not that free.

Now you may argue that the OS market was not technically free (as none has been in history of mankind), but I don't see any reason that why a better product would not gain monopoly in free market, and then, barring any restriction, why would the monopolist not (ab)use its power to maintain monopoly.

Paypal, but from the seller side. A lot of banking regulations would prevent Paypal from holding money at whim, etc.

A bit off topic, but NPR chrome app is awesome! http://www.npr.org/webapp

If anything, new Chrome store design makes things more discover-able than before.

Note that the landing with $10 requires that one has to be from developed world.

And there is also a pretty similar procedure to get green card in USA, the EB5 route.

On my Windows laptop, I have configured 1+1 click to act as middle click. It is quite convenient as I move around pointer by touching on finger, and when I want to open the link, I just tap another one, making workflow quite pleasing.

Perhaps you can set the same gesture on Mac ?