tnash

Awesome fun, played all ten levels. MORE LEVELS!

Anybody else in Columbus, OH? This place is the best.

I think the most powerful argument here is that just because one may think that they have nothing to hide, and they don't mind "having their picture taken naked and distributed to their neighbors" doesn't mean that they should enforce their beliefs on others.

Was I the only one really hoping for "Reticulating Splines"?

This is good news. What was proposed before (a price floor five times above taxis, assuredly to prevent disruption of the taxi industry) was not at all in the public's best interest.

This brings up the concept of taking the right tone with your customers. This is a perfect example of what not to do. "Don't worry, your concerns are invalid... Oh, you have a valid point? Doesn't matter, we don't care."

It's awesome. I'm not Jewish (a Christian-raised atheist) and I spent a month there in Dec. 08. You have to realize that Judaism is both a culture and a religion. Most Israelis are not religious. They celebrate Jewish holidays but you won't see them in a synagogue.

Israelis are a super laid back people that say what's on their minds. Tact isn't really part of the culture. They go to five star restaurants and weddings in T-Shirts and jeans. Family is very important and if one adopts you you'll be stuffed full of amazing food and then sit around the table drinking coffee and mint tea and talking. It's a lot of fun.

With all the misinformation that's out there about the conflict, living in Tel Aviv will give you an opportunity to see the reality of the situation. An yes, you should be safe in Tel Aviv unless Hamas or Fatah decide to start suicide bombings again (but they haven't in many years). If you travel to the south, you should learn what Tseva Adom means.

I didn't change my definitions at all, you've just been overly pedantic. I wrote these things in break time between working. It wasn't an end-all be-all.

I'm sorry that I was not clear, but I thought it was obvious that I was talking about terrorism, as that is the main violent issue in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Could it be related to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_in_the_U...

I remember in my college security class our prof recommended that if we left the country we didn't bring any sort of cryptography work with us. I'm not a lawyer so I don't quite understand the legal ramifications.

Yeah, you're right.

Yes, I made it up. Wasn't it obvious? What I meant was that the vast majority of terror attacks in Israel are committed by Arabs. That's really indisputable. Why are you going off on a tangent to talk about rape? What does that have to do with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? Domestic violence is a horrible problem everywhere, but I don't see why you're bringing it up here.

Yes, there are Palestinians civilians killed by Israeli civilians. However, they are not state sponsored. When an Israeli civilian is killed in a terror attack, it is state sponsored. Palestinians democratically elected Hamas, a globally recognized terrorist organization. Fatah, in charge of the West Bank, also has a terrorist arm, called the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

Arabs are an ethnicity. Egypt was an example of an Arab dominant culture that does not treat Israel well (even though they have a peace agreement!).

You're really grasping at straws. If you want to defend the actions of terrorist organizations like Hamas, go ahead, but I'm not going to pay attention to it.

"are there not Israelis who are also Arab?" Yes. And in fact, many serve in the Knesset, and the army.

"Why are you mixing citizenship with ethnicity?" It's the ethnicity that they use to profile.

"using the same scale, what is the percentage of violence committed against Arabs by Israelis?" I don't know. More Arabs are killed by other Arabs than by Israelis. If you're talking about just Palestinians, yes, it would be by Israelis.

"Don't some of those fall into the category of "terror attack"?" No. No. No. That's the biggest problem with education about the conflict. How do you define a "terror attack"? I define it as violent acts towards civilians with the intent of causing mass psychological damage. Israel does not commit such acts. They attack military targets in the Gaza Strip, and sometimes kill civilians, as any army in the world has had the difficult issue of doing. A British soldier stood up in the UN and proclaimed that during the last Israeli/Gaza offensive (operation cast lead), Israel did more to protect Gazan civilians than any nation has ever done previously (http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=bdKKI...). He was referring to the Goldstone report, which was later rescinded and apologized for.

"Isn't there a power imbalance which prevents Arabs from profiling and being able to restrict what Israelis can do?" No, not at all. Try getting into Egypt with an Israeli passport. Multiple acquaintances that have were harassed by Egyptian police. In actuality, it is much more difficult for Israelis in Arab countries than it is for Arabs in Israel.

"If Arabs were able to profile and exclude certain classes of people, wouldn't that help stop further "countless terror attacks" against them?" What terrorist attacks?

"If I understand your view rightly, I think you are in favor of having the Israelis out of the West Bank, as that would reduce the overall amount of attacks. Is that correct?" I am 100% for a two-state solution with two people living side by side peacefully. Settlements in the West Bank are an issue that needs to be figured out. You have to realize that these "settlements" are sometimes small, and sometimes (like Ariel) are large cities with thousands of residents. It's not simple to just get them to up and move. Remember, Israel did that (The unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip) and all they have gotten in return is more than 9000 rockets and mortars fired on Israeli citizens.

(edit) Ah yes, downvoted for the inconvenient truth.

Yep that pretty much sums it up. I guess I am, since I'm taking time from work to write this stuff.

And Arabs can volunteer to join the army, even though they are not drafted, and some do.

I'm not sure asking for email credentials is a "metaphorical gun". 99% of the violence committed against Israelis is done by Arabs. You suggest that profiling is wrong (and it is! Don't we all wish we lived in a world where it wasn't necessary!), but it works. It's stopped countless terror attacks.

Well, since you weren't clear, and still aren't, straw man it was. Your point is what? That privacy is sacrosanct? That we should live in a world where libertarianism rules all? What is your point? Stop me anytime.

We're talking about the same thing here. Security abuses privacy, but is necessary. My point was, and still is, that for some it is more necessary than others. As we in the US and Western Europe don't live under constant threat to our lives, we accept less. However, Israelis do live under that threat, so they accept more.

Well, you know, it's just, I've been on the internet. People tend to take things to extremes. Tech people tend to be liberal, and most liberals in the US have an anti-Israeli view. I prefer not to divulge my political leanings (but just because I agree with someone else on one point does not mean I agree with them on any other) but I know a very great deal about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and its implications. I want to educate, and I don't want to see mindless bashing of Israel like I see on pretty much every tech forum where the topic comes up.

So you're saying if someone were pointing a gun at your family, and you also had a gun pointed at them, you would refuse to use it out of a belief that you occupy some moral high ground?

Before any kind of Israel bashing starts, I want to say that unless you have lived under constant threat to your life like nearly all Israelis have during some point of their life, you cannot really grasp the lengths you will go to to preserve your life and the lives of your family.

Nonetheless, this does seem a little overboard. From having personally been grilled by Israeli airport security, I can say that they are very thorough. I doubt they really need this intrusion to determine if someone is a threat, as it is easier for them to just not grant access, but I suppose if someone really needed to get into the country they could be willing to divulge the information.

Security, in any form, is annoying. Implement two-factor on your gmail account, and it will occasionally annoy you when you have to dig out your phone for the code, and that's just to protect your email from prying eyes! What if you had to legitimately protect your life and the lives of your family? What kind of inconvenience would you accept for that protection?

(Edit) Why is this downvoted? What did I say that did not add to the conversation? Just because you disagree with me? That's rather childish. I think my point is rather poignant, that security is a necessary evil, and that for some it is more necessary than others.

I like your point about the backlash being like Vista, considering that I thought Vista was a fine OS. However, I think that was more of a jump sideways whereas this is more of a jump forwards/backwards. I haven't used it since the dev preview, but I'm looking forward to putting this on one machine and trying it out.

I'm hoping for a lot more customization. I don't understand why that's being taken out of every modern operating system. The biggest thing I dislike about Windows Phone is that I can't change the tiles to be non-insane colored. I just want them to be white, dammit! I'm hoping that level of customization is present in Win 8, but I have a sinking feeling that it will not be.

Whoa.. a combination of my two favorite things, technology and pizza. I need this job.

A nice high hydration dough with a 3 day cold ferment. San Marzano tomato sauce.

I think this is great. The browser isn't an OS, it's a portal. It's already running on an OS. It didn't work for mobile (remember Apple was all about the web apps back in the day), it shouldn't work for desktop.

I think that's a broad leap from "uses a computer for work" to "understands technology". My grandparents use computers for work, but they do not know much about technology.

Where we value the ability to obtain goods and services over people's health.

Not savings, but purchasing power. Better?

I think this is telling: "In his personal life, Skrbina says he generally tries not to use technology if he can avoid it—he refuses to carry a cellphone, has never owned a microwave oven, and does not have a laptop (though he does use computers for his work)." So he advocates understanding Kaczynski's point of view, but he doesn't attempt to understand technology? That seems rather one-sided.

If you watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution show to this point, it was quite depressing how little was done about it on the American show. We unfortunately live in a world where we value money over people's health.

Yeah...that's insane. Since they're a "pre-revenue" company, they're just burning money.

"In the last bubble there were no customers. Facebook makes $4 per user. The users are customers."

Nope. The users are the product, not the customers.

I really loved the line "It’s like I’m waiting for the movie of my life to begin instead of realizing that I’m already living it." I feel like that a lot. I have to remind myself to focus on now.