throwaway092834

Sure. But do keep in mind that truly outrageous speech and behavior really does tend to have a devastating effect on the success of projects. We don't see that here because the speech really isn't outrageous or hurtful -- it's merely comedic and vulgar.

You may want to consider that your personal values aren't representative of the norm.

I'm much more interested in protecting individual freedom of expression than I am with worrying whether there are people out there who are so crass as to collectively judge the entire field of software development.

Code is speech. Open source projects often have a subtext of affecting a political or social change either within a software community, or sometimes beyond. In this particular case, my reading of the text is that Zed wishes to create a baseline of ridicule for those who would prefer to alter software to support extremely old browsers. It's a fair position, and while he may be able to make that point without vulgar language he may also be effectively speaking to his audience with his crude humor.

As merijnv noted above, if you feel so strongly about language you're free to not use his project. He is free to speak and code as he wishes and you are free to support what you wish. This freedom of expression is extremely valuable, not because the word "fuck" has any particular intrinsic value, but because it's a culture of permissiveness which enables people to speak their minds and attempt to affect change even if they're clumsy and crude with language. Because it allows comedy -- and everyone's perception of comedic value is different.

It really does, in fact, work that way. Vulgar language is pretty common both in OSS and, perhaps surprisingly, in private codebases. I assume you don't subscribe to LKML, or have never read the linux kernel source? grep -ir fuck in linux, you may be surprised at what you uncover.

I understand your point and on a personal level I agree. I maintain a level of professionalism in my own work. I find that kind of language ultimately unproductive.

However, the OSS world has a good deal of engineering talent that swears like a sailor and is, at the same time, quite successful. This is simply an observable fact.

We have a few people who wear suits, or nice dress shirts and slacks. It's just not a big deal. No one cares.

This is simply not true. Price has an enormous impact on units sold.

I understand your argument but frankly I don't buy it. I don't think filling up inefficient bins of food on closed tech campus is visible to anyone outside the company; I don't see the potential for impact.

I'll be completely honest: I think much of this anti-tech sentiment (such as: tech people don't give) is wishful thinking and willfully divorced from reality. Most large tech companies have public giving foundations and publicize their donation programs. Here are a few examples:

http://csr.cisco.com/pages/employee-volunteers

https://www.google.com/giving/

http://ef.siliconvalleycf.org/blog/yahoo-employee-foundation

http://www.microsoft.com/about/technicalrecognition/charity-...

These kinds of programs are strongly promoted at most tech companies. A large amount of giving happens outside these programs as well, but they do help establish a baseline well in excess of any food drive.

While trying to dig up the data for some of the bigger tech companies in the area I also stumbled across this report, which claims that area workers not only donate above the average but spend significantly more of their time actually going out into the community http://ef.siliconvalleycf.org/blog/bay-area-companies-giving... The article throws around the term "average" a lot which tends to raise my eyebrows, but it does mesh with my anecdotal experience that tech workers on the whole care a lot more about their community in the bay area than workers in general in other regions of the USA.

Pardon, but it's very clear. Take a look at the charitable donation foundations at various tech companies, many of whom publish their donation levels. Or get out and talk to some charities in the area and ask them where their money comes from.

I can't speak for other techies but I will never buy canned food for food drives. It's one of the least efficient ways to donate.

Instead I write a check which helps far, far more. Here's an article on the subject: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2011/12/food...

An overflowing food barrel represents very little in value, compared to the large cash donations made by wealthy techies. Cash donations are buying entire warehouses of food that you just aren't seeing.

Yes, I agree we do not provide adequate health care as we ought to.

I'm sympathetic to the issue of social equality, but depression resulting in suicide is not a rational process. Addressing class issues will not eradicate this problem. The wealthy become depressed and suicidal too, for example: http://www.ibtimes.com/eric-salvatierra-killed-caltrain-payp...

Please understand I'm not justifying or defending, only explaining.

I believe it's illegal for the school to share that information with parents, provided the student is an adult and hasn't given consent.

Certainly it's a free speech issue if I took the picture of you, because you were naked in front of me?

100% fashion.

I believe that's a recent requirement in California for new or updated dwellings. See R314.5: http://osfm.fire.ca.gov/firelifesafety/pdf/Smoke%20Alarm%20T...

Also interesting is that quite a few municipalities forbid connecting the fire alarm system to any external system, unless the external system is UL listed. Could be some regulatory hurdles in Nest's future.

> The alternative is "everything is public domain!" in which case, no GPL.

There are many, myself included, who would be happy with this endgame. As long as no one can ever be prosecuted for creating a work, I am happy.

The GPL is needed because of the effects of copyright, not vice versa.

The exact same force is used in seizing a hammer or other object as in seizing a house. In both cases law enforcement will eventually arrest you, put handcuffs on you and take you to jail if you do not comply.

I mentioned the use tax, and that California does not have one. Do you know what a use tax is?

I believe you're creating a distinction that doesn't exist. What is the difference, in your mind, between a hammer or other object being seized by authorities and a piece of real estate being seized by authorities?

Your perspective seems very specific to California's tax structure. I wonder how you incorporate "use tax" into your theories.

No way for me to know, but I doubt it. I'm talking about very small shops very out of the way, and quite a long time ago as well. I assume it was under the radar.

I have seen "frappuccinno" drinks offered for sale at more than a few local non-starbucks coffee shops over the years.

It's Taco Bell fast food. Food quality will be universally better if it doesn't rely on the local staff of minimum wage earning kids. Fresh and freshly cooked? You've clearly never eaten at a Taco Bell throughout the decades. Their prep and presentation today is much, much better than say 30 years ago.

Hopefully better product results in greater profit, yes.

It's true, and Tesla appears to survive as a company regardless.

I think the dynamic is a bit different for Amazon. The so-called risk wouldn't even potentially be borne by the user, which is much different from the Tesla case.

Human-driven delivery trucks hit and kill dogs, cats, men, women and children every day. On average, 16 people will die in any given day in a truck related crash. One in eight traffic fatalities involves a large cargo truck.

Driving vehicles on roads is incredibly dangerous. I don't think it's possible for drones to do a worse job.

Not in certain container types such as a full VM.

Not wrong at all. He asked about LXC. Privilege restrictions are not part of LXC.

Yes, it is trivial for a root user in an LXC container to break out. One can load a kernel module from within a container, for example. LXC containers do not provide security partitioning at all.

Worth noting the US top marginal tax rate has been above 90% at several points in history.

I've contributed casually and anonymously in the past without problem, but it's been a while and I thought I'd take you up on your challenge.

But there's a complication: Wikipedia appears to be TOO COMPREHENSIVE. I can no longer find a subject of general interest which isn't fleshed out to near (or beyond) my level of knowledge. All my local landmarks are well represented, as are the interesting areas I've travelled.

Do you have any ideas on an article Wikipedia needs? I'd be happy to spend some of my own time on research and submit it anonymously.

Any equity stake is improved by work in the company. Your argument seems to be that the work isn't sufficient, but you're not being clear about where you draw the line.

WRT #2, the impact on income when viewing a career over a long period of time is clear. It appears you're being dishonest by refusing to acknowledge this rather obvious fact. You can say "it's not compensation" until you're blue in the face but at the end of the day people who do more will on average earn more.