What sort of absurd post is this, modded +5 insightful? "used to be a decent country"??? Are we just going to ignore that little thing called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ? Are we going to ignore that 13% of the population essentially enslaved (de facto) the other 87%? It's pretty easy to have a 'decent country' for 13% of the population if you enslave the other 87%, isn't it? If you were a black person (according to /., they don't matter, I guess), SA wasn't a 'decent country' that's sort of slid into decrepitude. I'm not suggesting for a second that the government of Ramaphosa isn't corrupt & shitty. It is. They're horrible managers, and are definitely running the country into the ground, but let's not for a second forget what SA was pre-Mandela. A slave state where 13% owned everything on the back of oppression of the 87%. That simple.

Seems like a horrible idea - what if the company makes a real loss and can't pay the tax? There's a reason that we tax profits.

Thought he was perfect in the role, what a pity for a young man.

---edit for formatting--- *why doesn't slashdot have a WYSIWYG editor yet? grumble, grumble*

It feels like we're coming to a head here with regards to the government and technology.

At some point, we will have to find a reasonable solution to the problem of something which is strong enough for us, but in some way allows the government (with an appropriate warrant) to access data.

If we (the tech community) don't come up with a solution, at some point an inferior one might be forced on us. Imagine a significant (nuclear) terrorist threat that could be averted if the government could access X or Y. In the aftermath of such a threat (or, in the worst case, attack), public opinion will force a change.

Let's find a solution. Perhaps we need a new way of encrypting things that allows a third "government" key? I know the anti-government types will shy away from this, but, with a warrant, is this so unreasonable?

It feels like we're coming to a head here with regards to the government and technology. At some point, we will have to find a reasonable solution to the problem of something which is strong enough for us, but in some way allows the government (with an appropriate warrant) to access data. If we (the tech community) don't come up with a solution, at some point an inferior one might be forced on us. Imagine a significant (nuclear) terrorist threat that could be averted if the government could access X or Y. In the aftermath of such a threat (or, in the worst case, attack), public opinion will force a change. Let's find a solution. Perhaps we need a new way of encrypting things that allows a third "government" key? I know the anti-government types will shy away from this, but, with a warrant, is this so unreasonable?

So is this actually going to catch up to Intel? It'd be great to have meaningful competition in the CPU space again....

I'll venture a guess that in 10 years, RIM's fall from grace will probably be a great case study in business schools around the world.

How a successful company managed, through horrible fore-sight, atrocious product management and lousy business management, to squander an insurmountable lead in the enterprise market is amazing.

On to the story at hand: there is no doubt that the wider handset market is in all kinds of trouble. Apple clearly makes most of the profit, and Samsung picks off what is left. What does this leave the other players? Nothing. Clearly there is no competition in the iOS market, and Samsung has a huge lead (and massive fab capabilities). Unless one of the other players steps up and makes a handset that, you know, you'd actually want, then they're dead.

End of story - this isn't that complex. Make a product people want. The competition has showed you the way....

Obviously, electronic devices can't bring down a plane. Millions of fliers every week "forget" to turn off their devices, and nary a plane goes down. Can common sense finally prevail? Arbitrary rules reduce respect for the necessary ones. For example: No headphones during take-off? Makes perfect sense - take-off is one of the most sensitive times of the flight. If someone needs to yell directions, you need to hear them. Reading a book on your Kindle? Not so much.

Having said that, of course, if my plane is going down, I'd probably take off my headphones. YMMV.

My apologies. These fossils were clearly placed (rather cleverly) to fool us & test our faith.

You're right, of course. The ethical questions are staggering. I guess the geek side of me went "cool, I want to talk to these guys". Wouldn't it be cool to see if they were really like us? Haven't you always wondered if Neanderthals would see you as a fellow (albeit weird) "person"?

I, for one, think this is absolutely fascinating! The thought that, as recently as 10k years ago, there were other species of human is amazing - that's not far off of written history!

I wonder if we could think about cloning these people - is the DNA "fresh" enough?

Some cynical people might even suspect a plot here - our right wing party would love to bury the NBN and have been claiming that it'll be more expensive than ADSL services - perhaps Telstra wants to give them more ammunition, and muddy the waters at the same time?

I'm not entirely sure how this is a "contradiciton". Would you disagree with the following statement:

Yes, I have no doubt that some innocent people are being caught up unfairly in the process. But I also can't blame New York for having these much-malinged "police".

As much fun as it is to bash Monsanto, if we want to change the patent regime, we must do it ourselves. Monsanto is only doing what is best for their shareholders - protecting their patents. I'm not saying that is good or bad, but not expecting them to do so is silly. Having said that, innocent farmers should obviously not fall prey to this.