Pre 9/11 it was nothing more than a security guard sitting next to a metal detector. Walk though while he sits on a stool. Catches obvious weapons like knives, guns, etc and doesn't hold everyone up. It did what it was designed for and cost very little I imagine.

That argument works fine if it's just 3 cars on the road, you, the guy in front of you and the one guy who is going to slip into the safety zone. Now put 10,000 impatient fools on the same road and try to leave a safe gap without each and every driver within reach trying to fill it. The horrible truth is, either you leave the smallest possible gap you can (within _your_ safety margin) or the car in the next lane will force themselves into your safe gap.

This is exactly my problem. I would love to leave a nice safe gap in between me and the car in front of me so if _anything_ happens, I have time to stop gracefully. The problem is that if I do that, some schmuck will just slide right in. Sounds fine, why not just leave ample space behind the new guy? Because someone else will do the same, and then another, and another. If I were to leave a few second gap each time someone slid right in, I might as well just park because I'll be slowing down every few seconds. While I love the freedom of driving (purposely drive stick just because I like to have _more_ control, not less) I welcome fully automatic controls. The stress of dealing with tons of morons during my two rush hour drives each day isn't worth the "freedom" to avoid them anymore.

Again, think it through. If all you want is the "Stars Package" do you really believe Netflix will let you pay only $9.99 for just that portion? More likely than not, they will follow the example Cable has laid out and charge you $9.99/mo for general Streaming and then another $9.99 on top of that for Stars. Then if you want the Stars stuff in HD, you'll have to pay an additional $6.99 on top of that. The whole point here isn't that Netflix wants to be the cable company, but those with all the goods are going to force Netflix into taking that model to stay in business. It's honestly coming down to, "Charge what cable charges or you will have zero content". I don't blame Netflix for this, but they sure will stop getting my money if they start with tiered packages.

If you don't believe me, Netflix already went from allowing you to pay something near $10/mo for streaming AND DVD(s). It's now $10/mo for one _or_ the other. You have "choices" now, but if you want both, you pay double. Which isn't a choice, it's taking out something you had before and charging you for it.

For the record, I rarely watched Stars content. There were a couple movies, but I can live without Stars. The writing is on the wall however.

You're not thinking this through. They aren't going to _drop_ the price of the current plan, they would _raise_ the cost to get the additional stuff, even if it's the _same_ stuff you had before. In other words, exactly like cable/sat. Oh, you only want the basic channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS), that will be $15/mo. Oh you want extended basic to get TNT, FX, etc? That'll be another $15. Oh, you want the HD tier with Discovery Channel, etc? That's another $30. With the content owners holding all the cards and slamming Netflix with higher rates, expect this to happen to Netflix as well. Basic movies? $9.99. Oh, you want the TV show package? That's another $9.99/mo. Oh, the Stars Package? Another $9.99 a month. Now you're paying $30 for the same thing we have today. Wait, watch, and see.

At some point you have to ask yourself _why_ people have so much "junk" installed on their computers. I'd wager at least part of it is due to the users wanting to install anything they want yet not knowing how to weed out the bad from the good. Saying that the solution (and the one the user wants) is to take that freedom away just seems, silly. If the solution to my family not installing malware/viruses/etc is to totally wall up a garden and only allow them to install pre-approved apps.. you can count my family out, and I'd guess a lot more users as well.

There are times I like to just install small apps that help out with little things (mythtv remote, vlc remote, stock ticker, etc) on my phone. That's fine. Heck, I don't even want to do much more than trivial things on my phone and that works great. But to suggest that that is the only experience I, or even most users want from all computing devices, including their PC?

Sure, many tasks might be replaced by a tablet, or even a phone or console. But for everything else, there is a PC. Unfortunately, with great power comes great responsibility. The PC tool can do a lot and a lot can be done to it (maliciously even) and you have to be educated enough to use it, at least properly. But ok, for those that have no need for one and don't really care about what's going on in the wonderful world of software, a walled garden, Angry Birds experience can also be had.

But I would agree there are quite a few people I know that _should_ be in a walled garden _all_ the time. They simply can't be trusted to not click every single pop-up that says they won something, etc.

From their FAQ.. I had no idea what this device was, so I figure a bunch of others don't either.. Essentially an ARM based tiny computer that can apparently play Quake 3 among other applications. Lots of Linux support too. (This is not the full FAQ)

When will the device be available to purchase?
We anticipate the device will be available to the general public later in 2011 – at the moment that looks like November.

How much will it cost?
We hope to be selling the Model A for $25 and the Model B for $35.

How do I connect a mouse and keyboard?
Mice, keyboards, network adapters and external storage will all connect via a USB hub.

What display can I use?
There is composite and HDMI out on the board, so you can hook it up to a digital or analogue television or to a DVI monitor.

What about audio?
There’s a standard 3.5mm jack, or you can use HDMI. You can add any supported USB microphone via a hub.

Does the device support networking? Is there Wi-Fi?
The Model B version of the device includes 10/100 wired Ethernet. There is no Ethernet on the Model A version (which we expect to be taken up mostly by the education market), but Wi-Fi will be available via a standard USB dongle.

What are the power requirements?
The device is powered by an external AC adapter, and the Model A consumes around 1W at full load.

Holy Crap I want one! Or a few!

My physical mailbox at home is kind of small and when I go on vacation it can get full to the point of no longer being able to put more mail in. Do I get to go after Capital One or any/all of the other habitual mail spammers now? If not, why? Because this Act only covers electrons flowing through wires and not physical items physically limiting my mailbox?

I've had success using separate browsers for work and non-work. Pop in chrome for non-work email. Cookies stay separate.

Thank you to the person who sent me an invite!

Also fishing.. rotide at the g to the mail dot com.. Maybe it's just the "you can't join" crap, but I'm interested in seeing what this is all about.

It seems your argument boils down to "it's legal so it's ok". I would like to point out that at one point slavery was legal. It was deemed ok, at least up until the point that the populace decided it was better to change that. It got so bad it essentially started a civil war.

I see the error in my "logic" on shipping. But when I step back and take a high level look at it as a whole, would Amazon even exist if states didn't keep their infrastructure working? Amazon directly profits from all states keeping all their infrastructure operational.

I also see what an awfully huge and slippery slope that is... I mean, would I have the job I have now if some other country out there in the grand chain of things didn't exist in its current form? Do I now owe them taxes due to that? No, of course not.

Again, Use Tax solves that and the Use Tax is none of Amazon's responsibility.

"The sales tax was to cover services that B&M retailers needed from the state, county, and city. Amazon, being a net business, uses none of those services."

I can't really comment on what sales tax was meant to cover, however, to say Amazon uses no resources/services of a state it ships items to/through is dishonest.

Amazon may not directly transport items across state owned roads in _every_ state, but it does indeed depend on those roads to exist so their products can be transported by other companies. Beyond that, they also need protection from the state/local police in every state they ship items to. They need all the supporting services just to keep the roadways open. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, I'm sure.

That being said, I think a tax already exists to cover this "issue" on taxes, Use Tax.

"Of course, if you're not heavily invested in your product or fan base, cashing out is easy."

Easy to say when you're not the one receiving a check worth over a Billion dollars.

AC making trollish comment, ya, I know. Shouldn't have fed him....