I think it's safe to say that “being forced to memorize information which you'll most likely never use (and probably forget” would be viewed by most people as a waste of time.

I was really asking where did the idea that education was about “memorizing random information” come from. It seems like it's a cynical attitude to learning that runs counter to purpose of education-beyond-training (which is, after all, what the teaching side of universities were all about).

I'm not trying to be confrontational -- I'm genuinely curious. Both B.Sc. and B.A. have breadth requirements, partly to encourage inquiry outside of the student's chosen discipline. If you strip those away, you're no longer talking about a university education but a trade-school-style training. Now, there's nothing at all wrong with training, as opposed to education. But why try and turn one into the other?

Is that really your view of education?

It's a shame, then, that you selected those particular Gen. Ed. courses. Were the course outlines unavailable when you registered?

And some people don't seem to have a desire to take courses that might require some learning, but would rather get “easy grades” by taking courses in which they are already competent with the curriculum.

Then, if presented with the opportunity in the future, elect to take a challenging and interesting set of gen-ed electives. Or are you claiming that you have nothing to learn? As to the general discussion, this seems to be a mismatch between the expectations of training and education.

OS/X is not limited to the Mac app store for software installation. At least for the time being. That's only an iOS thing.

Nice try. But I think you may want to look up the meaning of the word “rooting”.

My objection isn't that this not-so-clever piece of malware can be installed, with user's privileges, in the user's own directory. That much is clear. Moreover I'm not saying this is harmless, either.

But you've made a claim of “silent rooting”, in your words “a complete p0wn of the most serious kind”. Can you point to any reference saying that there's any sort of privilege escalation here? Or are you conflating user-level executable privileges with rooting?

Citation, please? The variants that I'm aware of were a) Install in the Applications folder, requiring Adminstrator credentials and b) Not needing a password by installing in the user's folder. In neither case was there any “silent rooting”.

What if the state secrets are all about state corruption?

Who gets to decide that? Are you really all that comfortable with the inmates running the asylum, so the speak? Frankly, I think the release of these documents is one of the only positive events about engaging the public in demanding good governance that I've seen in a long time

I agree with you about truly private information about celebrities. But what's said by diplomats behind closed doors is said while they're being paid a salary to represent us, the citizens of the country they're representing. The widely-reported leaks, at least, seem to involve communications between people working for us.

Then may I repsectfully suggest that you don't become an employee of the public, because your bosses might want to know what kind of a job you're doing for them. I find it interesting that there hasn't been the level of partisan name-calling from the usual suspects about things revealed in the leaks. I have hope this whole affair may be a positive educational experience for the public to learn about how their governments work in their name. But that might be hoping for too much.

I would think the heart of the question is Who Owns the App Store? Are you really suggesting that Apple be forced to sell particular items through their own store? If that's the case, who would you envision as the arbiter of what they should be forced to carry?

If that's a problem for you, or if you generally object to their business practices, vote with your wallet and don't buy their phone. It's not like there aren't alternatives readily available. If you just gotta have shiny, jailbreak it.

It's not like controlling behaviour is something new to Apple.

Tim: Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!
Sir Galahad: Get stuffed!
Tim: He'll do you up a treat, mate.
Sir Galahad: Oh, yeah?
Sir Robin: You manky Scots git!
Tim: I'm warning you!
Sir Robin: What's he do? Nibble your bum?
Tim: He's got huge, sharp... er... He can leap about. Look at the bones!

Next time, use staples.