I'm not surprised you have no citations, because that is just dead wrong. Read the links provided above, or any other reputable news source as it happened. What you are talking about is the discussion between Google and Germany that happened after the timeline described above.

When Google admittet to have collected privacy data (after Germany demanded to audit, which they did after Google had assured them no privacy info were being collected) - then there was a discussion where Google wanted to delete the data rather than hand them over to the German authorities which continued to insist on auditing the data (as they had demanded from the very start to audit what was being collected, before anybody knew that anything was wrong).

But it is still unseen. As in, they haven't seen it or know anything about it but still say they will buy it (not consider bying it if it turns out to be an interesting product). Which is quite amazing.

They "tattled on themselves" after German authorities demanded to audit the data (which they continued to demand even after Google assured them no privacy info were being collected), which would have uncovered this. The back and forth between the governments and Google on this was covered quite extensively in European press as it happened, but for some reason many Slashdotters repeat the more Google friendly version above. fx Google admits wi-fi data collection blunder Google’s WiFi data harvest draws widening probes and lawsuits

You are expecting a "social network firmly rooted in personal privacy" from a company whose leaders have publically stated that you should forget about your privacy?

"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.". - Eric Schmidt, Google.

"but if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines including Google do retain this information for some time, and it's important, for example that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act. It is possible that that information could be made available to the authorities." -- Eric Schmidt, Google.

From the Mozilla blog post: "Earlier tonight we updated compatibility information for add-ons that work with Firefox 4 to also work with Firefox 5, except in certain cases where we think the add-on may be incompatible." ... "There were 256 that failed our automatic scanners".

If you look at timelines for spreading of the different virus/malware infections, getting protection within a week most definitely helps a lot against the majority of the infection volume. It's crazy how big volumes of infections happens long after antivirus software and OS/software vulnerabilities are patched against it (as also was the case with Conficker).

I'm not sure I get the Slashdot outrage against 'privacy invasion" at a site you choose to post stuff, vs. the automatic, non-opt-in extensive data gathering Google is doing on you across their services and advertising network (and cars).

I have a suspicion that if this was about computers instead of stock options; that someone suddenly realized that a computer solution he bought worked differently than he had expected, because he hadn't checked details beforehand. Then many here would not respond differently.

This number is repeated in many posts here. But are those users not using the Internet? Total number of Internet users, on any device, is estimated at around 2.1 billion. With 200 million users Opera should have close to 10% share of users, but statistics only have them at a third of that, around 3%, for desktop and mobile combined.

Two sources for numbers but have also seen other sources with about same numbers: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm. http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0

If you actively run it and give it permission, yes. Since you mention fanboys, the Mac variety always claim malware doesn't count if users have to do that. Compared to XP it helps that Win7 have UAC, but the best defense against PEBKAC malware like this is running antimalware software like Security Essentials, which you also can do on XP.

If you really were interested, there is a lot of information out there about the security differences between XP and Windows 7, they are quite extensive (ASLR, DEP, UAC, improved firewall (with multiple active profiles), Windows Service Hardening, Protected Mode browser, etc.)

People get the politicians they deserve. Seriously. It might require making sacrifices in terms of getting really engaged, working for alternatives. But that is what democracy is about. I don't get this american attitude of making jokes about French people demonstrating in the streets (and affecting change), while sitting in their coach and complaining on the internet about the system not working as they think it should. There are not enough lobbyists to vote politician into office - you vote politicians into office (or if you don't vote, you are voting for your opponents).

The thing about vigilante justice though is that not everybody agrees with your view on who deserves it. Some could claim Apple deserved it, and decide to out personal and credit card info of every Apple user. Some could claim abortion clinics deserved it.. etc. Can get really messy, and I suspect people supporting it in instances they agree with, could be very morally outraged about people doing such things if it hits closer to home.

A very significant portion of remaining IE6/7 users are enterprise users not allowed to change their browser, due to internal apps not being certified. Cutting support like that will only cut traffic to the sites and piss off their users, the users wont be able to do anything about it. Heck, even Microsoft wants IE6/7 to die. About the only hope to kill of this IE6/7 user base is that corporations keep adopting Windows 7 - a project that include testing and updating for compatibility all around.

I know correlation does not imply causation, but it is interesting how much more popular Skype have become after this. In 2007 Skype had under 300m users, by 2010 they had more than doubled to over 600m.. Doesn't look like this parting of ways hurt Skype in any way, quite the opposite, the popularity growth makes it look like a blessing for Skype.