I'm very excited about this! I'm most excited because the announcement came from a known company with a track record, that has everything to lose. Normally this sort of thing come from a scammer looking for chump investors.

THIS. Apple has their Activation Lock system (AKA Find My iPhone) already, and I think this law is asking for something like that-- not a remote bricking system that can be activated by just anyone. Unauthorized bricking can only be done if someone guesses the person's Apple ID password, which is exactly as easy as it sounds. Apple's Activation Lock makes in more difficult to resell Apple phones, whether they be legit (like a phone you returned to the store) or stolen. More phones' system boards end up in the waste stream. (The other parts are usable)

My sons and daughters visited Beta, and we instantly incinerated.

I can't stand the new Slashdot. I hate being referred to as "Audience" when we are making this site happen. If I wanted CNET, I'd go to CNET.

The problem is that Quanta (they build system boards for Apple's laptop division) has never been able to properly do a ball grid array. The problem is not the chips or cooling, it's the "good enough" techniques Quanta uses to attach them to to a system board. If a ball grid array is done properly, it can be quite robust-- Quanta doesn't seem to care about longevity of the product, and hasn't for a number of years.

Quanta's quality problems are even more dire when you see that they manufacture about one third of the world's laptop system boards.

Please see Quanta and ball grid array.

Yeah... how am I going to use this where there is no internet? Like on a boat at sea, or down a mineshaft? OR A RURAL AREA?

I hope this new plant begins to make system boards for Thinkpads and the like. Right now they are made by Quanta (Taiwan), and the BGAs are terrible. Quanta has still not come to terms with lead-free BGAs, and it's been going on for years.

Hopefully they can consistently make a system board that will last for more than 2 years.

You don't need a service to date yourself.

At 99 cents an album and no DRM, this service is sure to be a success. That price is reflective of the overheads of digital distribution, and makes it competitive with bitorrent.

I'm a little disappointed that they thing we'd even be using gasoline in that far-flung future. Aren't there a bunch of competing technologies just around the corner, if not ON that corner?

Call your phone company and ask them to separate the extra charges from your phone bill. That way, the (perhaps) evil company will have to bill you independently of your phone bill. Often, they won't bother because they now know that you're the kind of person that doesn't mindlessly pay some mystery charge on your phone bill. I did this when I received a huge and clearly exploitative charge for receiving a collect call. This was several months ago and I have yet to hear back from the company that now has to send me a bill independently of the phone company.

They're both made by the same ODM, possibly in the same factory. Quanta makes most laptops. It's all the same faulty crap. Designed, manufactured, sold, purchased, and serviced by imbeciles.

Couldn't an employee just use their own phone to send private texts?

I want to know how they can get a users name when they only have the IP address. I was assuming that ISPs don't just hand over that info. Am I missing something?