We don't live in a nation with Napoleonic Law you dickwads! One is innocent until proven guilty.

Go back to Fox News and eat your pablum like a good village idiot.

...speaks the person who is not arrogant ;-)

Seriously, why get wrapped around the axle on this? The US has 300 million people; India, one billion. It should be apparent that we've got a diversity of people in both places. RELAX, smoke a bhang, take a walk, build a another rocket, etc.

And ended with "in bed."

The systems I work on feed data to our SCADA systems. The entire network is completely walled off from the Internet, and even connectivity to our internal (non-operations) network is mediated by extremely secure bastion hosts.

I can understand that there may be a need for some access (e.g., system pages an operator to send a warning or emergency message), especially as this is a small town. Keep these sorts of connections absolutely to a minimum, and wrap several layers of security around it.

Correction: they're not doing it now. Wait a few years. Just like Microsoft with its Xbox - ultimately, it will have Windows for business, and XBox for consumers. Apple will work on a similar distribution.

I think to conjecture this is FUD. Maybe Apple will, but until then, I reject your FUD and replace it with my own reality.

There are many reasons why Apple would NOT want to do this, especially considering that there are a substantial number of Apple users that would _not_ want this to be the only method of getting new apps.

...and thought his resignation letter was spoofed by spyware running on a Windows PC.

sup /b/?

I had gathered that asbestos is perfectly safe and fine as long as it stays out of your lungs

Essentially, yes. Too much of that--or the oft-feared Dihydrogen Monoxide--can kill you.

Yeah, not all that hard. It really is the small things...

I agree: the FCC can't just toss out a price cap and call it good--some good regulatory policy is needed...

Try roaming or foreign travel: both of those usages have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with your regular plan agreement.

The rate table for service is absolutely byzantine--and frequently hard to find.

This ABSOLUTELY does not work with Sprint (and precipitated my departure). After hours of being on the phone with their so-called customer service (and three defective "warranty replacement" phones in the mail), I pleaded with folks at a retail location to help. Sadly, they were absolutely powerless to help--and felt horrible. Everything had to go to a completely worthless call center...

Intelligent markets driven by reasonable regulations IS the freest market we can muster.

For example, the Enron debacle in California was caused, in part, because of a lack of transparency pertaining to how their operated their generators. This produced congestion on transmission network paths needed to deliver power to California from the Pacific NW. IIRC, this caused prices to spike up to $1,000 per MW/hour (maybe more), when typical prices are more in the $40-80 range.

Enron accomplished this because they were able to succesfully hide from market participants their actions--and tossed out decades of generally accepted operational practice (aka "Good Utility Practice"). Ostensibly, this is NOT the Free Market that someone like Adam Smith would envision. Yes, we can't legislate every single aspect of behavior (hence, "Good Utility Practice"), but this should not diminish the supreme importance of creating sensible regulation.

The first comment is, to me, the most interesting response:
Sounds like we're once again legislating to save irresponsible people from their own self-destructive actions.

This response is a dramatic oversimplification of what's going on (sadly, a common occurance). What I believe the FCC is proposing is ensuring that _reasonable_ and _prudent_ laypeople can clearly understand the cost consequences of their actions. And, allowing a customer to set a reasonable price cap on their cell phone spending _increases_ accountability--for costs that match their spending ability.

For example, the cost of your garden variety LOL or ROFL missive sent via text message while roaming in Cancun (phone from Sprint [USA]) was about $1. For some, this can become frighteningly expensive. Given that European pay-as-you-go service carefully tracks (and easily reports to the user via a simple text message) their remaining credits, I fail to see why this reasonable ability isn't available to everyone.

And, as someone who has done disaster relief, I have been surprised by a few increases of $40-50 for roaming charges. I am willing to pay this--but I also desire the ability to know up front. I don't think the end user should have to carry their carrier's Terms and Conditions and rate sheet in their back pocket.

Also, some of these cell phone contracts are ludicrous: even the better ones (I like AT&T) don't do a great job clearly delineating between different types of service (for example, my unlimited SMS messaging plan doesn't include picture messaging). If I, as a person who reads contracts as a part of their job, can accidentally miss this, this circumstance doesn't bode well for an average person who doesn't do this.

Accountability requires reasonable rules and transparency--US cell contracts and bills need some help on this front.

Scientology would never try to compromise anything confidential!

Well, except for that one Operation Snow White thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_snow_white