The lack of any logic whatsoever wins again. Bravo guv'ment.

I guess it's time to drop the Brohammer.

A lot of people I know are using their personal smartphones for work, including me. Check on a server, bring up an app. Check out the WiFi, bring up another app. I have tons of apps on my personal phone that have saved countless hours diagnosing issues

Fact is, an awful lot of employers should be kissing our asses for using our own personal devices to be more productive at work.

It's pronounced "meem". That's the only way I've ever heard it pronounced, and even by Dawkins himself.

All I have to say is that guy better have a huge jock strap. The size of his balls must be staggering to make a comment like that.

I totally agree. However, this, to me, is the main question: Why in the FUCK would these devices be connected in ANY way, shape, or form, to the INTERNET in the first place??!?!? That's just asking for it, no way around it. It's stupid, careless, and shouldn't be allowed under any circumstance (barring VPN via a WIRE and ONLY when absolutely necessary). We're dealing with people's health and lives here, and this is a totally preventable situation.

I can understand the issue with USB drives, but there need to be policies in place that prevent the use of them unless absolutely required.

No kidding. That asystole arrhythmia is a real bitch.

Yes, it was definitely taken out of context. He was only referring to using the Metro interface with a mouse, and I totally agree with him. It is really, REALLY bad trying to deal with Metro when you can't use a touchscreen.

Time to fire up the old Nook Color and make a purchase.

First of all, I haven't kept up on EV technology as much as I probably should (ergo, please bear that in mind if I write something completely stupid...and please correct me). That said, to me, it doesn't seem that the connector should even be the real issue. What I think would be more meaningful would be for auto manufacturers to decide on some kind of standard to tell the charger how it wants its electricity. What comes to mind is possibly some kind of autonegotion mechansim between the charger and vehicle to determine voltage/amps/phase or whatever (I'm certainly no EE). The plug itself would seem to be less important, and, as someone mentioned below, various adapters could even be used (I'd think manufacturers would WANT a connector standard...at least if they had any foresight whatsoever). I think this way manufacturers could use whatever batteries they want (and even use totally different battery technologies in future vehicles as they become available)...just be able to talk to the "pump" to tell it what the specs are in regard to charging any given vehicle. Yeah, the stations would cost a bit more with the additional electronic components, but if EVs took off, the price drop for these devices would be insane (think of the number of gas (petrol) pumps you pass every day). Economies of scale would kick in almost immediately. And I really think some kind of auto-negotiating standard would be a huge step in the right direction, because the the startup costs of charging stations will be high (at first, anyway), but I think more station owners would be willing to make the investment if they knew they wouldn't have to rip and replace when the next generation of EV battery technology came along. The whole plug type thing just seems silly...the cost of dealing with varying plugs would seem to be absolutely minuscule compared to everything else. But, leave it to world governments to create issues out of the little stuff while ignoring the bigger issues (and lets be honest, many/most politicians only understand technology as far as their mobile phones and accompanying wall warts will allow).

Here's my workaround to the market not completing downloads and not installing them even if they appear to have successfully downloaded.

1) back all the way out of the Market
2) Go to Settings --> Applications --> Manage Applications
3) Click on the "All" tab at the top
4) Wait a couple of minutes, and then find "Market" in the list (list isn't always in order, so it can be hard to find if you have a lot of apps)
5) Click "Market"
6) If the "Force Stop" button isn't grayed, click it to force the Market app to end
7) Click the "Clear Data" button
8) Re-launch the Market app, click "Agree", and try it again.

I know it's stupid, but it does work about 90% of the time. If not, rinse and repeat.

Actually, he was using it as a metaphor, but that's beside the point.

And this is the real issue of all of this...the word "fairness". What exactly does it mean to be fair? The fact of the matter is that while there are indeed many lazy people out there, the real point is that people are NOT equal. This is caused by a variety of reasons, but I think we can agree that a few people were born with certain abilities that are more "valuable" in the market. But, that does not mean they are harder workers or even necessarily deserve to be paid more. They are lucky to be able to use their innate qualities and intellect for monetary gain that the average person is unable to do (yes...unable is the correct word). As far as I'm concerned, the mentally handicapped man who works in our packing department works just as hard (if not harder) than our company president. Is it fair that he makes barely over minimum wage while the president has a huge house and five cars? No, it's not fair, but it's reality, and this is exactly why people who are able to earn higher incomes should help to pay for the welfare of those less fortunate, both legally and ethically.

Like I said, lazy people do take advantage of the system. But, having nothing to help the poor is morally wrong. Any system will have its flaws and we should try to mitigate them. But in this case, the flaws do not outweigh the necessity of welfare...not by a long shot.

Just an FYI...From the Mozilla website: "The Mozilla Foundation is a California non-profit corporation exempt from federal income taxation under IRC 501(c)3. Donations are tax deductible for U.S. citizens. For donors outside of the United States, please consult with your tax advisor about whether your donation will be tax deductible."

I'd argue this. Competition is what scares these companies to death (and primarily for them, potential competition). Piracy might be one piece of the problem for them, but as far as I see it, they have a much larger issue: value. People will pay for something if its value is greater than or equal to the price. Think of Blu-Ray. To many, the value of having a copy of a movie was not the $25-$35+ the movie companies were charging for them at first. But, as is usually the case, the price came down over time, and now people are buying them for $15-20, or maybe $25 for a new release. Also, players are selling much better. It's true that those did come down in price as well, and it's hard to determine if the price of players dropping caused the price of the media to drop, or vice versa. However, I have talked to a lot of people about this, and from what I have been told, and I do agree, is that people couldn't justify paying an extra $10-20 per movie just to have the hi-def. In other words, they would have bought the player if the discs cost about the same as DVDs. So, basically, prices went down, sales went up, and value stayed the same.

Software, however has a completely different problem, even though it still stems directly from value. 10-15 years ago, if you wanted to do high end photo editing, Photoshop was the only real game in town. As time progressed, so did technology, and programmers were able to write photo editors with much more ease, and distribution of software matured. No longer did someone with a large program have to pay a company to do CD stamping, box design, etc. Now we even have quite good OSS to do many of the same things (GIMP, obviously). So, now the value of any particular piece of software is declining due to competition, not to piracy. Professional photographers, I promise you, will still shell-out for a legitimately licensed copy of Photoshop. If they don't need something quite like that but still want support, maybe they buy Paint Shop Pro or the like. GIMP is for those who want the freebie (don't get me wrong--if it was a closed product, it would sell at a decent price, assuming it is as well known as it is now).

So, I guess I just see it as simple economics, and piracy is nothing more than a barely discernible blip on the radar. What has changed the game is competition, but some companies just want to whine about pirates who cost them practically nothing in lost sales (maybe increase sales in a try-before-you-buy way). They are trying to scare the competition out of the marketplace in order to keep the value of their products high, because once you have multiple options for doing the same kind of thing, the value of all programs in the group begins to fall off a cliff do to competition. Seems pretty simple to me. Play the piracy card, scare away new entrants to the market, keep the value of your stuff high, and you have it made.

This isn't about open APs...this is about SSID broadcast traffic only. You can have a rather secure wireless network and still have it broadcasting its name.