Ah. Having grown up on Amigas, how something is marketed doesn't enter into the picture. I know the Nokia N770 was sold to the US market through Nokia's website but I don't know if any big box stores carried it. So, point taken - I won't deny that Apple's massive marketing has pushed handhelds into the consumer market better than anything prior. I just disagree that there weren't options available to people who dislike Apple's sandbox.

Not that it matters, but for me, the deal-breaker for the longest time was a physical keyboard. I'd rather use Palm's graffiti with a stylus than an on-screen keyboard. The iPhone/iPod has made it acceptable to most people, though, so I finally gave in on my last phone upgrade - everything is a compromise these days. This is what I like the least about Apple's product - the limited hardware choices they provide, and the effect it has had upon other manufacturers playing the "me too" game.

As for my little palmtop, not many of that exact model were being used in 2007. I dragged mine into 2003 or so before I blew it up by plugging in the wrong power brick, but that's because I was a poor college student with 5 kids at the time. But many people have used Palms and WinCE "pocket PCs" in many varied form factors all through the last decade.

The iPod Touch was the only game in town for what, exactly? A wifi, touchscreen, internet browsing, easy to install apps, no monthly contract required handheld?

Samsung wasn't the first company to market a non-phone Android device. Just one example is the Archos 5, an Android handheld from 2009. Granted, it couldn't load paid apps from the market until the next year, but that still predates your example.

Or if you expand your horizons a little, how about the Nokia N770 from 2005, which included a wide variety of software repositories for finding apps?

For that matter, you could even look back to the NEC MobilePro 700 that I used to have. It came out in 1998, and although it only had a dialup modem, you could get wifi with a PCMCIA card. Nobody had "app markets" back then, but there were plenty of shareware sites set up for WinCE.

They already have. Dragon and Orion both started development in 2005. Dragon has already made one unmanned test flight and next month will fly an unmanned capsule to the ISS. Orion is planned to launch an unmanned test flight in two years. Dragon will carry 7 people and is planned to make the first crewed flight in 2016. Orion was originally supposed to support a 7 man crew, and then 4-6, and now it is 2-4, and the first flight will be 2020 or later. What part of out-developing and out-performing NASA are they not doing?

I would assume that most of the interplanetary portion of such a spacecraft would only have to survive one launch up through the atmosphere, rather than repeated ups and downs of, say, the Shuttle. There will always be the crew capsule itself, but for most of the vehicle - yes, it's mostly a matter of topping off the tank and turning it around. Or, not even doing that, if you use a Mars Cycler to go between the two.

I haven't read any of the details of the idea, but I would guess it would be because you'd have a larger ship, more support equipment, etc., in the cycler and a small, limited capsule to go up and down. Therefore, you'd be using less propellant, since you're accelerating less mass back and forth.

First, the same thing was said when Win95's new desktop replaced the Win3.1 Program Manager. A lot of techie people I knew reverted their systems to using the old Program Manager interface for years.

Second, Win8 isn't even out yet. The company I work for still hasn't moved off XP. That must mean it's superior to Win7, right?

I'm sure there will be some hiccups along the way, but in the end, our interfaces will adapt as operating systems advance.

Whew. I watched Citizen Kane last weekend, just in time to avoid your inconsiderate spoiler.

Some people do, and in some cases it is warranted, just like with TSA.

Oh, and we actually have a legally protected right to refuse treatment of any sort for whatever reason or for no reason at all, and it is considered unethical by the medical profession itself to withhold other treatments in retaliation.

Which is nonsense. The state troopers could probably evict them and let TSA file suit up to the supreme court to be allowed back in.

Could flights that leave Alaska and cross into international waters or into Canadian airspace be considered an international flight rather than a domestic interstate flight? Would that allow the state to sidestep the commerce clause and avoid TSA that way? Or does having it be an international flight make it worse?

I *can* have a scientific discussion with my doctor. I have probably read more research studies about vaccines than they ever have.

My children do not need three doses of Hep B vaccine before one year of age; there is so little chance of them being exposed to Hep B that it is absolutely ridiculous to suggest that it would be beneficial, especially in light of the fact there is documented morbidity and mortality associated with the vaccine.

Evidence shows that naturally acquired immunity to chicken pox is better long-term than vaccine induced immunity, and the handful of fatal cases of chicken pox each year is no excuse to impose the vaccine upon my children.

Besides, my kids are still fairly well protected thanks to herd immunity from all the idiots who blindly shoot their kids with this crap without bothering to ask any questions or do any research.

Yes, that's exactly what internet poker sites have done following similarly harsh legislation and DoJ actions against the major companies (including taking over their .com/.net/etc domains). They block you from playing real money games if you've listed a US address or log in from an IP geolocated in the US, to avoid getting into any more trouble with the DoJ.

Too bad you didn't provide links directly to those websites, because then if SOPA/PIPA were enacted and the domains were declared by the DoJ to be dedicated to infringing copyrights, Slashdot itself could be censored until your post was removed.

Both of those are better than what I got. My check from the eBay settlement was a whopping $0.02.

...firmware updates update firmware!

Do they "ask" about pre-installing crapware when you first buy the phone? This was an ota firmware update, and they changed some of the pre-loaded apps. I'm much happier about the carriers providing ota updates and working on a solution to let end users "remove" pre-loaded junk from their phones.

My family has 5 laptops and 2 desktops as primary computers, plus three smartphones. I have ways of storing my music centrally and making it accessible, but the simplicity of a cloud service to make it available at home, at work, at a friend's house, when I'm visiting my family, when I'm on vacation...

Plus, if this service turns in to something like Lala, they can provide cheap access to music you might like to listen via streaming to but don't want to bother paying full price for. I'll pay $10 to have 100 songs I can listen to on demand whenever I have internet access way before I spend $10 for a single CD.