Where the hell did I say HTC=Linux?! HTC uses linux (via Android), and I said linux users

Not every other company (unless you meant 50% of all companies). You have Microsost, Apple, Oracle, the patent trolls. And then there are companies who don't wage the IP war waving ridiculous software patents. Google is a good example for the latter.

I think as a conciliatory gesture, Microsoft should stop it's patent extortion practices against users of Linux. In case you were wondering, I'm talking about HTC.

Yes you can. I do it anyway. Got myself a Sony (PRS900). I own lots of gadgets, but this one proved to be the best and most useful. I love reading. And I take it anywhere. Most Sony products in the past decade were meh, but they do make great readers. Very, very sturdy. It came with a leather-like cover AND a case for travel, which I never used actually. Dropped it a couple of times (I never dropped it in water though). And beaches - that's my favourite activity... reading on the beach. Actually, now it looks a little battered (painting coming off on the side), but it's just like a somewhat used book. Battery still lasts 2 weeks (one week if I read A LOT), the screen is scratch-free (despite my best attempts) and done sand doesn't seem to have done any harm :)

I know that there'll be a steady stream of snarky remarks about who ridiculous the whole idea is, but it's still a brilliant move. Due to my work, I'm in constant touch with the "new generation" - students in the range of 13-25. And they like this kind of stuff. Don't ask me why, but they are fascinated by the possibilities of exhibitionism on the Internet - "telling the world what you're doing" kinda of stuff. Had a girlfriend a few months back, and she loved Facebook of course, and location services. She loved to "check in" every place she went to, and let everybody know that she is there. Once we traveled to the south of the city, which is a huge area of mangrove forest. There's absolutely nothing there, just a very small and rather poor fishing village, lots of water, swamp, and thick mangrove forests. And when we arrived, she was trying to check in with her phone. Amazing! This is just one of the many reasons why our relationship was brief. But the point is, that young people love collecting things like that, even if it sounds ridiculous to some of us. I'm not that old actually (34), but I know many here are older than that ;)

Care to point out where I can extract my photos from facebook in one click (download a single zip file)? Care to point how to export my facebook profile data in a standard and open - json - format? Where can I download my connections and contact information? Where can I download my posts and store it locally? All one click of course. G+ does that, and much more.

Circles run circles around group management in facebook, and I already have skype, but skype doesn't do what Hangout does. Besides, Skype is owned by Microsoft now - not really future proof for people using alternative operating systems. Hangout uses open protocols, and it's much, much cooler than Skype in many ways.

I see your point and I agree with it. Still, killing facebook and replacing it would still be a boon. Facebook has nothing like data liberation. At this point facebook explicitly forbids importing your data (connections, pages, etc.) into any other service. Google does not. If and when something better then G+ comes along, it would be easier to switch from G+ than it is now from facebook.

Exactly. Also, chances are, that there are HUNDREDS of malware in unofficial Chinese markets - will we get a new slashdot post for each and every one of them? Editors: wtf?

How about reading your own link:

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I agree with 1) but I don't see 2) as evil. I mean ... how do you propose they tell people about Chrome. Google is an advertising company. Wherever they put a Chrome link you'd consider it an advertisement and a proof of their evil. So what can they do? Develop Chrome than keep it a secret? Make a blog post on their blog that nobody reads (except maybe 0.0000000001% of all Internet users). Even 1) would be OK - I have no problems with their own software - grandma will not use them, but they won't do any harm either... but inflicting one, possibly two antivirus on an unsuspecting user... that hurts! I'm a Google fan - love their products, vision of computing in general - and this came as a surprise. Kinda disappointing.

You raise some good points there. It may seem a bit hypocritical if I didn't wait. Problem is, that the system itself is corrupt. I believe that copyright should belong to the author. 300 years the author exchanged his copyright for the privilege of promotion and publishing offered by publishing houses. This hasn't changed much for centuries. Producing art and selling it was prohibitively expensive. Not anymore. Artists no longer need to slave for the major labels. MTV is no longer the only source of music. There's this thing called the Internet, you know. And we have systems in place to help young and talented artists in self-publishing, and we see a great more deal of variety of pretty much everything. I'm not about to spend any money on an organization that 1) stole my and my children's access to culture 2) is working on restoring a world where they're the gatekeepers - they create celebrities, stars, and the so called "mainstream" crap that are inflicted on us through MTV and the likes.

I see your point, but most of the music I listen to are indies. Lounge music, nu-jazz, jazz, etc. I pay for that stuff whenever I can. Occasionally, I stumble upon something that's actually good and I want, but comes from a RIAA label. Look, RIAA is a fishing company. For every good artist they find they create nine crap ones - assembly-line celebrities, basically. And when you pay for that one good artist you are also supporting nine crap ones. That's a rotten business model - and choosing to pirate is still the more ethical choice.

Sacrifices?

RIAA and friends are calling downloader thieves. I'm going to say something that might not be very popular with the holier-than-thou types: pirating music from labels are members of RIAA, MPAA and their equivalents is an ethical obligation. Here is why.

If I was born about 200 years ago, I could be reasonably certain that I could share art that I enjoyed as a teen with my own children, not to mention my grandchildren. My generation would have enjoyed this "privilege" as well. This has been stolen from us. They stole our public domain. Thanks to the lobbying of the movie and music industries and corrupt politicians, now we have a copyright extend beyond our own children's lifetime. Generations lost access to culture. And these people have the guts to call downloaders pirates?!

I want RIAA, MPAA and friends to die. As soon as possible. I'm refusing to buy any music or movies published under their label. I'm more than willing to pay for entertainment by the way. I will buy Mass Effect 3 as soon as it's out. I'd support musicians who are experimenting with self publishing or services like Jamendo. But I would never pay for music when I know that about 70% of my money goes to thieves. Thieves that did the public HUGE harm - depriving generations from access to culture, be it music, literature or whatever.

That guy certainly had balls. He's basically asking the CEOs of the company to resign, along with half the management. And if half of what he writes is true (and based on other employee reaction, it seems to be), they should go! I found the links in the open later very interesting as well. I have no love for Apple, their vision of the future of computing quite frankly scares me - I prefer to decide myself what is or isn't appropriate for my consumption (censoring Ulysses ffs?!). That said, there are a lot to be admired about Apple - their marketing strategies, their organization and management techniques, etc. I never saw the linked keynote, and I found it quite interesting. The second link to the video about leadership/marketing was equally interesting.

It's such a pity that RIM's response is basically "fuck off!" - way to bury their heads in the sand.

Good explanation. Luckily, it's easy to circumvent. I think the author's worry is that his pirated music will be detect somehow (I don't believe for a minute that he's worried about mp3 files downloaded in the 90s - that's just too ridiculous). Anyway, I believe this is doable in the way you describe it. It's also easy to write software that would remove a single bit from all downloaded files from random locations (or it could add random microseconds of silence to the end or the beginning). This would randomize hashes of all files you dowload. So I think if such database exists, it's not in use at the moment.