In linux we have /etc/mailcap and /etc/mime.types and both can be overridden by similar files in each user's $HOME directory.

I'm surprised nobody has commented on this. If a server can confirm your keyboard/mouse activity profile, what's to stop advertisers from doing so via javascript on the the web? This is scary. Even if you log in to site A as John Smith with Firefox, and site B as Jane Doe with Opera, and with Flash supercookies disabled, they might still be able to match your profiles. This would solve the advertising dilemma, of what ads to show on a shared computer used by multiple family members. This would be worse than Facebook.

Law enforcement would love this too. Let's say you're a "meek mild-mannered reporter" (or whatever) by day and "super-hacktivist" by night. It wouldn't matter if you're using multiple layers of TOR/ONION or working via a compromised machine in China, a LEA would still be able to match your daytime work profile to your nighttime alter-ego.

This might start start an arms race. Given websites that analyse user keystrokes, would a random delay inserter work? Also, I assume that doing stuff like typing this comment into a separate text editor, then copy-pasting into the posting submission form might help cover your tracks.

And this also played a role in the Pearl Harbor attack. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_analysis

> The Japanese Navy played radio games to inhibit traffic analysis
> with the attack force after it sailed in late November. Radio operators normally
> assigned to carriers, with a characteristic Morse Code "fist", transmitted from
> inland Japanese waters, suggesting the carriers were still near Japan

> Floating point and integer operations are well defined. Unless someone fucks up
> with implementing the floating point unit the result should be exactly the same.

Not true in the real world. See http://slashdot.org/story/13/07/28/137209/same-programs--different-computers--different-weather-forecasts There was a scientic paper about the same weather model producing different forecast outputs on different machines.

I don't know it this answers your question, but see http://slashdot.org/story/13/07/28/137209/same-programs--different-computers--different-weather-forecasts If you're gonig to umpteen decimal places, the results will be different. I don't see any liklihood of everybody standardizing on the same virtual macine and the same OS/distro and the same math libraries.

Also a few years ago, most people transitioned from 32-bit to 64-bit OS. What happens when we transition to 128-bit?

A few seconds after going to the link, I get a popup for an alleged Java update. See Google results for http://www.google.com/search?q=http://get-new-java.com/

Fortunately, I'm running Linux with a browser most people haven't heard of ("UZBL"). But I have changed my user agent to report Firefox on Windows, due to idiot webmasters who discriminate against all but IE and Firefox, and expect Windows.

> who cares where it comes down...

> I'm sure you all know the rest...

Tom Lehrer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V7me25aNtI approx 50 seconds into the video

1) The installed crapware is on main storage. That means you have less room for the apps and data you really want.

2) The crapware running in the background chews up CPU cycles and RAM, slowing down the programs you really want to run.

3) The crapware running in the background uses power, so you can't go a s long on one charge.

4) Syncing with Google+Facebook and that cute weather app that displays the weather and forecast at your location consumes data; and crapware updates require a whole bunch of data. This can use up a significant chunk of your monthly data quota. And woe unto you if you're roaming outside your carrier's territory, or even worse overseas, when your crapware decides to update. This is the root cause of all those horror stories of people who took along their phones on vacation for-emergency-use-only. They don't make or receive a single call or message, but have a thousand dollar roaming fee when they get home.

> Yeah, one day you can tell your grandkids about what it was like to get DVD/blu-ray
> extra features like commentary tracks and making-of featurettes, and what it was
> like to watch a movie without seeing "Buffering" messages and heavy compression
> artifacts. Yep, streaming is so superior to those ancient physical discs alright.

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of VCR tapes hurtling down the highway.