I was waiting with baited breath to see what Apple was going to deliver. What a letdown. I typically love what Apple puts out there. I was fully expecting something I could load up with whatever open source software I wanted. Something I could do video iChat on. Etc. After the big release thing I ordered an ASUS Eee PC T91MT. 9" multi-touch screen (yeah, Windows 7, but hey...), 3-5hr. battery life, load whatever software I want, built-in web cam for VTC, not one, but TWO SDHC slots, blah blah blah. Oh, and a real keyboard. I dunno...for my money, the ASUS seems like a much better buy.

No kidding. What a piece of crap. No front facing camera (for iChat). No internal GPS (seriously?!?!). No flash (which means no free TV via Hulu...you gotta buy it from iTunes. No phone (and I'm guessing no VoIP apps for the foreseeable future). More expensive that the highest end of Netbooks (which it is essentially one of sans a useful keyboard). I could so have gone for an Apple tablet done right. Not so in this case. HIGHLY disappointed.

If it's a full blown computer and has iChat (with built in front facing camera for video chat) then I'm in for up to $600. If it comes out of the box hamstrung with iPhone OS Appstore only apps...forget it. It wouldn't pay $300 for it. I'd love a tablet and there are a million uses I can think of for it, but if I can't go to Sourceforge and download my favorite OS X apps to run on it, it's no more useful than an iPod Touch. Regardless of any of this, if the $1,000 unsub price I've seen thrown around is accurate, there's no way on Earth I'll buy it. A tablet is less useful than a notebook (Macbook). I'm certainly not going to pay more for it.

For anyone who's interested, Raytheon Polar Services is almost always hiring for positions at the US South Pole research facilities.

I concur with much of what you've stated. I've been a contractor for the past 15 of my 22 years in IT. I love it! Being an employee, not so much. As a contractor, I get to get out there and build a name for myself. I have a reputation that I am in control of. When you work for a particular company your reputation is only as good as the recommendation they'll give you when you live (which is often none, no matter how happy they were with you). The experience you gain, the improved quality of life, the variety of people you work with and the networking opportunities are priceless. I hope never to leave the contracting world.

What Verizon (Comcast, and others) are going to learn the hard way is the liability that comes along with this. IANAL, but, from experience I understand that if you specifically say something is prohibited, but then do not enforce prohibition of it and someone causes harm to another where it would have been precluded had you enforced the prohibition of said activity, guess who's liable. :)

The former head of 'cyber' for the communist Soviet KGB doesn't believe in people right to privacy. I for one am shocked.

Nominations for the prize were due 12 days after he took office. What exactly did he do in those 12 days (or prior) to earn this? Make promises? Shoot, I promise to cure cancer, aids and MS. Where's my prize? Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-Obama, though I certainly think this is a farce.

Seriously?! You're going to give "the Government" a pass on this? Considering "the Government" spent several of the $15 million allocated to S. 2590 on this bloody web-site and gave this money to an outside consultant to build it, it ought to be damn perfect. It's not as though a bunch of noob's from the Obama administration sat down and hammered out this website out of the kindness of their hearts. This cost you and I a great deal of money. Something as out-front and key as this chart should have at least passed a sniff test before being published. Obviously no one gave this thing so much as a serious glance before publishing it to the site.

This is how I got in to the INFOSEC field...20 years ago. Nothing new.

For the record, the CIA triad is "Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability", which is actually more applicable in this case. Just sayin'.

Tomorrow's headline will no doubt read, "First 'Behind the Stick' Review of Production Model Flying Car!" What the hey, here's a quote from the article that's not yet been written; "The SuperFlyer 6000 rides smooth as silk and corners like it's on rails. At 144 miles per gallon, you couldn't ask for more, save for the stereo which is a little bit lacking with it's 5.1 surround (we'd prefer 7.1)."

...because it NEEDS TO BE. If you are using public wireless without a VPN, YOUR ARE A FOOL. If you can't setup your own, use a cheap, public provider such as Witopia (I've had outstanding experience with them in the past).

I must agree. I was a serious X-10 junkie for years. INSTEON has already displaced X-10 amongst the nerdier of users (really, were there many non-nerds using X-10 anyway). It's reliable, easy, and dare I say nearly ubiquitous (amongst most serious hobbyists) even at this early stage. ZigBee??? Sorry, I gave at the office.

If they integrated all of the cool functionality (multi-touch screen, etc.) from the iPhone as well as the full OS X base (iChat w/video, real app support, etc.); I'd be all over it. I don't want an iPhone for this kind of stuff, nor do I want to carry around my MacBook (as I do now out of necessity). A tablet would be the perfect compromise for my needs.