I've noticed that from the beginning. All the apps offering (IP-infringing) ringtones and soundboards, pretty much from day one, never mind pirated ebooks and so on. I think Google's strategy is kind of the Youtube/safe harbour policy: Let people decide what they want to see, take things down on complaints.

I'm not saying this is the smartest idea, because I tend to be quite wary about any app that has permissions I can't immediately determine (why does a calculator need full network access? Okay, perhaps ads, but I don't know that), but that appears to be their strategy.

I think you misunderstand GP's point. Apple is actively hostile against jailbreaking (bricked device, anyone?). What GP wants is the ability to choose, and be left alone if he does jailbreak his iOS device. Shelter in the safety of Apple's curated store, or brave the Wild West without interference from King Jobs. Android does the latter (bootloader lockdowns by individual manufacturers notwithstanding), but not the former. Amazon is starting to supply the former for Android. GP is saying that Apple should consider following their example.

I would've said "Republican," but to each their prejudices, I suppose.

Good God, you're stupid. I hope for your sake that you actually are a paid astroturfer, because then at least you'll be doing something that's useful to someone.

Oh! You mean like the PSP Go! Yeah, that does sound familiar.

Uh what? The PS3 Slim was a refresh of the PS3 with OtherOS and backwards compatibility removed out of the box, and this was stated up-front. What Sony did was remove advertised software functionality from products already lawfully purchased and in the possession of its customers. Well, okay, that's not true. It issued an ultimatum: Allow us to remove one feature (OtherOS), or we'll remove several features (online play, access to the PSN store, any games requiring updates after that update). The Playstation 3 is the only console I've ever seen to deliberately lose features on an ongoing basis in the middle of its normal lifecycle.

Yes, practically nobody developed for the original Xbox after the Xbox 360 came out, but the two are vastly different in terms of hardware capability. You trying to draw a comparison between two generations of Microsoft gaming hardware and the PS3/PS3 Slim change is disingenious, and if you can't see that you're too young or simple to be on the Internet. Let's compare the Xbox 360 to the new Xbox 360 Slim, if that's what you want to do. It is smaller, has a quieter fan, and has built-in wireless networking, which was not present without an accessory for the original 360. The two are fully compatible otherwise. No missing software, no limitations on playing new games, and as far as I know, it offers the same backwards compatibility title list as the original 360.

And if Microsoft had advertised installing your own OS, legally, on the 360, and then later removed that option unilaterally, I'd be pissed off at them, too. But they didn't, Sony did, and Sony is handling this with lawyers instead of brains.

Hold on. You're calling "the ability to play new PS3 titles" a new feature that was offered when they removed OtherOS? What the fuck marketing kool-aid did you drink? If I buy Brand X game console, I expect it to work with every Brand X console game (leaving special peripherals out of the picture). Microsoft has twice overhauled the Xbox 360 dashboard (a software feature of the console). If you wanted to continue to play online, you had to update to the new dashboard, I imagine for compatibility reasons with Live, but you wouldn't be incapable of playing newer store-bought game discs on it if you decided not to update.

I'm reminded of one of the first system updates for the PS3. It included the line Increased compatibility with PS3 titles. These are the geniuses we're dealing with, here.

It's my understanding that people had discovered how to circumvent the hypervisor's prohibition on using hardware graphics acceleration in OtherOS. Sony intentionally crippled 3D acceleration in OtherOS to prevent homebrew games competing with their library. Whether or not they were in the right to do this, someone decided this was stupid and worked out a way around it. Sony overreacted and pulled OtherOS. And pissed off people that were otherwise content with their hardware. And that started the war that exposed their hardware security model and revealed the root signing keys. It's DeCSS all over again, except that geohot happened to be in lawsuit range. Sony is trying to close the door after the horse, four cows, and drunken wayward hobo have left the barn.

No, you file a DMCA takedown notice, because that's how you start a copyright claim on the Internet, you idiot. That's coincidentally the entire reason the DMCA was created--because the old model of copyright infringement wasn't capable of keeping up with the speed (instant) of copying in digital formats. Take it to small claims like you suggest, see the judge smack you for wasting his time.

And I'm not even in the US, so I don't even have to deal with the DMCA, ever. Get it together, AC, and think before you open your mouth.

Never mind that BMI is a completely useless metric unless you also know a significant amount about the person's fitness level. Muscle has a higher density than fat, so if you take a world-class eats-steroids-for-breakfast-lunch-and-dinner bodybuilder with a package the size of a AAA battery, they may have 3% body fat but their BMI will declare them horribly obese. Now, granted, they're likely to have an impact on the medical system eventually, but not in the same way a massively obese person will.

You took a long weekend off from the 'net, didn't you? Slashdot posted the follow-up to this four days ago.

I'm waiting for someone to prove this came from Fukushima Daiichi.

Friendship is magic.