I guess your argument makes sense if you live deep in the woods somewhere, but if you're as far out as I am your cell phone doesn't work anyway. Most places in the US have plenty of civilization around, and plenty of ways of getting help in an extreme situation like that...

HA! And what do you think people did before everyone had a cell phone? I got my first cell phone in '99 (i think), 13 measly years ago. Believe it or not, you don't actually need one to live.

Now get off my lawn! :)

Essentially what you're pointing out is that capitalism, while admirable in terms of the freedom it provides in its early stages (anyone can start a business and probably be successful just by working hard), eventually always ends in monopolies (eventually those businesses will be bought up or bullied into selling, creating one central mega-power - first one in each market, but eventually even different market verticals are all controlled by the same umbrella corporation - that's why you can buy bullets, baby diapers, and a gallon of milk at the same checkout at Walmart). There has to be a system to keep power decentralized - whether it's by regulation, taxation, incentive - whatever.

The sticky point, though, is that whatever method is used to keep that power decentralized must not either a) infringe on individual freedom, or b) simply make the government the monopoly.

Here are another couple of links: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/12/12/a-comparison-of-the-2008-and-2012-nctc-guidelines/ and http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324478304578171623040640006.html.

From what I can tell, it appears to mostly be changes in 1) what information can be gathered, 2) on whom (don't need suspicion of terrorist activity anymore to search through someone's files), 3) how long it can be retained (5 years for innocent people, forever for anyone suspected of criminal activity), and 4) more importantly, the methods that can be used to gather it. In the past, it wasn't possible to do "dragnet" type searches looking for a specific pattern (i.e., show me everyone who searched for "how to make a bomb" on Google in the past 6 months and purchased more than 500 rounds of ammunition), but had to be a search on a specific person of interest (i.e., show me what Mohammad Mohammad searched for on Google last week).

As far as I can tell, there hasn't yet been a change in what actions can be taken based on the findings in that info, but the groundwork for action without due process has been laid for some time already.

Ok. I just can't resist this anymore. Who, in the bloody hell, is so stupid that they follow their stupid GPS device around like a damn lemming - so the extent that they walk in the middle of the damn street and get their ass plastered by oncoming traffic? What a really top-notch example of natural selection - follow that up with the fact that she sued Google for her own stupidity, and I'm having real trouble feeling any sympathy.

Come on, people - GPS is a tool to help you get your general bearings in unknown territory; always has been, always will be. It won't ever be perfect and it doesn't have to be. Computers cannot (and should not) think for you.

Being a good programmer takes discipline, no? It's a lot of work to get really good at what you do. That kind of dedication takes a lot of discipline.