Google gets a fair amount of /. bashing just because it's grown as large as it has and sometimes they may even deserve it, but here we have an example of Google doing a good thing. You don't see many megacorporations taking a stand against internet censorship. Even if Google profits from this in some way and it isn't entirely a selfless act it's nice to see them doing something that benefits us little people too.

I'm guessing they got more for turning the guests in than they would have for cleaning the rooms for a couple of days.

You assume they actually plan on having something to show for their efforts besides a new high score in Minesweeper. Getting a one month extension makes it easier to get another month extension later and before you know it, it's time to pass the buck to the next administration.

Err... so what's all this paper crap between the covers? Oh, I get it, that's so it doesn't fall over. Very clever.

Adobe has made PDFs more accessible while WC3 has made HTML and other web programming less accessible. As a result web programmers get to keep their jobs, which I'm guessing was the point of obfuscating web programming to the point that most non-geeks don't want to deal with it, and non-geeks that need to make forms will go with an Adobe product because it "just works."

That trillion dollars wasn't used to 'fight terrorism,' it was used to create jobs. Terrorism was just the excuse used to create those jobs. War is a great way to motivate people when there's nothing meaningful left for them to do. I'd hate to imagine how much worse the current recession would have been if we weren't involved in all these conflicts around the world.

When I started using Linux the source code was written on enormous stone slabs. It took months to schlep those across the country and by the time we had the whole batch of them it was already time to start getting the next release!

Considering you can get legit hardware in a netbook now for around $200, getting what is essentially a bag o' crap for half that isn't much of deal.

Not really. Fat people just fuck other fat people producing many small fat people. If fat people didn't fuck that'd solve the whole problem, wouldn't it?

Big game publishers can't risk change and hobbyists can't quit their day jobs so expect any progress to be very slow. On the bright side, this should mean you haven't had to buy any new RPGs in the last five years or so.

First - no, you won't.
Second - even if you did, why should the FCC care? No, really, think about it. Do you think any government agency is going to purposely put thousands of people out of jobs, cause stocks to drop even lower, and send a great big Fuck You to the corporate bosses who pay their paychecks all to make a couple thousand disgruntled geeks happy? When those disgruntled geeks are just going to go away if they're ignored for a while?

I feel your pain. I don't have a smart phone, but broadband is in the same boat. Just bend over and take it like a good consumer whore. The only people who can change this system are the people running it and I don't think they have any intention of changing it in our favor.