First Person Shooter games just got much, much easier. Maybe now I'll be able to k

So the Justice Department used lawful means to obtain these records - records pertaining to an event that casts a shadow over the entire country - and we are supposed to be on her side for this one? I mean, it just seems we have warrants going out for all sorts of trivial stuff. Leaking government information, on the other hand, actually seems like something important that's worth investigating.

Something may need to be done, but does that "something" preclude people from using a product that they purchased by busting down their door and stealing all their equipment? Remember back in the old days when people would take things apart just to learn how they worked? Old toasters, microwaves, circuitry sets, etc. It really seems like we're forgetting that whole aspect of learning.

The article states that there are parental settings that prevent such "micro-transactions" from occurring. But shouldn't these settings be the DEFAULT? When a parent downloads an app. for their child, the last thing to be expected is that their kid would rack up $2000 worth of virtual goods, especially when that game is made for children.

This Ars Technica article (linked below) is a good summary on how the first five numbers can be determined. Apparently for persons born after 1988 (note that here we are dealing with a children's art contest, so this will likely be the case), the number can be accurately guessed 44% of the time if you know the date/place of birth. The odds vary by region - some states the first five digits can be guessed 90% of the time. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/social-insecurity-numbers-open-to-hacking.ars

There's a TI-83 App available for Droid phones in the marketplace, and it's free. It's called Andy-83. And since this is on your phone, you can go download whatever multiplayer games you want (games that are in color, better graphics, and better controls). Don't get me wrong, this is a cool pet project here. But there are far better options already available.

Thank you. It's like these people think I made the laws or something.

The federal statute for child pornography punishes those who make "a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting, that--" 1466A. Admittedly this statute does not directly apply. But it does illustrate depictions will suffice, when it comes to children.

His video depicted him saying sexual remarks to children. Whether or not they were actually there doesn't really matter. In America you can't even post naked pictures online of people you claim are underage, even if they are in fact over 18.

Violation of freedom of speech? Unlikely. You don't have the freedom to say sexual remarks to children. This has been long settled. Due process? Possibly. Twenty years / felon-status seems out of this world for such a trivial thing that's barely an offense to begin with.

Nowadays every kid has a cell phone. Why not allow the schools to install an app. that automatically relays their location back to the school every five minutes? The kids may decide to just leave the cell phone somewhere. Luckily cell phones have cameras too. If you automatically relay a picture back every hour, you can ensure that the cell phone is moving and that the kid is near it. Or require the kid to take a picture of his face next to a clock every hour. Surely that's not overly intrusive.

The problem is that there are over 600 district court judges. Since the internet is global, ICE just needs to find a single district judge to sign a warrant. That judge can be any of those 600 people. After ICE finds one compliant judge, who do you think they're going to go to first next time?

Would you call the iPod revolutionary? Surely it wasn't the first digital music player to have existed. This is revolutionary precisely because of the price point. The technology has existed, but it hasn't been readily available to the masses. Now that it's available the pool of people that may innovate upon it has expanded enormously.

The answer to the question, "Where does Congress get that authority?" is always the "Commerce Clause," which grants Congress the power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States..." While the Commerce Clause has been used excessively broadly (the Supreme Court interpreted it to allow the federal criminalization of marijuana, for example), this actually seems like a case where there is a genuine (and massive) effect on interstate commerce. Just look at how much shopping is done over the internet nowadays, almost always delivering goods to someone outside of the state.

Ironic that literally the first page I open after flashing a Cisco-Linksys router w/DD-WRT, and finally getting online, is this thread. DD-WRT for the win. IPv6 and so, so much more.