The trust is gone (what little there was to begin with). If there's anything we should have all learned in the past 13 months, it's that any bill claiming to curtail surveillance is sure to be so full of loopholes that it will likely only make the situation worse, as proponents will now have yet another law to say supports their activities. "The Senate bill would end the bulk collection authorized by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act." Ask anyone who follows this issue closely: 215 is the least of the abuses. There are countless other programs that are used for bulk collections, and by only outlawing this one (still skeptical about even that), the intelligence community will just spin it to say the rest have broad support. The whole system needs to be torn down.

I see so much bitching over Netflix' lack of selection/declining service/raising prices, that it makes me wonder who is forcing all these people to be a subscriber? Don't like it, don't pay for it. 99% of Netflix' problems are due to the licensing fees by the movie studios. Don't blame the messenger.

Show me a laptop that lets me swap parts every couple years to stay relevant, instead of buying completely new, and I'll buy. Until then, I'm perfectly happy with my desktop with a few new parts, a few from last year, and probably a couple from about 6 years ago.

Anybody who claims this is all about terrorism is either lying, ignorant, or both. Control = Power, and if you can't take control, you get people to give it to you by scaring them with visions of explosions and death.

If their speech-to-text engine is anywhere as "good" as Google Voice, this is a colossal waste of time and money, civil liberties be damned.

Are you sure you read the comment correctly? (Am I?) I believe he was saying that the $100b will buy a tiny fraction of the 5000 helicopters that could be purchased if they spent it on the existing platform, not that the cost will be a tiny fraction of the budget.

Trademark is a consumer protection law, not a corporate ownership right. Trademarks are protected to prevent consumers from buying things that they believe are produced by a particular company instead of a fraudulently produced knockoff. Since there is no commerce here, there is no chance of consumer confusion.

Non-compete agreements are on shaky legal ground to begin with. But pile that on top of the silicon valley lawsuits about employee poaching, and how badly that has gone for the companies involved, and you would think that Amazon wouldn't be quite so tone deaf about the issues this brings up. It's illegal to agree not to hire other employees, but if you do, they'll still sue over it? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

What we wanted: Device-specific interface, with a shared software architecture for compatibility purposes. What they gave us: Device-specific architecture with a phone's interface. Apple may be able to get away with creating demand for whatever they put out (when you're selling more of a culture than a product, you can do that), but MS isn't there, and never will be.

Carbon sequestration!

And what, exactly, is the point if they have to reset it every year or two anyway due to leap seconds?

Paraphrasing the summary: 'Volcanic eruptions make sunsets more red, therefore, redder sunsets in paintings reflect man-made pollution.' WTF?

Freedom means different people/corporations are going to act differently. As long as it's not the government, or other monopoly-holding entity, they are free to do what they wish and the users are free to choose a better alternative. I would think the Founders would find it much more disturbing if this decision had gone the other way, and ruled that the State of NY basically had the final say in what one private entity can tell another private entity, inserting government approval in all communication. This is hardly different than the editorial pages of various media outlets having a particular slant, political or otherwise. Should the government get involved in making sure that no editorial board is stacked with too many supporters of one political party? That's not an America I'd like to see.

#Florida