How would you telll if Hispanic is an origin, not any particular race according to US definitions. You don't even need to have a spanish heritage to be hispanic. Any presumption is plain racism, because most often traits of native americans are decribed by many (even On this forum). But there are many sides to America. An American deciphered the Mayan scripture, same for their number system, and many critical archeological discoveries are by Americans. I am thriled by that diversity of respect, interest and positions towards sister countried/civilizations.

The big picture is a little bit more complicated than the average Joe can sense. The "brown hordes" or "he looks Mexican" also happen to be the second largest buyers of US goods, larger than all BRIC countries together, and larger than that of the top 5 economies combined. In one or two years, Mexico will be the largest buyer in the world. Industries like Airlines depend on Mexico with about 32% of all international flights being to/from Mexico. Entire industries depend on Mexican purchases to subsist. Those are just two examples that show that while there are reasons to be upset (immigration?), there are reasons why federal govt and the states may see things differently. Mexico also treats turists and people that want to go there extremely well. Go to Brazil and see how that changes. There are many reasons why hard working illegal immigrants are many times tolerated.

If you look at the big picture, Apple believes that Android is the new PC and having been been burned by PCs two decades ago, they want to destroy it before it's too late. And Microsoft thinks the PC is them, and Android is eating their lunch, and want it destroyed as soon as possible. Apple and Microsoft have a love/hate relationship. But don't forget Gates' investment in Apple in the late nineties plus the release of MS Office for Mac saved Apple. Each firm believes they can trump the other, but hate Google vehemently.

These lawsuits are testing the waters and signaling something bigger. And they are setting up the stage for the masses to start believing Android is just a cheap imitation. I prefer Apple phones, but would side with Android if Ms and Apple get nasty. I despise abusive oligopolies for what it means long term.

Yes, exactly. But why not treat private data as private property of the person generating the data. They can aggregate the results, but resulting in no personally identifiable information - because they don't own that data unless they license from owners. In any case, I agree it'd need to be legislated and that has a very slim chance.

Yes, but I was refering to the background check service. They have a large number of services. Thanks

I was suggesting in the same post that they'd need to license them and that EULA that contain things about your property (privacy) would have those clauses invalidated. But that can only happen when privacy becomes property.

Agreed!

Can you point me to this "service"? I ddn't know they could report that per person. I'd appreciate that. Thanks

What if the reality where that private data is private property? As a work of art or a thing itself. I believe that if I paint a like in a canvas I own it. If I write a poem I own it. Data I generate that is associated with me, is another form of expression, and I should own it. The problem is that how it's bern framed, as "privacy" as something I don't own, but may have some ethical reason for trying to prevent mining is the wrong approach. As a true libertarian things are simple: private data is private property of the citizen that created it. If you want use it, you must license it from the owner. Requiring the user to forfeit that right to use a service is illegal and a criminal act, theft.

And more seriously, I think that the solution is to use capitalism itself, which has a fundamental principle of private property. If my activity, information, habits and likes are my private company, you cannot use it unless I sold it to you. Just like you cannot take a picture of a celebrity and use that to promote a product or conduct business (only to report).

Same here. Companies should not be allowed to steal property from citizens. Their individual behavior is their own asset, whether thinking of it as their IP, asset or holding it copyright. EULAs that require surrendering it freely should be unenforceable and companies using unlicenced private data property should be fined and imprisioned.

What you do and what you read is your individual private is an economic matter, and it's now being hoarded to make money and without your consent: that's stealing.

There are billions of (temp) broken hearts. It may feed bad but it's not rape. If you want to be legaly punish the infidel, make a contract....back in my day it was called marriage and required some due dilligence.

Given that smartphones are the most widelydeployed and used general purpose computers in hands of individuals, I guess they do care. It's the future of computing.

They were in the market of cheap buffet style email for corp users and managed to get there by being convincing carriers to not price by kb with their platform.

The best chance of survival for them is to buy a T-mobile or Sprint (with the iPhone deal RIM is screwed now) and offer corp. plans for $30 a month, and then building an enterprise app ecosystem around a solid platform as QNX. No sane company will pay $100 per employee/mo if they could pay $30 and have a platform that can run apps just as good as the alternatives.

They though they where a premium brand with a premium product and now even if the products excel, they are irrelevant. If given a choice, most will prefer widely used platforms w/hundreds thousand apps and solid development tools.

Buying a carrier and being the low cost provider for corps is one of the few things that could save them - but may be too late.

Why? If I earn 250k a year, those $5000 I factor in as part of the cost. If I make 40k (family) it just means I am guaranted to nOt be able to afford it. How is your solution awesome?

The problem is not the insurance, but the actual cost of health services and they way the services are oversold, and prices not transparent. One is not even quoted the prices before incurring them. The economic model for health is broken, not the insurance itself.

if I disable my laptop keyboard it's useless. so no.

10 hours battery means portable and warranteed to have battery while at school.
form factor means better suited to typical classroom space
form factor means several people can see screen at the same time (think groups)
multitouch means new interfaces are possible (eg geography, puzzles and many other things)
more sensors means new functionality possible...an app that overlays star names? imagine and assignment to look for mars at 9pm and being able to find it essily
always on, as most tablets will have 3g enabled...maybe you can finish your assignment while on the bus back home?

these are lightarguments. the real arguments are in doing awesome educational apps that are just brilliant and a pleasure to use. just making learning more enjoyable can have a huge impact in kids knowledge. tablets also cost less than comparable quality netbooks and break less oftem