The one time I REALLY dropped my droid3, onto concrete with a razor thin layer of laminate, was when I was at the supermarket, distracted and in a hurry, and went to put it into my pocket.

I completed the motion of putting it into the pocket, but instead of the phone actually entering the pocket it grazed the lip of the pocket and slid right on by. And then right on down to the floor.

Of course, being a moto, it was if it never happened.

x2 on the motorola toughness. I'm inclined to stick with them for the duration, but the S3 is looking mighty fine...

I think for the most part the cases are like undercoating or paint sealing on a new car. Overpriced and unnecessary. I've got a droid3 that's lived in my pocket since new and there aren't any screen scratches. It's been dropped a few times and so on, works fine, looks fine except for a gash on the edge from where it was dropped down into a fold out couch.

Of course, I've seen similar phones that were simply trashed.

Personally I don't plan on ever treating my phones differently by putting it into some phone-condom. Just not the same... lol.

He's on the Julian Assange show which may just be on Youtube. Cool show.

if they just cross threaded the beeeatch.

"Erm... Houston, we have a problem. Poindexter just cross threaded the space station."

You're right, this is actually a sticky situation. Break off the bolt = screwed. Plus a myriad of other risks and consequences I don't know about since I'm not an astronaut.

Also, it's a little trickier than the rusty bolt on the muffler of your 79 pinto, seeing as how it's on the side of a SPACE STATION that is IN SPACE.

But, since I do have an armchair and since I am an engineer I figure they will ultimately have to try some sort of lubricant or thread treatment, the risk of snapping off the bolt is too high.

Yep - I'm no fan of Samsung, I was misfortunate enough to have owned the "Rogue" cell phone. It was a total piece of useless crap.

That said, the S3 is really interesting and I'm (was) planning to look into it, assuming it's even available. The iphones are simply not even an option any more, their screens are just too small. Plus the idea of having to drink the coolaid is just not appealing to me. Ipad? Nope. Sorry. Asus has you nailed there. Ipod? Sandisk makes some nice products. Plus, my android phone with google music is pretty sweet.

This legal action is absolutely ridiculous. What, being the biggest company in the world, ever, isn't enough? Besides, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery....

Yeah, but the domesticated ones are cheap friendly pets for your kids. Better than the other pet-grade rodents IMO.

Will change things. Big time.

Well, I only got a policy once I had a wife, kids, house. That's the only reason to have "real" life insurance. Keep your family afloat if you kick the bucket.

A stack of post-marked autographs would probably have been able to support their astronaut family lifestyle for a good while. Pay off debt, put little johnny through college.

If you're a single geek living in your mom's basement a simple cheap cracker-jack-box $20k policy is enough to stick you in the ground with. You might even be able to get that from where you work for nothing.

WAIT A MINUTE - I just got your thinly veiled joke re: faked moon landing. My bad. I'm a little under the weather today, the ol' melon isn't firing on all 16 cylinders. I'll go ahead and post my comment anyway because.... I spent the time typing it out.

No, hackers are most definitely not "untraceable"

From TFA:

Especially when they brag about it.

I bet he even hacked from his own computer. Or, rather, his parents' computer.

I've said it before, I'll say it again - NEVER HACK FROM HOME. It will make your dad really mad when the FBI comes knocking.

(mock rage mode on) Why is it that the punks in the Non-USA countries always get to work the "normal" hours and those in the USA have to be the ones getting up in the middle of the night to call the "foreigners" during their day? huh? HUH?

And what is it with these EUROPEAN punks taking vacations all the time calling it HOLIDAY or something? Them Italian punks in their tight jeans and fancy hair taking off AUGUST. What's up with THAT? HUH? Where did all that slackin get you now, huh? You Europeans and all your Financial Crisis and whining. Wah Wah Wah.

Us 'Murricans working all the time never taking vacations, that's what real men do. See? Our country doesn't have any of them so-called financial problems. We just keep working and working and printing more money and we're just Fiiiiiiiine. Yep.

Wait a minute... never mind.

So the solution is obviously to make your own teamviewer-like solution since Teamviewer isn't free for commercial use. After much hairpulling I realized VNC is the answer but I wanted a use-anywhere-help-anyone solution. I then realized I needed a VNC repeater, this is basically what teamviewer et-al do. Otherwise YOU have to be behind a configured firewall.

Chunk VNC (you can google it yourself ;-p) is a project that is imminently doable. I deployed a repeater on my own always-on computer, configured the firewall appropriately, and customized the appropriate files. After some patience I have a totally free and branded remote support solution that requires no more from the client than teamviewer instant-support does. And, it works AS GOOD AS vnc is rightly known for.

As mentioned elsewhere there are two main commercial solutions - non-foss. Teamviewer and Logmein. Logmein free is legal for commerical purposes and I put it on clients machines when I have them on my bench but it is limited. Teamviewer is just plain awesome but is not free for commercial use and they seem to watch. As is their right.

So the solution is obviously to make your own teamviewer-like solution. After much hairpulling I realized VNC is the answer but I wanted a use-anywhere-help-anyone solution. I then realized I needed a VNC repeater, this is basically what teamviewer et-al do. Otherwise YOU have to be behind a configured firewall.

Chunk VNC (you can google it yourself ;-p) is a project that is imminently doable. I deployed a repeater on my own always-on computer, configured the firewall appropriately, and customized the appropriate files. After some patience I have a totally free and branded remote support solution that requires no more from the client than teamviewer instant-support does. And, it works AS GOOD AS vnc is rightly known for.

conspiracy theories are pretty fun, aren't they?