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Comment Re:BAD news (Score 1) 599

That's a nice little rant you got going there, but the reason the airways are considered "commons" is because there is a finite amount of spectrum, which is ostensibly owned by the public. This limited bandwidth is auctioned off so that broadcasters are not stepping on each others toes and interfering with each others broadcasts. The 2.4Ghz band, for example, is set aside for WiFi, cordless phones (remember those!) and other consumer uses. Other areas are designated for TV broadcasts, AM radio, FM radio, Cellular, etc. If anyone could just blast their transmission on any band they could overpower and interrupt other broadcasts. In fact, that's exactly what pirate radio stations do. Set up a transmitter on some frequency and take over that frequency by overpowering whatever the "legitimate" user of that band is transmitting.

So what's the precedent for "blogger licenses"? I'm as wary of governmental overreach as the next guy, but I'm not seeing the slippery slope your describing here. The FCC "censorship of broadcast radio/TV" came about because of the status of the RF spectrum as publicly owned. It was determined that those using the public space to broadcast messages shouldn't be broadcasting "naughty" stuff. Sure it's puritan nonsense, but done in the same spirit as not having lewd messages on say, billboards or public signage. Unless you're imagining that the FCC is about to nationalize the telecommunications infrastructure I'm not sure where you think they're going to derive the authority to unilaterally censor the internet.

Comment Re:Roboto should always obey owner, not patient (Score 1) 162

I don't think it's all that far fetched. Leasing is an increasing popular way to "buy" cars. I'd expect robots to be produced by companies who already only sell licenses to their products. Furthermore, arguably the most important part of a robot is going to be its programming, and software is already only ever sold under license. Ok, so you own the mechanical parts of the robot. Great, now try and load your own software on the bloody thing. If it's a huge pain in the ass to replace the OS on your cell phone (and increasingly seen as an abnormal thing to want to do) just imagine what a clusterfuck it'd be for a robot. Undoubtedly it'd locked down to the maximum extent in for security purposes, can't have the crackers pwning your robot, or breaking it by installing the wrong apps.

Looking at the current state of the software and mobile industries, I can hardly imagine a future where robots are under the control of anything but the manufacturers. And for your fridge example, what's the EULA going to look like on that SmartFridge going to look like down the road? People don't even care they don't actually own anything, the very idea of ownership has been watered down by the inexorable march towards everything being Intellectual Property.

Comment Re:Delphi is excellent... apk (Score 1) 386

There are a few things one can mention to get APK to come roaring out of his troll-cave, of which Delphi is the most prominent. Seriously, he loves it, even more than the HOSTS file. In fact, I'm surprised he didn't mention that he wrote his hosts file maintenance suite in Delphi, he usually does. We ought to compile a list of APK signal words so people can put trigger warnings before they use them.

TW: Delphi, may draw APK!

Comment Re:I would rather see 1000 terrorists go free... (Score 1) 562

Not to mention fascist dictators predilection for mass murder renders any concern about staving off death moot. Then again, maybe this guy is just in the right [race|religion|political] group and would be more than happy to line up with the rest and shout whatever mantras the regime cooks up. America has a pretty strong history of Jingoism, so expect a hardline super baptist wrapped up in Jesus and the Flag.

Comment Re:Makes sense. (Score 1) 629

The really crappy part is that it doesn't HAVE to be as difficult as it is.

If handsets weren't as locked down as they are, installing a new ROM could be a pretty simple process.

The problem of device support is a whole other ball of wax, especially for a custom ROM like Cyanogenmod. It's a shame there isn't more standardization in the parts put into a handset (e.g., radio, etc), but that's not something we're likely to ever see. The state of the art is moving so quickly Google would have a really hard time supporting the multitude of device hardware configurations. The Galaxy S4 alone has at least 6 different models and hardware configurations for various regions and cellular signal types. Add in stuff like S4 Active and whatever other form factor modifications and it makes for a pretty complicated field of possible handset configurations.

Comment Re:Makes sense. (Score 1) 629

Cyanogenmod IS Android, without the bullshit. Pre-rooted, adds a few bells and whistles on top of the standard AOSP apps. I put it on my Galaxy S4, which as shipped by Samsung had 7.5GB of the on-board 16GB filled with dumb ass fucking bullshit. I can't really understand the reluctance of people to rooting and or installing a custom ROM. How many people here would bend over backwards to remove bloatware and crapware from a new PC but throw up their hands because, "Oh well, the carriers installed a bunch of garbage, what am I to do?" or "My phone should just work," even though history has shown that the company's that 'sell' the handsets don't give two fucks whether it does (just work) or not, just that we keep buying the damnable things. The status quo of "We, the almighty carriers outright own your handset, so fuck off and die" in the U.S. is mind boggling.

Comment Re:I probably would upgrade if I could, but... (Score 1) 437

It's gonna take some time for Samsung to bring Lolipop down to their abysmal standards. With a Samsung device, you're better off using Cyanogenmod in the first place, although they don't have Lolipop images for very many phones, and the ones they do have are all unstable/nightlies.

Cyanogenmod is the only thing keeping my S4 from being an expensive paperweight. I don't think there's any way I could go back to an official Samsung image without losing my mind! Especially the S4, which they loaded down with gobs and gobs of utter garbage. 16GB storage is paltry enough as it is without the base image sucking down half of it with useless bullshit.

Comment Re:How about a decent open-source web browser? (Score 1) 421

The renderer isn't the issue. On iOS, alternative browsers cannot take advantage of the same Javascript runtime that Safari does, so they end up with pretty lousy performance. Unless they changed things in the last year or so. I ran screaming from iOS, through the misshapen abomination that is TouchWiz and into the warm embrace of Cyanogenmod Android, now with slightly less Googly-woogly-data-mining.

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