I don't see this as much different than the cash-for-clunkers program. The idea is that after rendering all moving parts inoperable so they can't be sold as used replacements, you smash what was a perfectly good car. Then you give someone $8000 ($4000?) in tax payer money to buy a new car. This helps the economy. If that is really true, we should start leveling houses - to boost the construction industry. We should start breaking legs - to show how beneficial single payer healthcare services are. We should have the National Guard out to burn our wheat fields - so farmers can plant organic crops.

The same logic applies to "low impact crimes can help society". We should encourage these so-called "low impact" crimes so we can increase the pool of "low impact" criminals that will do community service. Except, the criminal smashed something that belonged to someone else. In this clown's case, it was someone's privacy and their personal property (email account). The logic is so absurd it is almost funny - until you find out the people advocating it are completely serious.

With all of the nonsense that AT&T has with iPhone users and their data (plans are now limited, tethering wasn't an option until recently (and imho is way too expensive on top of the not-optional cost for the iPhone data plan), "enterprise" data is more expensive, f'ng with the network in various markets, sometimes shutting it down completely or severely restricting it with no explanation), I cannot possibly see them enabling a "wifi hotspot" feature. Unless of course, your phone is connected over wifi (yes, it defeats the purpose).

Hell, skype video just came to the iPhone. For a long time lots of apps simply weren't permitted to use 3G, including Slingbox and Skype. Any app over 10MB had to be downloaded on wifi (I think the limit is 20 now). I have no doubt this was an AT&T thing to protect their fragile network, rather than an Apple-imposed restriction. Any time I've been to an event that is attended by more than a few people, I get no data on my phone. Apps like twitter just churn waiting for the network. Maybe that last one isn't just an AT&T thing, but holy crap is it irritating.

I'm not a fan of Jerry Brown. I'm not a fan of California, either. A beautiful state is near financial collapse because of total mismanagement and a massive entitlement burden. California has created this mess for themselves.

However, credit where credit is due -- I think this is a great first step. Of course some are going to scream because their toys are getting taken away. But good for Brown for doing this. On the other hand, I'm just cynical enough that I half expect to hear something like "we just saved $20,000,000 with those cell phones ... in other news we're giving all state union employees a 6% pay hike, and even more generous pensions. It was going to be $40mil, but it'll only cost half as much now because we just saved like $20million!"

No? It sounds like the city got a "shark bump" as it were. Someone tried stealing a few of the cards, and it worked. Only after succeeding, and no mitigation efforts, the thieves went to town From TFA:

This isn't unlike homes targeted by burglars who return a couple of weeks later after the owner has purchased all new shiny, expensive electronics.

I think that possibility always exists - from a keylogging app running inside something else innocuous, to something buried in the OS by a rogue developer. Hopefully there are enough checks in place during the development cycle of any given reputable development house/piece of software to avoid this.

Perhaps the benefits of using something like 1Password to generate unique/random passwords outweigh the risk/possibility of the above happening --- in the sense that it is more likely that signing up for a random website with the same email/password you used for your email account and paypal will lead to a compromise of something important.

Yep. I use 1Password and have the encrypted file synced through dropbox to my iPhone and other systems. I really don't know what most of my passwords are anymore.

When I worked for a major university a few short years ago, they contracted our paperless pay statements and W2s to Talx -- who only allowed numbers in the "password". Super frustrating, and of course no one in HR understood why I had a problem with this. They may have gotten smarter since then, but doubtful.

You're free to criticize her all you like. You are not free to damage, attempt to damage, or otherwise engage in any kind of criminal mischief against her, her family, her property, or her vendors (ISP, hosting provider, etc) because you don't like something she said.

So what you're saying is that if I don't like how you conduct your legally operated business, I have the right to come and smash your stuff, or superglue the locks to your shop? You have to accept the negative consequences of your lousy business decision to sell my competitor plumbing supplies at a good rate.

Wrong. What I did is criminal damaging at the least -- it is illegal for a reason. You have the right to enter into or terminate a business relationship with anyone you please, without any interference from me. I do not have the right to torch your business because I don't like something you said, or something you did. The United States is a nation of laws, not men, not anarchy. I don't have the right to torch your shop even if you did something illegal or unethical.

If you're doing something illegal, I report you to the authorities. If you're operating a legal business and I think you're doing a terrible job, I'm free to open a competing enterprise and do it better. I'm not free to steal your stuff or deprive you of your property/income by theft or damage because I don't like something you said.

Yes, it is. It is also some kind of hubris to scream about Wikileak's "1st amendment rights" to then attack MC, Paypal, ....and Sarah Palin's website? These entities have a right to conduct their business however they want without undue criminal interference. Palin, whether you agree with her or not, certainly has a right to post a dissenting opinion on FB without having her place (website) smashed up by a bunch of thugs.

"More speech for Assange and wikileaks --- but no speech may be heard from, no business may be conducted with anyone who thinks this was a stupid/criminal/illegal/unethical thing to do and chooses to terminate their business relationship with Wikileaks!"

I'm not 100% sure, but the HDTV set I bought just a few months ago came w/ a VGA port, but no DVI ports. I think this is because HDMI and DVI are somehow compatible without conversion?

From wikipedia

Because HDMI is electrically compatible with the signals used by Digital Visual Interface (DVI), no signal conversion is necessary, nor is there a loss of video quality when a DVI-to-HDMI adapter is used.[3]

• How much coverage would federal buildings really provide, and how much EDGE/3G/4G traffic would be relieved in reality? Certainly not the vaunted "poor and underserved" the elites are always bitching at it about and supposedly taxing us more to give stuff to.
• The feds now don't need a warrant to sniff whatever you're doing. All your packets are belong to them. (Yeah yeah, I know warrantless stuff is already happening - but now it becomes trivial.)
• I'm sorry, but aren't we in the opening stages of one of the largest know breaches of confidential government documents? How dull do you have to be to make it easier for this to happen again? That doesn't speak to the current state of ease with which such a breach could happen, but only that with a public wifi hotspot in easy reach, you suddenly have an external network in range.

Flash ads on the web != tv ads. TV ads (tend) to be more sophisticated because they're much more expensive to produce and get on the air (meaning you need to justify a non insignificant ROI to your boss), they have to go through an editorial process, and because they're put on the air by the broadcasters - by choice. If you come up with a really stupid ad that just flashes RED/WHITE and screams at the top of his lungs, the broadcaster is probably going to slap you. So no, I haven't noticed a major change in TV ads - except maybe some ad firms are trying to be more creative/entertaining to get viewers who would otherwise skip the ads.

The advertisers using a flash "hit the monkey" type ad on tv are generally relegated to late night infomercials, because the broadcasters know people would turn the channel, hurting the revenue they get from other advertisers.

Muting TV commercials (or skipping them w/ TiVo) is a sufficient solution. More government is a waste of tax payer dollars at the expense of liberty.

Technically, sure. In reality, because the government owns GM, the tax payers lose money on every Volt. Labor unions made off like bandits at the recent IPO, so I guess someone wins.

Here is my other problem: where do the tree huggers think the electricity to power these "zero-emissions" vehicles comes from? Magic unicorns? No, usually fossil fuel burning power plants, along with all the associated loss of energy down the transmission lines etc along the way. Oh right, and we can't build clean(er) power plants like nuclear because the same environmentalists, w/ their friends 'OMG teh nukeclear!' alarmists, tie up everything in so much red tape it isn't worth it. Like the Prius, this isn't about the environment. It is about status, and acting like you're so much better than your filthy neighbors driving that BIG OIL powered global-warming causing piece of crap.