I think the point was that it makes it easier to pull off the "social engineering" if you have access to information only privileged parties should have. They should still be encrypting the locally stored data, and it's just lazy not to.

It's loudness as defined by the measurement technique in ITU BS.1770, which is a lot more than amplitude.

Like most things, there needs to be some balance between those things that you get from a vendor, and those things you do in house. Too much of either end of the spectrum is generally a problem. Too much from the vendors and you end up with the scenarios that the author describes. Too much of the in-house work, and you end up with a NMH (not made here) mentality which is ultimately destructive to the company. You end up wasting too much time re-inventing the wheel when an off-the-shelf solution would be adequate for your needs.

In the end, weigh the factors involved (timeframe, cost, how close existing solutions are to what you need ) and just make sure you pick the right tool for the job. Too much time with the hammer, and everything starts looking like a nail.

Allegedly. Given the amount of evidence and the history of the regime (last time they made this claim they backed off it) I'm skeptical. It wouldn't really surprise me either way. Iran was putting their equivalent of a drone into Iraq while US forces were there. Maybe they're just returning the favor.

Additionally, I imagine there are quite a few people like me out there who only use groupons with businesses I already patrionize regularly. I find myself waiting for the next groupon to show up before purchasing what I would have gotten without it anyway. Great for Groupon, but not so great for the business in question. Doesn't much sound like a sustainable model to me.

They actually announced the factory back in January. One would assume construction started around then, allowing them to meet a 2012 production deadline.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-03/qualcomm-to-invest-about-1-billion-in-taiwan-display-plant-ministry-says.html

Initially? Yes. Many immigrants (including my ancestors) ended up in immigrant enclaves, whether they be Italian, Irish, or any of the other dozen nationalities in my family tree. Fast forward a couple of generations, and the lot of us have spread out over most of the country, while incorporating the aforementioned dozen nationalities along the way. At this point, we aren't Irish, Native American, Italian, what have you. We're simply Americans of varied heritage. Precious few of us (out to the thrice removed variety of relative) ended up staying in anything resembling an immigrant enclave.
Anecdotal, I suppose, but that's my experience.

The way I figure it, the more bizarre the better. We learn a lot more from the systems that challenge our conventional definitions than ones that tend to fit what we already think we know.

It's not particularly unusual for a side in a legal proceeding to attempt to exceed what they're allowed to do. It's kind of a part of the adversarial justice system. Twitter now files a motion to quash the subpoena based on whatever reasoning they choose, and we go from there.

Protesting doesn't always work. It's not a novel concept. Doing things to break the law aren't going to get them what they want in this case either. You're not always going to get what you want, no matter how you try and get it.

The reality of the situation is that UK's budget deficit in 2010 was almost 12% of GDP. Of course some things are going to get cut. I'm not sure why the students are so surprised. Budgets across the board in the UK are getting slashed. They can be pissed off all they want and protest to express their feelings, but it doesn't change the reality of the situation. I'm not saying it doesn't suck, just that going out and breaking the law doesn't make anything better. It's a knee-jerk response that helps no one.

Well, judging from the video, someone should also straighten out his wife on the issue.

I take it you haven't touched your CFLs/Fluorescents or LEDs in a while. Both generate heat, it's just considerably less than traditional incandescents.

Where's my (+1, awesome) mod?

From Google's twitter: "@NYTimes is wrong. We've not had any convos with VZN about paying for carriage of our traffic. We remain committed to an open internet."

I mean, besides being obviously anti-MS (standard /. fare).
If you look at MS's financials and check the annual reports, it doesn't much look like a company that has been "tanking in recent years". Most companies would kill for the revenue growth and operating margin Microsoft has had since 2005. Tanking in recent years, my ass.