We already can transmute lead into gold. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_transmutation. Of course, it costs more in energy than the gold is worth -- which probably applies equally to garbage mining, so the comparison is quite apt.

Obviously, you've never tried plugging a USB cable into the back of a tower that can't easily be moved (with a lot of connections in the back, it's rather difficult to move unless all of your wires are long). The plugs are sideways. What's up and what's down?

Equally, for micro/mini USB, have you ever tried plugging in your phone in the dark, when it's yelling at you about needing to be charged? For that matter, those connectors are TINY. Can you read anything written on them?

Reversible connectors -- or connectors with an actual OBVIOUS direction -- would be very nice.

Like I said, I don't disagree with how LavaBit handled this. In fact, I think EVERYONE should treat federal 'requests' for information the way that Ladar Levinson has, and greatly admire the stand he has taken. I was simply saying that it was more complicated than the summary made it out to be.

That being said, in my personal opinion the fact that the fed can request envelope information with no probably cause is a travesty. I see it as no different than pulling mail out of my mailbox to see who I write letters to and who writes to me. This should be illegal search and seizure

Things are a bit more involved than they seem from reading just the summary. The fed originally requested that LavaBit provide them with information regarding a single account (header information only, but on an ongoing basis), which they are allowed to obtain without probable cause. LavaBit refused the initial request, then stalled when given a court order to provide this information (I believe LavaBit was in the right in doing so -- I'm NOT supporting the fed's case, just providing information). The fed took LavaBit back to court, and obtained a court order requiring that LavaBit provide the SSL key, as the fed did not believe that LavaBit would comply with an order for information on a single account. The best part was when LavaBit sent them the SSL key, as a 4 point font printout :-)

In other words, when LavaBit wouldn't provide them information on a single account, the fed escalated to the nuclear option.

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of the liberty to take a real bottle of shampoo on an airplane, or the liberty of not having to arrive at the airport an hour or more early only to be subjected to demonstrably ineffective (and possibly, over the long term, dangerous -- although that hasn't been demonstrated because of the refusal of the TSA to perform actual testing) security theater, or the liberty of not having your toddler groped by an underpaid, undertrained, overzealous, security goon.

One of the few truly effective security changes since 9/11 was the very simple expedient of adding always locked, reinforced cabin doors.

While we're on the subject of liberty, someone who had a personal hand in the founding of our country had something very relevant to say about this situation... They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

This is a fairly typical way to permanently take away freedom. Take away a LOT of freedom during an 'emergency', then later give back a small portion of that freedom. People will be so relieved by the small concessions that they forget the larger liberties that they no longer enjoy.

I'm not a big supporter of complete Laissez-faire capitalism, so don't take this the wrong way... But this story is about exactly the opposite of what you seem to think it is. The problem in this case is the franchise law -- which is government interference in the free market, which is anathema to true capitalism -- not with capitalism. Of course dealerships are going to sue -- they've got a nice racket going on, with government backing.

Wouldn't that be 'take a byte'? Sorry, couldn't resist.

I thought loan wolves all worked in the banking industry.

The Honeywell / GE Merger in 2001, for one. That was stopped by the EU, not the FCC, but the idea is the same.

Seriously? Of course indulgences were sold -- under the guise of 'charitable contributions'. If you are told that a contribution to charity can reduce your sentence in jail, and that the charity that you're supposed to contribute to is owned, operated, and controlled by the warden, isn't that basically selling a reduced jail sentence?

Indulgences were sold for the construction of St. Peter's basilica. The church investigated, and downplayed the role of the priest at the top of the chain -- instead, those that played up the idea to the poor were blamed. Those involved were not 'counterfeiting' anything, they were just misrepresenting what was needed for an indulgence (a prayer was just as good as money). However, the idea of giving indulgences to rebuild the basilica certainly started at the top, and is 'selling' no matter how you look at it.

Actually, you're completely correct -- in that Google is your friend.

According to wikipedia (I know, downmod me for using this as a source), abuse of the sale of indulgences was a major point of contention, and one of the reasons why Martin Luther started the protestant reformation. I can't imagine that wikipedia is any MORE biased on this subject than the official Catholic web site.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence

Yes, but it should be the default, with an option to ENABLE script support for specific documents, not a system-wide setting. Like noscript lets you mark specific pages as trusted.

Well, gee -- how about creating the equivalent of noscript for Adobe, then? That way, the user can decide for themselves if they want to run scripts in what they THOUGHT was just a formatted text document.