Is it really so much of a brain-drain to plug your phone in to charge it everyday that we have to be wasting our time on stuff like this?

I don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize anyway, and I recommend everyone else do the same.

Disclaimer (for benefit of the knee-jerk-reactionaries): I passionately hate Al Qaeda, the so-called 'Islamic State', and all pseudo-religious nutcases who, for some reason, think 'God' (whoever the fuck that is) wants them to cut off people's heads 'for offending the Prophet', throw acid in little girls' faces/kill little girls because they have the audacity to want to go to school/learn to read/learn history/learn to do math/learn in general, and all the rest of the bullshit these fucking assholes are out there doing/condoning/supporting. I think they all desperately need to be brought to justice for their innumerable crimes, no question about it.

..now, that all having been said:
If you don't, for more than a second or two, think that these 'sweeping powers' they want to grab (and make no mistake, it's a power-grab) are going to end up being grossly and indiscriminately mis-used to further political agendas that have nothing to do with anti-terrorism, then you are incredibly, unbelievably naive, because that's exactly, precisely what's going to happen. Euros, you need to clamp down on this shit right now, because once they get this kind of power, they will not let go of it, ever, and they will ironically enough use it to destroy whatever freedom of speech you have in your country. Mark my words.

More likely they're wanting to increase their ability to commit cyber-espionage and cyber-terrorism and figure they need the extra bandwidth to do that.

So how will you be feeling about having sold off this 'privacy' thing that you seem to value so little, when your health insurance premiums go through the roof because they know you like to drink Pepsi, which as everyone knows will lead to obesity and diabetes, and since you're one of those people who eat and drink unhealthy foods, you probably lead an overall unhealthy lifestyle, therefore heart disease is in your future too, and probably cancer -- therefore you're going to cost them a lot of money down the road -- therefore they charge you up the ass now, since you're such a big risk. Or maybe it's your life insurance company that raises your premium, or flat-out cancel your policy, since you're too big of a risk.

Sound outrageous? Think again. With every year that passes that people throw away more and more of their right to privacy, more and more profiling of people's lives, right, wrong, accurate, or inaccurate, is happening. That's been the trend, and if nobody says anything about it, it'll continue until scenarios like the above start happening. Or worse things.

Some of you people seem to lack reading comprehension: I do not have money for that, and even if I did, there are other things that are (shocking!!!) more important than building a new computer that I really don't need right now because the existing one does everything I need it to do. Why is that so hard for you to understand?

Why would I want something that I can't change any components of, and that if it breaks down I can't repair it? Desktop!

You could tell me that you have a pill I can swallow that will let me keep living a thousand years, but if it means I'm still going to get decrepit and still going to experience a steadily declining overall quality of life? Then I tell you 'no thanks'. If I can't be at least as strong and active as I am right now, then what's the point? If I'm going to steadily go blind, or become frail and weak, or worst of all: My mind is going to go, I forget who I am, everything, and everyone I know, and have to have attendants to keep me from wandering off? No fucking way, I'd rather eat a bullet. Now, if it's going to be like being on boosterspice (http://larryniven.wikia.com/wiki/Boosterspice) and I'm going to become younger, biologically similar to being 25 years old, and stay in that state of vigor so long as I can keep taking the stuff? Then I'm all in on it.

I'm still on XP, mainly because the box it's running on is almost 10 years old and running a single-core processor. I have other priorities for my money than building a new box just so I can run a newer OS. Not that I wouldn't like a faster, multi-core processor, mind you, but I just can't justify the expense when I have other things I'd rather spend the money on before that. Have to build it myself, too, no pre-built computers, and nothing non-upgradable like a NUC, either. I suppose Win 7 would run on this box OK, but I also don't want to have to go through all the hassle of upgrading and then having to re-install everything I've got installed right now. It works fine the way it is, it does everything I need it to do, and frankly I spend more time outside the house doing active things than I used to spend inside staring at a monitor and have benefitted thereby.

So you're willing to sell off your privacy for a few bucks? That's what you're doing if you didn't realize it. Same goes for any 'rewards club' type cards at retailers: You're giving them permission to gather personally identifiable data on you, for a few measly bucks. How does it feel knowing that there are complete strangers out there that think they know you because of the data they collect on you about purchasing habits? How will you feel about it when someone gets it wrong?

Why? Why, with everything that everyone knows about Facebook, all the privacy violations, all the obvious signs that they really don't give a rat's ass about the users, just the money that users' data can earn them, would anyone still be using Facebook? Is it willful ignorance? Or is it deep denial? Now, we find out: Facebook can and is being used to profile people. Come on, is this what you all really want?

Disregard Facebook. Take your life back.

I really have no idea what that even means, I don't watch sports.

Who gets to decide what is and is not 'hate speech', hmm? You may as well have some committee deciding for an entire planet what 'is' and 'is not' art. Oh, and of course no politician will ever use something like this to advance any agenda they might have, oh no! Keep up the good work, EU! You'll be living under Sharia Law before too long if you keep this up!

Terrorists: 1
European Union: 0


IDIOTS!

Gee, that's nice. But what makes you think they're not performing a 'man in the middle' attack on your personal preferences and tastes by injecting something they're being paid to try to get you to like? There is no invasion of privacy or crime being committed if they do that, and it can easily be dismissed as their algorithm hiccupping and feeding you something you didn't really want -- or you can go "Gee, I kinda like that too, thanks Pandora!" and their mission is accomplished. Kind of like broadcast radio. Yes, I have no proof of this -- but it's plausible. So how is something that requires you to PAY for access (data plan on wireless, or internet access at home) better than something that comes OTA for free? Yes, radio has commercials -- but you can always switch stations if it bugs you that much. You're dismissing broadcast radio out-of-hand for no good reason. Oh and don't call me a Luddite (although most people don't use the term correctly), I tried Pandora, and found it annoying. The deal-breaker was when it wouldn't let me skip more than so-many selections per hour, essentially forcing me to listen to what it wanted me to hear. At that point I may as well just listen to whatever MP3s/AACs I had around -- or turn on the radio again.

You mean like you do with your PMP, or that internet streaming radio stations do? You simply do not know what you're talking about because you simply do not listen to broadcast radio so how would you know? The closest reality comes to your uninformed view of it would be a Top-10 station, and by the way my gym uses satellite radio and the Top-10 channels on that are the most annoying and vapid thing I've ever heard and I know of no Top-10 broadcast radio stations in my market, which is not by any definition of the word a 'small' market for radio. There is new music all the time on broadcast FM radio around here, you should try listening to it yourself, maybe you'd hear something you like.