When changing the ECU on cars (like when Tuners flash a new tune) it is not the same as changing the entire underlying operating system. In most cases, the parts being changed are the parameters (or mapping points) that the underlying program uses to determine Fuel/Timing (and Boost if applicable) under certain RPM-Load points. The calculation of these and engine operation coding is rarely if ever touched.

It's almost analogous to changing config files for a program. You're not effecting how the program operates, just the parameter data that the underlying program uses.

It say's "Thou shalt not Murder". Murder and killing are two different terms with different meanings. You can kill in self defense and that is not murder. Murder is doing it willfully and on purpose.

And this is the real crux of the overall problem and immorality of taxes. It's not enough to tax your income, nor is enough to tax your spending, but everytime money changes hands (and in many cases does not change hands), it is re-taxed, again and again.

You work and get paid, your salary is taxed. You put some in the bank, and some in investments, and live on the rest. Everything you buy with the money that was already taxed, is taxed again when you spend it (and again as income for whomever you made a purchase from). Then your money sitting in the bank earns measly interest, which is taxed. And your investment earnings is also taxed. Then when pull money out of your investments, it is taxed again, and once more on what ever you purchase with that money. To add insult to injury, you purchase a home, and pay tax, then each year you have to pay tax on the property that you purchased, just to keep it, over and over till you die or your can't pay (in which they confiscate your house and property). Oh yeah, when you die, everything you owned is taxed before being given to your heirs, and then they pay more taxes on it when spend that money (or sell your house or property).

While taxes of *some* form may be required for civilization to exist, I'm of the mind set, that the only way to reduce this drastically is to greatly reduce the overall size of government in general. It will never be enough for government, as the more it grows, the more it wants to take, and the more it takes, the more it will grow. Less money needed then.

At many places, you can adjust how much is taken out. I used to work with people who would get big returns every year, so they went into HR, and raised the number of dependents on their withholding calculation. This made the software assume you had more kids/dependents and thus took less out of each check, and they would play with the numbers to try to attempt to get it as close as possible by the end of the year, so they reduced they yearly refund but kept more on each paycheck instead.

You see, only Jeff Bezos has special permission to be delivering mail and packages via a small helicopter. I guess Amazon got beat to the punch this time.

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds..."

Yes this. I only fly when I have to for work, which is a couple times a year maybe. I always opt-out of the scanners (figuring if they're going to do something pervasive, they should be embarrassed and uncomfortable about it as well). It also makes a point, as it always seems like your "putting them out" when they have to do a manual pat down (I wish more people would opt for this reason). Funny how they don't see themselves as the 'PERVS' in this situation, as they are giving you the option of seeing and photographing you naked, or getting sexually assaulted. Just because you pick the one least convenient for them, doesn't make you the 'perv', as most people would rather not get either if given the choice.

But it never fails, that when you inform them that your not going through the naked scanner like the other lemmings, that they subtly make you pay for it.
-First, they always try to talk you out of the 'opt-out' by regurgitating TSA info on the safety of the scanners.
-Then when you don't change your mind, they make a very loud and public announcement for "OPT-OUT, WE HAVE AN OPT-OUT!!!" while they point to you. As an attempt to publicly shame you in front of everyone.
-Then they tell you to go stand aside so they can continue to scan people while you are 'waiting' for another agent to let you through the by-pass door, meanwhile, your stuff has gone through the X-Ray and you can't see it anymore (violation of airport rules to loose sight of your luggage/carry-ons btw).
-You sit there for several minutes (or more) hoping that the dozen or two-dozen people that go past you don't take your cell phone, laptop, bag, or your wallet while your stuff is sitting down at the end of the XRay machine out of your sight.
-Finally someone will come get you and let you through and pickup your stuff and take you over to the exam counter where the real 'fun' (and rights violations) begin.

All the while, you aren't allowed to touch your belongings until after they clear you, so you have no idea if someone has taken anything from your bins of stuff until several minutes have passed (and at which point, getting your stuff back would be near impossible).

They have high resolution scans of every inch of their persons, including their private parts, but they "can't identify" the victims? Hmm, ok.

Unfortunately because these jobs are government (ie: public sector) jobs, their paychecks are paid from re-distributing everyone else's money out them. In other words, everyone (even those people who don't fly) have to pay more in taxes so we can have all these extra government jobs. To top it off, they are unionized (so they get better pay and better working package than most private sector jobs doing similar tasks) and they get a better retirement than most private jobs (just like most government jobs now days).

I would rather donate that extra money to charity for helping the truly poor and be able to fly without getting groped.

I'll give you credit though, at least you admitted (in not so many words) that it's largely just one big government works program for people who are, for the most part, unemployable for anything more productive... (a similar view to what I think a large majority of our local/state/federal government jobs really are).

What I don't understand is all the press about the iWatch, as well as any of the iPhone releases. Android smart watches have been out for years, and not a peep on the nightly news about 'em. Either Apple is paying off the local/national media for 'advertisements' or the people that produce the news are all Apple fanboys and stumble over each other to give Apple free advertising in the form of "news".

OMG, this! I know people that will wake up from sleep to run in and answer their cell phone. I've known people who are taking a crap and feel they NEED to answer that call when it comes in. People--most of us are NOT that important, and more importantly, most other people are NOT that important to us that we need to be at your frickin' beck and call when you please!

If you call me and if I feel like talking to you, and I'm not busy, and I'm not doing something else I desire to do more than talk to you, I MIGHT answer it. Otherwise, leave a message (a specific one that says what you want) and I'll get back to you when all of the above conditions are met. Me carrying a cell phone is for MY convenience, NOT for yours! But people don't get this... they sit up and wag their tail like a trained dog when ever their cell phone makes a peep.

Because laws. When cell phones came out, hardly anyone had hands-free earbuds, but once states passed laws that say you get a ticket for even "touching" or "holding" your phone while in the drivers seat of a car that is started (even at a red light, stopped), people have to get them in many situations.

There is no such law that says you have to use a smart-watch.

Yes, the SIM can be changed, and that will change the phone number, but the phones are encoded with a IMEI number, which is like a serial number unique to each phone. The IMEI number is tranmitted to the cell towers and is how the cell providers track what kind of phone you have and other details.

The Feds have made it a FELONY to change the IMEI number of the phone, so even if you have the expensive equipment to do it, they've made it hard to get and illegal to use. This is how many organized theft rings would wipe a phone, they would change the IMEI number from the stolen phone, to either a generic IMEI number, or a legit IMEI number so the phone can't be de-activated on the cell network.

The cell phone companies use the IMEI (ESN) number for several purposes, one of them is to flag stolen phones and de-activate them on the cell network. You could change the SIM, but if the IMEI number has been reported stolen, and flagged in the DB, then the phone won't be allowed on the carrier's network. The other use the cell providers use the IMEI number is to know what phone you have. For instance, ATT requires all smart phones to purchase a data plan for it (even if you only wish to use data over wifi). If you activate ANY smart phone on their network, if you don't have a data plan for it, they will detect it and add a data plan to your account. They detect whether it is a smart phone by the IMEI number on the network.

I looked into this as I wanted to give my teen my old smart phone, but didn't want to put data on the plan for it (just calling+txt). I figured the phone was better than a feature phone, cause she could still use it on wifi, plus it holds tons of MP3's and has a nice camera etc. that aren't on feature phones. I looked into the idea of buying a go-phone (so they didn't add data to my plan), and then putting the SIM from the go-phone into my old smart phone to get it cell service. I quickly learned (from reading, not doing), that as soon as the smart phone is seen on the network (regardless of SIM used), they would add data to the plan. Needless to say, she has a go-phone.

Not ever having a prepaid phone, but living in the US, I am actually surprised too. Not in a bad way though, I don't think you should have to be identifiable to have a phone and I think it's great if you actually can get an anonymous phone if you desire too. I'm just surprised with all the loss of freedoms we've had in the US in the last decade that you are still allowed to buy a prepaid phone without showing ID and giving a SSN or something because "think of the children".

Logically, there is no reason to have to provide ID to buy a prepaid cell phone, since it is by nature, prepaid. The only reason why regular cell phones should/need to have an identity attached to them is for billing/contract reasons. Unfortunately recently, the US government and corporations alike seem to think that anonymity is something to be squashed. Either the gov wants your ID associated with everything for NSA and spying reasons, or corporations want your ID tied to everything for tracking/advertising reasons. Between the two of them, there isn't a whole lot you can do to be anonymous anymore.