If Julian Assange had exposed this sort of unsavoury conduct he would be closer to his originally stated ideals, and nobody would care about his indiscretions.

Nice arguement, but fails to recognise the concept of free choice. Only people who want the option of rethinking their obsession with being gay will purchase that app. Removing the option to purchase that app counters all your arguements (and those of many others). The same logic would apply of apple removed an app to cure alcoholism. People deserve the right to choose a free market place. The Gay lobby has overstepped their 'anti discrimination' mantra.

It is and will be a game changer for the disabled and environments where the users is not free to use their hands. Surgical and machinery operations spring to mind. Now that proof of concept is complete, the prototyping to production timeframe will be short. The interesting part will be providing a failsafe algorythm to ensure interpretation of the users intent is accurate.

I think the issue will rapidly become more complex. Berlusconi is there because of a cultural difference in Italy. The thinking that might be popular in Slashdot culture could well backfire.
Copyrighted material on youtube is an issue that needs a resolution. Youtube experiences a benefit from providing copyrighted content, yes they have difficulties controlling who publishes x via their service. Some copyright owners have/will turn a blind eye to their content being pirated due to the free publicity/promotional value.

Changing the ball game to a win-win scenario is inevitable and what I'd expect from google.
I'm expecting to see this manifest itself as -
Better automation of copyright infringement detection.
Improved kiddysafe / Adult content flagging.
Negotiations with major copyright owners, advertisers and marketers is another.

Makes sense that the IR-1 is a superceded model and this story is a divsersion. "Iran usually ran its motors at 1,007 cycles per second to prevent damage, while Stuxnet seemed to increase the motor speed to 1,064 cycles per second." Any mechanical design that results in failure due to a speed change of 6% was prone to failure anyway. I was expecting a more sophisticated attack that would deliver process failure rather than a mechanical failure. Much more effective to make the plant manager think his process is flawed rather than delivering an obvious mechanical failure.

citation please.
http://www.asymco.com/2010/03/11/the-tale-of-the-spitzer-bullet-patent-lawsuit/
Legal disputes resulted in the royalties not being paid until 1928. Interesting story none the less.

Nice idea, would be interesting to see the long estranged descendants and derived companies coming forward to make a claim.

The odd thing I see with the arguements above is the failure to realize some caution in the application of science is a good thing.

If the 'religious nuts' provide some caution to the scientific community and encourage the public to debate how science is implemented then that has a net positive result. Worth noting here that not all things claiming to be in the religious name actually are.

'declared biologically innocuous in an earlier study', yeah, we were told Thalidomide was a great drug .....

It is an interesting way to improve the tracking of embryos - the potential effects on development post embryo will need to be tested further before they can progress to human embryos. Further debate and research will be needed to identify if this is the only or desirable way to achieve the desired result.

The relevant bible clause here is worth a read - then ask yourself if forecasting this as a bad thing for mankind 2000 years ago makes Nostradamus look like an amateur. I can't help but wonder what Jesus would have said about gene patents.

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”
Albert Einstein

exactly. It might be hard to appreciate the intangible benefit if you ignore the psychology that drives people to spend a large proportion of their disposable income, travel long distances and camp out early to get in a physical queue to buy tickets.

Nothing is more demeaning to a performer than playing to an unenthusiastic audience. Jack up the prices too much and the front row will be filled with suits who give no vibe to the performers.

I've had a similar situation with a debt collect for an ISP. ISP tried to charge for an account after the contract period had expired, account closure requested and I was out of the country.

One thing that helped was using social engineering methods to get the operators name, explaining to him I needed a copy of the companies original invoice for tax purposes and a copy of the terms of the contract. When he was unable to give me information I immediately requested he put his supervisor on the phone. After repeated requests due to the supervisor being unavailable I informed him he was doing his managers job for them and he should either
a. stop doing his managers job for them
b. demand better wages or
c. stop calling me making unjustified requests for funds.


In paralel with this I contacted the ISP and requested they formally advise me who their debt collection company was as I was dealing with a suspected fraud case unable to justify their debt collection practice.

When I explained to the debt collected operator he was obviously smart enough to get a better paying job working for anything else his attitude improved. Eventually the company gave up contacting me.
Excising debt collection companies from the equation is (in my experience) the best way to solve the problem. These companies operate on a % of debt collected and pay minimal wages to operators with a resultant skill level.
Tho, I also know a % of debt collectors are chasing frauds who have no intention of paying anyone anything. Having said that, there are more effective ways to obtain a result - small claims court & repossessions.

Did anybody not expect this would eventually happen? Do no evil. meh.

I disagree. Dismissing a case because criminal intent was not proven has become way too common. "I didn't mean to stab him" & "I didn't mean to run a red light" is not a defense. If the law is there, and a breach is identified and proven to the satisfaction of the courts then a conviction should be recorded. Judges have discretion to impose a range of fines/penalties, including a direction to the school and administrators to improve their procedures.

"won't file charges on it doesn't mean the case is dropped" = I suspect you meant "won't file charges on it doesn't mean the issue is dropped".

Civil charges are a separate matter. The plaintiffs would have to prove damage is caused and justify the legal expense to gain justice. Many civil charges are not pursued due to legal costs.

the article states "A student and his family sued the district in February, claiming officials invaded his privacy by activating the software. That case continues." - wil be interesting to see where this progresses to.

"faith based filtering" = ?? Julia & Conroy are offering us censorship, did you miss the debate on this topic?
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/web-filter-to-block-internet-nasties-will-compromise-nbn-say-providers/story-e6frg6nf-1225811143407
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/07/2893687.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/21/2879345.htm

"all they did was stall adsl2, milk the international interconnects, keep exchanges difficult to access, charge use up and down by the mb and muddy any NBN press."

Telstra was the product of both Labor & coalition governments spread across several terms. The Monopoly that was changed into the system we have today is less than perfect. The reality is we now have other private companies investing in infrastructure and providing competitive service. For example - TPG have invested in exchanges and sell monopoly access to their infrastructure. No security of investment results in no investment.

Creating a new monopoly (NBN) will result in a repeat of the original Telecom problems. Any investment in infrastructure will demand a return on investment. Any politician/government that fails to subject to accountability will be accused of vote buying (pork barreling their electorate).

I'm all for open debate. Please justify & expand on your claim "Tony is offering Australia more of the worst of a US Bell system".