See, this attitude is the problem. It's not about whether or not you truly have something to hide. It's about whether or not your government could use its unfettered access to your personal communications to associate you or your circumstance with its profile of an "enemy" or a "criminal" without regard for context. It could be something as simple as placing you at the scene of or finding motive for a crime you had nothing to do with, so you find yourself the target of an investigation, or facing an indictment. Even if you win the trial (because it turns out their evidence was only circumstantial and not enough to convict), your life is ruined. Your friends and family will suspect you may actually have been guilty. You will lose your job. You'll be out legal fees. Or it could be something along the lines of building a profile about you and putting you on the top secret "terrorist watch list" because you once made a joke in an IM to a close friend that met some automated criteria. Or maybe over time the criteria that associates somebody with a terrorist changes, and the government starts targeting people who closely fit your political beliefs, geographic region, ethnicity, religion or circle of friends. Perhaps you won't even know this until you try to board a flight, or exercise a constitutional right. Not to mention there are over 4000 crimes in the US code alone. Are you 100% certain you have never broken any of these statutes? Further, even if you trust your government not to abuse this data, our government has shown the world that it's ok to spy on its citizens because it even does that itself. It's a welcome for any other nation, friend or foe, to likewise intercept, datamine and correlate online behavior for building profiles on American citizens.

Because everybody is too swept up in party politics to care about content and actually fixing things. It's much more fun to be part of a rivalry.

Seriously, this bill was bad, but too many people here on Slashdot are incapable of seeing how. It AUTHORIZES mass data collection and surveillance, just puts some extra parameters around it. Shouldn't our goal be to shut down mass data collection and surveillance?

That's funny, because the Republicans tell me the exact same thing - a vote for a third party is a vote for a Democrat. Tell me more about how the Democrats are better than the Republicans on government spying, warrantless wiretapping, stop-and-frisk programs, interstate border checkpoints and cash seizures. Hint: they're not. They both want to datamine everything you do online. They both want to fill prisons with non-violent criminals while letting the violently insane mix into society as if there's nothing wrong with them. They both want to pretend drug addictions don't exist, and let those suffering from real addiction only find help from their dealer. I was to believe the Democrats were going to "Change" all that, but they're exactly the same. Saying is not the same as doing. By electing the same old shit, we're never going to see voting reform, term limits or districting reform. By electing the same old shit, we're never going to see any real issues addressed, just those that the two parties know are divisive enough to polarize the electorate and guarantee their reelection.

You have only proven my point by claiming a vote for a third party is a vote for a Republican. I still get told all the time that it's my fault a Democrat was elected Governor of Virginia because I voted for a third party. The fact is, many people only vote Democrat or Republican because they don't want "the other guy" to win. The only way to fix that is to institute something like instant run-off voting, but Democrats and Republicans won't allow that. They won't even allow third party candidates to join them in a public debate.

A vote for a third party is a vote for a third party. Anything else is a vote for the status quo, and a vote to continue the distractions that only serve to empower the two parties

Not to sound like a fanboy (because I'm not even close), but they have made a few compelling products and interesting decisions since Nadella took over.

Not voting is not the same as a protest vote. Pick a third party candidate, or write in someone you think is worthy of the position. If you don't vote, nobody knows you even care.

I picked one up yesterday. I like the form factor. It's not as bulky as my MOTOACTV, but it still seems to have a lot of usefulness. Some of the things missing out of the gate include the ability to do voice input if you're on anything but Windows Phone 8.1, the ability to load music on it and use it without your phone for a run (with bluetooth headphones - something my MOTOACTV can do), and I really wish it had NFC so I can use it for mobile payments.

As for the first two gripes, those may get fixed with a future software update. The last one I guess I'll have to get over. I can use my phone.

All in all, it seems Microsoft may finally be thinking outside the box. Not everyone wants a microtablet on their wrist, and with the right software updates, this thing could be just as capable.

Are we supposed to read the articles? Shit. I've been screwing this up for years.

Where's the other half gone?

So it's not for the name, address, date of birth, social security number etc. that can be used for any lucrative form of identity theft? That's a relief!

It's BS that Snowden is unwilling to come back to the US to stand trial. I'm sure there are plenty of great lawyers who would work pro bono to take his landmark case, and if he was willing to fight, he might be able to affect more change to the government spying program and achieve the goals he set out to reach.

There's a lot of Unity hate going on, and I admit, when it first launched it was an utter failure. You couldn't resize the icon bar, it was missing a lot of useful keyboard shortcuts, searching for a program didn't allow you to directly launch with the keyboard and it was otherwise just generally unusable. I decided to give it another shot recently, however, and it's come a long way, even matured into a fully usable and efficient UI. I can auto-hide the iconbar, resize it, and the search box is fantastic! If you press the "Windows" key, it opens up the search interface. You don't even have to type the name of the app you want, just start typing what you want to do! For instance, if I type in "gam" brings up Steam, Minecraft and ScummVM. If I hit enter, the first item in the search results will launch. Then I discovered the new keyboard shortcuts. Hold down the Windows key and a keyboard shortcut cheatsheet will appear, and they are incredibly useful. I am now a fan of Unity.

Let's be realistic. Fake boarding passes aren't a threat to the TSA. The only purpose to the TSA of checking your boarding pass before entering the security checkpoint is to keep from unnecessarily screening people who aren't flying. It keeps your mother from cluttering up the naked-scanner for everyone else who's flying if she just wants to kiss you before you fly away. If someone prints a fake boarding pass to get past the TSA, they still won't be able to get on the flight. They're going to be able to buy a Maxim at Hudson News and an 8 hour old sandwich and nothing more. And even if they are able to board the flight, they won't have a seat assigned so they run the risk of being caught by a flight attendant before takeoff and getting arrested. No, someone who poses a real terror threat won't present a fake boarding pass to the TSA because that could blow their whole plot if they get caught with it before takeoff. I find it hilarious when suddenly everyone on Slashdot becomes a security expert.