I don't know if the installer somehow determined a preset key based on a unique identifier associated with the computer itself
It did, for large volume OEM's Microsoft has them burn the key into the BIOS which is why most don't come with the hologram sticker anymore, there's no need for it on Vista+ systems. The only problem it can sometimes cause is if you're doing a cross version and cross type install without an existing OS on the box (ie it came with 7 home and you're doing an upgrade install of 8.1 Enterprise)

Let's hold a hearing on scientifically driven politics, and don't invite the politicians!

Great, lets just look in on this group of scientists I found that are not funded by government money:

*crickets*

something being actually thrust away from the device is the next likely explanation
Yes, exactly ... no idea what you want to say.
Obviously the drive generates "thrust" by "thrusting" something away: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

They don't prove any such thing.
Of course they have, I suggest to google.
All they prove is that a bunch of questionable researchers claimed to measure a marginally significant effect
Your way of wording this is: libel.
What you consider marginal is your thing, others might disagree.
, and have been hyping the fuck out of it.
They don't. If they would you would know the names of the scientists and you and we would see them in TV regularly.
There actually is no hype.
Scientific openness is not equivalent credulously accepting the claims of every whacko and charlatain who makes a claim, just because it "hasn't been disproven".
How do you come to the idea that this is happening here?

We do know things about the world. Nothing is absolute in science, but some things come very, very close. Conservation of momentum is one of those.
Yes, it is. And the drive conserves momentum quite fine. Why do you claim it does not, when all the theories about how it works clearly state: it does???

1) The app has to declare if it's going to be doing background processing, and you have to give a reason why they will accept. So not just any app can do that.

What we really need is the ability to turn on and off specific permissions by app. Perhaps with the ability to limit internet permission to certain IPs/URLs per app. That would solve most of the problem.

I thought Google added that ability in an early 4.0 or 5.0 version of Android, but then backed it out... Sadly I think because too many apps react badly when permissions are withdrawn it expects to run. The whole model creates a bad precedent I think where you assume you'll have all the app permissions you requested and so if any are withdrawn individually (which advanced users can do) the app is prone to break even though it could carry on just fine if it had been coded to detect that one permission was disabled. Google is going to have to bite that bullet at some point.

BTW - cold fusion turned out to be a fraud, despite people clinging to the hope even today.

It did not turn out to be a fraud. It turned out to be a 'mistake', and that is even not sure as plenty of physicians are still or again working in that field.

Fraud is a word used in criminal contexts, it means a person is deliberately misleading other people to gain a profit, usually by causing damage to those people.

E.g. if I sell you at a metro station a ticket for 80 cents, which would normally cost 1,30 Euro ... you use the ticket and surprisingly it works, but as soon as a controller checks you, it turns out it is a children's ticket ... that is fraud.

Setting up a weird experiment and finding a strange effect and publishing everything about it: that is science. Even if it get debunked later.

None of that sound scientific approach is present here, so the cold fusion "debacle" was handled right on the scientific side. This thing here is not and nothing of the published results deserves much trust at this time.

You are mistaken. Everything regarding how to build an EM drive is published.
I would start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

which requires independent testing, and that's not being done.

Why do you claim such nonsense when the last weeks articles all tell us: the NASA is testing it?

Or is the NASA not independent enough for you?

The drive being suggested here does not use reaction mass at all, it pushes against space itself
No it does not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

Scroll down to "Theory".

Even a propeller does not work by pushing against something and moving the boat/plane forward. It works by accelerating the medium around it and simply uses the momentum of that accelerated medium like a rocket uses its exhaust.

No, the destruction of nation-states (Libya, Syria, and Iraq) that created the conditions for ISIS to flourish are Clinton's responsibility. She was a policy-maker, not the policy-maker, but a policy-maker nonetheless who was in the room when these decisions were made.

Unlike internal combustion engines, electric brushless motors can last pretty much forever. Drivetrain wear is probably the #1 reason cars depreciate in value. If there's no wear, there's no depreciation.

ahem, about that.

Three drive train replacements in 30k in an ICE vehicle would qualify it under probably every states lemon laws.

Basic fact fail. The vote was 297-133 in the House and 77-23 in the Senate. There were plenty of brave voices willing to stand up against the Iraq War. HRC was not one of them. She does not get a pass for that clusterfuck, nor any of the clusterfucks that occurred while she was serving in the Obama Administration.

Good for you. You're also adept at putting words into my mouth. But feel free to excuse away HRC's bad judgment if it makes you feel better.

One of the things I was thinking the port was there for, was probably when developers could build native apps for the phone - since it would be a little pokey to ship debug builds and running debug info over wireless to the watch, a development cable would be a great idea.

It's probably also for Apple Store employees to run diagnostics (not sure if they have equipment for that yet).

The diagnostic port is hidden by a cover. I'd be interested to see if removing the cover adversely affect's the watch's water resistance.

It may somewhat, but given that the port itself is located under the round part of the band that slides into the watch, it seems like it would be sealed away fairly well (especially if you designed the strap with that in mind).

It seems pretty sure sweat would not be able to get in there, really only submersion would have a chance.