The small space rocks that shower the Earth at regular intervals are small because a big rock once collided with the Earth, sending debris into an orbit around the Sun that regularly intersects with the Earth's. Those rocks pose no current threat to the Earth, their damage was done at the time of mass extinctions past, or when the oceans were carved out, or what ever other distant past event they caused. The ones to worry about are the large interstellar rocks that haven't hit yet. So no, this does not help narrow the search for objects that threaten the Earth at all.

It doesn't really matter. Gorilla glass 2 is tough enough already to resist scratching by pretty much anything I have in my pockets with it. The problem is not the toughness, it is the strength which results in cracked screens.

Not via OBD2, via the OBD2 connector. Most manufacturers will do that these days because CAN is now mandatory in the OBD2 port to get realtime emissions diagnostics. But for programming they use proprietary protocols that are additional to the standard OBD2 protocols.

You could always try pretending to be in Ireland for tax purposes.

This only really works if you have a VPN with an exit point in Luxembourg or the Netherlands, and use tor over that to an exit point in Bermuda.

Pffft. Amateur conformist. I get my slashdot by telnetting to port 80 and requesting it by hand!

Jokes aside, but I've been doing HTTP/web stuff since 1994 or so, I'm very familiar with telnet hostname 80 :) I've even sent HTTP .9 requests for a production server.

Wannabes, the lot of you. I've been getting my internets by telnetting to port 70 since 1991.

It could also be completely closed source and proprietary. Because it's all Google's own code they can license it however they like (actually, I don't know if Google owns all the copyrights; I'm not sure how they handle contributions),

I thought the class libraries that are taken from standard Java are actually Apache Harmony. There may be modifications by Google, and there are plenty more libraries that are unique to Android, but they have not written everything from scratch.

You're confusing interfaces of physical devices that isn't copied by copyright (but perhaps patents) with an expressible form of information that is copyright protected. (like a written work, computer software, song, and others)

I don't see the distinction. The physical interface is defined by a drawing, and drawings are as much subject to copyright as the file of structured text that defines an API.

I'm not sure if you're trying to be funny here, or just lacking in knowledge about the history of Sybase.

The idea was to open up access to other card providers. With the secure element being in hardware, operators were controlling the provisioning, so only very few phones came provisioned for Google Wallet, and none with major credit card companies, because those companies won't bend over and accept the operators' demands for a cut.

Radio receivers also oscillate at frequencies that might interfere with aircraft electronics. So no, it is not "stupid", just an unnecessary precaution. (Unnecessary based on the fact that some ailines/countries are now allowing cellphones to be switched on during flight).

It also requires specific OS support.

So do USB Mass Storage, and FAT32, or if you want more than 64GB to work with Windows 7 and later, ExtFS.

And unlike ExtFS, MTP support is standard on any modern platform in common use.

Think for a moment what his link was given in response to.

Sure, this is why the sale of old fashioned alarm clocks should be banned too. [For those who can't be bothered following the link: short version is OMG, terrists!, longer version is that someone thinks that RFID passports could be used to trigger a bomb.

As a bonus, the app that the hotel has forced you to install to get access to your room can also be used to advertise the chain's other properties.

All he does is pushing corporate interests with the money he "earned" exploiting a monopoly.

Before he got into health issues, I'd agree - mostly he invested in pushing developing countries towards using Windows PCs for education. But more recently he's investing a lot into healthcare issues that are important to the developing world, and without his money, unprofitable for the drug cartels to research.