Why not both? It's not like losing a civil complaint would absolve Lenovo of criminal liability. A lawsuit is the only option available to the consumer.

I see they have gold colored print, that has to boost the sound quality by about 10 bucks. But is Monster selling titanium-plated connectors for them yet? Have any advertisers signed up to preload audio advertisements on the cards? This doesn't seem ready for prime time. Sony, give me a call just as soon as you're ready to start charging me a monthly fee!

Five years ago, I probably would have believed this. Hell, two years ago I might have bought it. But after the revelations of June 2013, I don't trust claims like "the microphone stays off until you command it to listen" any more than I believe "no, the NSA does not collect data about millions of Americans" or "we at Lenovo thought consumers would enjoy ads injected into their SSL sessions."

Trusted by default is done, thanks to overzealous advertisers and overzealous governments. That goose is cooked, go find a fork. Everything is suspect, now. Engineer accordingly.

When it comes to employment in the US, the young are expected to work for peanuts in exchange for gaining experience. They also tend to be mostly part-time, owing to other responsibilities like schoolwork, and therefore aren't eligible for those pesky socialist expenses like vacation time or health insurance. The 40 and up crowd faces discrimination because they already have the experience to demand fair compensation (and benefits) for their time.

Employers love young workers. If more companies could figure out how to run their entire operation on the backs of teenagers working 20 hours a week, they'd gladly do so.

They can already take your house, they don't need a new treaty for that.

Okay, how about WhiteHouse.gov screws up SSL certificate on same day as Obama cybersecurity summit.

We're talking about the Land of the Free, here. Facebook access is already monitored like phone calls. You don't even have to be in prison.

Two y's, for a youble yose of his pimpin'.

It sounds to me like the system is already being DOSed, but from the inside. Locating and capturing one guy produced 13,000 separate case files?

The lesson every government agency will take from this is that each action, investigation, or report, no matter how petty or inconsequential, should somehow involve generating enormous tomes worth of documentation. Attach a reference to the entire United States Code to every case file, for example; some part of it must be pertinent. Then anytime anyone files any FOIA request, no matter how narrow or mundane it is, the cost-satisfy burden will simply be too high to meet.

During the webcast, the product manager for Falcon kept referring to a telemetry problem on the SpaceX side that they needed to resolve before T -2:00. Somewhere around T -8:00, reports started showing up online that there was also an issue with the AF radar. The webcast never clarified what the telemetry issue was. Elon mentioned a "1st stage video transmitter (not needed for launch, but nice to have)." It sure sounded like they intended to scrub the launch if they hadn't fixed the telemetry problem by T -2:00, so either the video transmitter really was needed, or they had another problem.

Here you are. Don't be offended if I don't wait for you to finish reading, it's going to take you a long while.

I bought computers with the ability to infringe copyright (which is illegal), make unauthorized connections to and/or deny service to other computer systems (which is illegal), utter forged instruments (which is illegal), and they can do a lot of other illegal things too.

My computers' operating systems have evolved over the years to enforce various DRM, Windows in particular has some socket limitations by default, most image software and printer/scanner drivers use the eurion constellation so I can't scan and print $100 bills. I accepted these things by choice because I don't feel like they deprive me of any functionality that I would use.

In other words, even if he gets his car "upgraded" to disable a feature that he paid for, he can still do essentially the same thing? Why get the "upgrade" and remove a paid-for feature, then? As I mentioned and you reiterated, there are police to take care of unlawful operation of his vehicle's features.

Heh. I bought a car with the ability to go 120MPH, and I know it will do at least 100MPH (erm, according to what the speedometer claims that is, of course I've never ever tested that personally...). That speed is not legal in any jurisdiction in the United States. Should it be okay if the next time I go in for an oil change, they install a governor that stops my car from going over 75? Fuck no, and if that became some sort of mandatory thing, I'd start changing my own oil.

"You might do something illegal with that!" is never a valid reason to take something away from someone.

If he's operating his headlights in an unlawful manner, there are police who can deal with that. He bought a car with feature X, he should be able to keep that feature.

To use a computer analogy in a car thread, imagine that due to piracy, a law was passed stating that computers can no longer play video and that any PCs coming in for repair must have their video capabilities disabled. Are you going to take your PC straight to Geek Squad the next time they send you a flyer in the mail, or are you going to null route the update servers for your OS and keep using the feature you paid for?

It's still required by law that the W2 be mailed out, so that's where the payroll company's name (or a ten-digit identifier that's also supplied to the IRS, or any of a number of other security features) could go. For what it's worth, I'm 35 and will always request paper paychecks as long as they're an option.