Name a single thing you used to be able to do on Mac OS X that you can't do anymore on Mac OS X.

Download the compiler toolchain without "registering".

Xcode and all dev tools used to be free to all - bundled on the OS media as an optional install, or a free download. Now it's only available to "registered developers."

Yes, it's a token bar to get over, but this more than anything is indicative of the problem with Apple's new mindset. OS X used to be an inviting place for anyone to create programs, they're now taking the first steps towards closing it off. "App Stores" are the next example of this - by creating a curated and "authorized" distribution channel, you cast suspicion on any other method of software distribution.

This bothers me, not because I can't get over the bar, but because I don't want to live a software ecosystem where only "professionals" need apply. The end result of this is what we see in the iOS app store: trivial utilities that would have been open or gratis on any other platform are instead nickle-and-dime, or else free but invasive to your privacy trying to be ad-supported.

Same story in the UK, in 2008

How long before we get the slashdot story on a US mall trying this out?

Two years ago, they were tracking what stores you were in via your phone.

Suppose that technology has dried up and blown away in the meantime due to the deafening cry of the outraged shoppers?

...from ten years ago.

I found a proposed bill from 2007 that would have created such a law ("Intro 650"), but that met nothing but widespread opposition and doesn't seem to have ever been passed.

I also found opposition to it's alleged successor, "Intro 58" in 2010.

But nothing I've found suggests these devices are illegal in NYC.

Among all apps tested, the most widely shared detail was the unique ID number assigned to every phone. It is effectively a "supercookie," says Vishal Gurbuxani, co-founder of Mobclix Inc., an exchange for mobile advertisers.

On iPhones, this number is the "UDID," or Unique Device Identifier. Android IDs go by other names. These IDs are set by phone makers, carriers or makers of the operating system, and typically can't be blocked or deleted.

"The great thing about mobile is you can't clear a UDID like you can a cookie," says Meghan O'Holleran of Traffic Marketplace, an Internet ad network that is expanding into mobile apps. "That's how we track everything."

Anybody else remember twelve years ago, when Intel started putting serial numbers in CPUs? There was widespread outrage, and they dropped the idea.

Today, Google and Apple have (effectively) put serial numbers in (handheld) computers, and software is rabidly exploiting that.

We didn't tolerate it then, we shouldn't tolerate it now.

This entire analysis is spot on, but the reason blacklists are so popular is that they tend to work - you use one, the spam goes down, your users are happy. (Right up to the point where they discover a false positive that the RBL is blocking them from getting, anyway.)

In light of that, "do not use DNS-RBLs" is kind of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The obvious middle ground, of course, is "don't use DNS-RBLs to make a binary accept/reject decision." Instead, use them as a weighted input to an overall spam score, such as is done by SpamAssassin or policyd-weight.

But then, that's generally more work. :-)

We've been down this road before. In 2003, Intuit's Turbo Tax (for tax year 2002) pulled the same stunt, indiscriminately overwriting sectors at the beginning of the disk (outside any partition) and trashing people's bootloaders.

All in the futile pursuit of DRM. That's reason enough for me to use Tax Cut, instead, every year since.

Clearly, you're not an emacs user.

...just to get my sig into the thread. :-)