How exactly could Google even stop Microsoft? The OS allows for side loading and alternative stores. If Microsoft can't get on the Play store, they could just sell their stuff through Amazon.

That summary makes absolutely no sense.

For one thing, Comcast/ATT/etc can no longer claim that crappy DSL is a viable alternative, so in many areas, they are now officially a broadband monopoly. We've always known that they were, but they've maintained the fiction under the old rules. No more. This could have impacts on both mergers like the proposed Comcast/TWC one, as well as on the hopefully impending reclassification of ISPs under Title II of the Communications Act.

Pushing for state/local regulation blocking Google Fiber/etc? They're doing that anyway. Title II/Common carrier won't make them more likely to do it. If anything, Title II/Common Carrier would help protect Google and any other would-be competitors from *exactly* those sorts of shenanigans, by requiring things like equal access to rights of way and utility poles, as Google themselves noted in their comments to the FCC. No, the existing incumbents have no incentive to compete, any more than they did before, right up until the point where someone new comes into the neighborhood. Funny how quickly the incumbents in Austin started offering vastly better options once Google started building out. A lot of it really will depend on the details. Title II contains a lot of stuff, and the FCC doesn't have to implement all of it for internet service. A lot of it would probably help, and some of it might cause more problems than it solves. Hopefully the FCC does it intelligently.

Not for $700+ for an obsolete laptop, there aren't.

It would be a decent one for a CA, to keep in the safe.

I have a 25mb download here, but I have to pay for a business-class account at something like $110 per month. On the upside, I do get better service and other benefits, since I do actually use it to run a server, but I'd certainly be much happier if it were better/cheaper. For that kind of price today, in a major metropolitan area, I would expect at least 100-300mb down if not more.

To the military I say: buy the best on the market, with a proven track record, with a slight bias for buying local.

Not here - the DoD is spending $2B to design a new rifle, rather than just adopt the AK74M, which has all the features it wants and many allies already use.

"'Cause commies, son."

This is exactly the reason why Internet access in the U.S. is so expensive and so crappy relative to other first-world nations.

I'm sorry, but to my mind any definition of "crappy" must include the freedom to access any website, which many other first world nations (like the UK) do not enjoy.

To label it a slower is fine, but just to say "crappy" is ignoring the tradeoff from one kind of crap to another.

The problem is that if the airframe is moving directly at the White House from, say, New York Ave, it could do so at ten feet above the ground. Would still clear the fence, but anybody on the roof of the White House opening up with any sort of AA or even conventional small arms fire would be, essentially, shooting right at hundreds of people, cars, trucks, and office buildings. NOT an easy problem to solve.

Yes. And drones don't kill people, people kill people. It's actually kinda funny to watch a lot of normally "progressive" types who've always reflexively ridiculed the sport shooting types for their defensive postures regarding irrational gun laws ... suddenly find themselves in exactly the same predicament. "But I just want to do some fine art landscape photography from 50' feet up!" Uh huh, and I just want to break some clay pigeons. But we're BOTH evil now! How's it feel buddy!

Scenario: pop away some sort of cover on a flatbed truck a couple of blocks from the White House. Fire up a very un-sexy, easy to build hexa than can easy lift a few pounds. It could quickly self-navigate straight up to a couple hundred or more feet (these things can climb like rockets), above any local building tops, and then move horizontally towards the White House at the better part of 50mph. Who CARES if it can be detected? If there are people on the White House lawn doing some sort of camera op or press conference, that bird would be right over them in the blink of an eye, and could drop something nasty with shocking accuracy, within a meter of a typical presser podium. It would happen so fast that being detected or not doesn't really matter.

I love these machines. They're great for all sorts of fun and creative uses. But a smart, determined bad guy really could put them to some very evil, if innovative, use. And that's the point. New government limits on their use make the bad guys just laugh!

I have a pimped out Phantom. The extra payload it carries:

1) GCU
2) Gimbal
3) GoPro with Battery
4) Video Downlink TX with cloverleaf antenna
5) iOSD
6) Various related cables, mounting hardware

Which all adds up to almost 340g - and it still maneuvers like crazy, and stays up for an easy 15 minutes.

No, it's not a lot. But it's lot more than low-double-digits. My bigger rig can easily carry 8 or 9 pounds while climbing to hundreds of feet faster than you'd believe. And it can go horizontally at a pretty frightening speed.

Sounds like the system worked perfectly then. Others were not affected by your miasma, and depression would naturally lead you to interact less with others.

Your mental health is nothing compared to the tens or thousands of mental states you negatively impacted.

It's no big deal.

zpool create -o ashift=12 -o autoreplace=on raidz2 sdc sdd sde sdf sdg sdh spare sdi sdj

Alright, fine, ashift=12 is newer than 2009, for 2TB+ drives. And always use /dev/disk/by-id for your sanity.

Speak for yourself.