So these key fobs that are used on push-button ignitions have their own issues. RF interference is one. A guy I work with had his car towed because he couldn't start his car, had a module replaced on car, only to find out that it was RF interference that was the culprit.

[citation needed]

Seriously, some of these stolen iPhones are done as a crime of opportunity. The police probably recognize that and don't think it's worth the trouble. They'll end up spending tons of money prosecuting some kid over something worth a few hundred bucks. I don't know what the ratio of career criminals/opportunist scumbags is, but to assume that following up on a typical phone theft will lead to some crime syndicate is silly.

That's a good point. Someone, for instance, might have some inside knowledge of a company that's being discussed in a thread. How about this: You can post AC once per 24 hours? Or three ACs max in a week?

On Ars, you can ignore posts from any particular individual. Suppose /. allowed you to block individual accounts, including AC? Block them, and the posts don't exist for you.

Ars does have its issues, but it's a lot easier to find well thought-out posts on an issue there than on /..

Sock puppet are people too, my friend.

I quit /. for awhile and came back when the war on beta was in full swing. My issue before was mainly the ACs. Just witnessing a drive-by was painful. Unfortunately, I've yet to find any site that has the breadth and depth of slashdot's coverage on technical issues. You can find insightful posts if you can get through the surrounding dreck. The closest replacement I've found so far is Ars Technica.

I'll probably be downmodded/trolled into oblivion for saying this, but maybe it's time for AC comments to go away. Just getting rid of the "clean my PC" crap would make it worth the loss of the good parts of the AC system.

You're right; it's a 2007 model purchased in 2008. The point is, it can't run anything beyond 10.7 (without limited workarounds), and 10.6 is not getting any updates. My point was that Snow Leopard isn't getting any updates, and older hardware is limited as to what you can upgrade to.

It seems to be a shame that hardware that can last for 6+ years has to be abandoned because the OS is no longer supported.

No, I've got a 2008 Mac Mini that was updated to Snow Leopard, and I haven't seen any updates for awhile. Newegg also wouldn't let me order using the Mini because of the older version of Safari that runs on SL.

If I upgrade to 2G of RAM, it looks like I can upgrade to Lion, but not Mountain Lion. I was going to upgrade the RAM anyway because it seems to run a bit sluggish, but the Mini maxes out at 2G, which is the lower limit of Lion. So it may be a wash, performance-wise.

Is there air?

Another time I wish /. allowed editing posts.

It's an alien planet! Is there air! You don't know!

OK, over half are millionaires. They are millionaires before they get to DC. My point is that they use the office to make even more money, both while they are there, and after they retire from office. Not sure how a big pay increase fixes that.

Further, they all take campaign donations, regardless of their wealth. That influences them before the even win an election. It will be more difficult for for poor/middle class people to raise money for a campaign. Do you propose that we pay everyone who runs for office too?

I must have missed the part in the article that said they were to be used for programming. The idea is that students use them for studying for all classes. With Chromebooks, it needs to be pretty much all web-based, but that should be doable. If they are teaching programming, they can get a few Raspberry Pi modules (kidding) or a few regular desktops with whatever OS you want to teach in.

More than half of the politicians in DC are millionaires, so how might that play into the "incompetents" factor? Once they are there, they all learn pretty quickly how to get money from lobbyists, as will as line up post-political employment by doing 'favors' for corporations that end up getting the a spot on some board of directors for one or more firms.

Considering how well our local governments, LEO, and Congress have been at doing that, I suppose any suggestions by you or me couldn't make things worse.

Actually, the jury foreman stated in a post trial interview that he told the rest of the jury that because the code from one example of prior art couldn't be dropped into the iPhone and run, it wasn't valid as prior art. This was against juror instructions, and the rest of the jury went along because he claimed to know what he was talking about. http://www.bbc.com/news/techno... http://www.groklaw.net/article...

Well, Apple has a patent on their magnetic power connector. We were using magnetic power connectors for counter top fryers decades ago. Apparently, Apple was the first laptop manufacturer that remembered those appliances, and boom, "on a computer" makes it patentable. I just don't agree if you say it wasn't obvious, at least to anyone who remembered those fryers.