I had a similar problem with a site that rented servers. They imaged a new server with Centos for me. My investigation found that it had the same SSL private key pair...and other key pairs that other imaged machines on their system have! I fixed it myself, but I suspect that there are hundreds if not thousands that do not know this.

Why does this story sound like something out of Atlas Shrugged 2?

The interesting issue with this story is that the reason to track the kids is not to infringe on their privacy, but to ensure where they are so the school can get paid by the federal government!

I remember at least 7 years ago when I went to the SETI website and Amazon.com greeted me by name in a little box on the site and asked if I wanted to donate to SETI.

Have you ever gone to a web site to look at some product like insurance then notice that everywhere you go on the web you see insurance ads for that company popping up? Until you figure out which cookie to delete or go to the advertising management's website and opt out you are going to keep seeing that ad!

It is sad if dimensions are the only argument Apple has.
Can I copyright the golden ratio?

You are overthinking this. Government and courts are not that smart. We cancel men's sports teams in colleges because there are not enough women to play using the same amount of money.

net nutrality is in the eyes of the beholder. Gamers want the advantage that most Slashdotters are fighting against!

Today all new cars have several onboard computer systems controlling various functions from brakes to fuel to suspension. The real surprise is not that this car has a problem, but that other cars don't! I have to say that this is a real pat-on-the-back for the programmers writing this code as we don't see this in any other discipline I am aware of

> When a company is so successful that it can "get it" and "do it" for less...
  > when a company offers something over an infrastructure that is so expensive
  > and offering a product/service on a huge, national scale is the bar that has
  > been set... That company will be so incredibly entrenched that it will never
  > be rooted out by a startup. Ever.

Ever is too broad a statement. In the 1800's Fulton obtained a monopoly from NY State to run steamboats from NYC to Albany up the Hudson River. Vanderbilt not only had the monopoly overturned in court, but set up a competing company which brought down cost of passage which Fulton started at $10 (VERY expensive in those days) to ZERO. Vanderbilt found that he could make enough money on food and accommodations to pay for the passage.

The anti-monopoly company won by providing a better service for less.

MUST run 64 bit code? How are they going to put Windows 7 on Netbooks?

Do Netbooks get special dispensation?