We already have a plethora of cameras installed for "our safety" and they was used to prosecute the general public. But when anyone in the UK has tried to obtain the footage from such cameras to use as the defense against police, the video was always not available. ALWAYS.

The measure may have a positive impact ONLY IF an additional provision is passed to require no arrests be made unless the undoctored complete footage is made available to courts. Now, there are many difficulties in defining and verifying the "undoctored" footage. Besides, what to do if the police was beating a bystander while holding his head up so that the camera does not catch the footage at that specific angle? The provision must also include the certain angle of the recorded scene be available to prevent officers from pulling the cameras up and recording the skies.

The site http://familywatchdog.us/ shows a list of offences that the registered sex offenders have been convicted of. Here's one example of the conviction:

"Attempted Possession of Depictions of a Minor Engaged in Sexual Conduct (attempted)"

How exactly is it even possible? Did someone want to get to a child porn site, got 404 error and got convicted for "attempted possession"?

If you have a clock on your desk -- this is your tile that updates automatically. If you have a calendar next to it -- it's a different tile that updates at different intervals. Glue them together and you have an interface with two tiles. Add a light switch -- and you have a control surface tile. Add a radio and you get a large tile that that "displays controls and emits sounds".

How can this be novel? Ah, it's for mobile!

Cut free access to Google search from the IPs of all the French publishers! Let's see how much news they can write without Google search.

Since Google has some expenses associated with displaying headlines and summaries, they should just countersue the French publishers for providing the exposure service. The mediation could resolve this as "no one pays anyone", just as the current case.

Sure, a high PPI is good, but how about the more important Modulation Transfer Function, is it also good?

If Kinect allows Microsoft and partners receiving the video feed, recognize facial expressions and general movements, get audio, understand the room's geometry, etc. then I can see why a company would want to have such a device connected to every machine in every home!

The difference is that there are third party manufacturers that will be happy to offer compatible parts for your GMC as long as there's demand for them. In case of Microsoft, third parties are explicitly prevented by making any changes to the operating system (whether by EULA, DMCA, certificate control, inability to run own update server, etc...).

Recently I purchased a several-thousand-dollar scanner. The software that is required for the scanner to operate requires activation and this is completely unacceptable in my books. What if the company goes bankrupt, or decides to shut down activation service? I want my scanner to work. So I figured out how to save and replicate the activation profile so that I can install the software at any time without relying on their service. Only then I kept the scanner, otherwise I'd send it back. The same goes for any version of OS that I use -- I need to be able to have my computer running and not to be tied to some proprietary service that may or may not be available. For Windows there are VL builds that can be installed without activation, or it can be installed and activated in the virtulized environment or some cracks that bypass activation can be used. Only if there's a way for me to keep on using the critical software without being at the mercy of some large corporation, I will use it.

And for Facebook, I don't care if it goes down some day.

A problem with closed source systems is that if the company decides that it's not in its business interest to support some old but popular software, NO ONE ELSE can offer such support. Even if there's a demand for the continued support and other people willing to offer it, the business opportunity is not there since Microsoft controls the market. The more Microsoft pushes people off some platform, the harder everyone should consider some alternative solutions.

Besides, what support are we talking about here? If 11 years after Windows XP was released is not enough to fix the glitches that were made during the development, how long enough is enough? Twenty year to fix the bugs?

In the last interview with Wired magazine (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/07/ff_kaspersky/all/), Eugene Kaspersky was advocating securing internet (or a part of it) with something alike state issued IDs. No ID -- no internet. That made me very skeptical, what would it take to use someone else's ID, there might be a new market for such IDs. Not sure his ideas of having the secure OS would work either. From the article:

What is mentioned is Kaspersky’s vision for the future of Internet security—which by Western standards can seem extreme. It includes requiring strictly monitored digital passports for some online activities and enabling government regulation of social networks to thwart protest movements. “It’s too much freedom there,” Kaspersky says, referring to sites like Facebook. “Freedom is good. But the bad guys—they can abuse this freedom to manipulate public opinion.”

The point of Microsoft’s Win8 (and WinRT tablets) is not to develop some awesome next generation UI, but rather to leverage its near-monopoly advantage and convince people to buy tablets that sound as if they could be the replacement for the current desktops. All the review articles seem to be pointing in that direction touting that you “should get a Windows tablet that runs everything.” The side that says “start developing new Metro applications or you will be left behind” misses the point that the Metro UI is not better for the desktop. Furthermore, Microsoft made the original desktop a second class citizen in Windows 8, complicating switching between programs or starting new programs. Enough inconvenience for the current users in hopes to drive the adoption for the new UI model. While the model works well for the touch enabled devices, it is a poor choice for the desktop or any large-screen workstations.

Imagine if Toyota had a near-monopoly on passenger cars. There would be other makers selling specialty trucks and busses, but most people would be driving Toyotas. On top of that, Toyota would be producing a single model every few years, like Corolla 95, Corolla 97, Corolla 2000 and people would feel like getting a new car is a requirement. Now suddenly some smaller maker Kawasaki releases a new model of a motorcycle that everyone enjoys driving and sales go through the roof. The controls are very different than those of Corolla – the shape of steering wheel, how you switch gears with your foot, several brakes, and it is a significantly more fuel efficient than any Toyota. New uses for the motorcycles are discovered – they can be driven on pedestrian walkways, or can even be taken into the offices. There are talks how everyone will be driving motorcycles in the future, how we are entering a post-car era, and how, if you want to be current, you need to make motorcycle-friendly roads.

At the same time Toyota remembers how it tried making motorcycle in the past with a round steering wheel and no one bought it, so it needs a new plan. It develops its own version of Corolla-Moto that has a new set of controls where you switch gears with your elbow. Some people saw a test model and had different opinions – some liked it, some hated it. Toyota plans to start producing motorcycles that mimic the Kawasaki, but it first needs to teach users how to shift gears with the elbow and other oddities of motorcycle controls. Since nearly everyone is driving Corollas, Toyota comes up with a plan to install motorcycle controls in the new version of Corolla alongside with the regular controls. And it allows switching controls while driving! Yes, the shape of the steering wheel changes, the gear shifter moves from the right hand to the left elbow, etc. All that while you drive!

Since everyone already knows how to drive Corollas, Toyota needs to make the existing car controls a little bit more inconvenient so that users are forced to use the motorcycle controls. For example, the only way to start Corolla-Moto is to rev up the engine by twisting the right handlebar. No one ever needed to twist anything on any car model before. So the plan is to beat Kawasaki, and has nothing to do with making the car better for the driver. Many start blogging that “motorcycle is the future” and if you don’t buy new Corolla-Moto (which gets renamed to Corolla-Toyota-Style in the last minute) you will be left in the past. Very few question true Toyota’s motives and quarrel about little details of the new interface and discuss how they intend to skip the Corolla-Toyota-Style and keep driving their existing Corolla-2007. Once enough people learn how to shift gears with their elbows, Toyota plans on introducing more motorcycles with similar controls and driving Kawasaki out of business. That’s the nature of business.

Want to see the reaction of the HR department looking at **MadDog as a phone number on a job application.

Obviously that depends on the state, hence the "IF telemarketers had slightly more power..." If they did, all the states would make such recordings of telemarketers illegal. Like uploading a movie to a country where it is legal to share movies.