so your answer would be "no", and you agree with me completely. Humans won't be living on mars within the next 50 years, which is consistent with the interest thus-far. Thanks for your support.

TFA said: "Otherwise, it risks having users (slowly but surely) switch to more secure platforms that do give them updates in a timely manner."

I'm curious what platforms those might be.

The only one I'm (slightly) familiar with at the moment is Replicant, which is an all-open port of Android - with support for a limitied - and (thus?) somewhat pricey (when even available)- handful of platforms.

("All-Open" being defined as "Functionality dependent on binary blobs we don't have open source replacements for is left out of the distribution. You might get it working by installing proprietary modules. But we think that's a bad idea / counterproductive / reduces incentive for people to MAKE open source replacements, so we don't recommend it or provide instructions." i.e. do a web search for somebody who figured out how to do it if you want, say, the front camera, WiFI, or Bluetooth to work and forget about GPS for now. (v4.2 on Samsung s3))

Now I think that's the right approach. And I'd love to see more support or help for the project.

But are there others? If so, what are they?

...and you think that means we'll have people living on mars within 50 years?

I'm using the cross-country inconvenience to support my argument that mars ain't the next step any time soon. Nothing more.

you just listed more than 7 hours. And you're upset with my 8 hours?

They can make it possible if not outright easy to do updates that don't come from the phone manufacturer or the carrier. Ironically, one of the few things that I will say that Microsoft, to this point, has done right on their desktop computers. Whether or not this practice continues is another story.

Then make a point to push for a model where every major X. release gets X.Y minor updates and bug fixes. This doesn't mean that the latest and greatest from the app repositories have to work, but do security updates and OS-side functionality patches as support for these arguably production-stable releases for say five years. Maybe being forced to support the products for that long will make Google carefully consider changes to their products.

... takes cell phone along on a burglary. Isn't there some category of the Darwin awards for this?

Prior law has made it legal to use encryption in business bands and has also made it illegal to listen-in on analog cell frequencies for the purposes of privacy, to the extent that most of the 800MHz band was off-limits. Clearly there was at least some intention to protect these conversations.

What's in their head isn't necessarily the same as what's on paper or the electronic equivalent though.

I would still like to see warrants prove necessary for the police to collect information on people from parties that those people have business arrangements with. Consider it a means to ensure that they prioritize using what resources they have for what's truly important.

So we're going to get rid of the military too?

A sysadmin is not the government.

But I am not broadcasting my location to third parties, I am communicating with one party in particular, the cellular carrier to which I have a business arrangement over a very short wave, using encrypted means of communication.

If I had a ham radio connected to a GPS receiver that'd be a different matter, but as a cell user I'm not broadcasting for all to hear. There are laws about that actually, there are bits of analog spectrum that it's still illegal to listen to because at one time telephone conversations happened on those frequencies in clear analog.

I was under the impression that my private business with my cellular phone provider was just that, private, and without a warrant this information in the form of 'papers and effects' was supposed to be subject to 4th Amendment protections unless sought via warrant process...

Sorry pal, but it's illegal to pitch a tent at the gate. Besides, my television won't be very watchable with all of those big terminal windows, and I like my privacy too much given all the people.

So, for us normal humans with a 3'000 square-foot house about 30 minutes away from the terminal:

we pack into small luggage
we call the taxi
we wait for the taxi
we ride the taxi
we get to the airport early, so as to not get there late
we wait in line
we check in
we check our luggage
we walk through about three miles of airport hallway
we wait in line
we go through security
we wait in line
we walk onto the plane
we wait, for nothing
we taxi out to the runway
we wait for the previous plane
we de-ice in the winter
we take-off
we land
we taxi
we wait for an open gate
we wait in line
we disembark
we walk through three miles of hallway again
we wait for luggage
we walk to the door
we wait for a taxi
we ride the taxi
we arrive at our destination

oh yeah, we also bought the ticket and waited for our flight-time.

So, right now, as you read this, don't pretend, stand up, and go 3'000 miles in any direction. Find out how long it takes. I'm sure there isn't a plane going where you want exactly when you want it, but even if there is, all of the above takes time.

EIGHT HOURS. Do it, and wear a watch when you do.

I live in Canada. My government's actually really quite fantastic. But yeah, we do pay taxes don't we. But we also have no actual problems.

Although, while we're on the topic, most of the wonderful fun-driving roads in the U.S. were built as a make-work project back when there were no jobs and the government just paid people to build roads from nowhere to nowhere. That sounds pretty socialist to me.

In any event, there are school shootings and riots in the streets on a monthly basis. That's just embarassing.