Already done, sorry to say. The parents are scum for exploiting their kid for money - they had to sign those releases...

Totally a waste of time. UUCP over Bluetooth works just fine. Supports arbitrary packet sizes, checkpoint/restart, low overhead, etc. In short, UUCP is designed for efficient data transfer over a low speed unreliable network like the cell phone network, unlike SMS.

SMS over a cell phone is probably one of the worst ideas anyone has ever come up with. Are we sure this wasn't a late April Fool's joke?

they may have pretty free rein in terms of what they're allowed to access on your computer

Actually, this is correct only in terms of criminal liability - since Circuit City wasn't apparently an agent of the government, the Fourth Amendment doesn't apply here. But they may still be liable for a civil suit.

Moral: if you've got stuff on your computer that you'd rather not have others taking a peek at, encryption software is your friend.

Stipulated, counselor; does this mean that the RIAA and its individual lawyers can be sanctioned - by the court, the bar, or both?

Not H5N1, but H1N1. Similar to the 1918 flu.

Sounds like the future of crap to me.

I bring up stories like this every time I hear an emergency manager say, "oh, we don't need ham radio anymore, we have cell and sat phones."

Excuse me? Someone's patented this? All this is is one of those PVC misters that you see everywhere in the southern US during the summer, just on a bigger scale. What's so unique about that?