The current procedures are so full of holes that there is no justification that the unreasonable searches are in any way necessary.

While I don't disagree with your sentiment at all, I think you are missing the value of the various security measures. You don't have to apply the most complete security measures to 100% of a given population. You just need to create an environment where there is a significant chance any individual passenger *might* be subjected to a more complete procedure. The deterrent effect is not that a terrorist definitely will be caught, it is that there is a high enough likelihood of getting caught as to not be worth the risk.

If you are a bomber are you going to go to the airport and "hope" you don't get the explosives test?

I haven't seen anyone making those sorts of claims. Even if they were, the slashdot community couldn't as a whole be blamed for it and maybe those comments are spurring more discourse and therefore enhancing the discussion. So really, just blow it off and ignore it... After all, if you have seen comments like these, then its too late and there's nothing to do about it anyway.

Then they stopped.

It was my understanding that those PSA's (which were in many states) were funded out of the original big tobacco lawsuit settlement the states reached with the companies a decade or so ago. Eventually the settlement money ran out. I'm not sure that in most states the PSA's were ever funded with the taxes (though yours might have been)...

More info on it Here... Check out the Public Education Fund which apparently only lasted 3 years (2000-2003).

Advising users to preemptively install something like this might help. Does anyone know of any drawbacks to installing Prey?

Pretty much anything associated with the drawbacks of vigilantism would come to mind... I think the concern expressed here is with regards to advising end users that they should consider taking down criminals themselves simply by equipping them with the means to find those criminals.

It's a location cache. When Maps (or any other app) requests your current location, the iPhone is able to provide it almost immediately because of this cache, without hitting the network or GPS. It's very convenient.

A "location cache" that was being used to speed up requests for "current location" wouldn't need to store a year's worth of location history.

I sat in the offices of the water / wastewater folks before Katrina and they described to me quite clearly what would happen if there was a direct hit of a category 3 hurricane. So clearly, in fact, that when Katrina was happening my wife and I were sitting at home as I described to her what to wait for. This was a KNOWN problem and a KNOWN risk. Maybe every citizen involved didn't make the actual choice to improve the system, but as a community they chose who they elected and likewise didn't allocate resources to address the issue before the storm.

Incidentally, I also met with JPPS about on month prior and was working with them on a system to allow tracking, allocation and remote management of their bus fleet for evacuation purposes if a storm like this hit. We didn't get the system in before the storm and we watched the buses on TV sitting in water never used for evacuation.

Its a matter of priorities vs. politics. There is plenty of the latter and too little of the former. But then, that's just my opinion from working with the gov't there and why *I* do not choose to live there.

And yes, the food and culture are great. But their quality isn't dependent on a poor system of governance, corrupt officials or weak educational system.

I'd say he was a very poor communicator since nobody can agree on what he was saying.

coal use should be illegal in any country that wants to call itself civilized

Well, we have a long way to go before we stop using Coal in the USA. Map of coal fired power plants in the USA

Almost every campaign I've heard so far in my life of 28 years is toting party line, not individuality.

I'd say you aren't paying attention. The parties have many different "party lines" but no "party platform". For example, Jon Stewart was just providing an example this week of a Democratic campaign ad that was anti-Obama, anti-Pelosi, pro-gun, etc. That's not exactly "party-line". In the primaries you vote for which individual you want to represent the party in your district. In the general election, you still can vote for anyone, as evidenced by the republican's write-in campaign in Alaska after their incumbent lost the primary.

It will be a paradise for anonymous cowards. We can hang out anywhere in that 50 mile radius. Really important if that radius is around Beijing or LA.

Yes, because I'm sure the FCC's ruling will fix your problems in Beijing... Unless of course the Chinese don't recognize the FCC's authority to regulate their airwaves...

Parents can't be everywhere so it's logical for government to forbid certain activities to young citizens. Like drinking. Or driving. Or R rated movies. Or PG-13 movies.

Except that your movie rating examples are not laws but simply industry standards.

MS can invent what they like, if they don't ship I don't care. My point is valid, your point is a sideshow.

Really? Shipping is enough to win you over? I'm still waiting for SP2 before I care.

It's one thing to have rules, it's another thing to be completely fucking batshit insane non-competent god damn fucking crazy. Such as suspecting Steve Jobs of planning global death from private air transport via ninja star. Please, pass the hookah in this direction.

I, for one, would like to thank the Japanese airport security folks for giving us the opportunity to imagine "Steve Jobs planning global death from private air transport via ninja star"... Seriously, my day is much more amusing now.

Who cares about 100%? If you can harvest a tiny fraction of energy that someone else is paying for, then you get that energy for free where it would otherwise go to waste.

Not to get too picky about it, but remember that the "tiny fraction" you harvest isn't "free". It needs to be worth at least enough to pay for the harvesting equipment, technology, deployment, maintenance, energy storage and transmission costs.

If we're talking about tearing up existing roads to install something and then also stopping traffic any time it breaks or needs service then most DOT's can tell you it had better have a LONG life with LITTLE chance of failure... The costs for road crews and the economic costs of traffic disruption are not negligible.

How long before a hacker mods one of these to broadcast on frequencies that it should not be using?

Broadcasting on frequencies you shouldn't be is trivial and can be done with off-the-shelf equipment today very easily. Its also illegal and not that hard to locate the broadcast antenna. I wouldn't even call this activity "hacking"... its just unlicensed broadcasting in a licensed band.