Isn't the very point of this player's system, that the player serves the interests of the disc's publisher over the interests of the users, where the users' needs should always yield whenever there is a conflict? That's not a mere technicality; it's the very essence. From the spec's pov, this is desirable operation. Nothing has been subverted.

There's only one bike maker (at least major one) that measures engine size in cubic inches, and it's not Honda.

1215cc Triumph... Tiger I'm guessing? I'm a fan of Triumph ever since I had 96 Daytona 900. It wasn't running great when I bought it, but a repair manual, a couple hundred in parts, and it was an amazingly fun bike to ride. Currently on a Wee-Strom, but some day I plan to go back to Triumph. The street triples look fantastic, but I want something that at least looks like luggage isn't a complete afterthought.

Death.

We are born helpless, we require lots of attention.

When we die, the same happens.

Gradually you will become a child again. You will become bed ridden, infirm and for a brief while rely on others in the same way you did as a child.

Each path we take when we come and go, the stuff that makes it all worthwhile is at the end and beginning.

It makes the stuff in between bearable.

It's okay to say "I don't know" in almost every situation if you really don't know the answer, especially following it up with "I'll find out and let you know".
Obviously this won't work well on tests and the like, but in everyday life nobody has all the answers.

Remember that? That was the 1928 pact that outlawed war.

You might remember how well that worked out.

This will work out just swell until Russia or China or ISIS develop an effective fighting robot and are able to deploy them in sufficient quantities to make a decisive difference in battle.

Plus there's the impossibility of enforcement. How can you prove it was a robot rather than a remote-operated drone?

And there's the tiny issue that, knowing how slowly the wheels of the "international community's" court systems turn, the war is likely to be won or lost before those violating it ever come to trial...

Simply because:

1) They all have ON/OFF buttons. That comes in handy every once in a while.
2) If they get an attitude problem RESET fixes it.
3) Made in USA is good, Made in China is better.
4) They play some of the best music, videos (Especially Lord of the Rings) and you know, they love it!
5) They provide excellent feed back on my code. If it sucks they let me know.
6) Excellent life partner and teacher. It seems she knows everything.
7) Even when she gets old I can upgrade.

Yeah, Asian women. Love'em.

ANYthing that reduces costs, enhances productivity, or makes life easier is a "fraud enabler."

Cell phone SIMs are the "Encryption Castle", really? From a practical perspective, they are essentially plaintext, since everything gets fully decrypted at each hop.

Maybe I will start calling my previous car a "Dining Palace" in honor of the epic glorious time that I once ate a chili dog while driving, shifting and making a left turn (alas, this was before I had a cell phone) without getting any chili on my shirt.

If a breach happens, just change your medical history.

Just because it has the chip and pin portion doesn't mean it has to have the contactless part as well. My debit and credit card for years (in Canada) were chip and pin, but not contactless. I just recently got cards that are contactless. Given that the maximum transaction size is $50 and it's a one time thing, I'm not really that worried about it, especially when it comes to my credit card where I have $0 liability.

Rubber hoses are weak. You never get threatened with a rubber hose or a $5 wrench, without knowing it happened and your enemy revealing himself. It takes irrevocable commitment and admission of guilt on their part, and therefore risk of consequences, to take things to that level.

When they bring that stuff out, comply. Sing like a bird. They get the data they want, and then you call the media and your lawyer (or the cops, if your adversary with the hose/wrench doesn't happen to be the cops), and the TRUE bitchslapping (to whatever degree is possible, at least) may then commence.

Crypto is good. Sure, you can still find some bad things within that scenario: your privacy was still violated rather than protected. Maybe they're going to "disappear" you so that you never get to tell anyone about the threat or torture. Maybe they're going to torture you anyway after you give up your keys. But all those possibilities also exist in the plaintext scenario too! If they want to murder you, they'll do it. If they want to torture you, they'll do it. Psychopaths are going to do whatever they're going to to. But they slip up and get caught sometimes, and if you confront them with crypto, there's also the chance they'll do what many other criminals usually do: pick an easier target.

I highly doubt they had the resources to infiltrate all of these systems without key industry support.

You have to be an incredible moron to think these people are brilliant, they are not.

They have a huge checkbook and that is the only brilliance they need to get the cooperation they require from Seagate, Toshiba etc.

They do not need the entire company to conspire, only a handful will do, from the article I would say less than 10.

It is almost as stupid as believing Google protects your privacy because they use HTTPS on search queries.

Brilliant my ass

..why would anyone in their right mind buy..

Go look at how much it would cost you to a buy a single Raspberry Pi (its capabilities are just about right for this). Then imagine what something like that would cost a huge manufacturer like Samsung (I say this part, so that you'll have some sense of how low the margin will be). That is how much a smart TV costs to make, relative to a dumb TV. On something costing hundreds of dollars, it's nearly free.

And what the game console makers, the smartphone makers, etc (and even pre-loaded OS desktop PC makers) have established over the last few decades is that "nearly free" can become "actually free" or even profitable if someone pays you to bundle malware with your product, or there's some kind of product-tying, or things like that. (So basically, damn near every expensive anything, ought to have a [potentially user-hostile] computer in it. Think of anything that costs $400 or more. That thing needs malware.) So just having a CPU can increase the revenue from the sale, so that from the manufacturer's point of view, it virtually costs less to make. So if you're in a highly competitive market, you can sell it for less.

Thus, the reason people buy these things, is that they cost less (to buy; I mean the cost at the time of the sale, not the costs of using the product).

We simply haven't yet gotten to the point where, when you first buy a TV (or a car) (or for some people, a phone) the first thing everyone knows they need to do with it, is overwrite the preloaded assumed-to-be-user-hostile software with a user-centric replacement. Fortunately, Samsung is joining Apple and Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft, and many others (this is an all-too-common thread to rehash; don't feel offended if I omitted your favorite Peoples' Enemy), in helping to teach us all this basic principle.

Yes, I could leave it unconnected from the network, but then I'm just pushing the problem to another device.

But at that "another device" point, the problem is really easy. You can build (or even still buy) awesome Mini-ITX (or similar sized) systems to use a HTPC and can very likely mount it on the back of the monitor if you really don't have any place for it to sit.

It's only the built-into-the-monitor form factor where there aren't really any good computers avai-- actually, you might look into running Linux on an iMac (though IMHO you'll get less computer for more money, that way) if you simply just must have it down to one single enclosure without any unsightly bumps on the back.

People can't even be bothered to generate and exchange PGP keys with their own friends and family, and then someone talks as though those same people might be willing to vote or revolt.

That's not laymen I'm talking about (they care even less); that's self-labeled geeks/nerds. Slashdot doesn't care enough, for it to ever get to a point as extreme as voting.