Yeah, I kind of blew that one, didn't I? My bad.

Well, the 'fuck everyone else' view is needlessly polarizing. I was more trying to make the point that we should choose our allies with care. To expand on the example, I don't need Rush or Moore in my life, because they are both part of the same problem, but someone like Amy Goodman, who is unabashedly liberal, yet tries to get both sides of an issue represented on her show, is good; similarly, I believe that Dennis Prager, equally unabashedly conservative, is acting in generally good faith. Why? Both will hear an argument from the other side without shouting it down.

Your view is offensive and unfounded, and clearly you lack testicular fortitude, because you are hiding your identity. It is this manner of classism that will keep us, as a society, divided, thus enabling The Powers That Be to continue their conquest. Kindly extract you cranium from your rectum.

You can still get this almost completely basic thermostat and they last forever. If you install one today, it will still be working 40-60 years from now, barring someone beating it up.

"I wish there was a knob on the TV so you could turn up the intelligence. They got one marked 'brightness' but it don't work, does it?" http://standupcomedyportal.com/quotes/Gallagher

It matters not.

I am not going to be one who claims that left and right parties are the same, however, I will say that the points on which the fights are usually picked are not generally relevant.

I put it to you: left vs. right; liberal vs. conservative; Democrat vs. Republican: all of these dichotomies are put before us to keep our eyes off the ball. The most revolutionary thing we can do is build bridges, because doing so breaks the "divide" part of "divide and conquer."

Rush LImbaugh and Michael Moore both serve the same purpose, even if inadvertently. Get emotion out of it; THINK!!. Most importantly, ask yourself what each thing these assholes are doing does to or for you personally and reward only those who act in your best interest. Show the rest of them the door.

It also sounds like a good way to "accidentally" eliminate some "uncomfortable" research.

What privacy issues would be raised? This is a little vague...

If a system is switched, then it is necessarily true that some device upstream from your set-top box is aware of what channel you are watching. This information can be harvested and used to profile you.

The only thing that can combat the current business model is Congress/FCC. And neither of them have decided that this is important enough to tackle

Worse, the FCC chairman is a former cable lobbyist. What is currently going on with net neutrality points to the FCC not working in our best interests.

That is true, though a quick inspection of the keyboard cord should reveal one.

Because Qualcomm owns the IP on the baseband hardware for CDMA.

Because this is Slashdot.

You could put all the force-bundled channels around channel 9000+ while the featured channels are in the 1-100 range . . .

Also, if your system was cable or IPTV based, you could use switching to ensure that no bandwidth was used by the unwatched channels at any given moment. Of course, this raises the usual privacy issues.

For that matter, if you knew what channels were being watched or not, you could use that in your negotiations with the network owners. Call them on their bullshit.

Putting the TOR Browser Bundle on a thumb drive or a CD might be a usable solution. Take the flash/CD out when you're done using it and it leaves nothing on the computer, assuming there is no keystroke logger.

If there is concern that there might be a keystroke logger, then TAILS is the way to go. Boot from the removable media, and remove the media when you are done. Just make sure it's not found.

You probably shouldn't play Poker, then. Or Monopoly or Chess, either, for that matter. Or checkers. Fuck it, maybe just don't play games.

I did the math before I bought. I saved $300 over the next two years by choosing a contract over buying the phone outright. This is because the provider sells the service at the same price regardless of whether I am under contract or not; only the price of the phone changed. Since I typically keep a phone for 3-4 years, this made sense.