It hasn't taken off because the carriers directly interfered with the roll out in an effort to push their own system - which they never bothered to actually promote.

Whereas with Google Wallet, I can unlock it ahead of time and re-lock it at my convenience. The biggest obstruction as of late is finding places that I can use it at, and apparently that list has just shrunk.

They did disable it. For a large number of people, it'd be indistinguishable from broken.

Why are people defending malicious behavior?

You must be too young to remember the uproar over the Kane & Lynch/Gamespot incident from a few years back.

I don't, probably because it wasn't as rage-filled and rooted in misogyny as this roundabout is.

There have been plenty of other similar explosions over the years, and none of them involved sexism that I recall.

They weren't nearly as hateful or accompanied by vitriolic attack campaigns against small handfuls of individuals who had the temerity to point out the piss poor behavior of those on the "gamergate" side.

But you keep believing all the embarrassed game journalists who keep saying "The ethics of game journalism are just fine, no need to...HEY LOOK OVER THERE, IT'S SEXISM!!!!"

Gamergate was horribly sexist and misogynistic the moment it appeared, and harped on an indie developer in was they never ripped into an AAA developer.

But please, keep defending a (loosely knit) group who so far has rape and death threats under their belt, who whine about "censorship" then engage in abusive campaigns to silence those who point out that "hey, you're being horrible to other people for no real good reason."

Take two people, put them in a room, one guy has a net worth of $100 and the second has a net worth of $5000. What harm is the second person doing? We're talking about a factor of 50x here.

Idle examples are pointless.

Take away the room, let them live their lives, what harm is that second guy perpetuating? Make the difference a factor of 1000 or a 1,000,000, and where do we see him doing harm?

At a factor of a million here he's probably able to exploit loopholes that reduce his effective tax burden well below what the guy with way less money has to deal with. He's probably also wining and dining politicians to get his way. Likely he's also contributing to the continual depression of wages to ensure that his own wealth goes up at the expense of others.

When I hear folks talking about this, what I really hear is, "since one person doesn't need that much money to live, the government should take the difference and use it to make MY life better,"

Money is, currently, pooling at the top of the income ladder. The problem isn't so much that they have high wealth so much as it doesn't move. This is bad for the economy as a whole.

because from where I'm standing in a first world country, it seems to be just so much complaining over sour grapes.

That just means you're myopic. 90% of a nation's wealth being held by less than 10% isn't healthy, particularly when they're complaining about how consumers aren't buying.

It's about unethical journalists.

But only when a game designer's jilted ex-boyfriend posts hearsay about it. AAA publishers were doing worse shit all the times but there was no uproar of this intensity. Now Gamergate is about fueling a false persecution complex and attacking anyone who points out how horrible they're being.

Those same journalists have been trying for weeks now to deflect this focus away from them and pretend it's about sexism, changing gamer culture, etc.

No, "gamergaters" instantly made it that when they began their hate campaign and harassment.

they themselves don't have to answer for a decades-long games journalism tradition of "journalists" being in bed with the very companies they're supposed to be covering (through advertising, bribes, press releases disguised as "previews," etc.)

And where was the unbridled hatred and rage towards EA over the whole Shadow of Mordor controversy? Oh, right, it was virtually nonexistent because that's not the point anymore. The point now is solidarity against whatever enemy-du-jour that is seen as "attacking gamers" or other such delusional bullshit.

Know what the troll wants and what the troll needs... and deny that troll both.

The only way to do this is to comply with the troll's demands - that you stop doing what you are doing and disappear.

The correct response is to find and confront these people. No one should have to get used to an environment with a constant onslaught of horrible shit spewed by the emotionally stunted.

Net neutrality is a restriction on the free market.

Good, the "free market" doesn't actually exist.

And which of the Koch's businesses would benefit from this?

That's ignoring the larger power game they're playing. Inhibiting net neutrality takes power out of the hands of the people and puts it into corporate hands.

How is opposing net neutrality "rent seeking"?

By letting them toss up artificial barriers between points on the internet and causing an increase in rates across the board for no improvement in service.

Oh, there are rent seekers involved in this: the super wealthy like Soros and Buffett

THOSE EVIL LIBRUL BASTARDS! THEY CONSPIRE AGAINST GOOD, CONSERVATIVE MURICANS!

A write-protect switch won't help you here, Timothy. They're going and reflashing the microcontroller, which means vendors will probably just burn a public key into the microcontroller and refuse to boot if the image signature doesn't match. They'll still have the firmware update capability they'll never use, but won't have to worry about attacks like this - short of someone stealing their private key.

The rest is but a websearch away.

I hate this shitty mentality, but apparently it's worldwide. No, I'm not going to go searching to dig up evidence for whatever wild claims you choose to make, you need to present it then and there.

So.... any links to back this stuff up?

Those making $24,000/yr will finally understand that government money is not free.

Finally! Because you know your income level obviously proves that you're horribly ignorant! You tell 'em, bub!

Then you won't have the problem of people who don't pay taxes voting to raise the tax rate on those that do.

Because that's what's happening, right. The greedy, selfish... how have I heard it put... "parasite" poor bastards! You gotta make 'em SUFFER what it means to be poor!

A sales tax is still going to a progressive tax since things like food, school supplies, and other absolute necessities won't be taxed at all.

It's still regressive. It just means someone making millions will continue to pay a relatively trivial amount, while the poor take it in the shorts.

Sure, a billionaire might spend $5 million on a house, but his grocery budget is not going to be 50x more than the guy who spent $100K on a house.

Indeed, so in the end the billionaire will make out like a bandit (no longer having to pay out on his income) and the guy making 100k will happily save a few k$ per year, and the poor likely won't benefit at all.

So low income people will spend a larger percentage of their income on non-taxed products, meaning they will pay a lower tax rate than the guy who eats out twice a day.

Or they'll probably continue paying that tax, because they don't have the time or energy to visit the store and prepare the untaxed food because they're still struggling to keep their head above water.

Everyone pays, including corporations

Except when they engineer their taxes so that all the profits are outside the country, and their taxes report only losses. GE did that to the tune of a billion dollars back from the government, even though it was a complete fraud.

Don't worry. I suspect Apple is still flexible enough to whip around and ensure that they can parade their way into new markets and shut out any potential startups.

No, all consumer x86 should have that ability.

Yes, as specified by Microsoft themselves. They shouldn't have to say it, but you know the OEMs are lazy as shit and wouldn't offer the option if they could get away with it.

Not that they all actually work properly to the UEFI specs once you do.

Meaning what?

But on an unlocked platform you should be able to add custom keys.

And you can, I have.

Anyways, some embeded x86 systems can be locked (beside intel allows it only on chips designed to go into DVR's and other embeded devices)

And locked down embedded systems are always a problem, but they don't require secure boot or UEFI to do so.