1) The iPhone is the biggest selling single phone on the market, hell they've a 1/3 of the whole market with one device
2) The iPod is the biggest selling digital music player by a mile
3) iTunes is one of the easiest to use ways of managing your digital music collection

So will the vast majority of people give any sort of hoot about DRM when all they can see is their ability to share the music between their PCs and their digital music player? No they will not.

All this will do is demonstrate how pointless the actual demonstration is, thus meaning that Apple will be less likely to be concerned.

For most people the question isn't DRM-free its "playable on my iPod".

From the numbers in the summary, a fully-charged one of these would supply enough energy to propel a 3300lbs (1500kg) car from 0 to 1100mph (500m/s)

Ahhh you must be from the Theoretical Physics Department, over here in Engineering we have wind resistance, friction and efficiency to worry about.

Since when couldn't Gasoline be used in Cars? Isn't the whole principle of it to make it explode to drive the pistons? Now its good that this thing allegedly won't explode while being charged but with all technologies its about minimising risks through sensible practice rather than their complete elimination.

For instance I'd be willing to bet that applying 10MV at 10MA across this thing would cause some pretty funky changes that would look like an explosion.

Personally I'd like to see some sort of Darwin device in the next generation of cars, "cannot explode unless user should be removed from the human race".

This isn't about transparent government v security. Security through Obscurity is the well known worst approach to security that you can have, because if anyone ever does get that information (hell bribing a sys admin can't be that hard if you really want the info) then your have no security.

Its a bogus claim and a bogus judgement. If they were claiming that it shouldn't be released because editing Wikipedia isn't actually a political thing anyway then I could see a reason to toss it out. But the risk of hackers "targetting" bits of the network is just plain bogus, the implication is that these IP addresses are therefore in some secure part of the (ARKANSAS!) government and those IP addresses have already been released. What is being asked is a map back from a known IP address to its source. Claiming that knowing the physical source would some how make security worse is like saying that "Sure you have the keys, you know where the front door is and you can get in.... but I'm not telling you the NAME of the house".

Having the IP address is like having 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the keys to the door but the government not telling you that it is called the "Whitehouse" for security reasons.

Who hear who codes in C or C++ hasn't had a similar bug in their own code from time to time

What are these bugs of which you speak? Sometimes I add problems for the testers to find, but that is done on purpose, its not my fault if they aren't smart enough.

Oh and I've debugged your english for you

Who here

Unless that was irony.

Now the serious bit. I used to work in safety critical software, we designed, tested added redundancy and used languages (e.g. Ada) which don't have overflow problems. This isn't a performance thing (we had to be high performance as well) its about choosing quality and security from the first day.

The biggest reason of all is interop. A piece of Java code that runs in 32 bit mode successfully will wrap around and work exactly the same on the 64 bit platform. Perl will work differently. if a piece of Java calls a piece of identical Java and one is on 32 bit and the other 64 bit then they will work properly, Perl will behave erratically.

Basically its the difference between a language that has been designed for longevity (Java) and one that just defaults to what ever is around (Perl).

Defaulting to what the processor has is the opposite of future proofing as it ensures that your current code WON'T WORK PROPERLY IN THE FUTURE. Sorry to shout but it really is quite important. The Java code will work the same on 32 bit and 64 bit versions while the Perl will work differently, thus it will not be future proof.

To really future proof your code what you need to do is plan for those things and assign your file size to be a long and guess what Java returns a long.

Perl and Design go together in the same way as Illinois and Probity.
 

Errr I'm taking a massive shot in the dark here but I'm guessing that the motivation would be

CONCERN ABOUT THE MASSIVE SUBVERSION OF INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND THE CONSTITUTION

I mean I know its a crazy mad sort of idea that someone might be motivated by decency and the desire for what is right rather than some political ideology. When George W. Bush and Dick Cheney talk about the principles of American freedom... well that is what this man has stood up to defend.

How sad that its the defender of freedom who is being shafted, while those who look to subvert the constitution are getting away scot free.

Hasn't there always been an underground crime racket in things like check fraud, ID fraud, ID forging, financial fraud, theft etc. It isn't that this is an emerging market, more than it is where the old market has moved into. In the same way as Wallmart moved from the real to the virtual so are the criminals.

Sure its slightly different in that you don't get mugged and it can be better automated and scaled, but fake or duplicate passports have been around for years as has the ID theft problem. Hell in a world where Illinois can elect 4 out of 8 corrupt governors its hardly surprising that there is a problem with fraud and extortion.

This isn't news about a market that is new, its news about how existing crime organisations are going into new markets, just like the Mafia et al shifting from alcohol and protection into drugs. There has always been a problem with organised crime and there has always been an underground market for illegal information and products (after all these are just different illegal shipments).

This reads a bit like the .com stories of 1999 which said that there was a new magic economy that would replace the old one, then it turned out that mainly it was the boring old economy that worked in the new world. I'd imagine that the same is pretty true for the cybercrime world, same bosses, different henchmen who have more brains than muscles.

You do know who makes Dr Who don't you? Its the BBC which is pretty much quasi-government (its independent in terms of editorial control but its budget gets set by the government).

So your argument that a government controlled entity can't possibly show decent quality TV produced by another government controlled entity really doesn't make sense. The BBC is probably the finest global broadcaster in terms of overall content, originality and political coverage. HBO will have a shot from a quality perspective but politics?

Government control can indeed be a very bad thing (look at Italy or Venezuela) but one thing you can't do is complain about it in a thread talking about Dr Who.

Come on folks its time to have fun with the arts students again. We are all going to die because as we know a black hole sucks everything into it and these guys have only just discovered it which means it must be new so it can only be a matter of days/weeks/months a year at most before our solar system is devoured by this giant black hole.

Run for the hills, there is no escape.

Ahhh arts students, the sort of people who fall for the "di-hydrogen monoxide is potentially lethal but the government are letting it into our water supplies".

You are supposed to make music because you like to do it, not as a full-time job.

Stallman is that you? Are you serious?

Artists don't have a right to make money from their art, it just happened to work well.

WTF? So Michaelangelo should have done the Sistine Chapel for free? Da Vinci shouldn't have taken that commission for the Mona Lisa? Mozart should never have taken that court job or done those popular operas?

The multi-millionaires rock stars didn't exist before the invention of disc records and probably won't exist after that.
Go and have a look at some of the musicians, opera singers, composers and the like (who didn't drink it all away) from previous centuries and realise what a piece of muppetry you are saying.

I don't have the right to listen freely to their music, it just happens to work well.

I've never felt like condemning copyright violation as outright theft before but your mentality really does seem to be in that category of "F-U, F-everyone" and "I'm alright Jack" asshole that just deserves to be up before the judge. I don't have a right to my neighbours car... and you know what I won't be taking it for a joy ride no matter how well it would work for me.

Oh hang on, you are clearly actually an RIAA plant because no-one could be that big a sociopath.... could they?
 

One point to make though is that Paul McCartney is the sort of guy who can afford to go DRM free, if this album is ripped, lobbed on bit-torrent and limewire then Macca is unlikely to be out on the streets through lost revenue. Its great that he has done it but the _fear_ of being ripped off is going to be less for one of the biggest selling artists of all time than it would be for the average band.

Kudos indeed, but this isn't just a random artist choosing DRM this is the bloke from the Beatles who co-wrote the first hit for the Rolling Stones and the Frog Chorus.

The only problem with this is that according to the OECD ratings on where the best 21st Century Schools are its mainly around Finland and Scandinavia, South Korea and Japan none of which leave education in the hands of back-water local folks who can dictate "no evolution" or its ilk.

Education isn't a federal problem and giving people laptops won't solve it. Unless Obama is planning on shifting to Federal control of education then this really is just lipstick on a pig. Broadband adoption is at least some way federally regulated via the FCC but throwing money at the Cable Cabal won't mean better competition an thus better value it will just mean better profits.

Fix the basics, then throw the money.

"Is Never get involved in a land war in Asia" - Vencini - The Princess Bride

Seriously with 1.2 billion people and a US Government that doesn't fighting on even grounds (doctrine of overwhelming superiority) the Chinese are number 1 on a list of countries to not go around starting a War with (Russia as a close number 2).

The stupidest thing that Bush ever did (and lets face that is a long list) were the "threats" that he made to China over the spy plane thing. It showed the most amazing lack of knowledge on the global political sphere and a complete lack of perception as to how his threats would cause them to react. What a gimp.

By Women to subjugate men and stop us breaking through the glass ceiling and having successful careers. I for one think it is awful that Women can not only discriminate against men but can also actively poison us without society doing anything, this just goes to show the level of control that women have at all levels of society and their near total control of politics and the news.

Brought to you by the same people at FoxNews who claimed the rest of the Media was biased.