As an American, I'm sorry. We're not all idiots, and I promise you that those of us with at least a modicum of intelligence feel just as alienated and bewildered by the insanity that has apparently overtaken our country.

Because that's an entirely different frequency of radio waves with entirely different properties. Would you say that lead and hydrogen are the same because they are composed of the same components? Likewise, different frequencies of electromagnetic waves can have completely different properties.

Microwaves work through a very specific mechanism that only applies to very high powered signals, at certain frequencies, at close range. Specifically, they exploit the polar nature of water, causing the molecules to spin and generate friction, which in turn generates heat. To achieve this effect, microwaves operate at anywhere from 600 to 2000 watts within relatively tiny confines. Take into account that the intensity of radio waves decreases proportionately over distance, and add to the fact that this particular band of radio waves is incapable of traversing anything metallic, and the fact that it loses a significant amount of energy from it's constant interaction with the water in the air, sticking your head IN the microwave would hurt, but standing a reasonable distance away would have an effect only after lengthy exposure. Put a wall or some other substantial rigid structure in between you and the microwave, and you'd evaporate the magnetron long before you'd feel anything from the microwave. To give you a sense of scale, 200mW, which is the output of your average wireless access point is to 600 watts (about the lowest power microwave you'll find) is about like comparing the mass of a four year old (40 pounds) to the mass of an M1 A1 Abrahms tank (135,200 pounds), and that's not even considering the fact that the frequencies in which these devices operate have entirely different properties. (IE, they don't cause rotation in water, and therefore don't cause heating). In short, unless you think pre-schoolers are an adequate substitute for artillery, it's unwise to compare a microwave oven to a wireless access point.

If you know enough about computer science to write a book on compression algorithms, then you already know that piracy can't really be stopped. If you want to sell a book online, there is going to be a small segment of people who are going to pirate it and no amount of DRM will really stop that. There is really no question here, the cost of doing business selling digital media is that some pirated copies are going to inevitably get passed around. You are not losing money, as the people who pirate your book weren't very likely to buy it in the first place.

This is a minor gripe of mine, media doesn't really understand technology so they get some rough approximation of how things work and run with it

The DS plays games, the iPhone can play games, they are both immensely popular and have touch screens, therefore they must be competitive products.

If you look, you'll find similarly misinformed articles that act as though the iPhone was the first device to have a touch screen, or the first to have an application portal, or the first to play games. Misunderstandings like this are all over the internet and are a clear example of news outlets attempting to get some manner of readership by simply talking about something popular. It doesn't do justice to the devices in question, and it helps to perpetuate the general level of misinformation that most people have about devices that are rapidly becoming an important part of their lives.

Sorry you took such offense. I do feel the need to defend myself by pointing out that the G1 functions just fine without a sim card and is more than happy to connect to a WAP. Secondly, you can pick up a gently used G1 on ebay for about the cost of an iPod touch and it's an open platform which is something I think most people on slashdot would approve of. Finally, the poster said "no cellphone-style activation and service fees" which simply means that they don't want a contract, just a wap device and most of the devices discussed here are within the 300-400 dollar range anyway so I guess I don't see why it was necessary to be so rude.

I absolutely love mine. The browser is excellent for a mobile device, the hardware is robust, and the physical keyboard/trackball makes browsing a breeze. The browser supports java, and will also soon support flash, you really can't ask for more.

Have you encountered the problem where use of Symantec Cleanwipe breaks the user's ability to to create and use PPTP VPN connections?

Symantec's products have declined in quality to the point in which we do not recommend it to our clients, in fact, we actively discourage it. Endpoint protection, even the corporate version, is heavy and almost useless for the detection of any kind of malware. The management software is so bad, that when left unchecked, it will fill a server with logs sometimes generating as much as a gigabyte per manged PC in a month.

When I was ten years old, I was playing games like Fallout and Daggerfall, in which I was doing all manner of highly immoral things including murder and theft and I turned out just fine, most of us did. So ask yourself, what has the ESRB accomplished short of making people paranoid?