But Motorola did it. (Ducks.) (Ducks 65 more times.)

But the history of Iridium tells a tale that Google appears to have listened to.

It's 66 satellites, not 77 (the actual atomic number of Iridium, the purported reason for the name) because 66 satellites are cheaper to launch and maintain than 77. And still, the company went bankrupt because they couldn't get customers willing to subscribe to the service. And the successor company depends on the US DoD as a major customer -- 23% of their 2012 revenue. That's quite a lifeline -- not one I envision Google's corporate culture rushing out to embrace.

The technical challenges aren't hard, notwithstanding the validity of the "it's rocket science" jokes. The financial and market challenges are the real ones. It's not the same as sticking a website out there and labeling it "Google Foobar (beta)". It makes money from Day One or it gets the hose again.

Not paying the settlements levied against them.

This is the crux of the current brouhaha. The Prenda weasels are blowing off settlements, claiming extreme poverty while desperately shoving huge amounts of money into wholly-owned shell companies and hidden bank accounts.

I want to ask "why are these walking cancer tumors still breathing?", but that's a little extreme. Just a little.

Why are they walking around free? In a just world, they'd be cooling their heels behind bars.

We slashdotters complain vociferously about the (lack of) quality of the editors here at Slashdot. But it could always be worse. We could have editors like the ones at that other Dice holding, who steal people's contributions and put their own labels on them, and then wrap them in malware.

It'd be like Timothy personally claiming every +1-or-higher comment made in one of the articles he "edited", leaving only Goatse and GNAA trollage for us plebians.

Earth has perfected organ transplant technology, so someone with access to transplants can live for centuries. The transplants are provided by disassembling criminals, because almost every crime is capital, and execution is by disassembly for transplant stock. Because every citizen considers himself or herself law-abiding, they believe they benefit from more transplant material... and would never become transplant material themselves. They think, "I'll never murder, or embezzle, or repeatedly violate traffic laws, so make 'em all capital crimes. Get rid of the undesirables, and a longer life for me."

Earth has a unified government and a world paramilitary police force: the ARM.

The ARM has three major duties: "mother hunts" (enforcing mandatory parenthood licensing, designed so that each normal adult is allowed to be the parent of two children only -- replacement rate reproduction only), suppressing dangerous technologies (in the hands of anyone but the ARM), and combating organlegging -- black market transplant providers who source their material by kidnapping and murder.

So, the presumption that you can't deny reproductive rights is just silly. You have reproductive rights, but if you're hunted down and killed for attempting to exercise them outside the constraints of a violently enforced law, what good are they?

Oddly, 22nd Century Earth of Niven's milieu isn't generally portrayed internally as a dystopia, because humanity has been conditioned into obedience and pacifism anyway. Most Earth citizens consider the status quo wonderful.

A perfect example of "solving the wrong problem".

"Astronaut: We want to travel faster than light."
"Scientist: Easily done! I'll just slow down light!"
"Astronaut: You missed the point."

"You're reading it the wrong way."

First Amendment says "Kiss my ass" to export restrictions.

Your Mom isn't much of a "Cyber Criminal" then. I guess she should stick with baking cookies.

True. I've heard her baking is criminal enough.

Orkish technology. It works because everyone involved believes it works. Or doesn't let on otherwise.

I hear the red polygraphs work best.

The main reason for the proposed rule change are the problems caused by fraudulent 911 calls made through NSI phones.

This is why we can't have nice things.

I wonder if the FCC will start a crusade against fraudulent 911 calls made through anonymous VOIP services? Maybe all 911 services? 'Cuz they're clearly getting abused.

Whew! I'm glad we're rid of that dirty bathwater. Too bad about the baby, though.

How flammable is this foamed magnesium alloy?

A warship full of foamed magnesium would go up like a flare. It even incorporates its own oxidizer in the foam, in the air spaces. Unless they're forming the voids with inert gas.

Unless they've paid some special attention to the flammability issue, a combat vessel made with this stuff would make the Forrestal look like a birthday candle.

By all means offer them a choice, but at their expense.

And while we're at it, make sure the externalities of bottling are fully priced in. As a race, we already use and throw away too many plastic bottles.

And if you want to have some good troll-face fun, make sure you're just bottling toilet-to-tap water.