So use the hardware, but disable the cellular connection so they can't mess with your stuff. Or modify the OS like the Nook hackers have been doing I suppose. Then just don't buy the DRMed stuff, or buy it for the "license" and download a clean copy. While probably not legal, it's at least ethical as you are paying for the content. For real protection, keep your original, non DRM copies on an offline media with MD5 or better checksums so you can tell if something has been tampered with. Or sign them with your own certificate.

IMO, this "license" crap needs to be sorted out. Either I own the physical copy, which doesn't really make sense with digital copies, or I own a license to use the content and which particular file I use doesn't really matter. Of course, I'm also one of the "extremists" that think that Copyright is a trade and must be ABLE to expire, so DRM should be mutually exclusive with legal Copyright protection. You can have technology protect your stuff, or you can have legal protection for your stuff, not both.

Of course, I also think that Copyright for something created in my lifetime should expire in my lifetime, the horror.

Yes, but modern tech is quite capable of maintaining a clean copy. The old floppies suck, we know that. But a decent RAID with ZFS (or other error correction) and backup mirrors can preserve information indefinitely. Should you manage to find ONE readable copy of old software, you can make millions of copies with only computer time involved. Speed limited only by storage media and network links. Really old data is hard, data created now really isn't if you can get some people to help you store copies. Something like Crashplan makes that really easy. Automated remote backups to an encrypted file on a friend's computer. You could probably set up something similar without encryption using rsync/SSH if you trust the remote user. With today's high-speed internet connections and cheap storage, it's possible to have enough copies that data loss is very unlikely. Now if we could only convince ISPs that decent upload speeds are useful, I hate that Qwest only offers me 768k up with 12M down. Retarded. My damned cell phone can do almost 1M up. I'm on a wireless ISP because of that, even though the 12M down would be nice.

Yes, DRM breaks this. But I think that for archival purposes you have to assume unencrypted data. So break the DRM (DMCA be damned) or download a broken copy and back THAT up.

If you want your data to be REALLY secure, I suppose you could print it with a laser printer on acid-free paper in an easy to decode format, then use a scanner to bring it back in. But your data density is going to suck and you have to store big boxes of paper now. :)

If your call is REALLY an emergency, as in life-threatening, not "get some milk on the way home", your phone WILL work if there are any GSM towers anywhere in range of the device. I don't think you even need a SIM in the phone for 911 calls. If it doesn't, and an AT&T phone does work there, AT&T is in a heap of trouble. Just contact the FCC, they will take care of it.

I've used a GSM phone that said "no service" to call 911, it found service for that call.

And T-Mobile has very good service in my area. It sucks that they don't where you live, but that's not the case for everyone. I've even traveled with my T-Mobile phone and it got good coverage in other cities. It doesn't work well in the sticks, but I don't expect it to either. I can generally make voice calls and use SMS, but data will often not work. However, the coverage map they post on their website is honest about that, so at least I knew what I was getting, and Verizon and AT&T rarely have better coverage in the sticks anyway.

Doesn't Firefox need more than 4GB these days?? :D

I'd go a step further and say the problem is that the low level driver interfaces are generally what's closed in these things. You CAN'T write a replacement OS because you can't get the information to talk to the hardware. Sure, the Linux kernel Android runs on is FOSS. But the drivers that make it possible to talk to the hardware aren't. It's the NVidia/TiVo model. And I have yet to see a real product, outside of the OpenMoko project (which appears to be dead), that doesn't suffer from the same problem. Including the much-discussed N900. Personally, I'd be happy to pay the asking price for the N900 for a phone that added 2 things. A decent amount of RAM (no, 256M isn't "decent" and swap/flash don't count) 1G minimum, I'd prefer 2G. And open driver interfaces. Either full open source for the drivers or a full set of documentation for every bit of hardware in that device. That includes the Wifi, cell radio, bluetooth, everything. If they want to write a proprietary GUI or apps, that's fine with me. It's the base OS that I believe should be open. Not just because it would be nice, but because then I can support the device into the future should I choose to. Even if the OEM decides it's not worth it.

Look at what's happening now with the next version of Android. The various devs are having a hard time getting it running on older phones like the G1. Not because it doesn't have enough resources, but because they don't have drivers for the radio, camera, etc. and the OEM hasn't seen fit to release any. I'm sure they would rather have us all throw out our older phones and buy new ones from them. And they probably want their driver devs working on the new stuff. That wouldn't bother me if I could at least port the drivers to a new kernel or other stack, but when we can't do it, and they won't do it, that just leaves users stuck.

Good points. I would also include that the ad server must send the entire ad within 100ms. Part of the reason I use adblock is so I'm not sitting there waiting for some ad server.

I believe the package name is ms-windows, but you have to enable another repository and sell your soul. I don't have it installed on my Linux box, so I can't really comment on it more than that.

That's me as well. I ordered one before this hack came out as I wanted an ebook reader. Now I can root it and install my own apps, very useful. I don't really care about the 3G, I'm on WiFi 90% of the time anyway. I'm curious to see what the various devs come up with for this. If the e-ink screen is accessible from standard Android apps, that would have some interesting applications. If nothing else, I could write a nicer book manager if I don't like the stock one. :)

HIPPA only requires that the PII be properly secured. Enforce S/MIME, PGP or similar and you're good to go. Not as easy as FAX, but if it's properly done it's not bad and it's MUCH more secure. An unauthorized user can walk away with a printed FAX, not so with an encrypted email. And you can guarantee that data is from who it claims to be from via the encryption keys. FAX is easy to spoof. The biggest use case I can see for them still that isn't really handled well is signatures. There are digital sigs, but they aren't really standardized as well as they could be, and PKI could be better. Digital capture devices are working pretty well for signatures these days though. My bank has started having me sign a digital pad rather than a paper slip now.

The point is, there are ways to deal with this. There's more learning curve than a FAX machine, but if we as technologists would build the proper tools, it doesn't have to be too bad and can probably be nearly as transparent as ye olde FAX machine.

The mandated cost was the problem, not the basic idea. How about this, mandate that the companies cannot merge or be otherwise owned by each other or by the same parent company and each company sets their own prices. One restriction, the cost for access to the lines is the same no matter who is asking. If SupercorpA gets the line for $10/mo, than SmallCompanyB gets the same line for the same price, no exceptions. That preserves the incentive for the company owning the lines to improve and keep decent service as they can charge more to cover those costs while maintaining open access in a way that provides reasonable profit all around.

I agree. I honestly think that we need a regulation that provides protection for cities and states building telecommunication lines so long as they are open-access. By that I mean that anyone can lease capacity for the same prices and all comers are allowed. There is no reason we should allow corporations to bring lawsuits just because someone wants to compete with them.

Yup. Plenty of small companies would be willing to do it though. Hell, if the govt wants to pay for the fiber and install, I'll start a small company to manage it and happily take $105K/year to do so. And I'll run it with an open access policy.

That's the biggest reason I rip and/or transcode movies to my file server. I don't want the stupid ads, previews, menus and other assorted bullshit. I want to press play and watch the damn movie. Particularly for kids movies, my kid doesn't want to watch your stupid ads, they want to watch the movie I *PAID FOR*. The "pirated" version is MORE useful and costs LESS. Note that I still buy movies and music I like, but I still put them on my server. I hate dealing with ads and menus, I just want the damn movie. And if they make it difficult to do that, I know where to get versions that someone else has already removed all the protections on. So I can download that and just leave my purchases on the shelf. I have BluRays, but I've watched the download instead because of irritating DRM BS. If the producers would offer me the same type of file for purchase directly, I would happily pay them and download direct. But instead I'm forced into playing these stupid games. Idiots. I'd probably own much more of their stuff as impulse buys if they did this. But since I have to go to the store or wait for the mail, I don't buy some things and instead I rent or netflix them.

I'm using the multiroom audio system from HTD and it works quite well. Much less expensive than the other similar products and works well. The whole setup was about $2000 USD, a little pricey, but compared to the other products out there it looks really cheap. The control pads pass IR back to the base so you can control the devices at the head end, you can also wire sources from the control pads. I plug an iPod into a control panel and start it, then any room in the house can listen to it.

The downside is it's all hardwired, so you need to be able to get wires to the proper locations. The control pads need Cat5, speaker wires go from the amp to the speakers directly. The system can send up to 8 sources to 6 zones. Each zone can choose what source it wants to listen to.

I've seen wireless and powerline based systems, but the reviews online didn't seem very good. The HTD system works very well for me. I'm also using their in-ceiling speakers and they sound quite good.