You're right, but do you honestly believe the government could have that kind of collusion with companies and ISPs without the public having a greater uproar? I think the reason the average person doesn't care now is because it doesn't matter now. It could be abused, but I have faith that market forces, right to protest, judicial systems, and democracy would see that wouldn't happen rampantly.

Every time a technology is introduced to make the world look a little more Orwellian (and I hate the word) or not, there is a lot of discussion/dissent and backlash and the net result is positive. We (assuming you are from a 'Western'/modern country) live in a time where personal freedoms and liberties are higher than ever before, why wouldn't that trend continue? We have been faced with technologies which people thought would oppress us, and it has never stayed.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on it. To your credit and those who think like you, at this point in the game, it's harder to say exactly what will happen. I respect you for arguing for your freedoms.

tl dr; My only point is that TPM/TC is a technology, not a conspiracy. People are the ones who are oppressing, not technology, and oppression has a poor track record.

I don't know will be using an electron microscope to look at the chip is an attack that everyone will attempt to try. You could buy a house/a few cars/lots of computers for that kind of cost.

The point of security isn't total security. It's to make the effort not worth it.

I'll make an informative post.

A TPM or Trusted Computing scheme is a way to have a very difficult to modify part memory in the CPU where private keys can be stored. It does not mean trusting the user or trusting the machine, it is a way for the machine to verify software signed with a private key has not been altered. Period.

Obviously, Like all security (perhaps excluding quantum cryptography without a lot of luck) it can be broken. However, the idea is to make that break valid for one machine (keys are different, unless the generation scheme was broken with some fancy crytography) and involve a lot of time (like looking at the circuitry through an electron microscope.

As the GP said, there is potential for abuse. If you feel that this may happen, why would you run an OS that would want to abuse you in this way? If MS makes it so that Windows requires a TPM and scans your computer every minute, and that can't be disabled (as Windows would be modified/stop running), run Linux. A computer with a TPM (which, btw, have been out for awhile, you may already have one) doesn't require a "signed OS" or anything like that. That would be stupid, and would not actually work (as then the TPM would have to have knowledge of how the rest of the machine is running, which would mean that the chain of trust is broken, and the whole scheme could then be much more easily broken).

Right you are! I stand corrected. Thanks for proving I've lost my mind (I was typing this at work, on my Win7 Professional machine, while running XP mode...)

As the other poster said about Intel VT, and XP-mode is only available in Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise (i.e. the VLK version of Ultimate). It does not actually come with Windows 7 Professional, which most people would see as the business version. It does not come with Windows 7 Home Premium, which is what most end users would have.

The greatest problem Windows has is their licensing scheme and the people behind it. Engineers and developers do not run that company.

NO other games have ENERGY swords or anything. BROLLCALL!

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=285

Try Darky's ROM for Android debices, such as SGS. Really good.

[Citation Needed]

Also it seems a little unfair to call having exposure to culture/content that is Canadian a "pet project". You make it sound as though the CBC is hiding in some garage, maliciously foisting Canadian content on others.

Not necessarily. Casual exposure would increase demand as most people would not actively seek Canadian content on that criteria alone. However, given the exposure, many people enjoy / feel a sense of pride at being part of a Canadian music.

Actually the Canadian banking system is rated as the best in the world... maybe I'm missing what you were trying to express?

They operate in Calgary, but haven't yet expanded the coverage to actually include all the edges of this sprawled out city. Their map said "Coming in late 2010", but I haven't heard any updates yet. People at the Telephone Booth also suggested their downtown coverage isn't great (owing to buildings), but I haven't tested that.

What does the 'W' stand for?

The only time I've gotten stuck this winter was when I drove up to Edmonton a month ago to visit friends at uni (stuck in deep snow on a residential road, pushed out). The comparison of winter between Calgary and Edmonton is hilarious :P

Oh, and parking at WestEd the weekend before Christmas is ... insane.

Perhaps not as big a hit as you've noticed overall, but I have actually noticed more temperature dependence than what you've mentioned, but perhaps it is a result of using mpg or a result of what we each experience as cold weather. I believe I have a fairly consistent driving style, which is more conservative than most people.

I monitor this closely with my car (2010/Prius); in conditions below 0 C, it drops to about 4.8 L/100km, in conditions below -15 C, the L/100km drops to around 7.0, when it gets around -30 C it drops to about 8.5 (note this is with winter tires, which seem to effect roughly 0.5 L/100km). With my driving style I usually get around 4.2 L/100km in the city during summer (more than 5 C) on my regular all season tires.

I usually make short 10-30 minute trips without idling my car significantly beforehand. In winter, I need defrost on the entire time or I can't see through the window.

On the highway and for much longer trips (around 3 hours), I get around 4.2-4.4 L/100km. In conditions around -20 C I get around 4.8-5.2 L/100km.

That being said, in cold weather, with the heater (which is almost always on), snow/ice, and winter tires; the mileage drops to what an average (not tuned to efficiency) car gets in the best conditions, which is arguably a pretty good result.