The wonderful people at the FCC will forgive me if I find the nature and timing of this announcement to be . . . convenient? I'm sure the many PAC lobbyists working for the major ISP's will find this news very welcome indeed.

It wouldn't be the first time a motion picture studio has done something fraudulent or even outrageous to promote a film. It's called a "PR stunt" for a reason . . . mainly, it's something nobody expected and somebody'll get hurt badly if it goes wrong.

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"

I've read quite a bit of Tolkien's work - including The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. While I was thrilled to see the LOTR movies stayed very true to the books they were based on, that very fidelity meant there was little room for suspense or surprise. Based on my experience with the LOTR movies, I chose not to bother seeing any of the Hobbit movies. If they were as faithful to the book as the LOTR movies were, no loss. I already know the story quite well, and can even imagine it without Hollywood film magic to help. If (as I'm beginning to understand) they took liberties with the story, tone and content I'm actively glad I didn't waste any money on this, as it would only have made me unhappy - the intellectual equivalent of "bait and switch".

I wonder if they'll try to make The Silmarillion next?

You know, so that guests will be obliged to use the hotel's telephone to send/receive calls? At a dime a minute for local calls buck a minute for long distance, well . . . it adds up quick. Especially when you have multiple guests with no choice.

Oh, that's not legal? Well, how is this any different?

The amount of light entering the eye and stimulating the optic nerve is higher for the tablet. More light == more wakefulness. We're wired that way.

Browsing porn was a good way to avoid viruses . . . although you generally couldn't search for it at the public library librarians have no sense of humor.

Continue with manufacture of quantity x or license the patented drugs for manufacture by others. Court oversight, years of legal maneuvering, etc. Fear of civil litigation ought to keep the manufacturer in line.

1) The Koreans - the only ones explicitly in an army,

2) Sony - no uniforms, but that much money, media control and political connectivity packs one helluva wallop, and

3) Anonymous - (self-declared) internet "freedom fighters".

Here's to hoping the US government does what's best instead of what it does best.

This isn't anything new. It's a lot safer than the first part of the trip, the part where huge quantities of highly reactive stuff is going 'boom' constantly somewhere below you.

N/T

Nobody knows. It's never happened.

[N/T].

(N/T)

Worthless. A complete failure. Except . . .

It just so happens to have a video chat capability that integrates quite well into the Android ecosystem. It's actually superior in some ways to Skype, but (being part of Google +) nobody has ever heard of it - not even the NSA (?). Microsoft doesn't want to screw Skype up badly enough to force people to discover any of a number of alternatives. RIght now, the only thing maintaining Skype's dominance in video chat is the size of the user base. Force [Linux|Android|iOS|downlevel M$] users to find an alternative and that advantage disappears. Users are so damned fickle that way . . .

I make it a point to ignore the ignorant. TTFN, Al.