Using the 'Spectrum Analyzer' features built in to most APs and wireless clients will only show you other WiFi traffic not noise (almost always true). Also, they are not very portable. The earlier post about asking you local Ham Radio club is a good idea if there is anyone available and many Hams don't have equipment to listen to 2.4 or 5 GHz. You can search on google and other places for a 'usb wifi spectrum analyzer' for less than $50 that plugs in to your laptop. Be careful and read the specs though as some required that you use them in DOS mode. This will let you look at the actual received power level across the whole spectrum. You can walk around with a laptop until you find the noise source. It is still a steep price to pay for a one time fix. If you are the crafty type you can get a ez430-RF2500 target board for $22 from Texas Instruments. You will need to search for a software load that make it a SA but the are many instructions online. If you don't want to roll your own and get a prebuilt solution you can use the Ubiquiti AirView2 for ~$40. This is a very nice tool. You could even split the cost with your neighbors or pool money or request the person with the noisy device foot the bill for finding it.

The timestamps have been around for a while. At least six months ago I was browsing through the XML data for my character on the armory and noticed a 'Last_On' and 'Last_Update' (not exact names of fields but something similar). From this you could find out when a person was playing. None of this information was displayed anywhere in the armory though.

No. Nothing requires this. Palm can use the same interface other vendors use to interact with an iTunes music library, and wow, they have no issues at all! Palm is creating its own issues all by itself.

The XML file that details an iTunes music library contains everything about that library. What more does someone need? How is this creating a second-class citizen?

Inviting a contract violation by... providing a 3rd party API in the form of an XML file detailing *everything* about a music library? One that is used by several other vendors just fine?

This is a horrible analogy to draw and discredits your argument.

The word borrowed can be used without quotes, as the BSD-style (and other similar licenses) allow for it; don't play silly games. The difference is, that code was FREELY given away for others to use, including Apple. In no way has Apple told anyone "here, fake our USB ID"; in fact, they have an alternate mechanism for allowing third-party devices to access the iTunes library on a customer's computer. Why haven't they gone that route?

It isn't that thinking is a burden, it's that thinking could be reserved for, I don't know, complex tasks that have more meaning than getting music onto your portable music player. Please explain to me the advantage of requiring "thinking" to listen to the music you want?

More electricity??? What gibberish is this? You can't be serious. Please don't comment on what you don't understand.

Really? I own a wireless Mighty Mouse, and the 2-button feature works fine without having to do what you suggest is necessary. I think it works exactly as advertised.

Grandparent is probably confusing America with the rest of humanity; it's a common mistake here. Nothing outside our boarders means a damn unless they threaten some drunk's dad ;)

How does vapourware apply to Boxee? It is a real product, with real support, run by who knows how many users? Try to do a little research next time before proving to all us readers just how ill-informed you are.

All the Boston-area media are atwitter with the possibility of further pointing out the dire status of Massachusetts' public coffers. This matters more to them than some "boring" privacy news angle.

The police stay in their cars for one simple reason: revenue generation. There is no additional safety in having a police car cruising around with the cop inside staying on the lookout for an errant driver to slap with a $$$ ticket. See, he's too busy looking for that revenue than to be concerned about the area he's supposed to be patrolling.

Some municipal services exist and run at a loss for the benefit of society IN GENERAL, meaning, NOT specifically you. The costs are spread around to minimize any one segment of the population being disproportionately penalized. Things like subways are a perfect example; ticket sales alone to riders could possibly rise above the point where its feasible for those riders to cover.

You are paying for a functioning society. If you don't want to, please feel free to go off in the wilderness and stop taking part in OUR society, thanks.

Please explain how water, roads and electricity companies can "advance over time" in any similar way to Internet access?

It would be best to stick to the car analogies that Slashdot is so fond of if you're going to draw incompatible comparisons.