This sort of logic was present and functioning on the first steam-engines! You have such a system in your toilet — it closes the water-valve, when the "sensor" detects, the tank is full...

Because iOS and Android have no email and calendaring support whatsoever...

If Microsoft, with orders of a magnitude more cash available to burn is finding it almost impossible to break the Android-iOS duopoly, I'm thinking BB's chances of making a comeback sufficient to create a third player in the market are somewhat on the same order of a extrasolar comet flying into the solar system, slingshoting around Jupiter, hooking off Neptune, doing four orbits of the sun before being captured for three orbits by Saturn, being flung at Earth, breaking up under the Moon's gravitational pull and a one inch piece flying to earth severing John Chen's left testicle as he takes a leak.

BlackBerry is the Windows Phone of phones!

???

Our staff's Android and iOS devices all hook into Exchange and can use its address book, all via SSL connections. Maybe BB is a bit more feature rich, but having to run BES as an integrator between BB devices and an Exchange server is a resource-hungry pain in the ass. ActiveSync does the job well enough.

They're thinking "Hmmm, do we hand this mountain of cash we're still sitting on back to the shareholders and close up shop, or do we spend that cash frivolously on doomed loss leaders schemes and executive salaries?"

I think you can probably guess at the answer. But really, anyone still holding BB stock at this point is staking more of a religious position than a business one. Anyone with any interest in meaningfully profitable investment strategies dumped BB a long time ago.

The next stage, I'm presuming, is for BlackBerry to turn into SCO and start trying to extort license fees from Android manufacturers and Apple.

They have virtually no sales, but a huge amount of cash from their halcyon days. Rather than simply hand that money back to investors and close shop, they've decided that a "flush it all down the toilet" strategy is in order.

I get that they're trying to do the loss leader game, but if this is successful, BB will be out of pocket a heap load of cash with little immediate benefit. If it isn't successful, then the stunt demonstrates they're fate is to be a bit player with a niche in keyboard smartphones, and no hopes of ever taking on Android and iOS devices.

It'd be way safer to get a fan going to circulate the air than to crack the windows open. You really want car makers to open themselves up to having cars stolen easier?

Spinning fan will drain battery quickly. A slightly-open window will not make theft much easier — and the alarm will still go on, if the door is opened.

People do leave windows rolled-down a little on hot days as a matter of course. Would be nice, if the car could do it itself. And even close them back up, if rain starts.

That's a good point. If the crime you're charged with carries a maximum month sentence, you should be out on bail after the month automatically.

I'm also glad to hear that you've turned your life around. Well done, sir.

* continuous monitoring will drain your battery, so you will come to a dead battery every time you go on vacation;

I have an outside temperature sensor, that radios figures to the display unit inside. Its puny little battery lasts a year... You too can get one at Home Depot.

the system will also have to monitor for precipitation

As I said, such sensors are already built into my car. The wipers start automatically, when the rain or snow hits the windshield.

there are better ways to spend ~100$ in parts and 5lb of weight.

All the hardware is already in the car. Just need to teach the existing software a new trick.

You want a machine to decide that for you...

No, I want it to decide for itself — when I am not there.

How would that make a difference? They're the government. They *are* all the money, right?

The government does have unlimited pockets, but the budgets of individual prosecuting agencies is limited...

And if they don't have the money now, can't they can just raise taxes during the next budget cycle to cover those costs?

It would still force prosecutors to be more restrained. If, for example, we paid $10K for each alleged felony and $5K for each misdemeanor, the guy in TFA would've been due $440K. Well, maybe, $430 if one of the felonies was downgraded to misdemeanor. Whether the agency has money or not, making the accused rich like that is embarrassing and prosecutors would be more careful. And, maybe, some of the funds may even come from the prosecutor's own bonus...

unlocking car boots, setting off windscreen wipers, locking brakes, and cutting the engine.

If a hacker can do all that, why can't the car itself open the windows slightly if the temperature inside gets high and there is no rain outside? All the hardware is already there — the sensors know both the inside temperature and whether anything is hitting the windshield (so wipers can turn automatically in rain).

Would've made returning to your car in the sunny lot more comfortable and even saved some lives.

So, to reform common law, instead of replacing it with civil law, you're making prosecutions capitalistic?

Gibberish.

Great... don't ever want to live in your imaginary world...

Please, do stay in your own.

Except we would be worse off

No. The change I propose would discourage big (guys or companies) from going after small (guys or companies) frivolously — when they don't care whether they win or lose, they just want the small to fold for fear of legal costs regardless of outcome. With my system, if you are sure of being right, you don't need to fear ruin upon winning.

because now on top of everything else the little guy has to pay the legal bills of the big company that screwed him over.

What "screwed over"? The judge/jury just ruled, that the "big company" was right. The loser ought to pay — whether he is large or little. The court has ruled and found him in the wrong. Pay up.