The average IQ is 100, after all...

Heh. Gotta ask... have you looked into putting CM on it? Because I'd wager that 80% of people that use Cyanogen are those who can't wait for official updates.

Yeah, that's pretty much just my best guess...

If I'm reading this correctly - you stopped trusting Cyanogenmod because you apparently accidentally tried to use your Gmail credentials to log at the Cyanogenmod account login prompt? That's like accidentally putting in your Gmail login info at the Facebook login screen. Why would that make you trust CM less?

For anyone who's interested, here's a rundown on the Cyanogenmod account stuff:

http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/cyanogenmod-account

They don't necessarily have to make their revenue all from ads.

They can provide a polished, stable version of Android that is in many ways better than the original and provide support to the phone manufacturers (perhaps more cheaply than Google?), directly getting a cut from handset sales.

They could start and manage their own app store and take a cut if app purchases.

By working directly with manufacturers, they can spend less time hacking/reverse engineering stuff in order to get it to work with the hardware and instead focus on making their flavor of Android better and therefore desirable on handsets. Cyanogenmod has always been about being cutting-edge - pioneering many features long before AOSP. And not just 'fun' features but really important stuff like fine-detailed app permissions management (which has been WAY overdue). If they can now have a say in hardware design, I say, hell yes, bring it on. I hope to see cutting-edge badass smartphones with easy root access, high customize-ability/theming, and bleeding edge features.

Lately I've been keeping an eye on the Sailfish project, but this news has refreshed my interest in the future of Android in general. Let's not be too cynical and assume it's all going to be about advertising. And even if there are ads, does anyone really think the ads could be any worse or more intrusive than the current state of Android in general?

Maybe Canonical has spoiled everyone's attitudes toward the idea of monetizing open source. There's certainly a comparison to be made here. I'm not well-versed enough in the behind-the-scenes stuff to compare, but I wonder what the degree of impact Cyanogen has had on the Android world is, compared to Ubuntu's contribution to Linux, and what lessons we can take from the latter and apply to the former?

Doesn't even have to be something as complicated as CAD. Even something basic like dealing with word documents or spreadsheets is a royal pain on mobile.

Microsoft makes more money from Android than it does from WindowsPhone due to patent royalties. Perhaps Sailfish will be free of such royalties? If so, I can see hardware manufacturers getting behind it (or Tizen, etc) in a big way, especially considering that Android apps will run on it.

Maybe HTC, which has been foundering lately, should produce a Sailfish handset. They could set up their own app store and make some cash that way...

I can't seem to fit 'The Tailor of Panama' into one of those pigeonholes.

[i] Sweden has shown the ability to rehabilitate around twice as effectively as the USA(20% recedivism vs 60% here, ergo 80% effective vs 40%)[/i]

  I think an important point being overlooked in this discussion is an analysis of the conditions that drove the inmates to crime in the first place. How many crimes are committed by someone trying to callously shortcut the rules of society vs. someone down on their luck or just trying to survive? Perhaps there's nothing particularly special about the rehabilitation methods performed by the prisons, but instead, Sweden's done a top job of addressing the underlying issues.

  Also - and I have to bring it up - stupid-ass drug laws. If we can't legalize the mostly harmless recreational drugs out there, can we PLEASE stop locking people up for minor drug offenses, and instead fine them, like traffic violations (which are actually, you know, dangerous) and other civil infractions? Fines would actually help regulate the 'problem' while RAISING MONEY instead of needlessly locking up harmless people (destroying their lives in the process) which then becomes a gigantic drain on society due to the fact that we've now made them effectively wards of the state. It's fucking idiotic, man. Catch a guy smoking a joint? Slap him with a $150 ticket. No criminal record established, just show up and pay your fine and everything is golden. Don't slam his face into the pavement and seize his house and pull his children into state custody and ruin his reputation for the rest of his life, ensuring that when he finally gets out of prison, he'll turn to crime, because you've eliminated any and all chances that he'll magically fall into being a useful member of society after you've branded him for life. Nobody wants to hire the guy that just spent months in lockup on drug charges. The system we have here now does not 'rehabilitate' anyone. It brands them with a criminal record that they can never live down, often for minor charges. OF COURSE they turn to crime - even if what they were doing was harmless and not immoral in any way. They were convicted and served sentences and were told by everyone that they were a criminal and did criminal things. Why wouldn't they turn to crime when released? Everyone thinks they're a criminal anyway.

Just imagine the impact to all the gunslingers who arrange to duel at high noon, hilariously trying to aim at each other in the pitch blackness.

Why can't we have both?

I just returned from 30 days touring the United Kingdom. I didn't think I would take many pictures or video - it's not really my thing - but I surprised myself by recording about 20 gigs of photos and video.

Cloud options weren't possible because I was using a prepaid SIM with limited data (unless I wanted to spend a fortune 'topping up' every few days for more data). Even with unlimited data or ready access to wi-fi, it would have taken ages to back up all those videos, etc. I ended up deleting all my music from the phone first (about 12 gigs worth), and then, when I still managed to fill up both my internal memory and SD card (both 16GB, Galaxy Note 2) I ended up purchasing a second 16GB card so I could continue snapping away.

I'll never understand the war on SD cards. In my case, what else could I have done? I didn't lug a laptop with me so I couldn't offload the stuff. Would you buy a digital camera/video camera without removable memory? Mobile phone cameras have gotten so good lately that they're replacing standalone cameras for anything but professional/hobbyist use, and 32GB is NOT enough for a modest music collection, a healthy dose of app data, and a shutterbug's vacation photos, especially when some of that memory is reserved for the system in the first place.

Not to mention the fact that when I switch to a new phone, I just pop the memory card in the new phone and bam, there's all my media, without spending 45 minutes transferring all my stuff with a USB cable.

There are two reasons why I stick with Samsung - memory card slot and hardware keys.

"I see in Slashdot the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be venture capitalists, and head developers, and IT project managers. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."

Sweden - SAABs and Volvos. They simulate plowing into a moose at high speeds during their crash safety engineering.

One thing the article didn't mention: the rise of hormones and pharmaceuticals in the water supply, and in the food we eat:

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/pharmawater_site/day1_01.html

And there's issue of cattle being given hormones to stimulate growth/milk production; hormones that will be present in the issue we consume. Nobody really understands the ensuing effects on our overall health, as all of this is relatively new. It's speculated that hormones ingested by pregnant women have developmental effects on unborn children. Perhaps both humans and the test animals are seeing a correlative rise in obesity because they are second-or-third generation, after the Great Hormone Floods began...