"Bloat" is a feature common to all engineering tasks, not just software. Anyone who follows the aviation industry can tell you that this happens over, and over and over again. Requirements are put out, designs are submitted and then the wonks start coming in and saying "well, we could also add this", "well we could also add that". Every time this is allowed to happen, it's a complete failure. The designs that succeed are the ones that stay true to the original requirements. e.g.
U-2: I fly high and far, nothing else.
SR-71: I fly fast, nothing else (attempts we're made to add intercept capability and rejected).
F-14: I intercept, nothing else (attempts we're made to add bombing capability and rejected).
F-15: I will own the skies and do nothing else (bombing has been added on but it has not strayed from it's mission).
AV-8B: I will provide forward air base support and nothing else.

While I'm not arguing that they should not be held accountable, what you're proposing is not a "fix". The system should be designed so that they can't be negligent in the first place.

The primary justification for not overhauling the inherently weak credit card system in the US has been the cost to the retailers, banks and credit card processors. And there's some validity to this, upgrading the system would have a major impact everyone from the banks and large retailers on down the the mom and pops and the card holders themselves. However, the cost of continually cleaning up these messes is going to start adding up. It's time to accept the fact that the current system is horribly outdated and fix it (most retailers in Europe won't even accept chip-less us cards anymore).

This story is pushing a month old and has already made the rounds on the DrudgeReport, Digg and other aggregators and is dead and buried. Note to /. editors... you can actually find and post new content ... your job isn't limited to filtering out dupes.

Carriage laws in the US prevent a ticket price from being changed after it is purchased. This includes canceling the ticket because of the price it was issued at (because this is effectively the same as changing the price of the ticket since the consumer would have to repurchase it). You'll notice that Delta's carriage policy specifically outlines that they will never sell a ticket for $0 so they can excluded it. Since they can't state this for any other fare price, they can't exclude it and it falls under the general carriage policy. http://www.delta.com/content/dam/delta-www/pdfs/legal/contract_of_carriage_dom.pdf It would be different if, say, Kayak or Expedia screwed up and gave the wrong ticket price... but since this was on the carriers website and they are dealing directly with the customer, they are SoL.

Aluminum is a perfectly sound material as long as it's used correctly. It's been used in aircraft, rockets and other vehicles that take stresses far beyond what you will ever do to your truck. Flying may seem like it doesn't generate much stress but the loads on a 747 or A380 when they are landing are tremendous. The regular compression/decompression cycles that a plane goes through when going from ground level to altitude are also impressive when you look at the numbers. The fact that we consider it so commonplace is a testimony to how durable aluminum is. The average person is shocked when they see the thickness of the tubing used in bicycles, including downhill mountain bikes which take one hell of a beating.

But this is all contingent on how the aluminum is employed. If they have good, experienced engineers then this can only end well (I'd love to have a truck that didn't rust).

The simplest, and most effective way to get what you want is to prove that your staffing approach will save man hours/time/money. That is your only effective recourse. If you can't do this you are SOL.

I'm actually speaking from experience. I live in NYC and last year during Sandy we ran into many of the problems you describe. Business and Individuals in areas that still had power were setting out extension cords and power strips for people to recharge their phones. Mobile generators can be used for the same purpose (and growing up in Texas it was my experience that most people in isolated rural areas either already have a portable generator or know someone close by that does).

The situation you described in Rio and Sao Paulo is not unique to cell phones. POTs systems have a limit on how many calls they can support as well, the dreaded "all circuits are busy message" here in the states. The reason POTs lines are less susceptible to that now is that fewer people are using them so it doesn't happen as often. A common solution to this is to tell people just to text instead of making calls, that helps reduce the load on the cellular infrastructure.

1. If a hurricane/tornado/earthquake/what-have-you destroys your POTS infrastructure, it can take weeks or months to rebuild it. You can restore cell service in matter of hours with a mobile cell site.
2. The same applies to your house. What good is a fixed, "simple" phone if your house isn't there any more?
3. One of the biggest issues when a disaster strikes is locating people. POTS doesn't do anything to help with this.

POTS was great but it's had it's time and we need to stop supporting it and move on newer technologies.

Or any of the former satellites of the CCCP for that matter. The authoritative list is here.

They've been asked to help fix ObamaCare.

For being almost impossible to completely uninstall.

No one was ever debating the need or value of the actual devices. The OP was referring to a market for image/video capture devices that encrypt the data. My response was to that perceived market for encrypting devices, not the market for image/video capture devices as a whole. Actually, my post was arguing that people want to post images/videos of themselves so I don't see how you could even infer that I was arguing that there was no market for video cameras.