What parent said with one caveat--if you're only using two drives, don't go RAID--you still wind up with two drives of the same age powered up simultaneously. It's better to have one powered down and stored so its more likely to last longer. When you do your monthly/semi-monthly/when-you-actually-get-around-to-it/backups, it can't hurt to generate a few tens of gigs of PAR2 files as well.

She can say (just about) whatever she wants as a private citizen--constituent or not, but if she's taking political contributions as a PAC, she needs to play by the already much-too-lose campaign finance laws.

DirectX was Microsoft's solution to the "exit to DOS to run a game" workaround. It also targetted the "You must have one of these sound cards, one of these graphics cards, etc." that hampered DOS games because the OS wasn't doing any hardware abstraction--they had to roll their own drivers for every game engine/runtime. DirectX *was* the runtime that enabled direct hardware access and hardware abstraction so the game designers could focus on making games, rather than which sound card a user had.

It wasn't a perfect solutions--still isn't--but DirectX did kill DOS as a gaming platform.

^Sure, but that's only an advantage if you like the implementation Apple uses. They're not keen on letting others try different approaches than the phone's core apps.

You've never had a stalker, have you?

Then don't post your current city on a social networking site. Or lie.

Depends on the phone. I have a T-mobile G1 (HTC Dream-runs Android) that covers most of your scenarios (to varying degrees, granted).

Scenario #1: Create multiple playlists with some of the same songs. How do you keep from duplicating files?

Make as many M3U files as your heart desires. I'm sure there are apps to do this on the phone itself, but I prefer a full (mouse and keyboard) computer interface when setting mine up.

Scenario #2: How do you automatically download podcasts to your phone and have it delete the episodes you've watched/listened to?

Doggcatcher does this. The full version that lets you set up your own podcasts isn't free, but it's cheap (it was $2 or $5, I don't remember exactly). There might be free alternatives by now, but I'm still happy w/ Doggcatcher.

Scenario #3: How do you quickly create a playlist of based on a combination of certain criteria -- rating, year, genre, last played, last skipped, number of times played, etc.?

I have no clue. This isn't something I've ever attempted to do. I don't know if the stock music player keeps track of song play counts. I know it doesn't have ratings built in. There are lots of media players in the market, however, so one very well may do this already. It bears mentioning that some meta information (year, genre) must be manually input into the ID3 tag or equivalent for any music that didn't come via iTunes on your phone as well.

Scenario #4: I have a 1GB shuffle (along with other iPods). I have a 3GB playlist of music I work out with (Workout Music) . I set up a smart playlist to create a 1GB list of songs based on least recently played that are in the "Workout Music" playlist that haven't been skipped in two weeks. I plug in my shuffle, music that I just played automatically gets removed from it and pushed to bottom of the list. Music that I skipped also gets removed and is eligible for resync in two weeks. How do I do that via drag and drop.

Also something that I've never tried to implement on my phone. However, with increased storage, you can store your entire playlist on the phone and the same functionality can be handled solely via the phone's music player application. Whether such an app already exists . . . I have no idea.

Scenerio #5: I'm working at my computer listening to a podcast/audiobook, watching a movie, etc. I'm about 20 minutes into it and I have to go. I sync my iPod (or iPhone) up and it starts playing right where I left off. How is that handled with your phone?

Apple clearly wins this one--they have the advantage of a media player application for full sized computers *and* their own phone platform. Media files can play on both devices, and they can do neat tricks like that. While it's theoretically possible for Android or any other phone OS to do so, it would require a compatible PC/Mac/Linux player that can do a "hand-off" like you describe to the mobile phone's built in media player. I don't know of anything off the bat that can do this, but I believe VLC (on the computer) and GMote (on Android) can do something pretty damn close. It's never occurred to me to try.

Droid, Cliq & many more on the horizon are Moto hardware w/ Google's OS.

[blockquote]Increased government regulation of aired political opinion through the Fairness Doctrine.[/quote]
When has the Obama administration sought, or even claimed to seek, the reinstatement of the fairness doctrine? (honest question--I haven't heard it seriously proposed by anyone with the power to actually get the ball rolling.)

It will work for occasional situations when the user is offline, so long as the necessary support is in the web app itself. Chrome (browser) already supports this via google gears. In the presentation today they flat out said you'd be able to play media on an airplane, for example.

I think ChromeOS is taking some of the ideas behind Ubuntu Netbook Remix to the next level--strip the OS down further for even faster bootup, and make everything live in the cloud. I think Canonical was vaguely aiming in a similar direction w/ UbuntuOne, but Google's "everything is a web app" approach sounds more elegant to me.

And Google is a much stronger brand to push product with than Canonical/Ubuntu. The early netbook oriented Linux distros didn't really offer much that was compelling to make up for their "weirdness" to some users. Advanced users wiped and reinstalled their OS/distro of choice, less advanced users took them back to the store and exchanged them for something else.

Google's going to get other companies to handle the hardware (with their approval) and ship a slew of "Google Books" much like we're starting to see the swarm of "Google Phones" emerging due to Android.

^photons. These are lasers, not particle guns.

^They can't charge you $110 if you've fulfilled your contract. They're just making it expensive to terminate with even a single month left to go.

T-mobile just did.

Typo correction--just to clarify, you might get stuck WITHOUT 3G and relegated to 2G only. I don't recall if AT&T uses the same frequencies as Europe and Canada, but I'm certain T-mobile(USA) doesn't.

^Or you can buy the Motorola Milestone from Europe or Canada. However, you may be stuck on 3G data(AT&T might be the right frequency, but I know T-mobile isn't). Maybe Google will sell some new Dev phones soon. The G1's getting long in the tooth for a developer's platform.