So you're saying, that if you donate money to this politician or do them favors, they will dick you over in return?

Why would this politician sabatoge any possibility of more sketchy contributions by acting this way? And wouldn't the politician get caught in the shitstorm anyway?

This line of reasoning just doesn't make nay sense.

Wait, so your logic is:

1. 1. Mastercard gives politician money.
2. 2. Politician screws Mastercard via credit reform
3. 3. Mastercard now also owes the politician favors?

... Usually it's the other way around.

Although what you have said is true, it's a little bit off topic because parent was worried about Google specifically. My point was, the only parts that aren't open source are designed by your manufacturer or your carrier, either of whom is in an excellent position to snoop on you no matter what OS you use.

Stock froyo (which is what my phone runs): http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

And this is where you get Samsung's froyo mod: http://opensource.samsung.com/ (search for i900 under mobile )

And this is where you get the source for the HTC phones: http://developer.htc.com/

I guess you love to see that?

Even if you were right about manufacturers releasing the source, my point about stock android being open would still completely valid. Parent said it was google that made them so nervous. Sense, motoblur, and other android mods were written by hardware companies. And if your hardware manufacturer wants to snoop on you, they don't have to modify the OS. Which was, of course, my actual point.

Shit for brains.

The entire OS source is open, so you're free to flip through and find out exactly what sort of mining might be baked into the device. But the platform is pretty irrelevant in this case. All your transmissions are being forwarded via your carrier. What makes you think your current carrier isn't mining your text messages and emails?

Wait.... are you against the forking of open source projects?

One word: iTunes. Nobody is sulking.

Your brilliant solution would also involve not having any proprietary movies or TV shows available to stream, because the copywrite owners would refuse to allow it.

But hey, Netflix is great even without proprietary content, right?

Dear slashdot, is my point made? Does anybody want this?

And of course, people that know things could point out that since we're falling into a deflationary spiral, money printing is actually an attempt to stabilize inflation at its historic 2%, permitting job growth and preventing a Japan-like lost decade (currently 10-year expectations are down to 1%, which increases the expected real burden of pre-crash debts and in turn creates a money shortage and severe job losses). I could provide links but you could also just go find a macroeconomics textbook and look up 'disinflation' and 'great depression'.

I really don't need to hear the misinformed opinions of slashdotters that think they know things about economics, thx.

For what it's worth, "gefressen" does mean devoured, but "angefressene" just means something more like 'flustered'. Even Germans argue about the exact definition though, so who knows.

What's easier: getting your openID taken down? Or changing all the passwords to sites that you gave the same or similar password to, everywhere on the internet?

I don't even have a list of all the sites I've given my crap password to. But if they were all authenticated with openID, I would only have one problem to fix.

They did create their own derivative. It's called Dalvik.

You may be right technically, but in the long run, oil competes with all other energy sources. The reason we drive around in gasoline-consuming cars is because it's more efficient to carry around gasoline as an energy source than juiced-up batteries or hydrogen derived from electricity from the grid. If electricity became very cheap to generate thanks to solar power, and oil became more expensive due to scarcity, it would make more sense to use fuel cells or batteries as the power storage medium, obviating the need for oil as an energy source in most cases (although of course it will still be important for plastics).

I'm on TMo and my plan is unlimited. I never switch on my Wifi card, ever. I don't observe any speed difference when I do, and I have no financial incentive. I bet Verizon is the same way. I should mention I live in NYC where 'free wifi' is pretty much unheard of anywhere where you would actually want to use it.

It sounds to me like what you're actually saying is that AT&T's plans and network are so crappy you don't even use them.