Apple is not a "wireless provider". Is the same law going to require Apple to archive all their messages? What about all the other alternative messaging apps you can get for your smartphone?

This doesn't work unless we declare that any provider of text communication between two individuals be archived, just in case the authorities want it.

------RM

There's an easy solution! Just cross your eyes and stick out your tongue when taking the security image! Of course, the people on the bus might think you're a little looney each time you unlock your phone, but that's the price you pay for security!

------RM

I had no idea that Slashdot was such an important site that people are actually paid good money to troll the discussions on it.

Why don't you add the Bilderbergers and the Illuminati to the mix?

------RM

What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong. It's the year Two Thousand f***in Eleven, and I still have to memorize channel numbers! If I want to watch Comedy Central, I should be able to tell the stupid box that I want to watch Comedy Central, not have to type in a four-digit code that I still can't remember after all this time. Yeah, there's the "Favorites" function which shortens your search, but why should I even have to mess with that? With the current state of technology, why is there no better way of locating channels other than assigning each one a number?

Current TV is premiering some new programming and is using their website to educate viewers on "how to find" their network. That's just obscene. Nobody should have to hunt through 1000+ channels to find what they're looking for.

------RM

Really? You coulda fooled me. Reading Slashdot, you get the idea that Steve Jobs died because someone cut the One Ring from his hand.

I also LOL at anyone on Slashdot tut-tutting "Apple fanboys" for acting hysterical, when any article about smartphones is immediately filled with comments from chest-beating Android fans and mouth-frothing Apple haters.

------RM

And yet, according to NetApplications, iOS has a web share of over 60%, with Android a distant second place (31% US, 19% world). In other words, close to 2 out of every 3 mobile accesses of the internet are done via iOS.

Android supporters love to crow about how Android sales numbers are "beating" Apple, but the plain fact is that those sales numbers are padded with 2-for-1 and free deals that get Android phones in the hands of people who don't really need them. People who actually use their smartphones are buying iPhones.

------RM

Considering that Apple sold over 13 million of the old iPhones in just the last three months, I'll take that bet

Absolutely. Because when you have complete faith in your product, you don't care if someone tries to rip it off. It's times like this I wish Slashdot had a :rolleyes: emoticon.

------RM

Curious: What happened to the lunar modules for Apollo 11, 12, and 14-17? After the ascent stage docked with the command module and the astronauts transferred over, the ascent stage was jettisoned, right? So what makes the LM for Apollo 10 special? Or did the ascent modules for the landing missions remain in orbit around the moon?

------RM

If there was ever any doubt in my mind that Wikileaks has turned into nothing more than one man's vanity project, it was dispelled the moment I clicked that link and was greeted by the stern visage of Julian Assange. "Keep Us Strong", it says, the text right above a picture of The Man Himself. The message is clear. Assange is WikiLeaks and WikiLeaks is Assange.

WikiLeaks would be better off in the hands of someone who is not so clearly getting off on being seen as the face of the site.

------RM

Gene Roddenberry once said something similar: "If we let the fans write the show, it would be crap." (Or some such thing, I'm paraphrasing from memory.

------RM

Am I the only one with this weird problem? After having seen several movies in 3D, it dawned on me that I never had any visual memory of what the 3D effect looked like. For example, take How to Train Your Dragon. I remember that "the 3D was great". I remember the fact that several specific scenes looked friggin' awesome in 3D. I can even explain what was great about each scene. But I can't bring up a visual memory of what the scenes looked like, 3D-wise. All my memories of the movie are flat. When that began to sink in, 3D movies lost a lot of their allure. Knowing that, once I left the theater, the memories I was left with would be no different than if I'd watched the 2D version removed some of the incentive for paying extra for that 3D effect.

You know, my dreams are flat, too. I wonder if that's related, somehow.

------RM

I can see it now: Spycam software installed at computer store captures image of mob capo on the run. Artist found murdered. Stuff practically writes itself.

------RM

I disagree. These Bitcoin stories are great comedy. This is like watching a train wreck in slow motion, made all the more amusing by the people riding the train shouting out the windows at those jumping off, calling them fools and insisting that the train will somehow swerve around the obstacle and keep going.

I love how the only consistent defense of Bitcoin is that "ordinary" currency suffers from all the same problems. First off, that's not true, but even if it was, Bitcoin's problems are on steroids. That defense is like refusing to leave a burning house because it's uncomfortably hot outside.

------RM

But the government can always buy with dollars. Why? Because people will always want dollars. Why? Because people need dollars in order to pay their taxes.

I think you're confusing two things here. The fact that a government's currency has a base value in the currency's use to pay taxes and other gov't obligations doesn't mean that runaway inflation can't make it worthless.

------RM

No you haven't.

This happens every time Apple announces a new product. Someone invariably claims that it's nothing new, because some half-assed crappy version of the idea exists somewhere. Then once the product is actually released, everyone is amazed at what a leap it is.

This goes all the way back to the iPod. "Oooh, an MP3 player. Big deal. I have one of those."

------RM