Yes, not in the summary, but 10.1 is probably "people are running around sticking USB drives into things". :) Air-gapped only goes so far.

Well, I can think of many instances in which a person's car is like an "extension" of their self... in fact, it isn't uncommon to directly relate a man's choice in vehicle to making up for other appendages... But overall, it was meant in jest. :)

You will soon have laws that specifically protect these vehicles, essentially elevating them to a status similar to people.

No no no... Waymo is a corporation and therefore a person... these autonomous vehicles are more like... limbs.

That's getting closer to the issue. It isn't what the app needs, it is what *I* need from the app. If I don't need 30 languages, don't ship em to me. Further, when I'm downloading an application update, don't ship the whole app again, only ship whatever changed. It isn't just storage space that needs to be optimized, but bandwidth utilization too. Frequency and size of updates is out of control.

Now now, third arms just make you look weird.

Didn't we already deal with computer nerds and click pens in the 90s?

Goldeneye click-pen explosion

Come on. The responsibility lies with Congress.

So are you saying the President was an idiot to make these promises to begin with or that he is an idiot now for not seeing them carried out?

Wow, that reflects a terrible understanding of Game Theory... Player A and Player B (or in this case Players 1-50) know that if they both act the outcome is better for both of them, but if either of them acts first, they lose and the other wins.

Combine this problem with the dilemma to business of 50 different state standards across countless different product characteristics and the damage that does to economies of scale...

There are good reasons for product standards. The commercial sector tends to address the ones that collectively are good for profits (often via operational efficiencies of standardization, mass production and compatibility). They don't tend to address the ones that are collectively good for purely social reasons, like the environment, product safety, public health, etc. - especially when any subset acting alone lose the market... That's where government plays a good role!

God have mercy on all morons who are still running unpatched machines...

I wonder if you could draw a parallel to the anti-vax movement. There is a sort of herd immunity if all machines are patched as malware has a harder time replicating and spreading with less compromised machines to do so. But there are people who persistently refuse to patch because of some perception that the patch itself or the patching process is more troublesome than the likelihood they will be part of an infection.

What if you carve the wall *out* of the moon and then crash it onto the US-Mexican border????

That will stop illegal immigration (one way or another...)

Wait... what about this recent news has you believing the NSA wants to tip of anyone about anything they discover?

I don't think all the negative press is good for M$ or their Windows brand. People do have alternatives and this does make those alternatives look a bit better than before.

BTW, where is the NSA's trove of Linux and MacOS exploits? How about an NSA trove of Android and iOS exploits? They must have them.

I swear the first time I read that is said "...handing out condoms for free rides"... It must have been the Vegas reference... still, not a bad marketing ploy there.

I think there is more to consider about this. Supply/Demand is nothing NEW. What is interesting here is a key component of "efficient markets" - that of "perfect information". Companies spend a lot of money on market research - which is essentially an inefficient cost in the market that perfect information would eliminate the need for. Now, you can never truly have perfect information, but you can get efficiency gains.

In this example, the crowd used online petitions to communicate a problem seeking a better market solution. That's the reverse of market research. It isn't "crowd sourcing", which I would argue is still initiated by the company. This is more like "crowd based" or "crowd initiated" (someone will coin a better term I'm sure). So, what I would ask is, generally speaking, will the use of online petitions (directed at specific companies or the market in general) become a new trend that leads to faster development of products and services for which a true demand exists?

It is kinda like having a kickstarter without the fundraising or the idea, just getting people behind the "problem" and establishing a viable market for whatever solution emerges.

The link to the Press Release is current (December 2016) but in the press release is a link to the actual settlement which is dated 2014....