Or by trying to pick them up with a magnet

Well, to be fair, the original wording also applies. As in: "would I want my Mom posting pics of her doing bellybutton shooters with the local cheerleading squad? No? Hmm...better not post that one..."

Bigger trouble is: idiot 'friends' who oh-so-helpfully post their own pics of you doing stupid things, or even normal things that you don't necessarily want the entire world to see. I make sure that my friends know that I'm not okay with that, and so far it hasn't been a problem, cause I have good friends...not because I don't do stupid things that get caught on camera :)

Elizabeth Báthory actually had it right??

Not necessarily.

Yeah, I was curious about this too...how will the car know if the driver is about to swerve wildly while texting or yelling at the kids in the back seat?

I suppose they're just getting a mesh network protocol prepared for use with the long-anticipated auto-piloting vehicles...can't see this as very useful as long as a human is still controlling the gas, brakes and steering wheel. I suppose the other vehicles could theoretically cut in and assume crash avoidance maneuvers with faster reaction speeds than their drivers, but if they can do all that, why not let them have control for the boring bits too?

Now to update the auto-targeting system for my turret gun...they can run, but they can't hide anymore!

Oh, that's an interesting business model...I don't think that's how it works up here in Canada though. The phones with a prepaid or pay as you go plan are (as far as I've seen) only available at full price, or maybe a *slight* discount if you find a sale. Could be that some of our carriers do the same, I've just never seen that before :) Very weird.

Okay, scratch that. I just double checked with some Canadian carriers: looks like if you go 'prepaid', you get the phone for about half the price that they claim it's worth when you're paying it off through a plan. Not sure if that's an accurate reflection of the phone's cost, though, or more a way to 'encourage' people to lock in to a term plan. I wonder what the carrier actually pays for the hardware? Googling for unlocked versions of the same models, looks like the average asking prices are much closer to the prepaid hardware price, so I'm thinking that the 'value' they claim for the term-locked phone is just a tad inflated...

Hence the reason they didn't do it this way in the first place.

"Hey, WTF man? You're cutting my whole leg off here!"
"Oh, sorry, how about just a foot then? Or, tell you what, let's just take the big toe and we'll call it even, okay?"
"Ahh, that's so much better, thanks!"

By making a big show of generously granting people rights that they already had, they can paper over the rest of the shoddy framework (takedown notice abuses, copyright trolling, etc., etc.) For bonus points, they'll have people feeling downright grateful about not being thrown in jail for treating their own purchased media as if they actually own it.

Umm...they're pre paid? As in, already paid for?

You certainly can't get a hardware subsidy for a prepaid phone, and if you choose not to use your remaining purchased time on the carrier before switching to someone else, why would they care?

The only thing locking the hardware does for them is make it very difficult for their customers to rate shop.

I would think the usual order of things is BANG-> CRUNCH... :o)

Here you go.

See my post just above. No need to give them incidental access to a typical, no holds barred credit card: there are self-limiting options out there. They may have to track their own expenditures in order to know how much is left on the card, but hey, excellent learning opportunity! Balancing books is something most adults can't manage...

So? Register with a $25 Visa or Mastercard gift card: self limiting, and who cares if the black hats scrape the number? When that runs out, update with a new card, if they got one for their birthday or whatever...

I look at this as a good way to teach them to be cautious and discriminating shoppers. They have a fixed amount: if they want to spend it all on Minecraft bling or the equivalent, that's fine, but when it runs out it's gone until their next birthday or Christmas or they spend their own money on a new card.

If you don't want to go through the hassle of re-registering a new card number each time they run out, there is also a reloadable pre-paid option. If the kids receive or earn cash, they can choose whether or not to load it on their card (or you might have to do it for them, depending on the T&C), but it's still self-limiting and much more secure than a 'normal' credit card.

BTW, the same principle applies to any micro-transaction site: Google certainly doesn't have my real CC number, yet I can still buy apps for my phone and tablet to my hearts content, worry free. I don't care if they share the number with app developers or get scraped or whatever: I think my remaining balance right now is about $15. Woo hoo, go to town... ;o)

Just a word of advice to these engineering redshirts; stay well away from the laser lab...and the biology lab, for that matter.

Really, just don't go there. In fact, try to stay out of those buildings altogether...and make sure everyone knows your last name. :p

Same reason automobile and airplane controls are different. Different use cases, even though they're both 'transportation devices'.

Trying to force desktop or laptop users to dumb down creation tasks to fit the restrictions of a tablet gui is like asking the pilot to fly without aileron controls...technically possible, but hardly comfortable.

Allrighty then. Even less useful than I had imagined, although I suppose it would be nice to have instant access to my Weird Al albums whenever I'm in the car. Or, you know, I can use my phone and an aux plug, then I can listen to them everywhere! :)