Argh. Hate it when I do that in posts. I also didn't use the possessive form for "business's". Double-argh.

I mostly agree. But the petition is a form of action. It gathers support for the concept and puts Apple on notice. Some folks will choose to boycott others won't. But it sends a message to management, forces consideration and maybe a response, and just plain gets the word out to other customers.

Sure, Foxconn is enormous and has other customers. But that doesn't mean Apple doesn't have a tremendous effect on their business practices. Apple may be the punching bag, but you can bet the other Foxconn customers are taking notice and probably applying pressure, too -- just quietly enough that they don't capture the eye and ire of the customers.

Not so. Excuse me, but these are precisely the market forces that are supposed to insight change in "pure capitalism". Pure capitalism and our American brand of government / industry cooperation are essentially bottom-up enterprises where change usually comes from the accumulation of lots of insignificant voices.

I'm curious what alternative you would suggest would insight change? Three chain-wearing ghosts visiting Tim Cook overnight convincing him to change his businesses practices and relationships?

Maintenance-induced failures are pretty common in the aviation industry. Although a big deal, it's not really news to us.

If you're concerned about data integrity, then keep backups.

If you're concerned about data security, then keep the data encrypted before you store to these sites.

These are simple rules. If you follow the rules, you won't care what happens to sites like this.

I'm not clear on exactly where you'd like to advance. You don't want to commit to your employer (and only took a 6-month contract) and you don't want to burden yourself with the risks associated with success (by not wanting to start a company). I assume this also means you don't want to partner with someone.

So you want exactly what out of advancement? No more risk. No more commitment. No more responsibility. Just money? Play the lottery.

Why use UV? Why not build a waterproof keyboard that gets sprayed with a disinfectant each time it is retracted? It could be quickly dried and the disinfectant recycled.

For a lower-cost keyboard, I could see UV being an advantage. But for $900, you could do much better.

Glad they removed it just in good taste. Seriously, that's one stupid, long-ass ad. Dumb jingle. Dumb tune. Dumb message. Should have been 4 minutes shorter.

Place your passwords into a secure repository (like KeePass) and keep it updated. Give the password to the repository and other containers (I keep my KeePass in a TrueCrypt container) to someone you trust to execute when you die. An attorney. A trusted friend. Etc.

If required, make the password a two-part thing and give each part to different people.

I think what the O.P. meant was that the handsets (millions of them) could be providing this feedback at all times with just small ancillary data on the uplink. Things like SNR, error rates, etc, could be reported in real-time at all times or selectively enabled by the towers when segments are being measured. This would composite all sorts of users, all sorts of chipsets, photes, locations, etc. With location services enabled, the phones can tell the towers where they are when these measurements come through.

Throw it all up on a fancy visualization and you can get a lot of information over different times of day, weather conditions, etc. No need for a bunch of trucks. Sure, the trucks can provide more information with better measurement equipment. But in many cases, lots of cheap devices can produce better data and fewer expensive devices as long as the proper statistical processing is applied.

Bummer. I sort of liked not knowing your real name all these years. Hemos is dead. Long live Jeffrey Bates.