(a) because people will pay it

(b) see (a)

I mean, the cell chip adds a little cost per-unit (but not that much), and agency approval adds a lot more (but that's NRE, and doesn't amount to all that much in the grand scheme). So it really comes down to "we can charge that much more because people will pay it."

No.

ERROR: Logic gate lockup
The statement:

... [2011] was the coldest in the last 30 [years]

is NOT contradicted by EITHER *OR* BOTH of the following statements:

... 2011 was the 11th warmest *globallly*
... [2011 was] the 35th year in a row where temps are above the 100 year average

gb2logic and retry before considering yourself qualified to say "your information is just plain incorrect" again, kthx.

"Mobile device" does not always mean "cell phone". There's a whole batch of devices that use IP communication - things like dynamic street signs, cameras, call boxes, remote sensors. Lots of stuff you see/interact with (or at least, get data from) use the mobile network and require IP communication. So don't automatically assume that this is saying "everyone has 7 cell phones", because if they meant "cell phones", they would say "cell phones". Instead, read it as "devices that use the mobile network" -- even if the devices themselves aren't really "mobile" per se.

timothy, I recall meeting you at CTY one summer, probably in 2000... heh.

One of the neat things that I recall about CTY was the relative level of independence you were given... yeah, you had to be places at certain times, and your whereabouts had to be accounted for, but you still had a lot of leeway, so there were opportunities to explore and interact outside the standard structure. Combine that with being around around other nerds, and it can be really rewarding for a kid at that age.

...that someone's not being completely reactionary about this. Maybe it's Torchwood?

Arizona has an isolated power grid now?

Have you ever been to youtube? The chat is just like a concentrated version of the standard comment idiocy on that site.

From TFA: "Nationally renowned astronomer Bob Berman will host the four-hour spectacle with live audio narration starting at 2:00 PM EDT/11:00 AM PDT. He will be joined by several guests throughout the show, including Duncan Copp, a presenter for BBC and National Geographic and director-producer of many astronomy films and TV shows including "In the Shadow of the Moon", an award-wining film about the Apollo astronauts."

This is the same thing that I keep telling the fearmongers who react to every mention of "nuclear energy" by saying "what about Chernobyl OMG". The RBMK reactor was basically designed by idiots who didn't give a shit about the concept of a "containment vessel". All of the "news articles" that keep flipping out about this are really making me sick. Yes, it was a tragedy; yes, the human consequences will last for a very, very, very long time. Yes, it's completely under-reported. I give you that. But these "journalists" really need to stop making completely unfounded comparisons, because they're just encouraging people to revert to being dumb, panicky animals, who can't actually apply the laws of physics and basic engineering principles.

But then again... if people in general were capable of feats of that magnitude, we'd solve a lot of problems. Ugh. Time to crawl back into my cave.

I don't think it's possible to communicate how slowly this runs on the (original) MyTouch3G. At least in my experience, it took 5-10 seconds for it to recognize that I had even started a word - when it finally did, it took another 5 seconds to trace it out. Something is obviously wrong here, there can't be any way it's supposed to be this slow. As I'm not that enthralled with the idea, I don't have the inclination to figure it out, so whatever. Honestly, I've had problems with apps (and the OS in general) being non-responsive in the past, but this is a whole new level.

Can't we go back to regulating them as common carriers and cut this "information service" crap?

I don't know how it works exactly, but I assume it's similar to a public/private keypair given that they describe it as a cryptographic mechanism.

Given the author of the Python files in the SVN repo, this might not be a bad guess:

# post_election_audit.py
# Ronald L. Rivest
# October 4, 2009
#
# This Python program is for use with the Scantegrity II election system.
# See www.scantegrity.org for information on Scantegrity II.

...Cavtel (for some reason, the only DSL available in my office building, even though I can see the Verizon CO 1000 yards away from my window) does this same BS and it drives me nuts, I just changed the DNS servers returned by our DHCP box and voila.

Broken, and boneheaded, but solved with a small amount of work. Still, it's something I shouldn't have had to bother with, and the whole "breaking the Internet" thing is a problem -- they should no longer be able to classify themselves as an "Internet Service Provider" since they're not doing a reasonable job at it.

...or just pull up the music video on YouTube and "listen" to that. Although downright offensive to anyone who considers audio quality important, it seems that this is perfectly acceptable in most cases -- especially where the intent is just to share a song with someone else. ...but then again, in that light, it seems that YouTube is cast as a sort of viral music marketing -- which becomes a strange beastie, far beyond the proportions of this post (especially since this has already gone several levels OT with respect to the original post...)