None of Amazon, Newegg, Ebay, or even [gasp] Tiger Direct has ever annoyed the @#$%^ out of me for a useless warranty.

Don't make the mistake of confusing "the world I want" with "the world that is". Facebook is a private enterprise, it is free, and it is deeply flawed.

I wish I could park my fancy convertible outside the liquor store with the engine running... and it still be there when I get back. Alas, I must suffer through the world that is. And someone is going to steal my car if I make it too easy.

Who thinks Facebook is private? The whole point is to *not* be private, right? Otherwise... what is the point of Facebook?

If the FBI was going to start monitoring encrypted email, VPNs, and other things where you are *trying* to be private, I would be concerned (yes, I know-- whole 'nuther can o' worms). But Facebook? You are giving the info away as a user, that is the purpose of having a Facebook account.

What does "digital is the future of buying games" mean? Any electronic game I have ever purchased since the 1980's has been digital.

I just got an A77, and I can't understand how anyone could knock the image quality. It has 24 mpixel, I am not impressed with 1:1 blowups detailing every errant pixel.

Having said that, the A77 is probably not what the poster is looking for, and if the NEX7 is half the camera the A77 is (and it is probably more like 90%, which makes me *almost* regret getting the A77), you won't regret it. Good luck finding one until April :)

Sometimes, you don't want to "look" like a photographer. A high quality EVIL camera allows you to be a little more inconspicuous and still get away with great shots.

If you can find one, get the NEX7, and pick a E mount lens that best suits your needs. Then, get an L to E adapter, and you can use 100's of Leicia L mount lenses. Most will only work in manual focus mode, but the peaking display makes focusing easy and accurate.

I just got an Alpha77, which is probably not what you are looking for. I love it, though, and the NEX7 shares a lot of the same technology and features.

When this whole CarrierIQ thing got started, I thought this was simply a diagnostic tool, yet conspiracy theorists were going to jump all over the "...but they could" aspects of the system. I also thought it was a shame, since the carriers and manufacturers ought to be able to monitor the system so they can improve it.

Your post has made me re-think all of my notions. I don't believe any nefarious purpose was afoot-- this was a tool intended to diagnose infrastructure and device performance. However, installing it as a rootkit is a bad call. It provides a vehicle for malware, and a description of its operation-- however technically accurate it migh be-- touches too many evil buzzwords. Such a tool, while useful, is eventually too easy to turn into a PR nightmare (obviously). Then throw the malware hijacking aspect in for good measure.

Verizon does it right, at least as we see it now. Those vans do a great job of real-world testing, where their test equipment is gathering the same metrics as CarrierIQ's software, but with test data nobody will whine about.

But...

...couldn't those vans also spy on every packet going through the cell they were testing? I'm not suggesting they are, or if that would be on any use. But they certainly have the necessary equipment in those special vans. Paint the vans black... and... wow, I don't want to think about it.

At least its not Keanu Reeves.

Screw it... just use perl.