Mail can't be opened without a warrant because it is against federal law to open mail without a warrant (unless it looks suspicious or dangerous), not because of the 4th amendment. Different animal entirely.

Again, email is a business record in the possession of a third party. You have no reasonable expectation of privacy in it.

Email, phone records, bank statements, etc. are all business records in the possession of a third party (i.e. your provider). Anybody can lawfully subpoena those records...

Maybe it's just because I'm a lawyer, but you have no right to privacy in something that you don't control and that other folks (read: employees of your provider) have access to.

That one asshole developer claims on his blog that it is "uncertain" whether or not the terms of the Windows Store are compatible with the GPLv2 and then goes on an incomprehensible rant about the App Store and Applidium (the developers of the short-lived iOS VLC app), all in the name of 'freedom'. As in beer.

So, yes, in short, he's still an asshole.

On a non-violent crime like this, even as a prior and persistent felony offender, he will likely only serve a small percentage of his sentence and be paroled. Just sayin.

Somebody from Slashdot ought to read these comments and update the story... it's totally a hoax according to his wife.

Your right to a speedy trial only kicks in when the prosecution isn't ready, generally speaking. There's nothing that can be done if the Court isn't ready or isn't able to handle the case load. And on top of that, good luck getting the circuit judge to rule in favor of your motion to dismiss for lack of a speedy trial - the appeals court won't help you, either.

And speaking of unfair prejudice, what about prejudice to the State and the victims? Victims generally get tired of waiting around for justice... They move on, they get over it, and in some cases, they even DIE. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten a victim who has told me, "I don't care anymore, just get rid of it." That's not fair to the victim or the State (but it's sure as hell beneficial for the defendant, who has been out on bond for 2 years waiting for his trial).

As for the State being ready, we're set for 40-60 jury trials a month and we can generally go on almost all of them. I'm pretty sure any challenge on speedy trial grounds in our circuit would not survive, as it would pass the speedy trial balancing test.

I'm an Assistant Prosecutor in one of the busiest (and understaffed) circuits in Missouri. We have two associate judges (who generally hear misdemeanor cases, one more than the other) and one circuit judge (who generally hears felony cases and most civil cases). We share our circuit judge with the other county in the circuit.

We get about one jury a month. Yes, ONE JURY A MONTH. In the third or forth busiest circuit in Missouri. How many jury trials do we have set in any given month? 40-60. We can only try one of those a month because the legislature won't give us another circuit judge. As a consequence, some of these cases are several years old -- some people remain in custody that entire time. And if a civil case is ready to try, forget it - unless you're accused of murder, you're gonna have to wait.

And you know what? The vast majority of them don't need to be jury trials. For instance, our ONE jury trial this month was an Assault 1st, Burglary 1st, and Armed Criminal Action. The defendant confessed on video tape to detectives - the confession was good and was not coerced in any way. We offered him a deal two years ago that would've resulted in probation along with drug treatment. The defendant demanded his trial (along with jury sentencing), was found guilty within an hour, and sentenced to 6 years in prison within another hour. While he got his trial, somebody in custody had to sit downstairs another month while this guy had his trial that wasn't needed (or could have been handled in a bench trial).

What's the solution? It ain't bogging the court system down, I can tell you that, because it's already bogged down enough!

I work in a prosecutor's office that has gone "paper less" (because, unfortunately, law enforcement and the courts haven't gotten rid of their paper requirements) and we use Kodak Scanmate scanners to scan in thousands of sheets of paper everyday. They're excellent, moderately priced ($400ish), and I've never seen any of our ladies really have any problems with 'em.

Or you could manufacture hundreds of thousands, or perhaps even millions of them, ship them to stores, and not sell more than a few hundred or thousand (Samsung? HP?).

Most engineers don't have the social skills necessary to even ask for a higher wage... that's part of the problem!

Wrong.

There's a difference between buying a phone off contract, which is what Apple (U.S.) previously offered and buying an unlocked phone off contract. One allows you to get your own service through AT&T without a commitment. The other allows you to get service through ANY GSM carrier without a contract.

To be late is to be dead, I suppose.

I watched the Nightline report on this book last night. Ms. Jacobsen claims that Josef Mengele was working with Stalin and the Soviets, developing these alien-looking children.

Josef Mengele, after WW2, was captured by the United States while he was FLEEING the Soviets. He used a fake name and was in a POW camp for a while, was released, and then escaped to Buenos Aires care of the ODESSA network, where he remained until the 1980s.

So, historically speaking, her story makes no sense.

Don't compete on specs -- compete on quality, usability, and features. You can slap all the hardware in the world into a sleek case and if it looks like crap and operates like crap, nobody's going to buy it.

Apple realizes this. Motorola and Samsung do not.