Your best bet would be floor monuments that enclose power receptacles, and if you wanted you could put network jacks too. Of course, this is only available if you have a floor that can handle this installation, so it may not be for everyone. It's very unlikely that furniture manufacturers will ever want to wire up their products. As you stated, the fire hazards could be a disaster. If the furniture is sold worldwide, it's also unlikely they'd want to deal with the hassles of the various different voltages and regulatory approvals. They're much more comfortable with you stringing your power adapters through the couch and taking all the liability off them.

Password safes would be a better solution. A central authentication service is useful, but it also has a big target on it for all the hackers out there. One big score and the hackers could have access to millions of accounts on thousands of sites. If it's worth their while, hackers will keep at it until they get the prize. To keep you safe a better choice is a password safe. You have random passwords for every site and store them in the safe. Then you put a strong password on the safe that you won't forget. Your accounts are as secure, if not more so, than using a centralized sign-on, and the hackers can't access millions of user accounts all in one place.

I agree that some of these games could be excessive if you purchased all the in-game items. I calculated that purchasing each "premium" item at least once could cost between $100 and $500 for Simpsons: Tapped Out. This is very similar to gambling. You can have sensible people that view it as some entertainment and will stop after a limit, or you have the people that don't set limits and lose a lot. With that comparison, kids are protected from gambling so there should be something in place for software companies to protect children. Software companies do need to make money of course, and this method is important because it allows the consumer to try a game before buying/paying for it. It also allows people that don't want to grind to be able to experience the end-game content. I do object to games like Simpsons: Tapped Out that make it next to impossible to ever get premium items without paying, but that's their choice. On the flip side, some responsible parenting would be good too. Teach children the value of money and of working for a reward (in-game or otherwise). Don't give your children access to phones or software that are attached to credit cards or billing accounts. Restrict them to game/gift cards for purchasing content. (perhaps that could be the new currency for allowances?)

If you have a problem with the depiction of Jabba's palace, why are you blaming Lego? Did they create Jabba's palace? No, George Lucas and his design team did. I think they missed the boat on this complaint by a couple of decades.

Nuff' said

"a waste of German taxpayers' money" ...so let's start an appeal that will force the government to defend the ruling, hence wasting more taxpayer's money? Makes total sense...

My circadian rhythms flat-lined a long time ago. Years of video games, late night programming, and 2am change windows. Sleep is for the under-caffeinated.

So what's the difference between this and all the US air force bases that fly manned fighter aircraft? What? Did they think these drones just naturally fly without any training or practice? Not exactly a good idea to put an expensive drone into a war zone when it's being controlled by an unskilled/untrained operator. Must be a slow day in the news room.

Clearly this time the best mouse trap has been built, unlike all the previous other times that someone built a better mouse trap. From what I've seen in our helpdesk, most of their job is fixing users' screw-ups, like spilling coffee on their devices, unjamming printers, user hardware provisioning, etc. Not much can be done to remove all that physical work.

From the article it seems their key argument is that depressed people are identified by inconsistent heavy Internet usage, as opposed to just heavy Internet usage. If this were applied to heavy Internet users that are also parents, have a steady job, own a home, etc, they would likely show up as depressed. In reality they can only be "heavy" Internet users when free time exists. Also, I wonder if the test is properly separating people who are depressed from those that are just introverts. Introversion != Depression. I would challenge that a lot of these people that are being categorized as depressed are actually just introverts trying to deal with the very extroverted college/university lifestyle. It takes a lot of energy for an introvert to deal with all those extroverted people, and a perfect way for them to unwind is to have some quiet time downloading, chatting, surfing, etc. Catching up on all those things that they feel they missed because they were feeling they must go out and be social. Once they've recharged they go back out and be social for a while. That could explain a lot.

Give the program access to a company's enterprise data warehouse and any other data storage, and have it write an article on the health of the company. Could have some interesting results for investors, auditors and investigators. "This company is a hidden gem" or "This company is so rotten you should be able to smell it in the reception".

The existing BGP protocol definitely has some security issues that need to be fixed and a PKI solution sounds great. However, is it wise to use a technology to verify route announcements when that technology relies on proper routing to be in place so it can communicate with DNS servers? On the surface this seems like a catch-22 or chicken/egg situation. I haven't had a chance to read the draft yet but hopefully this has been taken into account. Perhaps the article just didn't explain it well enough.

Right now politicians are suffering a disconnect from their electorate. While they know they have to connect with voters on the Internet, they seem to view it as just another media, not realizing it is more than just that. What we're witnessing is the birth of a new form of electorate and government. Can anyone imagine the USA rewriting their constitution via the Internet, like Iceland? Do politicians actually view the Internet as useful information, or just a way to try and sway the masses to their banner? Social media is heavily under-used and under-valued in American politics (with certain exceptions). Meanwhile a good percentage of the electorate are moving forward at lightspeed into this brave new world. Is it any wonder they feel disconnected from politics, completely untrusting in the politicians that refuse to listen or relate to them? Lest we forget that most politicians are still trying to grasp the basic nature of the Internet and it's tubes. Until politics catches up to everyone else this dissatisfaction will continue. We can only hope they will figure it out sooner rather than later. In the meantime it is probably best that those Internet-savvy leader types start coming to the realization that maybe they should put their hat into the political ring, instead of just complaining about the poor quality of the current options.

Unless you work as a priest/reverend/monk/nun/pastor or work for some company that is actually associated with religion, then don't discuss religion at work, or any other personal opinions for that matter. Freedom of Speech doesn't override "get some work done!", and work collegues shouldn't have to put up with anyone's particular rambling (or attempts to sell their kids cookies).

Some people are so convinced that they can multitask. I came to the realization a while ago that multitasking is probably one of the worst things you can do for learning or doing any single task well. The first thing I do when getting an electronic device is to turn off the email alerts, and any other alerts other than the basics: texts, reminders and calendar alerts. I spend hours on the ereaders and get just as immersed in the story or subject material as I would a regular paper book. Trust me, you'll eventually feel that pull to read your email or facebook. You don't need to help it along with a lot of unnecessary alerts. If someone needs to get hold of me that badly, they can text or phone.