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The FBI's activities are specifically authorized by a host of laws. That you didn't bother to learn about them doesn't invalidate their existence.

And how exactly is that different from any other government in the world?

Perhaps the more interesting question is how you would rather the system worked. Should new tools and tactics be assumed to be illegal for law enforcement use until such new developments are added to a whitelist of legal tools? Under such a system, what is the defense against a criminal enterprise using that whitelist as a simple checklist for their opsec? Do you expect that the whitelist changes (with proper bureaucratic review) would outpace the criminals' workarounds?

No, we live in a state with a strong police force. It lacks the totalitarian and strict political influence usually necessary for the term "police state". Sure, there's occasional overreaches and corruption, but those are the exception, not the norm.

Back in my day, it was 'get a funny haircut to piss off dad'.

Now, its 'behead non-believers to piss off dad'.

If these people were true believers, they would come out with their identities. Because they would have no expectation of ever needing to live outside the Caliphate for the rest of their lives. Jihad John wore a mask with the mistaken belief that he could conceal his identity and eventually return home to England, blend into society and earn a living as an IT guy.

I was in Florida to speak at Orlando Hamcation and went to see the DISCOVR launch at Kennedy Space Center. I paid $50 to be at LC-39 for the launch, an observation tower made from a disused gantry on the Nasa Causeway between the pads and the Vehicle Assembly Building. A crawler was parked next door! A hot sandwich buffet, chips, and sodas were served. It was cold and windy! I watched for a few hours and unfortunately the launch scrubbed due to high stratospheric winds.

The next day, Delaware North Corporation, which operates tourism at KSC, decided not to open LC-39 or the Saturn 5 center for the launch. This was the third launch attempt and I guess they decided most people had left. I was annoyed.

The closest beach was going to be closed in the evening, it's a sensitive ecological area. I ended up seeing the launch from Jetty Park. This turned out not to be such a great location, the tower wasn't visible at all and the first 10 seconds of the rocket in flight were obscured before we saw it over a hill.

What's a better viewing location?

I'm fine with this. The First Naked Bank of Washington.

Does it violate their terms of service? Dig up the terms of service and if they say that they will protect your information then it is a violation...numerous lawyers will help you for free.

Ok, so fast lesson in behavioral psychology. If someone performs a bad behavior and you reward them, they will perform the same behavior again. Rewarding bad behavior is not how we stop this shit from happening, in fact it does the exact opposite.

Those of us in science use the lower-case "m" for "milli" - or 1/1000. Hence 500m would be 1/2, and I'm prety sure more than 1/2 of one person recieved the rolled-out U2 music.

Of course we have. The response was deliberately paradoxical. Think about it.

Erm... It was intended to be ironic. Well, paradoxical, technically. Compare my final sentence

with the classic "This statement is false".

If my statement were true, it would illustrate a problem with Google's proposal.

But as my statement is false, it is itself a demonstration of the problem, because it perpetuates a myth sufficiently popular that it even has its own Wikipedia page. I was a little surprised that I couldn't also find it on Snopes.

Anyway, it's disappointing that no-one seems to have noticed that. Were none of you even a little suspicious about a post that in one paragraph said "Just because something gets repeated a lot, that doesn't make it factually correct" and then repeated one of the most popular myths there is? Really?

Yeah, it's fine once you learn to avoid the rape gangs.

Wake up, that's a bunch of bullshit, we just happen to be following the shiniest crew in the fleet. Hell, they intended to make the Ferengi sophont-eaters originally.

Requires a special pen, expensive and easy to misplace, cleaning lady hides it, etc.

It's too bad they give absolutely zero details about the light pen on the page. They just say it exists. Won't even show it to you. I'm guessing this is also shit.

Real multitouch digitizers which attach to a display cost a lot more than the display. You want people to be happy with crappy alternatives. If they were good, they'd already be widely adopted.

Very, very, very few phones come with an external battery charger,

You might need to download the eBay app from Playstore. External battery charger and two batteries is £10 ($15) for most phones. Sure 1/2 the batteries only last about 6 months, and some of the chargers explode, but the rest last for years. At that price, you can't lose. Just buy more!

£ is GBP, not Australian. Something is badly wrong with Slashdot (and not just Beta)

Lots of people - possibly outside of thhe USA - have to go for DAYS without a power source - perhaps because they work (or play) away from home/ I normally keep a stack of four batteries charged. While this usage pattern my not be common in America and Japan, it is for much of the world.

As for removable SD car - I want to be able to instantly swap content OUT as much as in. I do not want to take one client's data onto another's premises ever. And I may have recreational content I do not want in the work place. I would guess a lot of people would like to be able to swap out the porn when they go to work/partner's house, etc.

I used to be an HTC user - but they stopped removable batteries and SD cards, so I switched to Samsung. I LIKE the plastic back. Doesn't break or scratch - and anyway, I only have my phone out of the fake leather case when I am changing the battery or SD card (or using it for satnav).

Thinness? WTF? Functionality is 1,000 times more important than appearance to most users. Curved screen edges? how breakable is that? a $700 device that won't last a month in the real world? If I wanted an iPhone, I would buy an iPhone.

My first response to the announcement was to check out Xaiomi. My sister-in-law (not a tecchie) - whose contract was up, and was waiting to hear the announcement - won't be buying this. I cant see many people over 30 who will.