As ChunderDownUnder reminds me, I forgot to mention that this phone has never been out of airplane mode, in addition to never having a SIM card plugged in. Flashing out of T-Mobile software was also one of the first things I did, and the other night I flashed CyanogenMod 11 M4. (Of course some of the guys on IRC suggest that even that is too commercial, and that I should go to snapshots over on xda-developers, to be safer.)

I keep my tinfoil hat handy, just like I tend to channel RMS and ESR. But there are practical limits...

So if I'm using my no-contract Samsung Galaxy phone as a wifi-only device, and have never inserted the SIM card at all, I believe I'm safe from this particular vulnerability.

Tin-hatters, am I wrong on that?
Explain,

There's some horrible posts in this thread to a fairly good question. How do you make that break into industry, and what might you want to do there?
My background: nearly 20 years in IT, started whilst at University doing helpdesk work, moved into industry. Been 1st line, 2nd line, 3rd line support. Have delivered global projects for variety of companies both as employee and contractor.
I currently work Microsoft UK as a senior Technical Account Manager within Microsoft Premier.
First off, working in IT does NOT require ability to code. I know it's against hivemind groupthink here, but it doesn't. Sure, if you want to be a developer you'll need it but if you're an architect, working in support, working in implementing projects, it's not necessary.
Look at what you're strong at. You're good with people, explaining technical concepts to them, listening to their requirements and probably quite good at interpreting those conversations into relevant IT concepts. Think about something like an IT business analyst, or someone who implements solutions - e.g. turning on O365 for a customer isn't trivial, and needs careful management for successful deployment. You might find a support job is a good entrance to industry but you would be having to learn your chops from 2nd line upwards. Thinking at more of a business relationship management/IT business analyst etc might be helpful if you've not considered it before.
Anyway, if you'd like some honest advice, feel free to PM me and I'll see what I can do. I'll probably go back to lurking now as I expect the trolls will be along again shortly...

Too many places allow "eco-friendly" cars better parking spaces, much like disabled. So, I could see anger directed due to that reason.

I disagree strongly with the parking space preferential treatment.Why should a business/municipality want gas guzzling cars to drive even further up the parking garage or parking lot burning all that fuel and warming globes even more? Shouldn't we want gas guzzlers to park ASAP so that they get turned off quicker? The electric cars should be parked furthest away. Besides, they are such a joy to drive as they result in the driver's farts not smelling.

I consider one of the saddest examples of inaccuracy to be "2001: A Space Odyssey".

No manned mission to Jupiter.
No HAL-9000. (But maybe that's a blessing?)
No manned base on the moon of any sort, let alone of the scale in the movie.
No pure-space vehicles like the lunar shuttle.
No commercial, civilian, accessible space station.
No common-use picture-phones.
No Pan Am shuttle to the space station.
No Pan Am.

by Murray Leinster, March 1946. If you're going to talk about how our literature predicts the future, it's worth taking a look at how past literature predicted us. "A Logic Named Joe" did a pretty good job of nailing the internet, nomenclature aside, and it did it almost 70 years ago.

Jees, does no one READ anymore? This is why I gave up on Slashdot. Nokia alleged to say no backdoors in their hardware, someone claims data being sent to MSFT from handsets regardless. No shit,Sherlock. In the absence of any details, let alone evidence or proof, this looks bloody spurious to me. I would expect the MS services on the phone to talk to Redmond exactly as they tell you they will when you agree to it for basic services e.g. location services. The article itself is classic FUD with zero content. Read it again. And don't post AC.

It's mandatory to have a Microsoft account with Windows Phone, much like it's mandatory to have a Gmail account for Android and an Apple ID for iOS. You don't have to use the services though, and WP8 is pretty good at explicitly telling you what data it would like and giving you the option of opting out.

Because it happens all the time - people like to read sensationalist news, people like to be outraged and site owners love page clicks. Go and read TFA. There is zero content in it. It's not even a theory, it's a vague bit of sensationalism and until it's backed up with data it should be treated as such.

One of them watched the old "Total Recall" with Arnie. Even though the movie was rated R they didn't take advantage of the obvious opportunity with their "walking screening device".

Full disclosure: I do work for MS, but miles and miles away from any of this kind of thing so I don't have any insight other than Occam's Razor. When you read TFA, there isn't any data in there. It doesn't actually SAY anything.

This looks like a mountain being made out of a molehill. From TFA: "Lumia phones do not ensure the user’s privacy – at least no better than the phones of other big manufacturers"
When you use a WP8 device, you are signed in using a Microsoft Account. Features like SMS backup, location services such as "Find My Phone" etc need to send data back to MS in order to work. In fact when you first sign into a phone this is made explicitly clear, as it is during the install of any apps on the phone that require, say, location based services. So whilst the implication of this article appears to be that there's something shady and underhand going on, until someone shows me a wireshark trace that shows it, I'm calling BS.

They look at this article, as well as various responses to it. The overall tone is even and reasonable. There is a bit of sensationalism to TFA, and some of its claims appear to be taking worst-case situations and generalizing them to the entire population of wells, etc.