I know of more than a few people that "share" cable bills by activating all their cable boxes on one bill and then putting the boxes all over the same town. The cable company only seems to be able to attach a specific box to the head-end servicing a particular geographic area. The network can not tell exactly where the box is, only what head-end is servicing that box.

I suspect this is even more difficult on the power grid. The grid wasn't really built to know where all the endpoints are. The closest thing the power company can do is know where the meter is.

I'm sure at some point meters will be GPS aware and send back their location and usage information via low-speed data over power lines, but that probably won't happen until my grand kids get out of college.

-ted

LightSquared would get approvals to operate, and the manufacturers of shoddy GPS equipment would be forced by government, lawsuit or both to replace devices that were improperly designed and built.

Yet another case of too big to fail.

-ted

Current politics has pushed out all rational discussion of good debt vs. bad debt. Nationally and individually we would all suffer with lower quality of life if not for good debt.

Good debt produces a return on that debt greater than the interest paid on that debt. Who here paid cash for their house, or for their education? Both are considered good debt (generally speaking) since wise purchasing using that debt results in accrued equity (the house) or increased income (education). Assuming you don't buy a McMansion at the height of the market or pay $100k for a university of phoenix degree, both debts produce value over the long run.

At the national level, research and infrastructure - even when funded by low-interest debt - produce returns far greater than the intrest paid on those loans. Infrastructure makes our economy attractive to business, and basic research gives us a technological edge in every field.

These are two areas of spending that SHOULD be funded via low interest debt, and our creditors don't seem to think that the US is in danger of default any time soon based on recent US Treasury auctions.

It was evident at CES this year. Samsung is the new Sony. Sure, Samsung is getting into the Apps/Online content thing as well, but as far as hardware goes, Samsung has probably beaten Sony in every arena except for gaming.

Sony's booth at CES was 200 Sq Ft. bigger than Samsung's booth, but it had half as much product. Samsung, by contrast, had a 30,000 Sq.Ft. booth filled to the rim with gadgets and TVs.

Good luck with that "software drives the hardware" strategy Sony. Very few companies have been able to succeed at that model - actually, I can only think of one - a fruit company based out of Cupertino....

-ted

The Mac Pro under my desk is running 3 different operating systems - two of them have nothing to do with Apple, yet Apple has not prevented me in any way from doing this.

I guess some just have an axe to grind with Apple.

My understanding is that the police do not need to know the difference. All a prosecutor needs to show is that there is reasonable evidence to assume that something illegal is there.

Police officers do not need to know the contents of your house to get a search warrant - all they need to show is reasonable evidence that there may be something illegal going on there.

-ted

Surely if a defendant lost a key to a (real) lock, the court would order a deputy of the court to force the lock open. In this case, the court could ask an expert to try and decrypt the contents or "force the lock open".

Yes, most encryption is not really breakable in reasonable time limits, but what if that "real" lock was just as good? Can a defendant be made to produce a key that may no longer exist?

There is no difference between a "real" key and one that only exists in your head. If both are lost, a court can not reasonably "force" them to be produced.

Here is a real-world example of why ALL of our elected representatives MUST be proficient in the ways of technology. There are very real consequences to electing technological idiots to office.

-ted

I work to live, I don't live to work.

I've seen friends and family members die too soon. My father passed away while I was in college. He did not get to see his kids marry and start their own families, he did not get to meet his grandchildren.

He worked though. He worked 9-5 and overtime whenever he could get it. He put away a nice nest-egg and paid off the house that my mother lives in. He put off vacations and told my mother "we'll travel when I retire".

Well that day never came. 10 years of battling cancer finally killed him. What do you think his family remembers? His career or his ability to balance work and his life as a father?

It is your right to work to live. It is not your right to expect that all of society should place work above all else.

I've only got one life to live on this planet - I'm not going to spend it making someone else rich. I've seen too many people do that, and I can say it is not worth the opportunity cost of your LIFE.

-ted

The only way to kill Hollywood: stop buying the product. Money feeds this beast. Take away the revenue and the whole thing falls down.

It really is that simple.

-ted

Samsung is working on a "user upgradeable" TV with plug in modules. There was little detail about it at CES this year, but it appeared from the demos that you could plug in modules to upgrade CPU, operating system, and image processing components.

I don't know exactly how much of the TV is upgradeable, but Samsung suggested that most of the important bits of the TV could be upgraded this way.

-ted