Its value as an SSO is, I would think, unrelated to the number of personal connections on there. Metcalfe's Law does imply, however, that the social value (and likely monetary value) of Facebook is enormous.

An SSO really shouldn't be concerned with how many people are actively using it. It should be concerned with being a valid means of authentication for as many sites as possible such that it is a truly viable SSO.

Shameless plug:

http://diatessaron.bandcamp.com/album/monument

Thanks, you made my day. I'll see you in hell :)

There's also the open source privacy scanner:

http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/facebook

Canadian traffic laws are by province, though for the most part they're fairly identical as well. No right hand turns on a red light in Quebec.

Not really for personal use, unless you live in an area where owning a cellphone is prohibitively expensive and a landline isn't. I think the number of geeks that would fit this niche would be very small. Other than this case, I really think the landline is slowly going the way of the dodo as far as home users are concerned.

However, being able to push something like this out to business and corporate clients may well be a viable opportunity.

It sounds like these patents are more at the hardware level - GSM, UMTS (typo in summary), and WiFi are all hardware level patents. I don't think this really has anything to do with software or the GPL, but with Apple trying to use Nokia-patented hardware technologies royalty-free.

There was no "Summer -> Winter" option. There isn't really a spring or fall here, only 4 months hot and dry, 8 months cold and dry.

I think your sig is a more valid contribution to the discussion than your comment... You can toss as many security obstacles on a computer as you can, but if your end user is a knuckle-dragger who loves his FREE PR0N! and VI@GR4, then your attempt at security is wasted.

Yes, ParkPlus. It is a pretty good system, but I don't know if it's achieving it's purpose - it was designed to increase the number of available parking spots since people weren't limited by the number of meters, but now some people just park like meatheads on the street.

All in all though, I give it a thumbs up.

My thoughts exactly. I frankly don't care how other people make their babies, but if/when I procreate it will be via good ol' sex. You already have the option of choosing your partner, thereby having knowledge (to a degree) of what your offspring will be like. If you don't want that kind of kid - find a new partner!

True enough. If I were doing anything more intense (typing-wise) than cranking out the occasional text I would revert to my keyboard loving ways, but for the time being I'm enjoying the extra screen real estate. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

The Blackberry Storm's haptic feedback was the major feature that sold me on it. I was a staunch non-supporter of touch screens simply because I got no feedback about what I was doing. For this reason I think apple has now lost pace (hardware-wise, at least).

Or you could be an idiot, as I was as a kid, and wonder if the car lighter actually gets hot. Then have concentric rings for a fingerprint for the next month :P

Less commitment than MIB, but also less alien slaying.

A little skepticism is good, but remember:

Books/Movies != Real life