For all we know, somewhere in the future, people will pitty us because our foods contained to much salt.

And MSG, corn syrup, propyl glycol, cellulose gum, ect...

I think future generations will look back at our diets in horror and ponder the question of how much our (poor?) decision making was a direct result of the 'food' we ate.

On the flipside of that coin... doing absolutely nothing with the technology will SURELY improve it.

Who said that nothing should ever be done with it? There has been some great success when used by people who become deaf later in life; I just don't think (for reasons already explained above) children should have their entire futures gambled with.

There is a limited time window to input language in a human brain--but we've seen that once a language (any language) is imparted it is ridiculously easy to add more. Especially during the time range we're talking about here where neurons are making connections at a frantic rate. My primary objection to cochlear implants in children has always been the insistence of its proponents to have the child raised oral only and forbidding or discouraging the use of sign language. This results in a gamble with the parents placing everything the hope the child will figure out the strange sounds are communication in time to develop those centers of the brain enough to provide the foundation for their future life.

With adults that have become deaf later in life there are less issues because they already have language in the brain and because they are adults, who presumably are old enough to make their own choices.

I almost feel obliged to buy a Galaxy. Out of sheer spite.

I do too, but not out of spite, but because of the compelling endorsement seen here.

What could be a better endorsement for an Android tablet than the current market leader crying in court that this device is so much better than theirs they have to litigate rather than attempt to fight it on the merits?

Buy a Samsung Galaxy Tab--because Apple thinks it's better than the iPad. Hell of an endorsement, yeah?

I think it's child abuse to deny a baby born deaf a cochlear implant

No, what is child abuse is using the misfortune of someone's child being born with a hearing impairment to excuse human experimentation on infants with dubious real world results.

I'm not a Deaf militant, but I am hard of hearing since childhood and have participated in the Deaf community and use sign language, so I know a little bit about this stuff because it involves me and those like me. I find the saddest thing has always been the way the families involved and the children diagnosed with it are treated. The second saddest thing is how many people who spout off about the issue do so from a position of ignorance and emotion, not facts.

The fact is that cochlear implants are a dangerous gamble, one that rarely pays off as much as those who subject others to it expect. It requires drilling into the skull to place a piece of hardware in the head, one that still requires the use of an external aid to function. There are heightened risks of meningitis, nerve damage, necrosis of the cochlear implant skin flaps...none of which are really explained to parents before hand. Instead all parents of Deaf children hear is that there is a surgery that can "fix" their children.

Worse, the recommendation is that the surgery be done at an early age because there is a limited window to get some form of language to the brain. The problem is that proponents of the surgery often advise against the children also learning sign language because it would interfere with them learning to process sounds. This is where the biggest gamble of all takes place--if the child doesn't properly learn to process the signals as sounds, they are effectively retarded in their development.

By contrast sign language has shown to allow communication and build cognitive function at preverbal ages!

That is why so many Deaf people get so militant about the issue!

Would OpenELEC enable hardware video decoding? The summary says it's not supported, and without that it'll be pretty useless for video replay. Software decoding is too jittery.

That's being worked on. There is a thread on XBMC's forums with the various attempts to get these types of devices working. Some are closer to success than others. Last I heard the Allwinner A10 SOC driver code were released but the developers wanted to make sure they had written legal permission to use them. (Previously the code had license restrictions on it so they are being careful.)

Since the Allwinner A10 SOC is so popular and so relatively inexpensive I expect that hardware acceleration will come sooner than you think.

I just wish that there would be some "smartbooks" made using this SOC and released with Linux (whether Ubuntu or some other system, just so long as it is open and not Android--although I wouldn't mind either dual booting or running Android co-currently to get access to those apps while still retaining Gnome 2.xx or MATE desktop) but a cheap XBMC pc would be great too!

People are already working on getting OpenELEC (Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center) to work on these, which will make these a wicked entertainment center given that this means XBMC on the cheap. I look forward to seeing these popular up in the houses of every day Joes being put together by their geek friends.

What I'd like to see is a method of running XBMC as shell and allow Android games to be launched from within the interface. Should provide a library of games that way, especially if it could be made to pair with cellphones as controllers. Seems like everybody has a cellphone these days so it should make having controllers for everyone easier.

Then of course there are all the emulators....

The money is NOT there, the feds confiscated it.

Not the Megaupload customer's problem--they paid for their service and the government has no right to insist that they pay twice for the same service.

Users of Megaupload.com for the most part have paid already for their data.

That's why the site was making money, because people were willing to pay for faster access and to be able to store their files with a larger limit on how large those files could be. This spew from obvious shills is disgusting, pretending that users of Megaupload were somehow freeloaders--many of their users were not. They paid for access.

The money is there, it is the MAFIAA's own fault if they can't figure out a way to get to it by offering a fair price.

HINT: It's called capitalism in an open market...

Oh, look! It's this article again...

Sure, tell me about how men are failing at everything again and how women everywhere are coming to fix things for us useless cretins who only invented it all...

Tell me again about how worthless men are and how perfect and truly in control of everything women are...

The hardest part was finding an application that let them do what print shop did.

Well don't hold back! What did you find that worked?

Them kids just sit in their rooms and play games, smoke weed, and play some more. There is some sort of employment they are involved with, but it doesn't look real stable or regular, certainly not a 9-5 job.

All quite rational decisions on their part. Why work when what you earn will simply be stolen from you to pay for the Baby-Boomer's retirement? Why build anything when it can just be taken away by corporate yahoos who patent your ideas or do copyright laundering to steal your work?

Makes much more sense to relax, play some games and hang out...

Maybe you should consider the consequences of disincentivizing an entire generation?

hookers are WAY cheaper than marriage for satisfying any needs

Unless she decides to cry rape.

Say what you will about porn but celluloid women have yet to accuse anyone of rape...

Its just who's dick and pussy is getting it - gang banger lowlife meets crackwhore bitch and they have lots of kids. College boy's dick stays in his hand and college girl decides lesbianism, a room full of cats, or a overly-focussed career are a better option.

So? If you don't like the results, change the equation. Why is it a better option for the college boy to keep dick in hand? Why is it a rational decision for the college girl to pursue a career path and a room full of cats or lesbianism?

What has made them decide this is the better option?

What has changed in the last few decades to make people (mostly men) decide to go their own way?

What happens to the western world after a few generations of this?

Who cares? If its own people have decided that the western world is not worth committing and sacrificing for, who says it is worth saving?

Or if you really do think it is worth saving, then perhaps it is worth looking backwards into the past and seeing what it was that motivated people to fight and live for it? Hint: I'd look into the impact unilateral divorce has had on relationships and on the impact of several generations of broken homes.