The question is, after it was confirmed last year that hostiles were intercepting military satellite footage in Afghanistan and that malware was present on a significant number of drones earlier this year, why wasn't any encryption either present or if it was present, why wasn't it updated to prevent interception and/or loss of control? I think the Air Force Cyber Warfare division has some explaining to do...

But I think you're overlooking the fact that there are lots of open source projects run by companies that make public releases with most of their code, and then also release a closed source version with enhancements from which they make a profit. In addition, as the copyright holder of a project, you're allowed to make some portions or versions of it open source and other portions or versions closed source for whatever reason you like. I may be mistaken, but I think that Android is indeed a dual or multi license project enabling Google to do that very thing even if they weren't the copyright holder. Nonetheless, if and when ICS's source is released, Honeycomb will be irrelevant unless someone really, really, really wants to work with that older version. So I think the point of this discussion is moot.

You probably just tripped yourself up a bit in order to rush that reply out, but ICS hasn't been out AT ALL. Honeycomb was released earlier this year and they haven't released the source to that at all. That said, Google has now said multiple times that they will release the source to ICS once products using it have been released. There's not one released ICS product on the market at the moment. So complain about it after they Galaxy Nexus hits the shelves.

With regards to Honeycomb, I don't recall them ever actually saying that they'd release the source, though they were willing to share the release with partners that could produce sufficiently powerful hardware. Even then, I believe they *did* say they'd look at releasing the source eventually. Eventually doesn't mean last month, last week, today, tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year. It means at some point in the future. And for what it's worth, the vast majority of the changes in Honeycomb are in ICS from what I gather, so why not just be satisfied with the newer and better release once the source becomes available.

Take a breath and calm down. Having the source to tinker around with and make your own custom build isn't that important unless you're working on a product you're trying to sell to actual customers.

Funny, I believe it was Andy Rubin that said that exact same thing in the announcement webcast on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning... It's odd that people don't listen the first time around...

Well, the Vita's library is starting off strong with games in the Uncharted, KillZone, LittleBigPlanet, and Wipeout franchises supposedly at launch. The question is will they keep up the production of AAA titles? The PSP started off strong, but the popular titles trickled off to almost nothing within a year, and only the occasional sporadic AAA title really kept it going this long. Then there's the disparity with accessories as well... Although the XMB on my PSP[-1000] has an option for an apparent camera attachment, one was never released here in the US, though it was in Japan and I think Europe. Later models got the camera, built-in microphones and other features, but even now on the PS3, depending on which continent you say you are on when you set up your PSN account, you get different options. That needs to end; give all users all options and accessories.

I don't know how long it's going to take, but I'm pretty positive that this will blow up in California's face. You can't fix a deficit that big by adding a new tax; you're just going to drive business and revenue out of the state. There was a moratorium on internet sales taxes for multiple reasons at the turn of the century, not the least of which was that it threatened business revenue. (Among the others were double taxation because multiple states might legally be able to tax any given order.) I guess states are getting desperate and stupid with the recession still going on...

First and foremost, I'll admit that I'm biased because I've already purchased two Android based phones (G1 and Nexus One). That said, I believe the key to the somewhat slow start on WP7 based phones is that Microsoft's commercials and marketing approach hasn't been really well thought out, and I think people are subconsciously following the hidden unintended message. The core to their campaign is that they're advertising their OS as one where you can get more done in a shorter period of time, so that you won't have the phone stuck in front of your face at all times. Their tag line is "Designed to get you in and out and back to life." What that makes me think, right off the bat, is that for efficiency's sake, everything you need would be quickly accessible. A noble goal. But the down side of that, to which I don't think Microsoft's marketing department really paid any heed, is that perhaps the reason you're getting "in and out and back to life" isn't because of a well designed interface or intelligently managed data, but because there's little else to do with the phone. I think Microsoft is unintentionally screaming "Our latest operating system is so limited, you won't want to use your WP7 phone for longer than ten seconds!" I'm not really one of those people they're complaining about in the commercial: when I get an email or text message, I quickly look at it if I'm in a position to do so safely and then put my phone away. But based on the number of apps and things I can do with my Android based phone, I can completely understand that there are a lot of people out there going from app to app, emailing, tweeting, texting, or just staring at a map or navigation app being updated by GPS. This isn't because they can't get the activity completed with their Android, Blackberry, or iPhone, but because they can use it for more than ten seconds without getting bored. While I haven't touched a WP7 phone and I have no idea how many apps are available for it, Microsoft seems to be implying that having more apps than what they supply is too many; anything else might just cause that same "confusion" and lack of progress that users of other phones suffer from. I think customers are picking up on the cues and are slow to buy the WP7 phones. Of course, the other possibilities include over-saturation of the smartphone market (how many people are willing to break their recent cellphone contract they just got in order to get the latest Android, Blackberry, or iPhone so they can switch to yet another new one?), or simply unattractive phones or deals... But if you ask me, Microsoft's marketing is to blame, and not in terms of under-advertising their product.

While I count as one of the C people, the performance I encounter in Thunderbird 3 even affect me when I'm utilizing an account with a few dozen messages, and even when trying to send email, not just read messages. I'm experiencing problems on both Windows Vista (64-bit) and Fedora 13 (also 64-bit) with 6 GB RAM; I don't think that I'm running into a low memory situation when Thunderbird takes sudden pauses. Case in point, I went to send an email to a friend on an account with 15 messages in the mailbox (for simplicity's sake, I switch to the inbox of the account I'm working with so I don't have to be as careful in choosing an account in the send message window), Thunderbird paused for 45 seconds or so while I was trying to type the message, then resumed normal operation for a few minutes, then paused again. Heck, even just reading RSS feeds in v3 is pause filled. I didn't get this behavior under v2 with the exact same account configurations. Nonetheless, it's not something that is completely unbearable...

57.5% of all scientists would agree with you. 40.5% wouldn't comment. 3% of all readers will realize these stats are made up without being told... ;-)

Atari 2600
Atari 800XL (with 64KB RAM!!)
Texas Instruments digital calculator, complete with multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction!
Magnavox VHS VCR, circa 1984 (just missed BetaMax iirc)
Numerous table top video games such as Donkey Kong that came in portable home versions of arcade game housings.

God I feel old...