For people who buy Sony products, it does make you wonder. I wasn't affected by OtherOS, for example, because I didn't trust them after the damn rootkit thing so I never considered a PS3. Some people obviously don't care though, or they don't learn, or they hear about features they like and forget.

Thanks for the 1-word rebuttal. Always appreciate that one.

OK, then maybe "I don't know" is a better answer than "I don't remember". Some of your reply ignores the fact that, based on the scratches and markings on a given shell casing, they can determine with a high degree of confidence if a specific weapon fired that casing. If he owned that particular weapon, and he already told them that he hadn't loaned it out or let anyone borrow it and that it wasn't stolen, then he's screwed.

Right. So don't answer questions. Don't say you don't know or you don't remember, just don't answer questions at all. He got into trouble when he started answering questions, not when he failed to answer this one.

Well, they're presumed innocent until found to be guilty (bit of a difference there), but thanks for the reminder.

I don't really think that would help.

"Will the shotgun shells found at the scene of the murder match the shotgun found at your house?"

"I don't remember."

You'd think that if he didn't shoot someone with his shotgun, he would probably be aware of that fact.

No, you're not obliged to do shit. But if you choose not to answer a particular question, they can use that against you. If you get arrested then you have additional rights, but if you're not arrested and just spilling your guts to the police and then clam up on one particular question, they can bring that fact up in court. The moral of the story, obviously, is to not answer any questions.

So what? So we have to have our rights violated to make someone's job at tracking people easier? I don't think so, pal, I'm not willing to make that trade. Let the terrorists know, let them stop using cell phones. I'm not giving up my fourth amendment rights so that terrorists can feel good about using a cell phone.

There really is, and it starts with this: don't violate constitutional rights.

Who answers with their full name when you call them and ask? If someone calls me and asks who I am I say I'm the person they called, and who are they trying to reach?

That's spot on, the government narrative about this has been pretty predictable, because it's the same narrative they use whenever they get questioned about things like the Patriot Act, "enhanced interrogation", TSA scanners, etc. They jump straight to how useful these things are. No one is screaming that these programs should be dismantled because they are useless, the government is responding to an argument that no one is making. The argument is that they are possibly illegal and certainly in opposition to the constitution. I don't want Obama to tell me how useful these things are, I'm sure that the ability to tap all communications is incredibly useful to any government that wants to conduct surveillance. I want Obama to try and explain how this fits into the constitution, I want him to explain how this does not infringe upon our rights. He should be able to do that, seeing as how he's a constitutional lawyer. If he can't explain that then we have a problem. And I'm not going to accept the finding by a secret court whose decisions are classified, I want a clear explanation about what exactly these programs do, and why our rights are not being violated.

Yeah seriously, it's only #2 on Amazon's best seller list for video games and still has 5 months before release. Someone get that thing a bodybag!

What? Even if they fool me twice, I'm still not an idiot.

His best line was something like "we're not accusing you of breaking any laws, we're just surprised you didn't."

He also pointed out how the FISA courts, which are there to oversee any surveillance requests, have literally never denied a request. That's some good rubber-stamping action there.

That sounds like an excellent vector for malware.

The console won't, especially if you don't update it. That new game you really want might in fact require a connection though. And it might also require the OS update that it shipped with. Your tradeoff might be not being able to play some of the games you want to play in order to maintain your autonomy. But at least it's an option with Sony. Sort of like OtherOS was an option. At one point.

I also want to point out how you immediately assume that Slashdot's posting of a story about a current event (the IDF giving an account of a past war) somehow makes all of Slashdot "horribly biased in supporting Israel". Who exactly has the bias here?

I guess "we" can have whatever "we" want as long as "we" are willing to do it. Surely you wouldn't expect the IDF to play characters of the other side and post what they thought would have been said. If "we" can find sources of what was going on in the command centers of the other armies, then I guess "we" could make a Twitter account and start posting that stuff. Or maybe Egypt, Syria, and Jordan can find the time to post that material between dealing with refugees, civil war, protests, etc. Otherwise, shut your hummus hole and don't be surprised that Israel's reporting of a war that they were involved in somehow manages to contain the information as they saw it. It's still historically interesting because it is the account of one party in a war, which is interesting regardless of which war it is, who the parties are, and how much you happen to hate one of them.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to argue, but it sounds like you're a perfect candidate for a charger that distributes malware. How would you know if your current charger is not sending your data back to China?