To my mind, it is opt-in. By choosing to use Ubuntu (in this case, an OEM install of Ubuntu) you are opting to take part in this usage survey. In the same manner, if you choose to surf the net, you opt to give out certain details of your setup (OS, IP address, resolution, etc.).

In either case, you can take special measures to not divulge the by-default requested information* (uninstall the census package for the Ubuntu install, use an anonomysing proxy for the web surfing).

*You can opt out of opting in, if you will.

Then I saw her (circuit) trace...

And I'm a believer.

I can't help you with any other various battery operated devices, but for the Wiimote, you really can't beat an inductive charger/battery pack combination. They come with battery packs that only go in one way and are available in models that are compatible with both the silicone sleeve and the Wii Motion Plus. I have a four port set up (similar to this) and find it to be a valuable accessory.

Batteries are very similar to propane tanks. They store potential energy in a portable, easy to access manner. There are any number of locations who are willing to trade me an empty tank for a full one. I own the old tank, I own the new tank. Refilling is cheaper, trading is quicker.

I'm sure if battery packs were a standard size, with a standard connection exchanges would exist, lease or no lease.

You must be thinking of AGP. PCIe is full duplex.

Not the original AC, but I thought I would try to clear up a disconnect instead of downmodding...

-1 Flamebait. As I'll show, the rest of your rant has insufficient content to balance this.

Emphasis mine.

The spare ones, as the AC pointed out.

Not a claim made by the AC.

Strictly your opinion.

The AC actually posited a worse case scenario, in that the whole disk was filled, and only one "spot" was repeatedly changed.

Sorry mate, your original comment made mention of SLC, not MLC. While it's not clear what the AC was harping about (as you didn't make a claim regarding the type of flash used by retail SSD's) calling the AC names without comprehending what was actually written is not conclusive to a rational discussion. I can only hope I'm not feeding a troll.

I think, had they put some effort into it, they probably could have found one.

It appears that you are referring to Karanbir Singh as "random blog guy". If this is indeed the case, have a look at The CentOS Development Team located at http://www.centos.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=2.

Sorry if I mis-interpreted your statement.

IANAL, but no. A wire tap is placed by a third party to eavesdrop on a conversation. The only way I can see it working (unless they are actually "tapping" the internet backbones or data streams at individual ISPs), this software advertises as a BT client with data to share and makes note of the clients that contact it.

Going back to the phone metaphor, it's more akin to advertising a phone number and recording calls made to it (along with the originating phone number). No entrapment, no wire tap.

If you are one of the listed defendants, please try that argument. I'd love to be proven wrong.

Using state specific driver's licenses as your example here is a bad choice. Considering a DL issued in one state is valid in all, it's a case of "the chain is only as strong as the weakest link". Further, it requires those verifying the validity of IDs to be familiar with the security features of 50 different versions, which lowers the efficacy.

The civilian population is the base of the insurgent's power. Without the civilian population's support, the insurgent forces loose invisibility and a pool to replenish their forces from.

As such, the insurgents (being wholly dependent on the civilian population in which they hide) care FAR more about said population than do paid soldiers who are obliged to patrol those streets (or as in the article fly R/C aircraft over the streets) at risk to themselves and/or their equipment.

Here you show a complete lack of understanding of the region. The Middle East is not anything like The West. Neither conflict nor death are strangers (or even scary). Trying to bomb them into submission (without using less force than total annihilation) will not work. You'll just give the region a common enemy to hate. Once that common enemy has been eliminated, they will return to the tribal warfare that usually occupies their time.

I would be interested in seeing a study supporting that hypothesis.

Depends on where you look. The output of "top" (and indeed /proc/meminfo) shows only unused memory as free; the output of "free" has a separate line that shows used and free memory "-/+ buffers/cache".

Which would cost money, which would raise interest rates and/or fees...

The customer bears the burden any way you look at it.

Heh. I have one plugged in my car stereo.

Not only can it be turned off on any given Windows computer, but the uninstall process allows removal of the "hidden" partition from the drive itself (with the option of saving any other data on the drive).

While I feel it's a bit swarmy to require opt-out from the U3 software, the fact that such an option exists is nice.