Correct.

They are commuting stock/bank fraud.

in the 80s various flavors of UNIX locked their customers' data in expensive licensing deals.

then one day, windows NT came out and showed a cheaper way. around the same time Linux also came but only a few saw Windows as just another trap.

Now we have a prophecy realized.

Both are a means to an end but blamed for all the bad things(tm) in there respective environments.

This is because there are more profitable ways to achieve the same goals and men with deep pockets who want it this way have purchased laws to get richer at the cost of progress.

Why would you want tonnes of kids when you can find a job and they want to cut your food stamps?

You can't even get a living wage at Walmart!

Program Manager Syndrome
http://www.cringely.com/2009/02/04/microsoft-has-pms/

If people use torrents to "record their favourite TV shows for later viewing", the law seem to punish you.

With Cable boxes making it harder if not impossible to do this, the law is not helping consumers.

It reminds me of a line from The Matrix:
  "How are you going to speak Mr. Anderson, when you have....no mouth?"

Granted the CO2 is not good if we want the climate to stay as is but if coal is too cheap then we MUST figure a way to use it without the drawbacks.

There has been talk about talking CO2 from the air and making diesel out of it. Why not get straight from a coal burning plant? (BTW: sequestration of CO2 in the ground was proven to cause Earth quakes.)

/. should have a poll about this.

Nah,

Big guns and navy ships to spare will do fine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_(inductive_power_standard)

Samsung and Nokia are already releasing phones with it, too.

How many of these wireless charging standards do we need? (Oops, I'm gettin' it now...)

Separate the phones from the service providers and most of this BS goes away.

Would you by GM gas that ONLY works in GM cars?

I've seen games that NEED access to SMS text, your contacts, pictures, GPS, etc. (e.g. Tetris that needs Internet access)

What Android really needs is both a way to block permissions WITHOUT rooting *and* someone with a brain that stops these things from making it in the store in the first place.

Will it happen? HELL NO.
Your lack of privacy is WAY to profitable.

And that's what flashblock is for.

PS: I'm still waiting for HTML5-Block.
You just know the HTML5 ads will be horribly intrusive.

In a related story, General is in the process of cancelling leases to all of its customer until they get firearms licences.