History, Culture, Government, Land, and anything else that I may or may not have thought of related to Malaysia. Please pay me.

I haven't really checked out how they set up iPhones on display, but back when I worked at an Apple Store, every Mac on the floor room had a @mac.com that identified it to the store. Considering these are display/demo iPhones I wouldn't be surprised if they were active and on MobileMe. So these criminals although fast probably aren't very clever. So assuming they're activated, Apple could already have a general idea of where the criminals are and relayed the info to local authorities.

I completely agree with the above. Having worked at the Apple Store in the past, I can tell you being honest about what happened can get you better help than not. That is not to say you will automatically get a "customer service" swap out. But insisting on lying when the Mac/iPod Genius can clearly see the obvious damage (they do this stuff for a living, they know), or even being extremely rude and disrespectful, is just going to make it less likely that the person will go beyond Apple's established warranty/replacement policies and do a swap out for you for something that's not covered.

Just remember the person on the other end isn't dumb, and they generally know what they're doing (either technically or what Apple's policies on replacements are). I just wish more people would think about the other person being also human before going off on them for something it's not their fault.

You're giving free advertisement to some jerk who registered the domain to grab attention to his site. http://who.godaddy.com/WhoIsVerify.aspx?domain=donothijackme.com&prog_id=godaddy

More importantly for me, this incident highlights the problem with Kindle. I guess you don't really own anything you buy, and you're subject to the whims of the publisher. At least with a paper book or even say a PDF, you have the copy (eletronic or physical) in a means you can control.

I was contemplating about buying a Kindle but this incident, puts it on the backburner for me. Instead I'm going to wait for a device that I can control, and avoid an e-Book store like Kindle has.

I really hope all electronic content stores aren't headed in this direction. I understand publisher/content owners rights but if a vendor can control what is removed from my device how soon until a book, music, video, electronic format, appears and it upsets a lot of people to the point where a government or company caves in and gets it censored. At that point, imagine people who aren't offended by the content having a device like Kindle that removes the censored content that wasn't offensive to these people. Maybe an alarmist thought, but a scary one.

If you want to say you don't want government involvement, that's fine as an argument, but there's evidence that deregulation in California and abuse of this deregulation by Enron and other such companies had more to do with the situation, than simply "treating 'utilities' like utilities" as you put it.

I really don't have a problem with a subscription model. It would be great if they kept a lot of the stuff they have now, and say let me pay a subscription to watch episodes of The Office and other shows I watch on the same day they are released on live TV. Or let me subscribe and let me watch every episode of The Office, American Dad, or Family Guy whenever I want while keeping the 10 or so episodes they currently do available for free.

Also if the subscription meant the option to watch a full series without commercial interruption that would be great too.

I have to admit the only reason I downloaded a few Stargate episodes was because I didn't have a TV set I could watch it on. If instead I had the option to pay a minimal monthly fee and pick and choose the shows I wanted to watch with the plus of seeing the show the day it aired, I would have had zero desire to download anything. As it was, a few times I downloaded something, there were no sound or special effects added in, and many times I opted to just buy the video off iTunes, due to the quality of the content. A subscription fee on the range of $10-$15 month would be nice. Anything more, good luck with that Hulu, I'd rather just buy DVDs and episodes of iTunes.

Why did this make it here? There's plenty of forums out there that will answer this question. This is pretty basic stuff that can be answered in other places.

Is this the "Dumbing Down of Slashdot" I keep hearing about?

It took me a minute to get the answer to the question on google...by doing a search (shocking right?)

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/237275.html

I agree with the above comment.

Working at a small company, this is exactly what I'd do: Write out a report/memo explaining the situation to management, the solution and benefits of that solution (we get better support/blah) vs. downsides of not doing anything (incompatibilities with future updates of that software/inability to effectively deploy security fixes/additional downtime if box with only piece of that software goes kaput).

Unfortunately, given your case you're in what I call "clean up" mode, where someone less competent than you had the trust of management. If management cares at all this would be your opportunity to shine and show them you're looking out for their best interest.

...about unexpected side effects of Human entanglement...

Would it be a love story?

Kidding aside not sure if it makes any sense for a cautionary tale as my understanding of this is quite limited.

Great idea for a pickup line for those geeks who may be in law enforcement after this law goes into effect!

Excuse me ma'am. I see you're talking on your cell phone. I will ask you to take a picture of me so that I may ascertain whether your phone is "Camera Phone Predator Alert Act" compliant. *wink* Here's my number *wink*

More than likely, I can see MS having a hard time with vendors implementing it right, and perhaps simply going up to Jobs and saying "hey you got an iPhone that uses ActiveSync...let's extend that partnership we'll give you a special license deal on this tech - here's what we have in mind for uses with your device - make it happen and we'll take some percent of your profits" and Apple saying "neat, sure - let me see what we can cook up".

Even if Apple and Microsoft compete on several fronts now, when it comes to making money and business sense I'm sure both of the know when to partner up to make something cool even better - if it make sense.

Though I guess it's more fun to imagine some Microsoft vs Apple duel going on where they winning party is the company you like the most.