Consumers squeeze corps, corps squeeze consumers - agreed

Corps have industry trade groups and lobbyists, consumers have (in the USA) representatives and senators.

When it comes down to it, people decide what's ok and what's not. Corps are not people, consumers are. (except when it comes to campaign financing)

Having minimum standards sucks from the supply side, but their absence is much more damaging on the demand side. To use your analogy - ways to make flights cheaper would include doing away with seatbelts and emergency exits (the seals are a maintenance issue). Nobody uses them anyway. Also, would you even notice if aircraft inspections were reduced? The average consumer wouldn't either.

Or it would be an effective way to encourage people to go Android.....

It's the 80's all over again......

That's one good thing about the human brain - the designer doesn't claim DMCA protections on it. However, there's also no warranty - oh, and you only thought that Microsoft was tight lipped about their APIs.

One problem with this whole thing is that if the luggage owner doesn't know there is contraband in it, they will act differently than someone who knows what they're carrying.

Observing "suspicious behavior" is a big part of picking this stuff out.

I think this should be enough to invalidate their test unless they were intentionally isolating the behavior observation methods out.

BBV8s will likely be replaced by supercharged small block v8s in sports cars and diesel engines in trucks. At least until battery technology is developed to get 300 miles per 5 minute charge time with a $30k price point and a 100k mile lifespan. Electric motors are superior technology to the internal combustion engine - it's powering them that's the problem.

Look at the electric sports cars that are coming out - the Karma and Roadster have some decent performance characteristics. On the other side, there are a lot of industrial machines that use electric already for large amounts of power such as fork lifts, locomotives - even the Navy's ships. In all cases, the delivery of electricity to the motor is the difficult part.

Sarah honey? What are you doing with your helmet off again? Just drink your juice box and let the adults talk.

Who is representing the consumer's interests? Does any of these people have a grasp on topics such as "fair use" - you know, that thing that the DMCA wasn't supposed to hinder (DMCA sec 1201(C)(1)). Well, I guess some do, but they're the ones trying to destroy that concept.

Reference: http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap12.html#1201

I don't have a perfect understanding of law, but I thought that police had to charge you with an actual crime to keep you in the cage - not violation of employer's policy - as much as some employers think their word is law, it's just not so. Now, having said that, I have to believe that there is a credible accusation of a crime in order to keep him there - otherwise he's a political prisoner and the city should be under state/federal investigation on civil rights charges.

If this proves to be as much of a farce as it appears, I hope he bankrupts the city.

If they're into chemistry - you can try looking at the local homebrew store - they usually have a kit for making root beer or something like that.

It looks more like "market shaping" to me - streaming is a contradictory market strategy to the "pay per download" model that Itunes uses. If they can keep control of the market leader in that arena, driving out other startups until the business model goes belly up, they have not only eliminated a competitor, but any potential competitor of that type.

The point I was trying to make on the LoD issues is that they really can't wait. Most IT questions really can wait until business hours, the caller is just impatient or they have lost perspective.

Patient's new heart failing is not equivalent to the user's password failing. While the user wants to get some work done, the patient needs to have a working heart.

The only point I can see to be had on salaries is that physicians are typically closer to what we think of as "FLSA Exempt" than IT is. I wasn't intending to imply that the handling of LoD issues shouldn't be compensated, but I do see how you could draw that from what I said. I'll have to think about my logic on that. I definitely think that impatient people should be zinged for demanding service on petty issues though.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (In the USA) defines what is a salaried job and what is an hourly job. I have always wondered how IT folks can be considered salaried when the act defines any job that is measured by man-hours to be hourly. That's a really boiled-down interpretation, so YMMV.

If you're working for $20/hour and you're working 160 hour weeks without overtime pay, you may consider a position in fast-food. They typically pay better than minimum wage, so you may come out ahead by the time you consider that you're paid for all of your overtime.

Sorry, but I do have to put a slap in here for the original post - I've said it once and I'll say it again: never underestimate the arrogance of a lawyer.

If the job is that crappy - they can have it.

I always imagined that doctors being called off-hours were being called for honest-to-goodness life-and-death issues. I can think of few IT personnel that can say that they are being called for issues so serious. I can think of even fewer that make a physician's salary.

Am I off base here?