Works without an internet connection, even while the device is turned off.

Spooky action at a distance?

Indeed. The Chinese measures seem geared mostly towards stopping people (connection resets, dns poisoning, etc), whereas the US ones towards criminalizing people (logs.) Which is not to say that the Chinese would never prosecute you as a criminal, they probably will if it suits them, but it's not their default modus operandi.

Perhaps it's because when some governments go after their citizens they don't bother with niceties like 'evidence', 'logs' or even 'trials'.

So .... let the free market operate and we'll see what happens. TPMs are cheap. It wouldn't take much pushing.

Once you have TPM the _last_ thing you have is a free market.

And I suppose the complete absence of any mention of WinCE or Windows Mobile in the article is sheerest coincidence.

Windows was excluded because neither of the Windows users have reported any problems. Yet.

P.S. Couldn't agree more.
You reap what you sow.
Keeping your eye firmly planted on next quarter's profit margin (and the resulting bonuses) will eventually bite you in the ass.

... that ALL developers send their code to Microsoft every time it crashes?

Can I just scan for the evil bit instead?

... I was presented with an animated puppy.

To add insult to injury, when you click on get this animated abomination out of my way, I need to search for a file, not a bone or a chew-toy the damn thing slowly walks away, waggling its rear end in your face...

Someone taking a snapshot of me while I walk down the street is perfectly legal and fine.
Someone following me with a camera is creepy and possibly illegal.
Someone following me with a disguised camera, talking pictures while pretending to do something else?

It's all a matter of scale.

Accidentally(?) recording a few snippets of open WiFi isn't much of a problem.
Doing it globally is.

It will most likely have to be either XP or OS 10.6, with very restricted permissions to students and teachers, as that is the comfort level of IT and administration, but I'll push for whatever would benefit the students the most.
If you work in a call center then everyone will have exactly the same system, running the same software, doing the same thing with minimal privileges.
Just about anywhere else you'll get a mix of stuff, different tasks, different HW, different software, more flexibility, greater privileges.
So... unless you're training future call-center operators try to keep as much flexibility and variety as you can.
(yes, I know that's tough, especially on a limited budget)

What is this "gooey" you speak of? -- posted using links

Fine.

As long as you don't mind if I GPL it.

(* who should definitely join forces to form the Sexy Pirate party)

They would get totally p0wned by the Nude Ninja Party

It will be like a 'real' drivers license.

First it will be used to determine eligibility to 'drive'.

Then it will be used to determine age.

then Identity

The it will morph into RealID.

As much as I like the idea of finally ending the eternal September this will not work, it will instead morph into another control mechanism.

or China if you want to learn about Internet censorship.

Frankly, Microsoft BENEFITS from having a small & noisy group of people ...

The problem for Microsoft is that the group keeps getting bigger...