A policy has to be auditable for it to be valid and PCI compliant. A PCI audit will be considerably more involved than just browsing through your gmail inbox. The audit will cover network communications, hardware, software, change processes and accountability and access controls. Anybody in human resources, finance or accounting who doesn't already know this needs to be fired.

And don't forget HIPPA, SOX and a host of other rules and regulations involving the handling different data that can so easily slip into email. Add in legal liability from privacy breaches and a whole lot of other concerns which make some kinds of data processing and storage outsourcing difficult there days.

I agree with you there, but...

As maiden_taiwan so eloquently replies, that's a fine opinion, but the data don't agree with you.

Besides the research results, there are the sheer numbers. I can't remember the last time I saw someone eating or applying makeup while driving, but I swear every third bonehead in an SUV has a phone surgically implanted to the side of their head. When the car in front of me slows down to 10 MPH below the the speed limit, I can guarantee that he is dialing his phone rather than reaching for a Big Mac and heaven help anything in front of him while he's at it.

Repeat after me: an alcoholic is not someone who drinks a lot of alcohol, an alcoholic is someone who can't control their behavior when they do drink. That's why there is no "safe" level of consumption for an alcoholic. And the general population of alcoholics is so diverse it is difficult to make sweeping general statements like "Most alcoholics tend to be thin". The truth is that alcoholics vary about as much as the general population in most factors with the exception of their inability to control their behavior with regard to alcohol consumption.

For anything that is safety critical, no way. Ever. There is a reason for the length and rigor of the education and training process for engineers and doctors. I do not want to cross a bridge built by a guy who read how to do it on some web site.

FYI, existing data plan users can login to wireless.att.com and view a histogram summary by month of their last 6 months of data usage. Look for "View Past Data Usage" in roughly the middle of the page under the "Usage & Recent Activity" section.

I just checked my own usage: in the last 6 months I have come pretty close to the cheap plan's 200 MB every month and I exceeded that limit last month at 240 MB. So, if I do switch to one of the new plans, it will probably be the 2 GB. I don't want to have to wonder about whether my data will just stop or have an extra $20 to pay for a month if I go over.

Apple sold 300,000 iPads on the first day. Their market cap just passed Wal-Mart making them the 3rd most valuable company traded in US markets, behind only Microsoft and Exxon-Mobil. Regardless of particular views on the merits of the iPhone or the iPad, they are re-defining their markets and forcing competitive innovation just by their very existence. This is almost by definition a "great" period for a company.

Reading patents is a very bad idea. It opens you up to willful infringement and treble damages.

A few of the provisions (eliminating lifetime limits, prohibiting canceling people who get sick) start this year. Here's an interesting link that summarizes by year: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1914020220100319 Another fun one that happens rather immediately: a 10% tax on indoor tanning services that use ultraviolet lamps.

First off, spelling: LIAR, not LIER. Second, never ask yes-or-no questions over the phone. Always ask the user questions that force them to use their own words to describe things. I have gotten very good results by asking them to read things out loud. It seems to break through that blind spot that they have. More than once I have had a conversation go something like this:

Me: What version number does it show in the "About" section of the window?
Them: There isn't any "about" section.
Me: Are you sure?
Them (irate): Yes, there is nothing that says "about"!
Me: OK, I must have had you go to the wrong place. Let's make sure I do know where you are. Could you please read out loud the words in the top of the window that you are looking at right now?
Them (reading out loud): "About this application"... Oh, is that what you meant?
Me: Yes, I'm sorry I wasn't clear. Now could you please read out loud the number that is written just below the words that you read to me?

Anecdote, meet anecdote:

I want one. Every single person I have shown it to wants one.

Every one.

(and yes, I did show it to more than one person.)

What sig? I turned off sig's in my Slashdot preferences a long time ago because I got tired of seeing them. Yes, I am an aggressive user of ad blocking, too.

They just changed our policy at my company. We were paid for both on-call and recall. Now we are expected to provide on-call availability for free and they will pay recall only in the case of serious system outages. Unfortunately, I am salaried/exempt in a right-to-work state, so there is not much I can do except quit. Double unfortunately, the economy is depressed and I am over 40 in an area not known for its high-tech job availability.

On the considerable plus side, I will be completely debt free, owning my own house and cars, in a little less than 4 years. So, I will just hold out for a while and wait for the economy to turn around. Then when I don't really need my current job and there are others to be had, well, in the words of a man named Jane, "Won't that be an interesting day."

This list seems to imply that there is a duplicate set of Comcast DNS servers that work correctly for opt-out service: http://dns.comcast.net/dns-ip-addresses.html Maybe just changing DNS to point to your alternate opt-out server(s) will work. Unless they sometimes decide to change the IP addresses around without notice.

The article (and a lot of comments I have read so far) are only talking about casual navigation GPS, as in vehicle GPS units. The current crop of phone GPS solutions is inadequate for backpacking, camping, exploring or basically any outdoor activity that takes you very far away from a cell tower or a charging station.

Most non-dedicated GPS units do not have a compass (the new iPhone 3GS is a notable exception).

Most non-dedicated GPS units have pretty wretched sensitivity and accuracy compared to dedicated GPS units, especially in rough terrain or heavy tree cover. Anybody who does much geocaching will know this. It's no big deal while driving, but it can be very annoying to take the time to claw your way up a steep hillside only to realize you are 100 feet away from where you want to be, on the other side of a deep ravine. Even with driving, inaccuracy can be annoying, which is why TomTom includes another dedicated (more accurate) GPS in the vehicle mount for the new iPhone.

Most phones do not use standard AA or AAA batteries, making it more difficult and expensive to carry spares out away from electrical connections.

Some (most?) phone-based GPS solutions do not even install maps locally on the device, instead relying on cellular communications to download maps live, making them totally useless outside of cell coverage. AT&T's recently announced product for the iPhone is one example.

Rain (or anything else that might get the unit wet). There are many dedicated GPS units available that have various levels of water resistance.

No they didn't. There is no such mythical perfectly peaceful primitive tribal culture.

But if property rights are subordinate to the betterment of society, taking their property to bring them the benefits of modern society should be a good thing, right? Though I do admit the extermination thing is pretty bad.

I wholeheartedly agree with that. I would also add that without individual property rights, personal freedoms are useless. As a trivial example, without property rights, what good would be freedom of the press if you had no right to own the press?

Forgive me if I am misunderstanding you, but you seem to be arguing from extremes. There must be at least some individual property rights, if nothing else, to own the clothes you are wearing. That's what I mean when I say that they are fundamental. I do not believe that property rights are paramount over all other considerations. I believe that reasonable people can disagree over where to draw the line. I tend to fall more towards the individual side of the spectrum, you obviously tend towards the collectivist side. There's plenty of room in the middle to come to an agreement and live amicably.