But to what extent have these manufacturers managed to convince the general public in North America and Western Europe to go to Alibaba and buy their Google TV sticks? Marketing and promotion are big parts of doing business.

That depends on whether home users are aware that these "already 100's of them" exist. A lot of them are sold only online, not in brick-and-mortar stores where one is already shopping for other things, and they aren't promoted very well. Google can back the Chromecast with marketing muscle in Latin-alphabet markets that a no-name Chinese company can't really match.

Professional map-maker putting extra effort into making non-crappy map makes better map.
News at eleven.

Why can't the motive simply be "What I post on Slashdot is nobody's business"?

If it's nobody's business, why post it?

I am afraid to post this comment. I am sure that I will get categorized as a dissident for it.

You are the heart of the problem. The brave aren't easily terrorized. The government has acted criminally, and I voice my dissent publicly.

Not that it will do any good.

How is that the case? A free software license guarantees four freedoms to the users of a work. Because the work is free, all of its users are free, even if this is freedom is at the expense of some developers' business models.

Without software copyright, anybody can obtain a copy of a proprietary program and lawfully disassemble, document, and distribute it.

Don't buy anything.

Grow your own crops and raise animals? The form of barter called "cash" works just as well if you don't want corporations stalking you.

...let alone actually be able to offer clothes that match.

Clothes that match? I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about.

I've done it a few times, the results were hilarious, if almost hitting pedestrians on the sidewalk is your version of hilarious.

Maybe it's the reefer, but I laughed for a long time about that. Thank you, sir!

I'll be 98 in 2050, I'm sure I'll need them. Or maybe not, dead men don't need hearing aids. As to the tracking, as long as it's on their own property, why not? They know what I buy at their store anyway, unless I pay in cash.

Digital Versatile Disc is a cost-efficient medium for moving 4 to 8 GB packets of data in and out of geographic areas not served by a wired broadband provider. Cellular ISPs in the United States charge on the order of $10 per GB for microwave data transmission; satellite ISPs aren't much cheaper.

A streaming service with every film ever produced is not likely in either of our lifetimes. For one thing, it'd have to include Song of the South, and Disney has made it clear by its actions over the past two decades that it doesn't plan to release that film as part of its standard "vault" rotation.

SWFs from ad networks can contain crapware as well, and Slashdot itself embeds SWF ads unless you subscribe or karma whore to get the "Disable Ads" checkbox.

In that case, the real estate cost of moving into cable's service area might affect your bill.