Everyone keeps forgetting that Microsoft handed the keys to the kingdom to the NSA back in 1999 and NT 4.0 SP5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY

Its already possible to do, but the Phone companies do NOT want to do this. They make money off you buying a new phone and the selling coverage to the user of your lost/stolen phone.

There was an article about this less than a month ago in the huffington post... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/20/iphone-kill-switch_n_4308924.html

If you dont want to go so far as to quit, do something you are entitled to do... Take your whole vacation at once. And tell them you wont be reachable. Dont take your phone or laptop with you. Usually when there is no backup IT guy and you are gone for 2 weeks, Management should wake up to the idea there should always be a backup for when you are away.

So if I forget my phone at home before heading out for the weekend are they going to think I have PTSD or depressed and then come to my home and take away any guns I own? How Orwellian...

I can see it now, Server Achievements 1 week uptime Achievement 10 Deployed Server Achievement 1 month without critical outage achievement

Oh sure, now that I have finished replacing all of my Ryobi power tools with the new Lithion-ION set because the old tools cant use the new batteries, they come out with another new battery tech to force me to buy all new power tools again...

I work for a multi-national organization and we spefically use Linux in place of Windows because of the fact, in terms of licensing, it is free. We have in house engineers that support our applications. So once you factor in the cost of an in house engineer supporting the application only and an in house engineer supporting the application plus licensing, Linux comes out as the much cheaper alternative. We also routinely see Linux machines performing in mission critical roles far exceed the same performance on a Windows Server. Windows if full of bloat and has a much higher overhead. We can get the same or better performance on lesser and older hardware under linux than we can with windows, so again we save on Costs over the Windows Tax.

Yet again Microsoft finds itself so far behind that it is trying to push something that doesnt equally work well in either of two areas.

They tried shoving a Desktop OS on a Tablet before and it failed miserably. The tablets were too under powered to run desktop applications (nor could most of the tablet processors). We are seeing that again with the ARM/RT versions unable to run the standard x86 software. Developers already balk at writing two versions of their applications for different CPU families. So again Microsoft ignored its past failures.

Instead of learning from one mistake, they are taking the same mistake to the other extreme. You dont want a desktop OS on your tablet? How about a tablet OS on your desktop! Again Microsoft missed the boat. Most people do not have a touch screen monitor at home. And with the economy the way it is, everyone that is out buying a new laptop are looking at the ~$500 to ~$600 range. And those dont have touch screens either. And without a touch interface, Windows 8 gets in the way of itself. You have to install 3rd party software that Microsoft has threatened to block, just to get the system working decently in a touchless setup. And to log out you have to go through three screens and menus. Who's idea was that? I know it wasnt anyone in the security industry. They would make it as easy and fast as possible to shutdown or lock your system. Not impossible.

A tablet is a tablet. A desktop is desktop. How about remembering that and supporting what the world wants instead of trying to force a false single version that doesnt work for either.

And another thing. If I am paying $150 for an operating system, I expect my system to be ad free, not burried in all my screens and apps, getting in my way and annoying me.

Actually the French initially only provided us minimal arms and money with a few Observers. It wasnt until victory was certain that the French commited any real resources. Even without the French forces, victory was assured within months. They were afraid of backing the wrong side and facing the wrath of England, so actually did very little to help the US. So bare no baring what-so-ever on whether or not we speak English.

In retrospect, a lot of the French citizens got pissed off at the United States when they finally revolted against their king and we refused to help them fight off their own tyrant. Not surprising when you realize we were still struggling as a nation and in no shape to help someone else revolt, and the fact that we felt some slight loyalty to the King of France for the limited aid he did provide.

When I was still a consultant, I knew of several HVAC companies that still run their plasma cutters off an old 16 bit dos program that would work under Windows 95, but the dos drivers of course did not work under XP, nor was their an incentive to lay out $50k to $80k for a new system (software and license for Windows XP). And all the custom patterns they use could not be converted to the newer software types, so would require spending $$ on an engineer to redo the designs in the newer software. Come 2008 when the computer running their cutter finally died at one clients office, we had to try and find the necessary drivers for a more current system to run Windows 98 on. Same thing with Dental Office computers, the Dentrix and Dexis system costs an arm and a leg, requires legacy controller boards for the digital Xray probes. (Special PCMCIA card reader with a certain chipset.) The cost to move from Windows 95/98 to XP was enough to scare several Dentist offices. Especially when they found out the PCMCIA ports from Texas Instruments were not Windows XP compatible and they would be forced to spend another $400 to $500 per machine to buy newer compliant card readers that were certified for use by Dentrix and Dexis. If you bought one that wasn't on the approved list? It just didn't work, not might not, or with issues, the Dentrix and Dexis software would refuse to use it at all. Not to mention the Dentrix and Dexis software need to be able to share files over the network so your patient record is available in which ever room you go into that day. The software also needs to be able to tie in with the insurance companies which requires network access. You cant expect every company to update every time a new OS comes out, and you cant expect smaller companys to be able to afford to roll out new versions every 3 or 4 years and survive. Windows 7 hasn't been out that long, but Microsoft seeking to boost revenue is ramming a new version of Windows every year now. Smaller businesses that could go 8 to 10 years on a software before having to upgrade may very well be forced to use out of date systems, raise their rates considerably, or simply go out of business.

Like with most direct to video releases, the quality is so bad, shouldnt they be paying the people that actually sat and watched it?

Article states, "They're designed to take down Intel's Core i3 chips, and the first application and gaming benchmarks are out."
I3's are meant for basic desktop and doing your homework, not a gaming rig. So they are saying, Hey, our new chip is just as crappy at games as the I3... Brilliant marketting.

Apple can go to hell after this. They arent winning any fans or new customers over this litigation. All they are doing is harming once potential future customers.

I will not purchase any more Apple Products. For work I currently have an older iPhone 3GS and was waiting to upgrade to the 5 this year once it came out. No more, evil actions like this mean I will now purposely seek out a non-Apple product to replace that phone. My company replaces my work cell phone every 2 years and I get to pick what I want. Apple just lost at least one recuring sale by screwing over the general public.

My personal phone is the Samsung Galaxy S3. It was marketed by Sprint to have certain features. Now Sprint and the other Cell phone companys are likewise bowing to Apple in fear of being left out of the next iPhone release and rushing out these patches to cripple the S3's. Yes, Samsung made the update to head off litigation by Crapple, but Sprint is notoriously slow rolling out updates (waited 6 months to get updates on my older Epic), yet Sprint was able to test the crippling patch and other add-in's or sub-tractions and push it out to their customers in days this time? Sprint's forums are full of posts of S3's having signal and other issues now after the patches.

If the cell phone companies cared about their customers, they'd all stand up to Apple and say knock it off. Instead they are more concerned with upsetting apple than their customer bases. I wouldnt be surprised to see class action lawsuits against the carriers from their customers for selling them something and then taking it away. Misleading advertisement and broken contracts. Sure the carriers will try to blame Samsung and Apple, but as i said above, if the carriers banded together and slapped Apple the same way Crapple is slapping all other consumers, this whole thing would be nipped in the bud quick.

I wont be "downgrading" my phone. Screw CrApple.

I dont know about the Kaiser case, but I know about the IBM case first hand...

In California no clause is valid that restricts your rights to sue.

Ask IBM about this. In the early 2000's they went through and laid off a large group of workers. Many of the employees felt they unfairly were fired or forced to retire early. Many of these people had families and no other source of income. IBM offered severances to these employees but required them each to sign a waiver signing away their rights to sue the company.

Some of these employees had no choice and signed the agreement and took the meager pittance offered by IBM.

Now for the fun part, someone figured out that in California the law protects people from having their rights revoked. Those same employees joined together and sued IBM. The case lasted a couple of years. IBM even petitioned for dismissal on the grounds the former disgruntled employees signed waivers and received concessions (far below what that deserved). The California courts rejected IBM's petition and ordered them to pay up to a much higher level for all former employees. Those that had received the lower payouts received the difference.

What Sony is trying to do would be non-binding in California.