Robots are needed not only on Mars or in a nuclear power station.

Nobody want anymore clean dishes in restaurants. The job is to clean plates and put them into dish-washing machine.

Or cleaning public toilets. Not for any money, not immigrants. Nobody wants to do it.

If a robot is built who can do it robustly, controlled and protected by a server program via Internet, it would be the new industrial revolution.

In the middle of nowhere there are no towers anyway, they are not profitable to construct there. Still the messages will not be lost in the internet of wireless devices. As almost everywhere one meets people.

The protocol should use the last know geo-location of a wireless device and route a message to it to the nearest wireless devices in the area (in the encrypted format certainly).

There are only 3 numbers for the last know location: latitude, longitude and time. The protocol can use the excellent free map: www.osm.org

For example, if I am hiking here http://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=42.157&mlon=-75.256&zoom=9&layers=M then my location on the planet is defined just by 2 numbers: 42.157 and -75.256 . And I cannot be on another planet.

Speaking is another story, but messaging is most important. Who speaks from the blue now? People first exchange messages and arrange a talk. So one can move closer to a WiFi spot to talk then. But robust messaging is quite doable in the internet of wireless devices. We have a lot of memory in our devices. I have 32 GB from which I use 1%.

All is need is the protocol and we will get the free mobile communication for the whole planet, just like we've got Wikipedia or OSM.

Justice works slowly, but finally it will get one.

It is very hard to learn to fly a helicopter or quadrocopter well. A lot of flying hours are needed. Really a lot. It is about becoming a pilot.

Nothing even remotely similar exists on the ground; - roll, pitch, yaw. Watching fuel constantly (it is never a flight, in the sense of a free flight, it is always a jump which is to be thought over and planned). Let alone wind, rain, wires, trees, birds, etc.

It will take years to get comfortable with this technology. The brain, the whole nervous system must adjust to flying.

We all know how much corruption goes on ( allegedly and sometimes) around construction and urban development.

Good software means much more. It requires honesty, integrity, empathy, even a talent.

I've read that in Estonia children are educated at school, at young age, the practical usage of computers and networks. I would add to it digital photography, image editing, digital cartography, and smartphones.

A law has a letter and a spirit. Socrates also broke a letter of a law. And he was condemned to a capital punishment by sort of a kangaroo court of that time.

They are on the same scale as Socrates, they are the personages of human civilization. Nothing can be done about it anymore. They are too big and can turn out to be unexpectedly devastatingly strong. The best way is to leave them alone and ignore.

The Soviet bureaucrats learned hard way that keeping such phenomenons as Andrei Sakharov, Anatoly Sharansky, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in prison is like trying to kill a mockingbird.

The US and UK bureaucrats should cut losses, learn lessons and leave Julian and Bradley alone. Let them go wherever they wish while still there is time. They are just too big to be kept down like this. Not good to attract attention to them any longer.

It the USA and UK go berserk the whole world will turn into a zoo.

It is easier to send a robot to Mars than to, say, a local supermarket. It would probably not last in a supermarket for a week.

The really hostile environment for robots is the human social environment.

It is clear how to protect against radiation or low temperatures, but how to protect against coffee into circuits or lipstick on lenses? Or just plain simple kicks from behind.

These are complicated and important problems because robots could be very useful on Earth too right now.

This distribution switched from MySQL to MariaDB, as there was not confidence that MySQL would be supported in good faith in future.

It was widely noticed in Europe that as soon as goods and tourists stop crossing boarders - tanks and soldiers start to cross instead.

It is simple - one does not shoot his/her customers.

what can possibly go wrong.

I would agree to that. The best way to guard secrets is not to have them.

Even the mighty USA state, with all its power and technological prowess, could not guard secrets. Bradley Manning took them out on a musical CD. What about hall-alive commercial company, which is still have to produce something and pay taxes?

The memory and cameras are already everywhere, on everything. Shall we also ban wristwatches, MP3 players, pens, future iPods, etc.?

There is immense innovation which is coming into business with mobile apps. Locking down will stop this technological revolution for this company and it will demise quietly..

Smartphone should have a physical well visible lid on web-camera and microphone. So that they normally closed and open only for a phone call or taking a photograph. And it should be well visible if these lids is open or closed. This is all.

The problem is bad engineering of smartphones by monopolies.

Tape is messy, it leaves traces of glue.

I would prefer a lid on the camera. On any web-camera and microphone. A physical well visible (open/closed) lid.