I understand that what you're arguing for (oversight) is likely a realistic and practical process that could indeed reduce serious errors of judgement, however, a committee isn't a guarantee against injustice; it is entirely possible that all the branches of government could sign off on a killing that is unjust (e.g. How would you like to be a black man in the 1950s American South facing a committee of those in power?).

That is a really good point. I think a certain amount of the frenzy for the TouchPad was the fact that people felt like they were getting a deal.

You are correct that religious groups do stupid shit like this. Speaking as an (individual) religious person though, I would say that if my kid(s) couldn't tell the fucking difference between a vampire and God, I would have to conclude the problem is more on how I've raised them than due to the existence of vampire fiction.

That is true, but for how long? This move strikes me as a precursor to smartphone caps. After all, where will you go if you don't like it?

Or maybe there is someone, somewhere who once worked at HP, was considered pretty good at his job, but was "let go" over circumstances that were, perhaps, somewhat overstated at the time.

In my experience, these kind of things never amount to anything though. Comcast will make it hard to find out about, difficult to sign up for and onerous to stay eligible.

Whenever they can gracefully exit from the program (likely defined by whatever agreement they made) they will issue a press release trumpeting how the program wasn't really popular (of course, by design) and how existing customers will be transitioned to another tier of service, which, itself, is really a fantastic value.

Ugh, I can already see the fucking smarmy press release in my mind.

People who say this always seem to forget that, one day, there might be laws that are well worth breaking; that in order to keep your humanity, you will have to break.

Just to rifle through the last few months of news: what if you were Libyan under Gaddafi or Egyptian under Mubarak? I would be glad, were I in that situation, not to have a fucking device in my car reporting my whereabouts in a governmentally accessible manner.

I think the whole idea of protecting rights is to do so for the future, not necessarily for the present.

(a) Because it is a report card on you/your team. It is the summation of what everyone in the business community at large thinks of you. With a declining stock price, you are the bloke at the conference who got a very public "F". Conversely, with a rising price, you are a rock star. Purely psychological (in this context) but powerfully so.

(b) Less intangible: If your price is low for long enough, you can be replaced as CEO.

Discrete Windows/iOS/Android apps for anything requiring DRM and HTML5 video in browser for everything else?

Is the problem really Wikileaks or is it that fucking prat Assange? He was the one who pissed of The Guardian and NYT so badly they don't want anything to do with him. What you need is someone who can run Wikileaks without all the ego. Someone who can be sensible (e.g. redact names of informants in leaked documents) but be steadfast about publishing what comes in without making it all about him/her.

Do you realize that at least 80% of the population in the US likely could not figure out how to pair a bluetooth keyboard to a tablet? It might as well not exist for the majority of consumers.