More tinfoil than me... I at least carry a phone. I do use open source when possible (which is almost always when I'm not at work). A landline can be tapped, too, so unless he has no land line he hasn't thought it through. If the feds want in, they'll get in.

Except not today! The tea party shut the whole damned government down (which is always their #1 priority anyway).

Funny, but incorrect. Somewhere at the bottom is the assembler that the first compiler was written in, and the hand-assembled machine code the first assembler was written in... then you have to trust Intel and AMD to not install NSA back doors in their chips. Build your own computer out of discrete components and it will cost a fortune, take a large building to hold, and be very slow compared to chips.

We're screwed.

There is no way we can understand everything.

True, but one can understand everything about something, and enough of everything to get by. If you know how electricity and electronic components work, how logic gates and ALUs work, know assembly and higher level languages you can pretty much understand enough.

The secret is reading LOTS of books and then practicing. Unfortunately, 97% of the population are aliterate -- they can read, but don't. I don't understand those people! Probably never will.

You are correct. It has to be implanted and be a machine or electronic device. My eye's lens replacement I got back in 2006 counts - unlike the old style lenses, it sits on struts and will focus, powered by the eye's muscle. People with artificial joint implants are cyborgs. A pacemaker or a cochlear implant makes you a cyborg. A prosthetic or Google Glasses or sewing a useless chip under your skin does not.

Most cyborgs are geezers. You will be assimilated... if you're lucky.

Warwick's no cyborg, he's a loon. Mann doesn't seem to be playing with a full deck, either.

You're looking at this like it was a legitimate business, rather than the thievery that it is. This is like coming home to find your central air unit ruined because thieves stole the copper. The thieves net maybe a hundred bucks, you're out ten times that much. It isn't like the bot herders PAID for the electricity and use of the machines, they broke in and stole that electricity.

Except he's not a real cyborg. No artificial knees or hips, no eye lens or cochlear implants, not even a pacemaker. I, on the other hand, was assimilated in 2006 when I had a focusable lens implanted in my left eye to replace the natural lens. I was severely nearsighted all my life and wore thick glasses, then had contacts AND reading glasses in middle age. Now not only do I no longer need corrective lenses, I have better than 20/20 vision. I see better than a kid, and I'm 61.

Resistance is futile? When the time comes there will be no resistance, you'll beg to be assimilated. I love being a cyborg! Beats the hell out of wearing coke bottle glasses!

The scene in that one STNG where there's a closeup of a needle going into Picard's eye? Yeah, that actually did happen to me (only it was a human named Dr. Yea that stuck the needle in... and yes, I was awake. Freaky but painless).

It bottoms out at $35. Still a great deal, beats the hell out of AT&T. A phone like mine (waterproof Kyocera Android Jellybean), $50 signup fee and first month's payment is about $200 total. All it's missing is a front facing camera (the rear facing one is pretty good, 5.5 megapixels). Boost Mobile, I've been with them for years and are happy with them.

Nah, you can get that for free on YouTube.

..what do they sound like?

Like earbuds. Not exactly high fidelity, but what earbud is? I'm wondering how well they handle high frequencies, though, which magnetic buds do easily. Thermoacoustic seems like it would be quite a bit slower than electromechanical.

I wonder what manufacturing costs are compared to magnetic earbuds?

Interesting concept, though, whether or not it's really practical.

What does that have to do with robots, inspecting ship's ballast tanks (which unless I'm mistaken a careless captain wouldn't damage), how dangerous it is for human inspectors?

Not even anything about how cool that thing looked rolling around corners upside down? This was one FA that was worth looking at, I was impressed. The video is a must-see.

How often does the government manage to make anything that is even fit for purpose, never mind better than everything else out there.

Weapons, every time they make a new one, and they spend lavishly. Snowden was pulling in $200k a year, that's serious money.

This is a bad article and the editors should feel bad.

Don't blame the editors, stories are voted up or down by logged-in users. Nobody made you click the link, go play in the firehose if you want to affect what's posted.

I was at work so didn't see it, but I'd have voted "funny".

Also don't use Windows......ever

That's kind of hard to do at work. And if the NSA wants to pwn my Linux box I'm sure they can.