I agree. Unplug. I spend two weeks a year with a group doing initiation ceremonies out in the Australian bush. When I told one of the leaders that I would die if I couldn't check my emails every half hour. (A well known fact) he handed me a short stick. I held this to my ear every so often and DIDN'T DIE. It surprised me but a stick works just as well as a mobile phone. When I got back to "Civilization"? and actually checked my messages, it turned out nothing of importance happened anyway. Un plug. The actual Dying from lack of Internet connection doesn't start until about 15 days un plugged. Science has proved this

And I sure Alfred E Neuman would promise to "DO NO Evil" unless it was really really funny in an adolescent humour sort of way, Or involved Justin Bieber.

The only problem with the " you have to vote for one of the bastards" argument is the number of people who don't bother to vote in American elections. My sister lives in upstate NY . it is a heavily republican area. When her friends put up Obama posters people came by in the night and took them down. She knows people who have been fired from their jobs for admitting that they are registered Democrats. This is in spite of the fact that it is an area of high unemployment and the GOP is ever ready to look to ways to screw the unemployed. And Yet I looked at the voting record for the county after the election and More people DIDN'T vote then voted for Obama And McCain put together. Had all those who Didn't vote in the last election across America voted for Alfred E Neuman instead, there would now be a buck toothed imaginary person in the white house. Oh what a wonderful world it would be.

Funny thing is, I have been using various form of Linux for about ten years and have almost never used this feature. My son did use it regularly and now runs his mac with two screens but Not Me and I would consider myself much more tech savy then him. I can't even figure out a reason why somebody might want this feature?

I always suspected this was the case. now that I have read it on /. I know it to be true and can relax. Thanks

>>>>*although.. the manuals and tutorials seem to be getting thinner all the time...

Read the Manual for k-9copy the DVD back-up program

Almost Buddhist in its nature. It takes saying nothing to a higher plane.
And the first version actual turned the whole idea of a help page into a huge joke. I have never before laughed out loud while reading a help manual before.

I hear this "I was called stupid" or "somebody posted RTFM' on so many occasions in Slashdot or ZDNET forums but have never actually seen a rude reply in a Linux forum.
I am sure it happened if you say it did but I have spent a bit of time hunting through forums to find the answer to something I have screwed up while fiddling around and never seen a rude answer. The thing I find strange is that whenever I have managed to screw something up in Windows and was hunting for a solution, Mostly I found people who wanted to SELL me a solution. Hey good for them but considering the state of my bank account, Some might think that was rude too.

Just sayin'

Ah yes true. In trying to be somewhat brief I was instead unclear. My point is that the harm being done to the planet by CO2 as discussed by "Climate Change" is only a small part of the problem. We need to stop getting bogged down in whether Humans are causing Climate change and start seriously looking at how Humans are making a mess of the only planet which we have available to us. Anything else is just short term thinking.

I am of the opinion that this whole argument is a red herring and really only a small part of the big picture. There is no point in arguing about Climate Change because the real issue should be referred to as "TOXIC GAS BUILDUP" We live in a closed system. Any waste we produce doesn't go away. Carbon Dioxide is only one of many chemicals which are toxic to humans which we human are producing in ever increasing amounts. Just looking at Carbon takes our eye off the ball for the bigger problem. And gives the Climate deniers something to pretend isn't true. Go up into the hills above most major cities and look down on the brown sludge floating in the air and water and tell me we don't need to change the way we do business in a big way and soon. Anything else is a distraction. Wake up. Come out of your Mothers basement and look at the state of the world around you. Humans can't live on Sludge the way Cockroaches can and no amount of pretending will allow them to.

>>>If you don't understand the close connection between responsibilities and privileges, you'll have a hard time raising kids.

Our whole society doesn't understand this connection. A person can get their drivers license or drink alcohol at an age mandated by the state where they live. This has nothing at all to do with whether or not they have the emotional maturity to handle the responsibility of either of these activities. Our culture when it stopped having formal rites of passage gave what used to be a village or clan responsibility over to the State. and the State makes blanket rules. So to my way of thinking there are steps along the way such as getting your first cell phone and being able to go out with friends without a parent to supervise onto drinking and getting your drivers license. As a parent it is necessary that my child prove to me along the way that they are ready for each of these steps. and that is shown to me by how they handle the responsibilities that are appropriate to their age. If along the way my son slips backwards to a reduced level of responsibility, the privileges start being pulled back too.

So the question of when do they "Need" a cell phone, My answer would be when they show they are ready for it. This is of course made much harder because for so many of my sons peers there is no relationship between privilege and responsibility. If they want it they get it. All the privileges with none of the responsibility. So my son is asking why he has to pay the price the others don't and I can't really answer that it is because his friends parents are bad parents. But I think they are doing their children a disservice.

Imagine a generation of people who learned texting before proper spelling and grammar.

Strangely enough my son's (15) spelling has improved since he got his cell phone because the predictive dictionary requires him to spell the words correctly.
So he is regularly asking my wife how to spell words. It would be a waste of time asking me, I grew up in the wonderful years of the "Open Classroom" experiment you didn't to learn something you didn't have to. I didn't have much interest in correct spelling at 10 and so didn't.

  Not much better 35 or so years later if it weren't for spell checks on the computer.

A kindergarten teacher at the school where I works says "Say no to your kids, it gets them used to hearing it" When I asked her for further clarification with a comment I fully agreed with she told me that it not only got them in the habit of hearing NO it also helped them to be able to say it them selves.

If we want our young people to be able to say No when someone is asking them to do something they don't think is a good thing they have to be in the habit of hearing that word...Often. Old Nancy Raygun's "just say no" will only work if they know the meaning of the word first.

It is a little known fact that the dinosaurs had neither the Internet nor Mobile phones. And that my friends is why they are EXTINCT. They couldn't check their horoscopes, went out when there was a meteor storm and BAM. mass extinction
Think about it. We could end up going the same way.

Makes me wonder how many good ideas are ruined by poor implementation. I'm betting this is a very large number. The problem is that people throw out the baby with the bathwater

Yes When I was younger and foolisher and smoked a tremendous amount of Pot my friends and I had any number of good ideas. Everything from bringing world peace to a fabulous business plan which would make us all incredibly wealthy. But then we decided to order a pizza instead. Perhaps that is what happened with the design of these phones

It is easy really. Every time one of your friends who uses Windows get yet another Virus you tell them that your Linux system NEVER gets viruses and offer to burn them a disk of your favorite version. Or just hand them the disk. Not everybody takes me up on this and many are still losing Data to viruses but every time they do I suggest they change over to Linux and remind them again it NEVER get viruses. Eventually they get the message. Who needs advertising. You are the best possible advertising for Linux. They know you and trust you and have NEVER heard you complaining about you system being destroyed by some stuff you got from an Email your Mother sent you