Damn Slashdot effect! What do you mean, 404?!?!?!?!?!?!

You have to accept something for it to have Merit.
ATT was Cingularly unhelpful, through willful intent, that is, to assign a New Contract to the phone.
Motivation: Profit.
When profit is the ONLY motivation, nothing that impacts that profit, or the ability to bring that profit in, has merit.

If you believe, for ONE SECOND, that they did NOT know, you are dead wrong. Umm, can I interest you a land deal?
The carrier does NOT need the SIM card to identify the phone, and account, and RESPONSIBLE PARTY, and that is the kicker; if they do NOT know WHO to charge, they do NOT put it on the system, and ALL THAT DATA IS TAGGED TO THE SIM ON THE ACCOUNT
A SIMPLE serial number search pulls it all up
Remember, Profit. You cannot make money on what you are not aware of.
Those serial numbers ALONE tie the phone to the account. Want Proof?
Get two phones, one smart, one flip, two SIMS, register at two different offices.
Then swap the SIMS around, and watch how quickly they will DEACTIVATE both SIMS until you straighten it out with them.

It is a CLOSED SYSTEM. They get ALL the information about the device.
AT&T did not brick the phone because they EXPECTED TO MAKE A PROFIT WITH A REACTIVATION.

Oh, So, Umm... Your way or the Hi-Way? Hmm, my iPAD shows me where the nearest on-ramp is.
See Ya!

Demanding you allow THEM to dictate when YOU will watch the program? Same argument, different generation.

It doesn't change or add anything, except...

Making the rest of the world look at all the people from His Great and Wonderful state as backwards, inbred Hill-billies.
Ok, poetic license on the indred. I will... Grudgingly... Retract.

Actually, I work Telephone Technical support for a large Computer business, and am full time work from home. I have been doing this for almost two years and have to say, it's the best job I have ever had.
AND, they pay me well. You betcha I am productive. Very motivated, the job is most probably a once in a lifetime.
I meet with my manager and lead regularly electronically, and we will occasionally meet in person. Because of the interconnectedness of our workflow process and comms, we easily maintain full contact, almost as good as onsite.
Repeat, Best job ever.

First time I ever wanted a like button.

Fear not Citizen, I'll save you! (maybe)

Because most of that area is % Islamic in religious preference.

The worst part about this, is not that it only took three things to bring him the death sentence. After all, killing three children brutally is numerically equivalent, if nowhere near the same from a moral standpoint.
What makes this worse is that simply put, he is to be considered, period, whether occurring or not, considered for Death Penalty, based upon an OPINION he holds or feels that is different from everyone else. That they proclaim to worship the same deity, that religiously they derive their Allah from the same being of Divinity that I do is appalling.
My God may not be happy when someone sins, but... That's between God and said individual. If that action hurts no others, it is NOT OUR BUSINESS. Prove God doesn't agree. Since it cannot be, then there remains the possibility I am right, and the imaginary you wrong. Until you can prove that beyond the might makes right method, you are debating a philosophical point, a belief, based upon faith.

Faith, as defined by Merriam-Webster, (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust

I put my complete trust in a Deity that won't require my death if I stub my toe and curse. It may be that said Deity will condemn me to eternal damnation, but, it was my choice.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the plain truth is more simple than that, and one clearly defined by the constitution.
The President is the Executive Branch. The action to begin investigation is not an executive, but Legislative for the legal basis, and Judiciary for the Enforcement.

SOPA/PIPA would affect EVERY WEBSITE you can access
Seriously, both would impact DNS and mandate filtering. If that does not mean EVERY website, nothing does.

And Deanna Troi's Mother, Lwaxana.

Bluntly? Your data is Iffy at best.
While it may be gleaned from a large pool of generalized data, it fails to include such factors as pure longevity.
It may be true that for those with an interest in computers, but someone not purely immersed, or someone that helped build the
current tech field, these individuals may burn out from the actual work. 15 years is about the actual burnout for most fields.

Those on this site know without question the things of today are based upon the things of the past, and it is this knowledge that keeps us current.
Take Fibre channel for instance; a new technology, designed to take advantage of today's higher throughput capabilities.
It's Networking 101. So, for someone in the network field nearly 20 years, did that invalidate my ability to learn the new and scary
technology?
How about Scripting? Hmm, seems to me, back in the late 80's and early 90's, I put together some very complex batch files to run my BBS and handle the mundane work of internode packet communications. Seems to me that same skill, and preference to
work at the command line, still stands me in good stead. 23 years strong, and moving forward.

The primary problem your information points out but fails to name, and the poster also overlooked, is that each of the individuals
chose to assume tertiary jobs, and let their skills in IT decline in favor of other skills.
I have no interest in management, myself, so have always focused on what I do, providing top flight technical support.
I don't expect to know it all. I just need to know how to find the information.

Gestapo?

Not that I advocate it, but the more the big, dying music content industry goes down it's Sue you till you obey line?
One: Fuel-Air Bomb
Two: UMG Headquarters
Three: Fair use of oxygen and flame
It really WILL be the death of them...

Configured an entire rack system, switches, routers, servers, Tape library, and SAN.