This is wishful thinking at the least. You're assuming this will make the giants come to the same conclusion as you and react in the way you would. However, if they followed that logic, this wouldn't be happening in the first place. Patterns of behavior indicate that the giants will instead react by putting even more resources into litigation and acquiring patents. Also, this isn't MAD. The legal industry would profit from this without the risk of being whipped out in the crossfire. In contrast, in a real MAD situation, the third party profiteers such as defense manufacturers are wiped out as well.

Not if that $5.00 a gallon meant that you had no extensive rapid transit in most cities and your geography depended on those prices. You're generally comparing a gas price to a gas price and a tax that pays for other transportation projects that make gas prices more bearable. I like how it becomes okay to defend corporate greed when Americans are complaining about.

Iran isn't Iraq. But where exactly are you getting this idea that their armed forces are so much better? Their equipment is equivalent to what the Iraqis had for their time, and they both fought each other to a standstill. Furthermore, the Iraqis had the ability to strike US warships and they did. The Iranians ability to sink warships is irrelevant. During a conflict, US warships aren't going to be in range until most of those threats are neutralized by long range strikes. The only risk is a surprise attack on a US warship before a conflict starts and the Iraqis already did that. Also, it doesn't matter if Iranian people solidify because the US wouldn't go for an occupation. Solidarity doesn't help air defenses.

I really doubt that. Most likely people just don't read carefully and are used to Slashdot's misleading headlines.

He probably meant a built-in SD card slot and USB port. An external connector cuts down on portability and is often not there when you it. Also, a built-in SD card slot allows you to use the SD card to expand your storage instead of just swapping content.

Maybe 2 years ago or if you don't know what you are doing. Have you seen the PC configurations you get for the price of an MBP? An MBP gets you a nice case and a temporary cpu spec advantage: also gpu for the 15 and 17in models, but that's about it. I get Macs for the OS and build, but features and specs have been a joke for a long time, especially on the 13in. Also, the screens look nice but the screen real estate is bad, expect for the 17in. And what's with the netbook level hard drive configurations?

Sounds like the problem is with both of them. SSNs shouldn't expose so much sensitive data, but Google shouldn't needlessly collect or misuse sensitive personal data regardless of how poorly the system is implemented. Furthermore, if companies like Google support the misuse of SSNs, then it is going to be all the more difficult for the American people to fix the system because corporations will claim that they depend on it (something that marketing companies do all the time).

That's great that it works well on Linux, but it seems like a trade-off. I prefer watching Netflix on Xbox. Also, I have never been a fan navigating through Amazon's clusterfuck of content. For example, I prefer Kindle apps for ebooks, but I dread going to their site to purchase ebooks. They have a habit of cramming too much content on a page and trying to tie in every section of their business that they possibly can: something I don't have to deal with when I order dvds or update my Netflix que. I think the real bonus here is if it does well, Netflix might provide even better services to compete. I welcome the competition, but I think the service has even more flaws than Netflix.

So, does that mean that you are posting as an anonymous coward because you are up to something evil? Where's the transparency?

Why? Is that something new? History is less corrupt? I think Wkileaks is a response to technology, not corruption. The need has always been there, the real difference here is there is a more efficient platform that is harder to control. Also I think your assessment of the which generation appreciates Wikileaks is anecdotal and inaccurate. I'm actually surprised that so many people have been undecided on the issue instead of picking whatever side they typically identify with.

Wouldn't that be more of an inconvenience to Google's customers? I certainly don't want Google interfering with my search results like that regardless of how I feel about this issue, and would probably just use another search engine. Furthermore, it could just perpetuate the problem.