I wish I had mod points to vote this up!

femion precisely hits the problem with texting. It isn't asynchronous. People will be out at a cafe, in a restaurant, or having dinner and THE INSTANT that text message comes in, the recipient will read it and respond. Right then. Now. They'll happily break the conversation and ignore people they're actually with.

"Old folks" complain because this behavior carries over into the workplace. Texting is a huge distraction.

I'll be sure to watch that video tomorrow morning.

It should complement my breakfast, which I always eat while driving to work, and I've been itching to test the video capabilities of my new smartphone.

Does your employer frequently take you to foreign countries for extended periods of time? Where there are no computers other than those owned by the company? Where there is no internet access other than what's provided by the company?

I didn't think so.

When someone is deployed to a combat zone (Iraq, Afghanistan) they should be able to keep in touch with their friends and family. It's a mental health issue. Twenty years ago soldiers/sailors/marines would write letters (delivered by the Post Office) and make an infrequent phonecall to their parents, spouse, or significant other. Those days are gone.

People now expect to be updated via blogs, social-networks, and to a lesser extent email. That's the world we live in and those expectations (social needs) don't go away just because someone's deployed.

Can open-source solutions maintain Skype's level of security?

Skype Encryption Stumps German Police
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL21173920071122

Expert: Skype calls nearly impossible for NSA to intercept
http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/index.php?p=919

The only people who care whether a particular action is legal or not are the people who (generally) follow the law. If someone's prone to ignore the law they're prone to ignore the law. If someone's prone to follow the law they're prone to follow the law.

Changing the legality of owning a cracked iPhone doesn't change the legality of crashing a cell tower.

I think he's speaking in metaphor and playing fast and loose with the dates.

40 years after we sent a man to another planet, we're trying to recreate sending a man to another planet (either back to the Moon or Mars). And maybe ~40 years after that we'll send someone to yet another planet.

Then again, maybe I'm misunderstanding the original comment.

My father was a young electrical engineer working on Apollo.

I remember watching Apollo 13 with him (the movie, not the actual mission). It was a long stream of, "I remember him..." and "this is what they didn't include in the movie..."

Wells Fargo better make sure the loser reimburses the winner's legal expenses!

I suppose you also believe Transformers 2 is the best movie, second only to Dark Knight.

Sometimes there's truth in popularity being an indicator of quality. Other times it's just an indicator of popularity.

No. I conduct my own tests and make my own decisions. Did I say I use Bing exclusively? Did I say I've completely abandoned Google? No.

I changed a default. That doesn't limit my options. It only changes the default.

There are some things Google does very well. Others, not so well.

I'm using Bing now to see if I like it. It's like UNIX. It's like non-Apple MP3 players. I'll give the underdog a try so I don't have to be part of the herd. Besides, most popular doesn't always mean best.

Not at all. I was only making a different point. Many complaints about security procedures (which resulted in CLEAR's business model) are merely personal complaints. They aren't systemic problems.

Complain if you want, but don't be surprised when other people don't sympathize.

All the people who complain about having to buy water make me laugh.

The prohibition is on the liquid, not the container. If you want to have a bottle of water on the plane then carry an empty bottle through security. I've carried reused plastic bottles, Nalgene hiking-type bottles, and even a metal Kleen Kanteen through security without any problems. Once you're through security, find a water fountain and fill up!

Just remember to vent the bottle once on the plane. The pressure changes can leave you with a leaking bottle.

That just makes the TSA doubly wrong. I pointed out the CMIR regulation because IF he was traveling internationally and IF he was carrying over $10,000 the TSA might have a reason to get involved. Neither condition existed.

You're right. The article doesn't specifically say, but I also assumed he was flying domestically. I only noted the CMIR regulation because that's the only way I could think of that TSA has a reason to be invoved. This wasn't international OR over $10,000 meaning TSA was doubly wrong.