Didn't American Express try to introduce public key technology using smart-cards like a decade ago?

Well here's another...

Navigators on the open ocean will be able to accurately determine their longitude by syncing a clock with Big Ben back in London. Latitude can be known with a good astrolabe, but longitude has always been a problem.

Ah, there he is...the ubiquitous blowhard "complaining" that the >$125k he's paid (well over twice the national average) is still too low for his glorious talent.

Hey, why not try your hand in sub-Saharan Africa? Almost no competion at all! Just think how much money you'll make! Hahahahahahhaahaa!!!

You're probably an asshole, but just haven't figured it out yet.

...or perhaps even relatively left leaning Sweden is also no fan of somebody who's demonstrated a willingness to publish whatever state secrets happen to fall in his lap.

OK, let me see if I got this straight...

If one of our diplomats form a negative opinion about a world leader and they're tempted to share that opinion with a colleague, should they just keep it to themselves, or can they share it with their colleague, but only if they inform the world leader in question, too? Are they morally obligated to confess their thoughts to the target of that opinion as soon as they form it? Help me out here.

Espionage is right out and we'll dissolve the military because it's the "antithesis of democracy". They just want us to believe that countries need militaries and intelligence agencies, right?

Oh yeah, how do we convince the rest of the world to play by our new enlightened rules?

Not likely. Wikileaks is providing the government with fodder for a new round of restrictions. Remember the days when you could walk out to the gate to meet your friends arriving at the airport? Not any more. Today it may be legal to post stolen govenment secrets. Check back 5 years from now and send your thanks to wikileaks and their supporters. It just takes an asshole. You might conclude, based only on this forum, that the public is generally in support of wikileaks, but it's not and I don't need a poll to know this. I know because there's no debate in Washington (Ron Paul doesn't count, of course) over whether publishing the documents was an attack on the US. The administration, which a large percentage of the country considers left-leaning, is itself condemning it. New legislation won't be difficult to pass. There was a time when wikileaks could have been considered sort of a good guy, but it's becoming more obvious with each release that they simply hate the US. How can disclosing the list sites we consider strategic possibly be construed as "whistle blowing"? Take 5 minutes and think about your "cause". All internal documents, diplomatic correspondence, etc. rightfully belongs in the global public domain? Really? The vast majority of thinking people, which believe it or not world leaders tend to be, don't even feel the need to explain their opposition to this absurd notion. There is no "open source" in international diplomacy...this is the real world.

I would argue that about 8% really do need a laptop - those who work on the road. My mom is typical. This year she bought one, or as I call it "her $2,400 portable DVD player".

In the seven years that you've gone without a desktop, I've been working on the same PC. Of course I've added to it and swapped out parts (video card, processor, memory, drive, peripherals) so my games run nice 'n' smooth. It's as though I've bought maybe two cheap PC's. Which laptop are you on? Your 5th? 6th? You're probably thinking about chucking your current one this year, aren't you. Fool!