If you're broadcasting unencrypted data, YOU'RE the one tossing your privacy away. Sorry.

Agreed! Don't encrypt your radio broadcasts, don't expect any privacy.

I trust Google Docs to store my recipes, camping supply list, etc. I certainly wouldn't put any sensitive information up there. I do keep a backup, however - it's less about Google's reliability, and more about my ISP's occasional outages.

If you don't make fun of people's genitals, you won't get your ass-kicked. What's wrong with our court system, when your supervisor can pull this kind of crap, and you can't retaliate?

Personally, a sexual harassment suite probably would have served this guy better ... but seriously - if you make fun of someone, you shouldn't be surprised when they kick your ass.

That TSA sup is a pussy!

I'm not sure if I ... hang on, that's my phone ... I'm not sure if I ... hold on, I've got an IM. But the study ... dammit! I give up!

Sorry. The Christian Scientists have the longest running Science Fiction show on the planet.

Doctor Who, on the other hand, is the GREATEST sci-fi show on the planet.

What's this? No love for Mr. Jobs?

Doesn't slashdot have an iPhone app?

Wouldn't this mean that ANY politician or political strategist would need to register?

Also, someone sniffing the network can quickly see those machines you have accounts for with a quick glance. If a curious hacker was inside your network, you would be an "interesting" target.

I've had two cars catch fire ... both blue!!! I think you're on to something ...

Uh, what law requires Amazon to sell anyone's books?

Can you have a "wholesale" price eBook? I think you're kind of missing the point of "wholesale" here ... they don't need to buy and warehouse 10,000,000 eBooks, so where's the wholesale price break?

I don't think anything "illegal" is going on here. But it's the ethics of selling an item for one price to one retailer, and a higher price to another retailer. Why in the world wouldn't the retailer on the loosing side of this have the right to fight back?

From the replies, it looks like we're looking at two separate issues -

  - Kindle vs. iPhone / iPod / iPon / iWhatever

        and

  - availability of products

On the first issue, the iPawn (let's just call all the products by that name) is better than the Kindle, hands down; but both devices ultimately suck for reading. IMHO, digital books can be a good supplement to printed material, but have yet to successfully replace printed material (especially for technical books).

The second issue is honestly more important to me. While it's not exactly new (Best Buy, Wal*mart and I'm sure many others demand a lower price from the manufacturer), one critical difference here is you'd be getting the EXACT same product, but the manufacturer would have a preferred retailer, and try their best to force (by price) potential customers to use that retailer over any other. Serves them right if Amazon dumps them!!!

These exclusive agreements with distributors go directly against the concept of free market. Amazon has every right to fight back, and any consumer who is at all concerned with his rights to choose what they buy and where they shop should be telling MacMillan goodbye at this point.

While I agree most sites probably don't need encryption, I don't see why you'd need dedicated hardware, or why it would be an incredible performance drain. Even client-side, it shouldn't be too difficult of a task (unless you're decrypting War and Peace in a single download).

That encryption is a performance drain is a myth created by hardware vendors wanting to sell you more hardware.

Or, the cost of NOT doing exceeds the cost of doing it ...

Verisign. Because of the ridiculous cost of THEIR certificates, and that browsers don't seem to properly recognize any certs but ones from Verisign. People either use fake certs (encrypted traffic, but no verification of trust), or simply don't bother.

Also, because so many sites pull in images and other content from non-origin servers, webmasters do not know how to build a proper SSL site in most cases. It's tricky to do right (not impossible - just tricky), and most web designers / site administrators simply give up on SSL, rather than try to learn how to implement it properly.