Either way...the point is, with a modular SSD/HDD, you can remove the disk and connect it to another machine (whether that's yours, a friend's, or a repair shop's is irrelevant). With soldered-on storage, most consumers don't really have an option but to take it to an Authorized Repair Center.

Sony tried this several years ago with the PS3...and subsequently removed it after the community started to exploit it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

And this isn't FUD...this actually happened in North Carolina & Tennessee a couple years ago, after lobbying by the big cable companies & telcos.

States win the right to limit municipal broadband, beating FCC in court
Muni ISP forced to shut off fiber-to-the-home Internet after court ruling
City ISP makes broadband free because state law prohibits selling access

NC & TN aren't the only places municipal ISPs are restricted; as of 2014, 20 states had regulations limiting municipal ISPs in one way or another.

It's too bad we don't have any laws that protect the right to speak our minds in the US. Oh, wait. We do. It's called the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Fuck off, "Coal King." Go troll somewhere else.

I don't know what you mean by this...Office (32-bit or 64-bit) runs fine on 64-bit Windows. Many (all?) plugins/modules written for 32-bit Office won't run on 64-bit Office, but the remedy for that is to install 32-bit Office.

Windows can't be upgraded from 32-bit to 64-bit. You have to do a clean install (not necessarily formatting the drive in the process).

I work in the process control industry, and many reporting modules for SCADA Historian software are only available for 32-bit Office (Wonderware is the first one that springs to mind).

So unfortunately, 32-bit Office will probably stick around for a while longer (at least until software vendors rewrite their modules to be compatible with 64-bit Office).

As an aside, 32-bit Windows keys will work just fine on 64-bit Windows.

Or don't buy one with a webcam or microphone built in.

The factory-supplied fobs aren't reprogrammable, but that doesn't mean you can't buy other types of RFID fobs that could be cloned from the official manufacturer fob.

In general, if it communicates wirelessly, there is ALWAYS a way to eavesdrop/snoop & then clone or spoof the transmissions. (Might take more time than it's worth, depending on encryption (etc), but it is theoretically possible.)

Quoted post was probably a reference to South Park ("Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut").

Probably not. Your Google Account can be removed from the phone after it's set up, and it's not specifically required to use Android (AFAIK)...plus, the _carrier_ isn't really forcing you to divulge anything -- Google changed their privacy policy, not your carrier.

[Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.]

Of course we have money. The problem is we spend more than we take in -- and our spending priorities are all over the board.

That, and the NASA budget is a drop in the bucket of annual spending.

Why not cut NHE by 1% or 2%? Across the board?

[citation needed]
...and no. Fox News and the usual assortment of "reliable tea-bagger sources" doesn't count.
Ahem...
[crickets...]

And Microsoft has only lost 1 billion dollars on that so far.