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Comment Re:Take away lesson: Back your computer up regular (Score 1) 341

If the computer has a removable HDD and only the motherboard failed, one can take the computer to a third-party repair shop which will stick the drive in a "sled" and recover the data. (Even if encrypted, as long as the user knows the appropriate passphrases.)

The ideal is NOT to need a specially blessed authorized dealer to work on the damn things.

Why take it to a 3rd-party shop? USB sleds are dirt cheap; ~$30.

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.

Comment Re:Sweet, sweet irony (Score 1) 145

And it's gotten so bad that when municipalities try to run their own Internet service, just basic obvious service, they are shut out by lawyers from these companies that obviously do not want to provide normal Internet.

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.

Comment Re: Let me get this right . . . (Score 2) 367

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).

Comment Re:I'm not a car guy (Score 1) 215

The fobs are not re-programmable - the cars are.

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.)

Comment Re:Can I cancel my cell phone contract over this? (Score 1) 239

Cell phone companies lock you into multi-year contracts. Since Google is including Android in all of this and tells people if they don't like it, don't use the service, does that mean I can cancel my cell phone contract without early termination fees? Otherwise, my carrier is forcing me to divulge information that was not part of my original agreement with the carrier!

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.]

Comment Re:Extension == Theft (Score 2) 536

Right. ALL copyright is theft. Artists should have absolutely no protections along these lines.

Don't know if you're trolling or if your entire post broke my sarcasm meter, but although I don't agree with Copyright as a good means to an end, it is not theft; it's a deal. (between the public and the artists in theory)
The bit that makes it theft is the retroactive extension. If the increased duration was for new works there would be no theft, but there would be a new deal.
That only one side is really represented at the bargaining table and that all the research (I've seen) suggests that shorter terms would be more beneficial to society isn't really part of this discussion.

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