It's a patent application not an application for a warrant. I think that this is nothing more than a protective move so that they don't have to pay a patent troll if they want to do whatever with the capability or offer it as a service.

The general concept has been implementable and implemented on any number of devices for some time now. I think that our personal privacy is largely a long gone historical curiosity. If someone doesn't like the fact that this kind of thing can be and is being done then they could start by smashing their cell phone even if it's a cheap non-smart cell phone. Even so its probably a futile gesture because it's not likely to improve their privacy much. Our government can turn an incredible magnifying glass on any one of us anytime that it wants to. If you pee in the woods then our government has satellites that can tell if you have a porn-star shave and crabs and they can get information on who did the shaving and who treated you for the crabs.

Grow the frack up.

depends on what you want the students to learn and for what purpose. If you want them to learn about the deeper substrate of computer technology then you will support many operating systems in your network so that students can be exposed to them and the technology associated with integrating diverse systems. You certainly want some Linux systems so that those who want to learn almost all the way up from the bottom can do that while exploiting the combined benefits of open source and the tons of free information on the web. If you put it to a vote among IT support types then you are not likely to get a good end result. IT support is not computer engineering or computer science. IT support will always be biased toward restricting use of the machines to reduce their support workload for the budget that you have given them. So one thing to think about if you want to maximize the teaching opportunity is to budget for enough IT support to support multiple operating systems and to support lots of freedom for the students to experiment on their own.

Today those in a position to make decisions about computers and computer services often don't know enough and cannot rely on supposed experts to make reasonable decisions. Even deeply knowledgeable people have ridiculous biases when it comes to operating systems and other software. For this reason its better to contract the IT support. If you contract it then it is not a part of your organization's political infrastructure. That way, if they refuse to adequately support your educational needs, you can fire them much more easily and contract someone else with the willingness and expertise to do what needs to be done to allow for a more optimal educational process. If IT is an actual department with employees in your institution then may God be with you.

I'm a libertarian too and, as a separate issue, I also object to the Microsoft monopoly.
On the longer time scale I don't see FOSS as a competitor to Microsoft
so much as it is a replacement of the free enterprise software model with a
socialist software model. In my view the governments involvement in the
selection of either a free enterprise or socialist model is anti-libertarian because
the government shouldn't have that kind of authority in the first place.
Politics aside, Microsoft's base level business model will focus on subverting
any other control system, up to and including national governments. They have
the power and the power was given to them by indiscriminate consumption.

and install a pirated copy of Windows.
Isn't that what they expect to happen ?
Its the most effective marketing technique that Microsoft has.

This also makes me wonder.
If China can't manage the adoption of a socialist software model then who can ?

its bound to end up being one big cluster fornication.
Our cyberspace enemies should be rejoicing at this news.

This will highlight the fact that some men involved in the FOSS movement are sexist and it will make some men have greater empathy for the sexist treatment of women. On the other hand it doesn't need highlighting for those who give a crap in the first place and sexism has nothing to do with FOSS in the second place. In any case I'm okay with watching the FOSS movement disassemble itself over an unrelated political issue. Beats watching football or golf.

1. If you are a geek its OK to give gratuitous or unintended offense to other human beings of any ilk. Its part of being a geek. Ilk includes maleness and femaleness aka manhood and womanhood. More on that later.
3. Once you become a conscious or self aware geek its OK to enjoy offending people
especially if they are so self absorbed that they think that you are thinking about them
enough to sexually discriminate against them when it should be clear to anyone that if you are deep enough
into the FOSS movement to give a crap about it that you are so f*cked up with nerdiness that you
barely have any idea what sex is to begin with. (Look to your leader RMS for the most effective and
acceptable ways to annoy and give offense without intending too.)
4. About the sex thing. If you find people referring to you as a guy then you probably have a
genital which is a protrusion on the front of your body just above the crotch. This protrusion
is commonly referred to as a penis. (Its also a type of person but you already know about that.)
A few(not many) people who have penises also have a pair of balls hanging in a sack below
the base of the penis. Just to remove any remaining ambiguity, the penis is what you pee
out of and it occasionally swells up and gets stiff for no apparent reason. If you find people
referring to you as a woman then you will probably find that your nipples rest on top of soft mounds of flesh
that are larger than the mounds of flesh beneath the nipples of about 50% of the rest of the
population and you also probably have a second hole (commonly referred to as a vagina)
about an inch and a half from your anus. You probably do not have a penis or balls in a sack
even though people may constantly assert that you have a pair.