In response to concerns about its exploding car engines, a major car manufacturer has added additional cup holders to its vehicles.

And just to clarify, I believe people should be allowed to run third-party applications on their iPhone without having to go through the App Store (or jailbreaking). I'm just saying that the inconsistency is what really bugs me. If they want to sell a G-rated phone, that's fine with me. Advertise it as such and enforce that policy consistently, but don't blame me when I take my business elsewhere. As a matter of fact, I'm switching to an Android-based phone on Thursday.

The problem is not that Apple is making moral decisions about which applications to allow in the App Store. The problem is their ever-changing, wildly inconsistent approval guidelines. This application might get approved while other seemingly identical applications might get rejected. That's the real problem: developers simply have no way to know which way the App Store approval process wind is blowing on a given day. I wouldn't have such a bone to pick with Apple if they just picked a position and stuck with it consistently.

Don't Talk to the Police

The think the IRS would disagree with you ;-)

I think it's more about whether you're making profit from the picture...

This is the US Post Office we're talking about here, so we don't have to worry about any profits being made...

Self-taught programmers might not know design patterns by name, but they will likely stumble upon the more common ones on their own. When they finally learn about design patterns, they will understand the topic better because they "invented" some of the design patterns themselves. That's how it was for me at least. One day I was explaining something to another programmer, and after my long explanation he just looked at me and said "Oh, so you're using the visitor pattern." I tilted my head, went online, and learned a new name for something I had been using for years.

8Gb seems a bit small. Photos, music, and applications will fill up 1GB pretty quickly. /nitpick

Not true. The secure connection is established before the HTTP request (containing the URL) is transmitted.

For added irony, I'll refer you to Google.cn for an explanation.

Be careful about checking your credit too often though. When you check your credit too often, it dings your credit score.

Not true. Applying for new lines of credit will lower your score, but checking it yourself will not. See http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs6c-CreditScores.htm#5

Tort reform: Whatever. This accounts for a teeny, tiny portion of health care costs. It's highlighted by right-wingers, but you could eliminate all unjust lawsuits and you'd be saving pennies.

The actual dollar amount paid out in courts due to medical lawsuits might be a small percentage, but don't underestimate the subtle effect it has on the healthcare system as a whole. The threat of malpractice lawsuits means doctors must buy expensive malpractice insurance. That could mean hiring fewer staff to assist with patient care. In other words patients suffer. Another side effect of looming malpractice lawsuits: over-treatment. Doctors run expensive, time-consuming, unnecessary tests because they are afraid that if they don't, it will be used against them in a lawsuit later on. This means the MRI machine is tied up by someone who doesn't actually need it. Oh, and since insurance is paying for the scan, it's costing everyone more in premiums. Again, the patients suffer in the long run.

Kind of surprised that "most" iPhone users have the unlimited texting plan. Any data to back that up?

I drop at least one or two calls per day here in the Boston area. I live south of Boston, work north of Boston, and travel several times a week into Boston. I drop calls in all of those places... It's really awful. If I used it mostly as a phone I would be pissed, but since I mainly use it for email, browsing, etc., I'm only moderately annoyed. I do hope they will fix it soon.

Hey, asdfndsagse, what's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the wall and the mozzarella sticks?

Saying cloud computing is "hosting for noobs" is like saying automatic transmissions are "transmissions for noobs." Sure, automatic transmissions are inherently less efficient than manual transmissions, but they save you from having to worry about shifting gears. Similarly, cloud computing might not perform as well as traditional hosting solutions, but they save you the hassle and expense of scaling up and down with demand. It's a trade-off, like everything else in life...