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It's also quite plausible that you can die - it has happened before. People get lost, they run out of fuel, they don't have water, the temperature easily gets up into the 40-50C range and - dead.

  This happened only last month when two guys working on a station got their 4WD bogged 10 miles from the homestead and tried to walk back under the hot sun. One of them died from heat and dehydration.

tt also happened in the US, too. A couple from BC got lost in Nevada after following their GPS down a narrow trail road and got stuck. The wife, who stayed in the vehicle managed to barely survive, but her husband was presumed dead and his body was only found months later.

And then we have all the cases of people driving into lakes and other such things following their GPSes.

Nothing really new with Apple's Maps - follow a GPS blindly and it will lead you wrong eventually. Then again, it's Apple Maps, where compeittors love to make up fake nonexistent problems because they can't seem to find the billions of real ones (like this one).

Months of difference make a difference in sports and the classroom. Why shouldn't years of difference make a difference among siblings?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/03/05/f-birth-month-sports-learning-health.html

A 2011 study of B.C. students who entered kindergarten in 1995 found that compared to those born in January, kids with December birthdays were 12 to 15 per cent less likely to meet reading and numeracy standards in the elementary grades and 12 per cent less likely to graduate.

In Britain, the school cutoff date is Aug. 31, which means kids learn with classmates born in September of the previous year. In a 2011 study, researchers at Britain’s Institute for Fiscal Studies reported that kids born in August have less confidence in their academic abilities and are less likely to attend top universities.

Don't know about those, but Kinder Eggs are illegal in the U.S. - Illegal Kinder Eggs

I have an inkling that Microsoft/OEMs will make the process more onerous going forward but I believe its worth the pain.

Microsoft has no stake in crapware. In fact, they made a big stink about it around the time of Vista's release. They know that when someone runs a Windows system that is full of crap from the factory, they are likely to blame Windows rather than the vendor for the poor performance.

Stopping technically oriented users from downloading Windows from MSDN has never been on Microsoft's agenda. Why would it be?

At first I thought it was pretty silly but then I remembered that the Chinese government had such in-depth control of Nortel's systems that they could control the thermostats.

So it's really only one step away from something that happened in real life.

Just googled a bit, and her are some corporate apologies:

http://www.cbc.ca/undertheinfluence/season-1/2012/05/19/when-brands-apologise-sorry-seems-to-be-the-smartest-word-1/

Duude... Just. Stop. Digging.

Nor does it change the fact that once my SD card is in the device I can forget about it.

Please explain how you can "forget about" a separate storage that you must manage. This I think is the most terrible of your deceptions, misleading people to think having an SD card is equivalent to more base storage. It is not true for any user, as it adds complexity to how you deal with media. I don't know if you are technically ignorant of this fundamental problem but it seems unlikely with this being Slashdot, so I can only assume you are being willfully deceptive as to this point.

Okay, yer right wrong on that one, mate.

I can only speak about what I know, so I will reference the (apparently evil IYO) Android platform, since I've never used a Surface device. For all the Android devices I own (phone, several tablets) as well as the devices I help others with (mostly Android phones), the 'external' storage is indeed plug-and-forget. It auto-mounts when the device is turned on, I can shift the bulk of most of my app storage to the SD card with no drop in usability for the apps in question, and as for media? I simply had to open my camera app settings and tell it to save to the external storage instead of local storage. My Gallery app has no problem parsing the external and internal storage together and showing me everything.

As an added bonus, if I drop my phone under a truck or in a toilet, well my precious dog photos are stored on a nice, non-volatile, easily-removeable microSD card. I have a high probability of being able to get them back even if I don't happen to have immediate access to teh internets, and I can copy them back over to my netbook in about 2 minutes.

Or, I can just retrieve them from ONLINE_CLOUD_STORAGE_PROVIDER of my choice (Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc...) if it happens when I am near my home WiFi. Yes, I do have to explicitly enable these backup services myself, but I actually prefer that to trusting 'the man' to do it for me. I back up what (and only what) I want to back up.

Just plain false. Cell data is expensive

You are wrong. Cell data is not that expensive; but more importantly in everyday life WiFi is pervasive. I have only a 2GB data plan but consume around 100-200 GB a month between two iOS devices.

I come nowhere near the limits of my data plan each month.

Again, you are trying to mislead by ignoring how real people use real devices.

Wow, privileged much? So, where do you live, Seoul? Tokyo? I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but unless you live in a metropolis, WiFi availability is most certainly *not* 'pervasive'. Where I live, I cannot travel from my home to my work without losing the (supposedly city-wide) crappy 'free' WiFi signal almost as soon as I leave either place. And since the speed of it is a joke, it's not even worth it to try, usually.

I like to use my devices on the go, and since I'm in Canada (and not Vancouver or Toronto), that means anything that's delivered over the air comes directly off my cell data plan. And in case you haven't heard, us Canucks pay through the nose for mobile data, especially roaming data.

Wifi is in no way ubiquitous enough in most of the world to make "the cloud" a viable alternative to local storage.

You go broad when you should go narrow. Sure if I am traveling across Africa WiFi might be harder to come by (having travelled there though you might be surprised). But In that case pre-loading an SD card before leaving home and is the same degree of trouble for iOS and Surface, and the dongle is hardly an issue to bring in an area where power will be more precious than anything.

But the people that actually can afford to buy a surface or iPad? You are in

http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/day6_20121103_38032.mp3

This is a Canadian Broadcast that covers a lot of territory. It has some positive and negative feedback about American situations, as reported by American reporters, and former Governors.

Its about several topics, including Romney in Mass. Voter Fraud, Hurricane Sandy, and what should be of great interest to Americans, the elections in two days from now.

The program is similar to what you might hear on PBS

Rich people don't just let their money sit there.

Yes they do.

The New York Times estimates that there is between 20 to 30 trillion dollars stashed in the Cayman Islands.

Apple's 80 billion dollar warchest isn't doing anything. Bill and Melinda Gates are using a bit of their money, but most of it is sitting around hedging against fear of want, same as the money of most super-wealthy. They don't feel safe unless they have a big pile of money/gold/property/ locked up somewhere.

"Trickle Down" is a lie. And it is clearly a lie. The economy isn't as screwed up as it is for no reason, and it's certainly not because of the behavior of people with nothing.

In the lower mainland, I have not seen any reports of it being felt. Same with most of vancouver island. It was up by prince rupert and haidia gwaii. So for the most part, that area is sparsely populated. The closest major city would be prince rupert with a pop of 12,508.

If this had occurred 500 km south, we would have had some major damage. Judging by this cbc article of eyewitness reports:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/10/28/bc-earthquake-witnesses.html

But there is actually another small plate called juan de fuca that buffets the lower mainland (pop 2.5 million) as well as part of the northern US.

I guess no one really knows what this means in terms of more earthquakes down south in the populated areas. Earthquakes seem to be completely unpredictible. And living on the coast, you do tend to read up often about this particular threat.

I think MS thinks slashdot is a lost cause for them. Most of the posters here recognize the MS FUD when they read it so it ends up getting modded and commented into oblivion. Of course that doesn't stop them from trying, but take the CBC article today for example easily 90% of it is "OMFG!!!! Surface so kewlz, who carz if app store is broken, UNIX/LINX usrz R lozers, LOL!!!!"

There are two or three posts from Linux users commending on how people should consider Linux, and probably about 7% of people complaining about how CBC is pro-apple and never have anything nice to say about Windows.

If that's what the law states, then I'm glad the Texas AG is doing his job and upholding it since that the law that the democratically elected legislature passed.

Ah - but if they ban international, UN-sanctioned observers from monitoring the election how can anyone have confidence that they are "democratically elected" as you claim? Afterall in the aftermath of the 2000 US presidential election one of your former presidents, Carter, claimed that the US presidential election rules would not satisfy the current UN rules for a true democracy and continues to criticise the way the US holds elections even today. So if your former leaders are not convinced by the process why should the rest of us have any confidence in it if you refuse to let anyone observe it?

This is another great example. Here are cars being built in Canada and being sold for much less after being shipped to the US than they can be bought for in the same city they are built in.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/06/12/ottawa-car-price-disparity-border-shopping.html

Using Canadian dollars for Canada and US in USA, but currency has been around par for the last couple of years.

As an example:
Honda builds the Acura MDX in Alliston, Ontario Canada, but to buy one from the dealer in that town costs $9,660 more (MSRP) than going to Honolulu, Hawaii USA to purchase one.

Honda says that there are different market conditions and the costs of marketing in two official languages.

Or how about Toyota that also builds Corollas in Ontario. But they charge a Freight and PDI of $1,465 in Canada versus $760 in the US.

That reminds me of the story about mice who keep electing cats to their government, as told byTommy Douglas.

Yeah, no. Samsung has plenty of problems with their working conditions, too.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/09/05/tech-samsung-labour.html

When companies are that size, it's pretty unusual for them to be angels. Just because you don't like Apple doesn't make Samsung a paragon for anything.

Is it really too hard to include the link to an actual article where this NEWS is being stated?

Quick google result here

See? Now you got me karmawhoring! *ticks 'Post Anonymously'*

You forgot, they also need to put the link in some random spot in the article that makes it completely non-obvious where the link is going.

Here's a link for those who actually want to RTFA: Italian scientists guilty of manslaughter in 2009 earthquake

Quick google result here

See? Now you got me karmawhoring!
*ticks 'Post Anonymously'*

Last time politicians tried that in Canada, people were prepared to compel the politician who suggested the idea to change their name to Doris Day. 100000 people is WAY too low.

If he winds up landing in a zoo, he could really become One with the Tiger.

The article is wrong. Grep the CBC article for 'thumb drive'. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/10/10/ns-delisle-spy-hearing.html

US electricity production is 100% produced from domestic sources, none of it from imported sources.

Really? When did you surrender and become part of Canada then?

Like CBC's "This is That".

Just as well it wasn't in Wales. They don't like pediatricians either; http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2000/08/30/pedophiles000830.html

That's right, no hockey this year. The players have been locked out by the owners because they were unable to come to a deal.

Did Bush execute any US citizens without due process?

There is no question of due process involved. If you are fighting with the enemy, you are the enemy. Simple to understand. Example.

This isn't the first time this question has came up. There was a period when the US government shot down, en mass, large numbers of Americans without filing charges, trial, or any judicial due process. There is video depicting one of the more famous incidents.

How inefficient. What percentage of the intended (online) audience did he reach? 10%? 20%? Instead of just looking at his own e-mails, he should have asked Vic, because we #TellVicEverything!.

Actually, no:

Green says she never communicated with Kenney's office. However, she did sign what she believed was an online petition about a refugee claimant who was about to be deported.

Source

... to the rest of the world.

Check out this brief article & interview : http://www.npr.org/2012/09/19/161439562/held-dear-in-u-s-free-speech-perplexing-abroad

The summary of the above link brings up an interesting blind spot: the rest of the world does not have free speech, not in any way. I'm not just talking about countries where you could be executed for praying to the wrong god. I'm talking about 'Western Nations,' like the UK and members of the EU. For example in France - where many of our ideals of personal liberty spring from - you can be jailed for 6 months (and fined) for being seen as insulting the country, flag, anthem, or any public worker. Imagine not being able to speak negatively about a politician or the police, on threat of jail time. This is standard almost everywhere else in the world.

Heck, you can even be jailed in Canada for writing hate speech.

The US is one of a small handful that really places freedom of speech at the top of the list, and doesn't just pay lip service to it.

I would summarize it like this: Socialism promotes the welfare of society over that of the individual, and rather than protecting 'the right to not be offended,' they simply focus on the improvement of society as a whole. It just looks like 'the right to not be offended' on the individual level. The most socialist your country gets, the more likely they are to trade the privileges of the individual for the betterment of society, and free speech is one of those.

So, they may see racism as bad (which it is), and so they outlaw it in both deed AND word. They may consider Nazis to be awful, and so they forbid anyone to claim to be a Nazi, or even learn about them, or listen to any of their speeches - just in case they might accidentally like it: better to bury it all and pretend it never happened.

It's also not unrelated that most of these laws were birthed from strongly fascist or oppressive monarchy governments. They had different motivations, but they also did not value personal liberty. At extremes, there's little difference between strong socialism or strong fascism - they use the same means and have the same goals.

I think the most scary thing from the poll you linked is that 8% of Muslims did not agree that: Muslims living in the U.S. do not sympathize with the al Qaeda terrorist organization.

This means that 1 in 12 Muslims interviewed could believe that Muslims living in the U.S. sympathize with an organisation who openly hates western society.

No need to believe polls when you can see open activity, arrests, and court cases.

The recruiter: Anwar al-Awlaki, portrait of an American jihadist CNN: Al-Awlaki threatens Americans
40 Americans Have Joined Al Qaeda Group
U.S.-educated Misunderstander of Islam pleads guilty to jihad war crimes, turns government witness

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 27, 2012

Denver: Man Arrested for Providing Material Support to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization

Jamshid Muhtorov was arrested by members of the FBI’s Denver and Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Forces on a charge of providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic Jihad Union, a Pakistan-based designated foreign terrorist organization. Full Story

Baltimore: Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction in Plot to Attack Armed Forces Recruiting Center

U.S. citizen Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain, pled guilty to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against federal property in connection with a scheme to attack an armed forces recruiting station in Catonsville, Maryland. Full Story

Washington Field: Man Pleads Guilty to Shootings at Pentagon, Other Military Buildings

Yonathan Melaku, of Alexandria, Virginia, pled guilty to damaging property and to firearms violations involving five separate shootings at military installations in northern Virginia between October and November 2010, and to attempting to damage veterans’ memorials at Arlington National Cemetery. Full Story

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 13, 2012

1.Tampa: Florida Resident Charged with Plotting to Bomb Locations in Tampa

A 25-year-old resident of Pinellas Park, Florida was charged in connection with an alleged plot to attack locations in Tampa with a vehicle bomb, assault rifle, and other explosives. Full Story

2.Baltimore: Former Army Solider Charged with Attempting to Provide Material Support to al Shabaab

A man who secretly converted to Islam days before he separated from the Army was charged with attempting to provide material support to al Shabaab, a foreign terrorist organization, and was arrested upon his return to Maryland after traveling to Africa. Full Story

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending December 9, 2011

Seattle: Man Pleads Guilty in Plot to Attack Military Processing Center

A former Los Angeles man pled guilty in connection with the June 2011 plot to attack a military installation in Seattle. Full Story

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending December 2, 2011

http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episode/programmed-to-be-fat.html

Should be viewable free online.

It's worse than that. In Edmonton, a teacher was suspended for giving zeros for assignments that were never handed in. Apparently, they are only supposed to receive an "Incomplete" mark, and if they never hand it in, it just doesn't count on their average for the year. I believe eventually he lost his job, mostly because he decided to fight the school in court (good for him). It's hard to believe how bad the policies have become in schools lately.

Well I seem to remember that case, remember various front groups like avaaz were claiming it was the conservatives who were doing it? I always liked the claims of "omg the current government could be illegitimate" Well there was an investigation. The reality is the investigation showed a dead end, they couldn't find anyone. It's just as likely it was a liberal or NDP member. But let's not forget that the liberals were caught in a robocall illegally. Hey, did you know, well maybe you don't but this is from the 90's, that the Liberal Party of Canada is the reason why there is a robocall restriction against political parties? Yes indeed. Back in the 90's they were the ones who were trying to fraudulently make voters go to the wrong polling stations, and give out the wrong dates. They were mercilessly hammered to the walls over it.

The canadian system does work. Though whether all parts work all the time is another question that can be debated.

It is time to accept that this is happening. Time to make the most of it. There are remote communities that will be well positioned in the Canadian Arctic for incredible economical opportunities.

High Prices for Groceries could become a thing of the past once the ice opens up for longer periods of time.

The Northwest Passage has the potential to become more important than Panama

It may well be too late to stop the warming trend, we will have to make the best of it.

http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episode/autism-enigma.html

Probably blocked outside of Canada, but you can probably get the video elsewhere.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/12/david-suzuki-presents-the-autism-enigma-on-the-nature-of-things.html

Basically, oral antibiotics in young kids end up screwing up their gut bacteria balance, permanently. The bacteria that end up more dominant end up causing autism symptoms.

First research on this is over 10 years old. Now some groups are starting to looking at it once more, but nothing was done in those 10 years. So why no one noticed it? Kind of reminds me of why the link between bacteria and ulcers was deemed impossible for years.

Toronto police Det. Const. Andrew Teixeira and his partner Jamie Clark knocked on doors in Holly's west-Toronto neighbourhood asking men to voluntarily provide a DNA sample.

When they got to the home of 35-year-old Michael Briere – filled with stuffed animals and comic books – they asked Briere if they could swab inside his cheek.

"It was a flat no. He apologized and said he thought it was just a way for the government to track people's movements," Teixeira recalled. Of the 300 men who lived within two blocks of Jones's home and were asked to provide a DNA sample, he was one of only two who said no.

Briere was placed under around-the-clock surveillance. It took a month before police announced his arrest, revealing they had matched his DNA, taken from a discarded pop can, to skin found under Jones's fingernails. Briere was convicted and is serving a life sentence.

Emphasis mine. Now it turns out they got the guy. So it just boils down to a question of whether the ends justifies the mean.

I've lived in Toronto for 20+ years. I don't recall any such attempt, nor threat.

He's referring to the Holly Jones case in 2003.

May 21, 2003
Police intensify search, sifting through hundreds of bags of garbage in the hopes of turning up additional evidence in the case. They start collecting DNA samples from residents of Holly's neighbourhood.

Anyway...

And that's just the visual representation of my oldest 1 GB hard drive. You should see my 3 TB drives!

Anyway...

Shit, when did you break into my home?

Anyway...

How about this article in Canada.

While I'm sure there's some crossover between Canadian CBC and slashdot readers, I'd say that this is visible to more than just the slash-type crowd.
I have lots of non-geek friends that have taken notice of this, especially when features disappear from their phones are a result of idiotic lawsuits on obvious tech.

Ignorance and then fear of unknown is what is driving this. People think about "radiation" and their eyes glaze over. And it is not even regular people - scientists do it too!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/08/17/radon-lung-cancer-risk.html

What do they know? They know that there is a little bit more radon than they thought.

Their conclusions? FUD! Death!

They made up a non-threshold model for radiation based on WWII nuclear bombings, and they they keep applying it everywhere like if it applies to low level radiation levels. Anyone with any clue, knows that it does not work this way. But then when does reality stop a widespread belief??

Heck, no one even did much work on low level radiation and their effects on living beings. For that they would need a nil-radiation environment to do experiments and no one cares enough to fund that yet.

So no, I'm not surprised that there is a lot of FUD about Fukushima. And I'm not even surprised at the radon-linked-paper-deaths either.

For years GTE -> verizon would charge a few bucks extra for the privilege of having touch tone.

In Canada, Bell Canada still charges for touch-tone service, or at least did until very recently.

And no, you can't disable it saying you want to go back to pulse service - they won't honor that request. So you're stuck paying $2.80 a month for it.

I see no reason to boycott Canadian oil.

Really? Chiquita banana tried. Then they said it wasn't true and there was no boycott. That was after the Canadian public turned around and left their produce rotting on store shelves.

The greater vancouver area is where most of the gang violence takes place, not in the inner city. In any case, the homicide rate is still about half that of Seattle Vancouver's murder rate low by North American standards. Property crime on the other hand is a bit of a problem Vancouver crime among worst in North America.

You can even put it in a corn maze! :P
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2012/07/27/edmonton-video-qr-code-corn-maze.html

It looks like highly geek touted Teksavvy is one of the worst for throttling in Canada. (disclosure: I use Teksavvy but I don't use bit torrent much if at all, so cannot provide my own observations).

What is VERY interesting is late last year Bell Canada told the CRTC regulator that they would stop throttling. And here they are, the worst offender according to the data provided on this new list. I'm not surprised that they seem to be a bunch of lying scumbags. In discussions with the federal regulator and in the publicity wars, they pretty much lead the charge over the years for throttling and bandwidth caps. I wonder if this can be used to file a complaint against them.

In Canada, Ontario at least, most geeks having been trumpeting how good Teksavvy is because they have higher or no bandwidth caps. They are no cheaper and can be more expensive if on a dry loop. And according to these numbers, they look to be as bad or worse on throttling than the often maligned (in my opinion with merit) Telus, and Rogers. The only one that is worse is Bell who, and I'll make no bones about it, is in my opinion a pretty disreputable company and one of the worst abusers of their position in the marketplace..

It is amazing that Telus and Rogers are among the least offenders here. But I wonder how much a ruling earlier this year telling Rogers to stop throttling has to do with it. I may be mistaken but I don't believe Bell received the same warning. Probably because they had already at this point, lied to the regulators saying they would stop voluntarily (which apparently they haven't).

I have been considering going back to Rogers but past experience makes me gun shy. Present experience with cost/benefit with Teksavvy is making me think hard about it though.

It looks like highly geek touted Teksavvy is one of the worst for throttling in Canada. (disclosure: I use Teksavvy but I don't use bit torrent much if at all, so cannot provide my own observations).

What is VERY interesting is late last year Bell Canada told the CRTC regulator that they would stop throttling. And here they are, the worst offender according to the data provided on this new list. I'm not surprised that they seem to be a bunch of lying scumbags. In discussions with the federal regulator and in the publicity wars, they pretty much lead the charge over the years for throttling and bandwidth caps. I wonder if this can be used to file a complaint against them.

In Canada, Ontario at least, most geeks having been trumpeting how good Teksavvy is because they have higher or no bandwidth caps. They are no cheaper and can be more expensive if on a dry loop. And according to these numbers, they look to be as bad or worse on throttling than the often maligned (in my opinion with merit) Telus, and Rogers. The only one that is worse is Bell who, and I'll make no bones about it, is in my opinion a pretty disreputable company and one of the worst abusers of their position in the marketplace..

It is amazing that Telus and Rogers are among the least offenders here. But I wonder how much a ruling earlier this year telling Rogers to stop throttling has to do with it. I may be mistaken but I don't believe Bell received the same warning. Probably because they had already at this point, lied to the regulators saying they would stop voluntarily (which apparently they haven't).

I have been considering going back to Rogers but past experience makes me gun shy. Present experience with cost/benefit with Teksavvy is making me think hard about it though.

About 1% in northern Europeans, and it's not known to occur in other racial groups... they happened to be doing a story on the Berlin patient on CBC a few days ago, and I was listening to it.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/ID/2260029968/

And as you point out, whether a person is a good match for a bone marrow transplant is a big question... it's significantly harder to find a match for a bone marrow transplant. The video goes into detail on it.

The gun the shooter use was already illegal in Colorado. How will further disarming the victims make anything better?

"Guns used in Colorado theatre shooting legal in Canada"

If these guns are legal in Canada with the right licenses and permits, I'm pretty sure they're legal in Colorado.