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Meh...1920x1200 on my 5+ year old computer monitor is better resolution (albeit, just barely) than even a 1080p HDTV (source). Sure, you can get a six foot wide HDTV, but that only makes the image look more pixelated. Drop to a 720p and the difference is even more marked. I'd rather watch TV or movies on my PC than use my PC on a TV. YMMV, of course.

Apple doesn't actively prohibit "rooting" of their devices.

http://gizmodo.com/303171/apple-says-unlocked-iphones-will-brick-after-software-update-+-what-does-it-mean

From the linked article:

"But first, the bricking. Was this done on purpose? Lam doesn't think so. Jacqui at Ars believes that the firmware was completed weeks ago, and the bricking is unintentional."

Apple doesn't pursue the iOS "hacker" community with legal threats, DMCA takedown notices, etc.

http://news.cnet.com/apple-iphone-jailbreaking-violates-our-copyright/

Partially true. Apple did say this, and a Federal Court disagreed. Apple however, didn't appeal the decision, and unlike many Android device manufacturers, has not done an end-run around that decision by putting "fuses" in their microcontrollers, signed bootloaders, etc.

So, it seems that Apple had one opinion, and the Feds had another, but in the end, Apple respected the process. It sure seems like those other manufacturers are simply taking a disingenuous advantage of the fact that the lawsuit didn't name them, specifically, and that Android users (and curiously, the EFF) seem to be disinterested in pursuing the issue. Wonder why? Could it be that the EFF has an Anti-Apple bias? Nah, couldn't be!

Apple doesn't infest its products with an OS (Windows 7) that has DRM from the driver-level up.

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/05/08/01/0421248/Mac-OS-X-Intel-Kernel-Uses-DRM

Wow! Old story much?!? How long did you have to search for that one!?!

If you look at the article, you will see that that referred to the DEVELOPER PREVIEW PLATFORMS when Apple did the Intel Switch. The TPR protection did NOT make it into the actual RELEASE CODE. Obviously, Apple had a pretty strong interest in keeping their very-restricted Beta release OS protected. Let's see what that actually ended up being in the RELEASE code. A simple deleteable file and deletable kernel extension that says "Please Don't Steal OS X". Wow. Some DRM! This article refers to TPR on OS X as "The Myth That Won't Die." And of course, the very existence of Hackintoshes kinda belies strong TPM protection, doesn't it?

As I said: DISinformative. But his post is modded +5 Informative, and mine will be punish-downmodded, of course.

Apple doesn't actively prohibit "rooting" of their devices.

http://gizmodo.com/303171/apple-says-unlocked-iphones-will-brick-after-software-update-+-what-does-it-mean

Apple doesn't pursue the iOS "hacker" community with legal threats, DMCA takedown notices, etc.

http://news.cnet.com/apple-iphone-jailbreaking-violates-our-copyright/

Apple doesn't infest its products with an OS (Windows 7) that has DRM from the driver-level up.

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/05/08/01/0421248/Mac-OS-X-Intel-Kernel-Uses-DRM

You get more calls from Windows users simply because a vast majority of users *are* Windows users.

I could take your anecdotal and misinterpreted evidence as fact, or I could listen to about 30 security experts and researchers from all different sources, people who actually do this stuff for a living rather than living off the crumbs. The general consensus from real experts does not match your analysis at all.

In their words: Experts weigh in on Mac vs. PC security
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10444561-245.html

That mere fact that I am reading this article indicates that WebP has enough momentum to potentially be useful.

Google is the one that is pushing Webp. They acquired the video compression codecs through their takeover of on2 technologies for $106 million. Duh that they are going to add it in their cloud services.

You are reading that the largest open source web browser says no, which would be a lower hurdle than than trying to get it supported in Internet Explorer (which it won't anytime soon, because WebP in HTML5 is not only a Adobe Flash video replacement, but also a Microsoft Silverlight video replacement). Those two browsers alone mean that over 70% of the web cannot see WebP files in their web browser. That is not momentum.

See: browser support for Motion JPEG 2000, which is an ISO Standard

If somebody at the FTC is looking for a cushy job at Microsoft, say, senior vice president of government affairs , the deal will most definitely go through.. Such is the nature of things...

Er, where do you think your Mac parts come from? Apple frequently uses Seagate drives, even! Sometimes to disastrous result!

No, your random crappy anecdotal evidence does not prove that the same parts from the same manufacturers are any higher quality when you put them into an Apple chassis.

. Jailbreakers released a fix.

that isn't true. a major difference between jailbreaking and rooting is whether or not the vendor continues to provide you updates. A jailbroken iphone cannot be updated for security or for new features in the OS without possibly losing everything gained from jailbreaking. With jailbreaks, you end up with less functionality in some aspects and more in others and the things you lose can be very consequential.

On the other hand, a rooted android phone does not (generally) run that risk. There is now 1 example of a store you cannot access for now with a rooted android device.

as to your points about polish, your opinion is your opinion but don't turn an argument into a chance to market a device.

as to app count, if this research is reasonable,
http://asia.cnet.com/crave/study-android-to-overtake-ios-app-count-in-july-62208428.htm

then android will have more apps soon (July). And if the graph is reasonably accurate, the pace of android submissions continues to accelerate.

and as we all have read, android marketshare is outstripping iOS by a large clip. Hell, when I got my phone 2 years ago the best choice was an iPhone but even I'm excited to switch from what I've seen. I think the last great benefit to apple is being on AT&T so you can check things online while on the phone, which can be really useful. But I haven't looked to see if other networks support that yet and it isn't an iPhone exclusive.

The reason Mac users are now targetted is because they are less computer savvy,

*citation needed

have deep pockets

Probably because they have jobs and moved out of their mothers' basements.

and have been shown to be more educated than Windows users.

FTFY, which probably explains your second point as well
    http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20056815-71.html

I can't disagree strongly enough, and this is factually incorrect in almost every way. Besides the fact that 98% of cell phones use ARM CPUs, the STM Cortex-M3 specifically has an incredibly versatile set of peripherals and power management abilities. Not to mention a hundred times the RAM and FLASH, and >5x the performance. While you might disagree with the rest of the world, it doesn't make you right. The instruction set is annoying if you're programming in assembly, but certainly less annoying than the 8051, and in any case CodeSourcery has put the effort into the ARM GCC port to make it a MUCH more mature platform for C/C++ than avr-gcc.

USB carries power, and can power most laptop style hard drives, while eSATA does not

Actually, yes, eSATA does, at least in modern versions.

Have you seen the size of the iPhone 4's circuit board? It's tiny and border to border filled efficiently with few components. The sim slot uses a huge percentage of space. http://news.cnet.com/i/tim//2010/06/22/apple-iphone-4-logic-board.jpg

What David Brinn misunderstood is that it has been attempted ... with miserable results.

Here is a C/Net Article from 2007 documenting just how horrible trying replace the current IRS computer system has historically been. I remembered when it totally failed in the 1990's, and I was reminded of the axiom, "if it cannot be done on paper, it cannot be done on a computer", a reference to computer efficiency rather than the uninformed perception that computers can work miracles.

Because a miracle is exactly what it would take to model the IRS code in a computer. As soon as one would get into the process, Congress would add another 1000 pages, and modify 500 others! This would be an annual issue, and as such, the model would never be finished.

Taxing should be simple and fair and the easiest way to do that is to tax income on people and tax sales on businesses, at a flat rate. That would cut the 10,000 pages down to one or two and STOP CONGRESS from messing with it every year.

Well, maybe it would slow them down.

To say that they are all compatible with every Android device is basically absurd

Whoa, what? I guess it's a good thing I didn't say that then. Of course all Android apps aren't compatible with all devices. Do you really think all Windows applications will work with this cell phone? What the GP was implying with his swipe about application incompatibility was that people (with the winphone device) will be able to use the apps they are used to, i.e., Windows desktop stuff. Which is a very dubious claim as the vast majority of that stuff is not going to be usable on a 4" 1024x600 screen. Furthermore, it's a 1.2 GHz Atom running at 600 MHz so performance is going to be abysmal. The point I was making was that for a 4" phone, what you have for Android is more than sufficient and if there is a need for more, then fire up Eclipse and get paid!

to say that the average user doesn't have to worry about incompatibility is only true if the user limits themselves to email, social media, and perhaps a few games.

I repeat, 600 MHz Atom. So you can probably forget the games and social media. Email, maybe.

At the same time, I am lucky if my Android powered phone from 6 months ago can run the latest version of the OS, not to even mention the apps, and the one app I really wanted (Netflix) is locked the **** out.

There are really only 2 official Android phones. Both of which run the latest versions of the OS. And both of which run Netflix. Furthermore, if you don't like the Android model, you don't have to use an Android phone. If an operating system is open to any and all to develop on then there are going to be efforts of varying quality. So, the consumer has to *gasp* educate themselves if they want a good buy. That's a small price to pay for the kind of innovation being seen in the Android ecosystem right now. Netflix picking and choosing what phones to support is their choice. I like that they have that choice. I also like that I had the choice to edit one text file (build.prop) on my OG Droid to make Netflix stream as beautifully as can be. Is that the recourse for everybody? Of course not. For everybody else, I would recommend whatever the latest Nexus model on the market happens to be as that's where the mainstream officially sanctioned Android action is.

"The device is made by Fujitsu "

And Fujitsu has been making ultramobile PCs for years, the u810 came out in 2007. I have a 2 lbs Fujitsu UMPC running Windows 7 with a 9" touchscreen at 1280x768. It's worth about $200 used.

How is this newsworthy?

Much of the point of ChromeOS is that applications will have offline functionality.

The HTML5 technologies that ChromeOS will use for offline functionality are really designed to synchronise with the original server.

That's not true, Google is adding additional functionality to handle local file access. Again, don't let the facts get in your way or anything.

Windows Vista/7 are already known to be much more secure than MacOS.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/15605/hacker_pwn2own_organizer_windows_7_is_safer_than_snow_leopard

http://www.pcworld.com/article/189760/hacking_impresario_windows_safer_than_mac.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10444561-245.html

Remember that one time (a year or two?) when they said they didn't throttle torrent traffic?

And just how do you do "a bit of registry cleanup" on OSX or Linux? Have you ever felt the need to defrag a Linux or OSX machine?

some [160 PCs] bought with no OS license and installed with Debian

Each installation of Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, or Fedora can be counted as an infringement because Linux violates U.S. Patent 5,893,120 and foreign counterparts.

I won't pretend my memory is perfect but I do seem to recall that Netscape was free for students but not for business. I want to say it's retail price for business was $49.99. This seems to support my memory as well as this one from 1998, 3 years after Internet Explorer 1.0.

Abolishing the FCC does not mean airwave anarchy. What it means is returning to bottom-up law rather than the top-down process that has characterized telecommunications for the last 80 years.

More details in the link.

Simply put, squatting is limited to registering vreizon.com then putting up cell phone ads.

Right, that's exactly the situation I was talking about. I am confused because you said "That's not squatting" and I am trying to figure out what it was I said that is not squatting.

I was speaking in terms of how the courts view domains: http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-223597.html [cnet.com]

Good link: so was I. That court ruling states that domains names are intellectual property, not real property. The relevant difference here is that ICANN's rules forbid squatting, whereas squatting on real property is well-protected by the law.

As for the trademark thing, do not misunderstand what a registered trademark means. Trademarks are obtained and maintained by showing that you have been legitimately using that mark for some time. Just because you didn't officially apply for the trademark until after someone registered the domain, or that it wasn't granted until after the registration, does not in any way dilute the value of the trademark so it should not impact that URDP resolution. If the holder of the domain is squatting, then a real trademark should trump that every time.

If you want to direct your frustration at anyone

What frustration? I was asking a question about how the new process would handle squatters. It is a big deal for small businesses but I don't think the new rules will help them much.

That's not squatting.

What isn't squatting?

Simply put, squatting is limited to registering vreizon.com then putting up cell phone ads. Wanting cars.com just because you want it, doesn't make the owner a squatter (even if the domain is parked or has no content). Nor is the person who registers a domain, then someone else comes along and files a trademark on the term for UDRP purposes.

Similar to real estate, domain names are property and operate under the concept of capitalism.

Domain names are IP not RP. Economically speaking, it is very different from real estate. Real estate is finite, expensive, and owned permanently unless transferred. Domain names are infinite, cheap, and are only available for rent.

It seems like almost every English dictionary word is registered as a domain right now. Any domain that expires is immediately snatched up by squatters. This is an unfortunate problem.

I was speaking in terms of how the courts view domains:
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-223597.html

More recently, where all this is headed:
http://www.domainnamenews.com/legal-issues/are-domain-names-considered-property-or-not/2917

Btw, you can do the same as the "squatters". Just go to namejet.com or snapnames.com and bid for the names you want. There's nothing magical about the process, when a name drops it goes into auction. If it's a good name then expect to pay many thousands of dollars to outbid the others that want it. Doesn't get more fair than that.

And even if you applied for a trademark after the fact, (theoretically) it holds no water in the UDRP process.

The UDRP process is almost exclusively based on trademarks. While I'm not aware of any specific cases, it seems unlikely that a trademark holder would be denied the right to a domain against a squatter who had no trademark at all.

For reference, scan through dnw.com sometime (not my site). UDRPs are denied all the time because the claimant registers a trademark on a term, then tries to hijack the exact match domain from someone who registered the domain name earlier. As a matter of fact, there is a penalty for such behavior called 'reverse domain name hijacking'. Unfortunately it's not enforced enough.

Domains are valuable. If you want to direct your frustration at anyone, direct it at the corps and deep pockets that are trying to corrupt the whole process. If you own a good name you're automatically a target for defending it. And all the costs associated with the defense.

They changed it to SyFy because they wanted to be able to trademark the name. They tried to trademark Sci-Fi but it was too generic.

http://www.cnet.com/8301-18603_1-10197108-73.html

So yeah, that's why.

wait for the bad deed to actually occur before screaming about said bad deed.

Ordinarily, yes. However, in Microsoft's case, they have a demonstrable history of leveraging their "monopoly" to prop up their offerings in other markets ultimately dominating those markets, reducing consumer choice, then leaving the product to stagnate with no other real alternative. IE6 is the premier example of this. They tried to do it with Java but Sun managed to stop them. Personally, I like real competition. The mobile device industry is on fire right now with newer and better products coming out seemingly everyday. Of course there is a fly in the ointment. MS, not content to compete on merit, has made it obvious that they will do anything possible to destroy competition through any means necessary. Skype is an important application for all devices. The last thing we need is to just sit and wait hoping for MS' good will.

There are plenty of geeks working on that right now...

At least that's what CNet heard through the grapevine.

Interesting is this:

The failure of Sony's server security has ignited investigations by the FBI, the Department of Justice, Congress, and the New York State Attorney General,

Excuse me? New York State AG? Weren't those PSN guys arguing against Hotz that they are in California and not New York??

No credibility with the general public?

The general public, and their customers, have largely complained about Anonymous hacking PSN. This is one of the main reasons that this "sect" released a press release. The general slashdot crowd may not believe a word Sony says, but that is not representative of the general public.

It's also not hard for the general public to believe they are behind it, because they have heard of the HBgary hack and the DDoS on Sony, don't know or don't care of the motivations.

Also, you have articles like this, which was just released and claims that Anonymous is now planning an attack on Sony.

An interesting piece of alternative history, in the real world the record has this to say:

"We are pursuing a strategy to keep WordPerfect on the defensive. In effect, this means acting like we are still the "trailer" and explicitly calling them out with aggressive switcher tactics" link

"In an email dated October 3, 199, however, Bill Gates ordered his top executives to retract the documentation of the browsing extensions, but only until Microsoft’s own developers of the Office suite of applications had sufficient time to work with the hidden extensions to build an insurmountable advantage over competitors such as WordPerfect" link

"I have decided that we should not publish these extensions. We should wait until we have a way to do a high level of integration that will be harder for likee of Notes, Wordperfect to achieve, and which will give Office a real advantage" link

"When I read the section beginning at paragraph 92, for example, about Microsoft deliberately making Word incompatible with WordPerfect" link

Now bring back one of the models the scientists/engineers will care about, like the 15C or 42S.

Actually, it makes more sense to do what they did - bring them back as smartphone apps.

I may be biased but I think it makes more sense to put the functionality of various traditional handheld calculators into a single app. Perpenso Calc for iPhone optionally supports RPN and offers scientific, statistics, business, hex and bill functionality. More importantly you have the option to use a modern worksheet format for the time value of money, cash flow, amortization, break even, and profit margin calculations; or use the traditional button based approach if you prefer.

Now bring back one of the models the scientists/engineers will care about, like the 15C or 42S.

Actually, it makes more sense to do what they did - bring them back as smartphone apps.

Yeah, the MBA recovery drive is a cute little USB dongle. (It's pretty interesting, the whole thing is maybe twice the length as the USB connector, and is actually thinner --- it just has bare contacts, not the casing that surrounds most such connectors.)

Could they be chipped to spy on us without anyone knowing it?

They don't have to chip it, there's an app for that too, and it has been around for at least 5 years.

Now what I could fathom them taking the risk of exposure for is the camera. Imagine being able to access any cell phone with a camera, browse its contents, or even activate it secretly.

They can, and do

Moral of the story, is don't carry a cell phone, monitor your home's security 24/7 to check for intrusion, do regular bug sweeps, don't talk or do business in your car, and never ever trust anyone. Your wife and kids and most trusted friends will be used as spies against you.

...or you could just put on your tin foil hat and call it a day.

How non-technical, and after how thorough of a look?

I'll just leave these here...

http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-297432.html
http://gigaom.com/2008/08/31/dont-like-the-iphone-check-out-these-touchscreen-phones/
http://www.gsmarena.com/newscomm-769.php
http://www.telecomasia.net/node/5199
http://www.google.com/search?q=SPH-1300&hl=en&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=jjfATeTDOIL30gHT_tXuBA&ved=0CC4QsAQ&biw=1680&bih=947
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=ET&p_theme=et&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EEF6B3EB0A8C768&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
http://cgi.ebay.com/SPRINT-PCS-PALM-OS-WIRELESS-PHONE-SPH-1300-DUAL-BAND-/180613037497
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2000-09-25/news/18143226_1_cell-phone-palm-os
http://www.geardiary.com/2006/11/30/the-palm-treo-700p-palm-os-smartphone-review/
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=1690
http://www.gizmag.com/go/2306/
http://www.google.com/search?q=sony+p900
http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/10/13/lg.debuts.new.prada.phone/
http://www.esato.com/phones/compare.php?phone=433&cp=439
http://gizmodo.com/#!190670/cect-a1000-touchscreen-phone-with-1000-hours-standby
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/at-t-8525/4505-6452_7-32133413.html?tag=lia;rcol

these aren't phones, but what the hell... they could still be mistaken for an iPhone at a glance...

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/prodserv/handheld.html
http://www.suddenlink.net/pages/curtismc/palms.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_III

that's 140 million dollars in sales in the most recent quarter on iPads alone (nevermind iphones or ipods). You may call that drop in the bucket if you want, but I don't Samsung is going to.

Sure, but they sold over 10 million of the Android phones Apple is pissed about (Galaxy S), at what, 400 bucks each? So that's over twice as much, for one model alone.

When Samsung sells a part for $X to a supplier, they get $X. When a Samsung phone is sold for $Y, they do not collect $Y. The phone is sold through other entities, who also choose to profit.

Apple is reported to be buying 7.8 billion from Samsung this year alone through existing contracts. This makes them their largest customer. So yeah, it's a big deal. Probably worth settling lawsuits and licensing patents over. Time will tell.

What's interesting is that Intel are apparently going to make Atoms using the TSMC process. So they'll move things that don't require a really good process to the industry standard one and try to use their better proprietary process for things that do.

Apple have a huge mark-up so they could probably afford to spend a bit more than they would at TSMC to get access to Intel's process.

Incidentally 2 years ahead is only about one generation of Moore's law. So it seems like a TSMC based CPU will be two years behind. I can quite believe that this doesn't matter for netbooks but does for smartphones. I'm typing this on an 1.6Ghz N280 Atom which was built on a 45nm Intel process in 2008 and is plenty fast enough with a ten hour batter life. Right now in 2011 TSMC claim they have 28nm and 40nm in production. Smartphones always seem a bit sluggish to me - even 1Ghz ones. From what I've read TSMC have been making chipsets for Intel for some time including the 945GSE chipset used in Atom netbooks. If the future is to integrate the chipset and the CPU it makes sense to do that at TSMC because they are cheaper than Intel.

I.e. the plan was for Atom to debut on Intel's good but pricey process and then move to TSMC cheaper but one generation behind one. That lets them free up capacity at their in house fabs for customers like Apple who can pay for it.

According to CNET it was 4K/s and not even close to being the record

"Twitter traffic spiked to more than 4,000 tweets per second at the beginning and end of President Obama's speech tonight announcing the death of Osama Bin Laden,"

"it's well short of the 6,939 tweets per second ushering in the new year in Japan"

You make a valid point, but Safari seems to auto-open certain "safe" files in the case of this crimeware kit: http://www.securitynewsdaily.com/new-malware-goes-after-mac-users-0747/

However, a huge amount of malware doesn't propagate by someone running an executable - these days it frequently uses exploits in browsers, Flash, PDF readers, etc. Simply visiting an infected website or opening a malicious PDF is enough to execute the malware on your machine. Exploit kits make it easy to set up a website that will try many exploits against the visitor, based on the browser and plugins they are using.

This infection model affects Mac, Windows, Linux, etc. While there are security architecture differences between OSs, the main reason Macs haven't yet got a big malware problem is that they haven't been targetted that much.

From something I wrote earlier - short version is that using Firefox/Chrome and a commercial antivirus on Macs is a good idea:

Here''s a survey of security experts, giving a fairly balanced view: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10444561-245.html - they believe that the Mac is less attacked but less secure than Windows and that Safari is not very secure. Using Firefox or Chrome is probably a better bet on Mac. Chrome - http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/mac/?p=667 - probably more secure than Safari, and it now does have Adblocking, Flash blocking and NotScripts (like NoScript but a bit painful to install.)

See http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/apple_quietly_updates_mac_anti-malware_feature.php for some comments - the OS X actually has malware detection built in, showing that Apple thinks there is something to protect against. Mostly Trojans at present. Here's a list of OS X malware: http://www.iantivirus.com/threats/

ClamXav may be OK, but Clamav, the underlying tool, is generally nowhere near as good as a commercial antivirus based on tests â" see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clam_AntiVirus#Effectiveness for a summary.

On Windows I generally recommend Kaspersky, who have good heuristic / proactive detection of zero days (the average signature AV only detects about 40-60% of in-the-wild threats). They do have a Mac version: http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/kav-mac-latest-versions

Mac reviews mention Intego as good: http://theappleblog.com/2010/02/04/antivirus-software-on-your-mac-yes-or-no/ and http://www.macworld.com/article/51438/2006/06/antivirussw.html (old review but includes ClamXav). Sophos is a reputable tool on Windows, which has a free Mac version: http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2010/11/02/anti-virus-mac-free/

Due to the blended threats that attack first a PC and then your website, and increasing popularity of Macs particularly for web design, it's only a matter of time before a blended threat attacks Mac+websites.

I had the same issue with my Apple computer. I had the 3 year warranty so it would have been fixed anyways but the bottom line is that Apple treated its customers very well and apparently differently from Dell and HP. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10063844-37.html Apple hardware does not even cost more that comparable Dell's and HPs these days. Vote with your feet and don't buy HP and Dell. You can still use bootcamp and go directly to Windows. You will have to buy a separate Windows license.

NetMeter. I have a older free version running on my desktop, but I think the new one is only a free trial. But it keeps my bandwidth logs nice and neat. Daily, weekly, monthly. Now, I need one that shows what programs are using what bandwidth.

I agree. As someone above said, Bose is the Apple of audio reproduction. Slick interface, targeting the "consumer" category of purchaser. There is nothing wrong with it, just as there is nothing wrong with a fast-looking car that doesn't go fast. Not everybody wants to go fast. With high performance often comes more difficulty and fiddling with knobs, and not everyone wants to do that.

My system is a pair of dead standard Pioneer three way speakers purchased in 1989 for $100, although the woofers got replaced/upgraded a few years ago with some updated (also Pioneer) woofers, driven by a Panasonic SA-XR55. (Look at the specs! 4 - 88k hz, and pretty much dead flat all across!) I have never heard a cleaner sounding system, ever. (Perhaps outside of a movie theater.) Throw in some classical music, close your eyes, and you can pretty much visualize sitting in the performance space wherever the microphones were placed.

I like to use classical for testing like this because it is about the only music you can get that is relatively production-free. Microphones in a room with people playing unamplified instruments. You can't test a sound system with something made on a mixing board, because you don't know if what you are hearing is an artifact of your sound system, or some kind of effect put on by the recording engineer. I mean, there is nothing better than a nice Boston album, but that is a sound creation, not a sound reproduction.

Virgin Galactic's permission might be a problem, but I get the feeling they'd do almost anything for money.

In other news: Virgin turns down $1 million for galactic porn movie

I'm certain that a Kickstarter project for amateur porn filmed in space could bring in $600,000 worth of pledges.

Great, but you need a lot more than that.

Do you think the phone company would care if you split off your main line and ran a bank of free phone booths outside your house that anyone could use. Anyone off the street could pick up one of your phones and call Cambodia for hours. Why should the phone company care, right? It's your line.

And indeed the phone company themselves has analog wires on the side of most houses that anyone outside can connect to - not unlike connecting to a wifi connection.

Or do you think the power company should care about you running an extension cord from your house to outdoor power outlets setup on the curb for everyone to use. I guarantee within a week you would have mobile homes and vans parked in front of your house running refrigerators and basically squatting.

That's exactly what "PlugShare"'s service is about:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20058488-48.html?tag=mncol;title

No, just a bunch of electronic yipping.

Actually, it was over 5 years ago that it happened.

Sony have just been jerkholes about people trying to continue to use and improve the toy they spent a buttload of money on since.

http://www.dailytech.com/Unsecured+Routers+Land+People+in+a+Heap+of+Police+Trouble/article21453.htm references Sarasota, FL / Buffalo, NY / N. Syracuse, NY
http://news.cnet.com/Police-blotter-Open-Wi-Fi-blamed-in-child-porn-case/2100-1036_3-6177095.html?tag=untagged shows an event in Buffalo again (different person)
That's 4 events I found without even trying. Who knows how many more are out there, and remain unmentioned? And let's not forget all the **AA-targetted people who were sent blackmail letters, but then "let go" because they were too old, didn't have computers, or whatever. The point is, IP addresses don't tell you squat... though the police think it points a finger directly at the culprit. Idiocy.

Most of what it does is Compiz, it has a menu bar and a dock. You still log in through gdm and it still pops up on the wrong monitor when I have 'em both active.

On the other hand, it is awfully more mac-like, what with Unity stealing menu bars left and right, but not always.

Still the same theme from Maverick with the gadgets on the wrong side but now it makes sense because it makes sense for the gadgets to be on that side when they get snarfed into the top bar.

I'm just glad that they managed to get the dock pop-up/click behavior ironed out before the release, I noticed they finally fixed this in the last day or two. And the Applications place seems to actually have stuff in it every time I click it now. For a few days there I had to type to see anything the first time I used it.

All in all if you're not married to a particular interface it's not an unpleasant change, and it does look nice. Amusingly, to me it is reminiscent of the Zune Desktop Theme for Windows XP. That's nice for me because I'm a dual-boot user again, and that's my XP theme of choice :)

I wonder if Sony regrets waving the red flag. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20050310-17.html. Anybody heard from geohotz in the last few days?

According to some, 90% of all email is spam. Does that make SMTP an illegitimate protocol? Often, the easiest way to find copyright infringing works is using Google. Does that make the search engine illegitimate? Porn drove early VCR development. Is VHS an illegitimate technology?