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That's because they didn't pay their protection money (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70305-0.ht ml?tw=rss.index)

So now /. is stealing headlines from Wired? Good grief.

i read yoru link and there is no official announcement there that ties sony to toy story. i see bloggers and hearsay. no executive was quoted as stating the claim, and no journalist gave an approximate time or place when the quote was made regarding toy story.

this here is a direct link to the microsoft toy story claim, however:

http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282, 40970,00.html?tw=wn_story_related

Actually I have definitely seen the "Dell" logo a few times in this season of "24," which makes me think that they ponied up the big bucks for all that product placement. I'm thinking specifically of a few times when they have shown somebody's face over the top of their monitor from the back, you can rather clearly make out the word "Dell" on the rear side.

Of course, I'm watching this on a fairly large screen, so I'm not sure how obvious this would be on a smaller TV, or what the 'standards' are for a 'visible trademark.' If it's out of focus but still legible, is it visible?

It seems like really sloppy work if it's being shown by accident, which makes me think that it's a paid placement.

I have a dim recollection also of back in the first season or so of "24" that there were Macs, but now it seems to be entirely Dells in the past few. In fact, back in the first season (maybe two) it seemed like all the bad guys used PCs and Jack and friends used Apple gear. I wasn't the only one to notice this, Wired even had an article on it here.

Didn't the bad guys on the first season of 24 use PCs? All the good guys (CTU) used Apple

I thought we here at slashdot were 1337 enough to build out own computers and pirate the OSs. So why are we comparing a mac to a dell anyway? Oh ya, and you can install OS X on a windows box making any software arguments irrelevant.

Four weeks later, the scientist sends me an email saying that he has completed the DNA analysis and found no evidence of modification. He tested specifically for the presence of CP4 - a telltale indicator of the Roundup Ready modification - as well as for the cauliflower mosaic virus, the gene most commonly used to insert foreign DNA into a plant. It is still possible that the plant has been genetically modified using other genes, but not likely. Discovering new methods of engineering glyphosate resistance would require the best scientific minds and years of organized research. And given that there is already a published methodology, there would be little reason to duplicate the effort.

Which points back to selective breeding. The implication is that the farmers' decentralized system of disseminating coca cuttings has been amazingly effective - more so than genetic engineering could hope to be. When one plant somewhere in the country demonstrated tolerance to glyphosate, cuttings were made and passed on to dealers and farmers, who could sell them quickly to farmers hoping to withstand the spraying. The best of the next generation was once again used for cuttings and distributed.

This technique - applied over four years - is now the most likely explanation for the arrival of Boliviana negra. By spraying so much territory, the US significantly increased the odds of generating beneficial mutations. There are numerous species of coca, further increasing the diversity of possible mutations. And in the Amazonian region, nature is particularly adaptive and resilient.

"I thought it was unlikely," says Gressel, the plant scientist at the Weizmann Institute. "But farmers aren't dumb. They obviously spotted a lucky mutation and propagated the hell out of it." -- The Mystery of the Coca Plant That Wouldn't Die

Secrecy Power Sinks Patent Case

Common guys, "mysterious" force fields? if ed's had bothered to google the facts there wouldn't be a need for this post(same for that ABL article- currently neutered as a tech demonstrator).

Wired, aug/2002
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,54641, 00.html

SecDef's Force Transformation
http://www.oft.osd.mil/

more info on Trophy(Rafael)
http://www.defense-update.com/products/t/trophy.ht m

similar effort using AESA(Raytheon's Quick Kill)
http://www.edefenseonline.com/default.asp?func=art icle&aref=02_14_2006_OM

info on AESA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Electronically _Scanned_Array

the need for such a system(fuel cost IS a factor but it's a fixed cost. See fob.gov
SP0600-06-R-0033 for example):
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/issues/2004 /Dec/SurvivalInCombat.htm

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this system used by Carnival cruise lines:
http://www.atcsd.com/lrad.html
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/ 2005-11-07-cruise-blast_x.htm

"mysterious" force fields? LOL. I'm moving my slashdot bookmark next to collegehumor and dumpalink.

This is the relevant Wired article that talks about the weakness in some laptop locks. OWNED.

Bill Joy's well-known article "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" predicted this like 6 years ago:

http://wired-vig.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy. html

The big quesiton is: why aren't the intelligent, well-educated, technically minded of the world actually taking issues like this seriously, and doing something about it? Probably because thinking about this stuff means questioning one's own vocation and existence, and perhaps discovering that the blind pursuit of scientific knowledge or development of technology can have just as many unintended bad consequences as good ones. We can't stop these pursuits; nor should we. But all who are involved in these pursuits must also assume responsibility for analyzing the risks of their application.

Bill Joy called for a "Hippocratic Oath" of sorts for scientists and technologists to take responsibility for the ethical concerns as well as the scientific or technological or design concerns. We already know how to assess some forms of risk. These are just different kinds of risks to be assessed, and they are real.

If we are as good and as smart as we think we are, how can we not step up?

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70621-0.htm l (Wired). An interview of a guy that works (ed?) for ATT that the EFF has subpoenaed as a witness. Talks about the physical connection made and how/when they did it.

The Wired article explains it slightly better.....

Wired news has Mark Klein's (the whistle-blower) statement. It sounds pretty credible:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70621-0.htm l?tw=rss.index

The traffic isn't literally being forwarded to NSA headquarters, the NSA has equipment colocated at the telcos which filters through all the traffic. So, their NSA software is in fact searching through all the internet traffic in the United States, unless of course the testimony of an actual technician with details of the operation doesn't do it for you.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70621-0.htm l

Sure he doesn't know what it takes for a message, email, web page request, or VOIP call to actually sent back to NSA headquarters, or how long the data is kept, but at the very least the transmissions are being recorded until the software does its search. Heck maybe all those rooms are there "just in case" and only get turned on when their is a court warrant?? Time to find out.

"So, now I can finally play Doom on my iPod Shuffle!" If you were this kid you could. http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,68333,00.ht ml

Sounds like par for the course to me.

About the same as a Doubleclick hack (Nuala O'Connor Kelly, Chief "Privacy" Officer of Doubleclick) advising HomeSec on privacy.

Or the Gator/Claria hack (D. Reed Freeman, former Gator/Claria Chief "Privacy" Officer) sitting on HomeSec's Data "Privacy" and "Integrity" Advisory Committee.

Maybe we should be thankful. Based on precedent, the BSA guy should be put in charge of the Copyright office, or perhaps hired by NSA to... adjust its priorities when it comes to what sort of traffic is worthy of further investigation.

Anyone taking bets on when Jeff Bezos gets picked to head USPTO?

AT&T apparently gave NSA access to databases containing telephone call logs, email content, and web addresses visited, not the raw stream of bits going through their routers. More sources: Wired and The Register. So it's not all internet traffic.

Still an egregious abuse of privacy, IMHO, and one of the reasons I donate to the EFF.

You might find this interesting as well.

http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,59634,00. html

RE: Since 9/11, the government has mandated that all mobile phones be able to pinpoint their location. First, this has nothing to do with 9/11. The issues of E911 has been around long before 9/11 happened, here's a wired news article from 1998 for instance: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,9502,0 0.html. RE: This is simply Disney extending their capability to see where you/their phones are to you. Second, IIRC most cell phones right now are not GPS equipped. I recently bought a Samsung D600, which many people this is one of the best cell phones, and needless it does not have GPS built it. I heard a technical presentation about it from SwRI before, and it is cheaper to use GPRS or simialar technology and trianglate a cell phone users location relative to cell phone towers the phone can detect. To comply with the E911 directive, the accuracy is much less precise that can be provided by GPS. The new Disney phones will use GPS, which is much more precise than what is legally mandated by the article you reference. Third, I don't think this article really is even all that much about technological innovation. The alarming part of this article is that precise GPS tracking is being marketed. It's about privacy. I don't think discussing technological capabilities is all that insightful.

This is a pretty lengthy story from '02 about a Canadian guy who has had a similar procedure.

It's about the work of William Dobelle who is mentioned in
the FA as a pioneer in the field who recently passed away.

Really interesting stuff.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.09/vision.ht ml?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=

Now as you would realise Apple's hardware is not magical, in fact it's mostly standard components that everyone can purchase. Instead it's the operating system that is different.

Negroponte expressed frustration with Gates in particular, saying that the $100 laptop designers are still working with Microsoft to develop a version of the Windows CE operating system that could run the machines.

"Geez, so why criticize me in public?" Negroponte said.

Because the laptops are running linux, a major sponsor is Google, and it's not about the computer. It's about the education value.

Paper letters are fine with having included pictures, as most grandparents could tell you.

Better comparison: the telegram.

Apple sold one billion songs.
[...]
Just before iTunes launched everyone said "who's going to pay for something you can get for free?" Then Apple sold one billion songs.
That's a 'b'
pwnt
Next.

It took them what ... three years? Napster used to burn through over a billion in 1 month. That hasn't slowed.

Its all speculative but it sounds like this may have come from the same people who brought us the public character assasination of the former CIO of Massachusetts Peter Quinn (who proposed the adoption of an open document format).

Coincidentally personal attacks of character seem to happen a lot when dealing with Microsoft. Peculiarly though they all share the 'same theme' where they seem to only occur when Microsofts profits are at stake.

- There was a direct attack on the character of U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson (http://www.wired.com/news/antitrust/0,1551,45914, 00.html), who was judging the US anti-trust case against Microsoft.
- Microsoft also charged the EU Commission of conspiracy and collusion (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/02/1 957219) in its on going anti-trust court case.
- Another personal legal attack on "the Brazilian government official credited with developing the country's open source strategy" (http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/50944/)

Just sounds like another case of an attack on a persons well-being for the sake of profits.

Its flamebait. Look how the article is set up. "more ammo", "Heart-warming".

>How would Microsoft be different if Paul Allen was 50% (or more) owner.

Thats a great point, but do you really think this is the place that can insightfully discuss this?

You want a better story? How about this;

Apple's Finest Flip-Flops
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/mac/0,70546-0.ht ml?tw=wn_index_4

Non-flamebait (unless you want to hang/defend Steve Jobs over everything he did in the past 15 years), interesting and tech-related.

The Cringely article is just fuel for hate on slashdot.

Companies use software to weed out candidates, but here are five strategies that help job-seekers get noticed.

  Twenty years ago, software engineer Fred Brooks famously observed that there was no silver bullet that could slay "the monster of missed schedules, blown budgets and flawed products." Today, the creation of software might seem as expensive, trouble-prone and difficult as ever.

And yet progress is being made. While there is still no silver bullet in sight, an array of new techniques promises to further boost programmer productivity, at least in some application domains.

Man vs. machine stories are an old standby in journalism.

Think back to John Henry racing a steam drill and forward to Garry Kasparov trying to outmaneuver IBM's Deep Blue in 1997 to the Onion tweaking the genre with its accountant battles Excel story.

But the latest twist on the meme takes it to the meta-level by raising the question: in the future, will you find your man vs. machine story relying on a human-edited source or from an algorithm?

Standing up for the human intellect, upstart Digg is betting that its formidable legion of users can find better and more interesting news faster than any algorithm Google -- or a number of upstart companies -- can code.

I can't say myself whether this hypothesis is True or False (I doubt things are precisely as the interviewee stated), but there is some amount of (admittedly circumstantial) evidence for EM effects on health. http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,57488,00 .html was the quickest link I could drag up.

Aside from what facts are known, though, I don't believe your arguments speak directly to the issue at hand, that *in theory* household EM fields could negatively impact health.

1. If it were true you'd expect stronger fields to make a bigger effect than miniscule ones.
      2. Therefore driving past a 500,000 watt radio or TV transmitting antenna should cause much much much greater symptoms than a 0.0000001 watt emissions from "dirty power". No such effect.

Three responses:
1. A one-time exposure to a high-wattage transmission tower is qualitatively different from chronic exposure to EM fields.

2. Your 500,000 watt figure for radio stations is on the absolute high end (afaik only WBCT-FM is allowed that figure under certain circumstances) but valid; your .0000001 watt figure is definitely not. Cell phones, for instance, are around the 1 watt range (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6602_7-5020357-1.htm l?tag=nav has various SARs, which is decently close to raw wattage numbers)

3. Intensity varies inversely with the square of the distance (or cube of the distance, roughly, if there are many absorbtive materials between you and the transmission). This quickly minimizes exposure from transmission towers but does little for chronic EM exposure in a home.

3. People that are exposed to high EM fields, such as airport workers, tower light replacers, cell site testers, plasma physicists, industrial RF welders, TV technicians, walkie-talkie testers, they should all be really sick. Like 100,000 time ssicker than the average Joe or Jane Doe. They're not.

These hypothesized negative reactions to EM fields are statistical. Consider that it took quite a long while to gather enough evidence to prove that smoking is quite unhealthy.

4. At the neurological level, the voltage spikes from your nerves are 1,000's of times a bigger EM field than anything from outside your body. It's hard to imagine how a signal that's much weaker than your nerve impulses can have a noticeable effect.

Nobody knows how EM fields affect the body-- but there are plenty of solid, scientific ways that they *could*. One way is through catalyzing reactions involving iron via oscillating EM fields (and hey, there's a whole field emerging in chemistry that specializes in this). Another is by imparting vibrational, rotational, or other types of energy to molecules, which could lead to changes in protein shape.

5. EM fields includes light, particularly sunlight. Sunlight hits you with almost 1,000 watts per square meter, many powers of ten greater than any other EM field, and most people think sunlight feels *good*, not bad.

Sunlight's energy distribution (and, speaking to the point made in the article, lack of oscillation) is completely different than that of man-made EM fields. Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field significantly filters anything that makes it down to us.

There's no basic theoretical problem with the concept of statistically hazardous EM fields. It's definitely worth looking into, all things considered.

RD

What, lava lamps aren't good enough anymore?

BayTSP claims that they are already spidering torrent sites and P2P networks constantly so that they can identify and sue the "first sharer" of files within minutes. (Of course, they would say that, wouldn't they?) But supposedly the real bad guys never use P2P networks; they're hidden behind private "topsites" that are already encrypting their traffic.

The cells Dr. Lima transplants do come from an adult source, but characterizing them as stem cells is incorrect. I have written about this before.

I have also written about the umbilical cord blood stem cell transplants.

Interestingly, the surgery involved in both transplants involves decompression surgery. Decompression of a compressed cord, by itself, can lead to substantial gains.

Of more interest, the doctors in South Korea are developing a percutaneous method of delivering the UCBSCs that will not involve surgery. When performed (preferably in a controlled study), this will definitely prove or disprove if it works.

Source?

Read this

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.11/persinger. html

Especially this part, in the FIRST PARAGRAPH

"Over a scratchy speaker, a researcher announces, "Jack, one of your electrodes is loose, we're coming in." The 500-pound steel door of the experimental chamber opens with a heavy whoosh; two technicians wearing white lab coats march in. They remove the Ping-Pong-ball halves taped over my eyes and carefully lift a yellow motorcycle helmet that's been retrofitted with electromagnetic field-emitting solenoids on the sides, aimed directly at my temples. Above the left hemisphere of my 42-year-old male brain, they locate the dangling electrode, needed to measure and track my brain waves. The researchers slather more conducting cream into the graying wisps of my red hair and press the securing tape hard into my scalp."

Paying real money for Linden dollars in Second Life is a stupid. It is quite easy to make money in the game. Especially if you have any programming or graphics skill. I have started a little self sustaining business for myself selling virtual items I have created. I am currently averaging around $50 real money a month and have never paid in a single dollar. Not huge, but better than paying money to someone to play a game. Here is a Wired Article about some of the biggest money makers in the game.

A related idea I had recently which I wanted to toss into the open...

Lately on slashdot we've been having a few stories about the (Snow Crash-like) Second Life virtual world, and its active virtual economy. Take this article from Wired:

Wired: Making a Living in Second Life

I think it would be quite interesting to try using Second Life's economy and scriptable world to create an in-game prediction market, similar to that described in the NYT article. Instead of using a purely reputation-based currency such a market could use the game's Linden Dollars, which can be exchanged with US dollars. The use of Linden Dollars would also help get around some of the anti-gambling laws one runs into when US dollars are involved. It seems that in-game scripts can communicate with external servers via email or XML-RPC, so one could probably have such an in-game script placing orders with a server running the open-source prediction market software like Foresight Exchange or Zocalo.

One might even imagine creating a Futarchy-like system, with bids made on decisions about how to make the market (or organization running the market) prosper in the Second Life world. That could be interesting. I've lately been musing a bit on how such a system might be a cute way to create a seed superintelligence, or more precisely, a self-improving collective intelligence.

they took the page with the apology down so they can put up info for the class action lawsuit. but you can see the page here:

the class action lawsuit
http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/

how to un-"stealth"/ uninstall the rootkit
http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/english/updates.html

and read the drama yourself:
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,69601,00. html

i dont want to be apologetic for a company that effectively put money into designing a better virus delivery system, but i for one am not buying any sony/BMG cds. if sony ever brands the playstation with anything remotely resembling a BMG logo, im avoiding that too...

the computer industry is just as bad. read up on the latest starforce drama [real or not...] which is 10x worse than the rootkit. i for one am avoiding any computer games from companies that use it.
http://r-force.org/modules.php?name=News&file=arti cle&sid=44&mode=&order=0&thold=0

its a scary time when you realize that the best viruses, trojans and worms are paid for and condoned by big business.

... does not reference Podkletnov's basic article from 1995 since this seems to be pretty much a reproduction and validation of what he described as an accidentally discovered "gravity shielding" effect when experementing with a rotating superconducting disk.

Interesting artical in Wired about US fire fighting techniques vs those elsewhere.

http://wired-vig.wired.com/wired/archive/13.06/fir efight.html

Vivid is doing something similar -- I just got a note from one of their PR people -- I believe they're starting with 20 adult features, which you can purchase, download, and burn to DVD ... when I know more I'll blog it at Wired (http://blog.wired.com/sex/) and let y'all know.

Did DVD Jon have a hand in this?
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,69257, 00.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2

Wrong...

Linux has fewer bugs per 1000 lines of code than any rival.
http://www.wired.com/news/linux/0,1411,66022,00.ht ml
http://news.com.com/Security+research+suggests+Lin ux+has+fewer+flaws/2100-1002_3-5489804.html

etc...

I'm surprised that nobody picked up on this article in Wired on Delay Tolerant networks.

Basically people are considering how to design protocols such that they will survive communications over networks with very large delays, for example between here and Mars. TCP/IP won't cut it as it depends on interacting in real time.

Both light and radio waves will get from here to Mars in the same time, and it is only the sensitivity and selectivity of the receivers that will differentiate them. From reading this article I would say that the choice of transmission protocol used is more important in the overall comms.

Anonymous Coward wrote: "I see nothing in this article that the DOJ is about to do anything. This is just a review of a a product that can block some images that would be useful for some families." If you haven't been keeping up on the whole controversy between google and the DOJ, demonstrating the ineffectiveness anti-porn filtering software to the courts is precisely the reason the DOJ wants google (and all the other search engines) to divulge information about their search results. See http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,70407-0.html? tw=wn_politics_firstamendment_1 The effectiveness of this anti-filtering software is of critical importance to the DOJ's censoring efforts because the Supreme Court upheld the injunction against the Child Online Protection Act in part on the ground that filtering software, as opposed to legal sanctions, might prove to be a more effective way of protecting children while preserving the first amendment rights of other internet user to post and find porn. In other words, there is already a censoring statute on the table. The DOJ is already intimately involved in defending this form of legal censorship. http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-218.ZS. html As the Supreme Court explained, "[i]n the absence of a showing as to the relative effectiveness of COPA [Child Online Protection Act] and the alternatives proposed by respondents, it was not an abuse of discretion for the District Court to grant the preliminary injunction [rendering the Act ineffective]. The Government's burden is not merely to show that a proposed less restrictive alternative has some flaws; its burden is to show that it is less effective." The DOJ has now been trying hard to gather evidence to show that legal censorship is more effective than filtering software. If this specific software is indeed as effective as it claims to be, then DOJ's job -- and therefore its attempt to save this Act -- would be substantially more difficult.

If Amazon is doing a rebate rip-off with you, report it: Rebate Roulette.

If Amazon promised a rebate and is trying not to give it to you, that's fraud and theft. Consider very carefully whether you should do business with them in the future.

What you can do to get your rebate (Warning, some of this exposes ugly behavior.):

Use the "F" word: Fraud. Every time an employee quits, it costs the rebate company a lot to hire and train someone new. Minimum wage people don't like to think they are helping break the law. Ask the employee how she or he can justify working for a dishonest company. Tell the employee he or she has the worst job in the world.

Call the manager of the store where you bought the rebate item. Use the "F" word again. Managers have a special telephone number. The rebate company will listen to them. Store managers don't like the word fraud applied to their store; that could cost them hundreds of thousands, if the word gets around. If you don't get satisfaction from the store manager, get his or her name and call the store's main office. The people who work in main offices don't want fraud calls; and they definitely don't like fraud calls in which the name of a store manager is mentioned.

Never let them steal from you. If you ever accept that once, they will know they can do it again. Remember, there are a limited number of rebate companies, and they keep databases on those who apply for rebates. Don't allow yourself to become a known easy target.

Apparently almost all rebate companies are involved in fraud, either for their own profit, or pre-arranged with manufacturers. They try to concentrate on the customers that will accept excuses. The stores will tell you they know nothing about the fraud, but that is not true; they know very well.

Be sure to tell the rebate company that you will file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and with your state's consumer fraud department, and do it. Tell the store that sold the rebate item the same thing, and do it.

Note that it is usually difficult to know the name of the rebate company. I talked with one Parago employee about the my experiences with the company for a long time before the employee verified the name of the company for which he worked. Parago operates Rebates HQ. I'm not the only one to have trouble with Parago; read this amazingly ugly story: Parago Rebate Gripes Keep on Coming.

Stay away from stores that hate their customers. My experience with Best Buy has been very negative.

Stay away from stores that offer big rebates on items that have defects that aren't obvious.

It has been my experience that Netgear is by far the worst in failing to send rebates. We have had bad experiences with Netgear equipment being buggy, too. Maybe there are companies who can only stay in business because they fail to sent rebates.

Always be kind and gentle with rebate company employees, but very firm. Remember, the employee is not getting any of the stolen money.

Always keep copies of everything you sent when you apply for a rebate. The rebate companies will exploit any weakness they find.

Remember, if you let them steal from you once, you will be in the database as someone who accepts abuse.

I got a Sony laptop rebate 1 1/2 years after it was denied. I would never buy anything from Sony again, of course, even though I eventually got the rebate. Generally, companies that are abusive in one way are abusive in others. Generally, abuse is part of the corporate culture.

In my opinion, this is part of a general social breakdown. The United States government

Their story is remarkable because of one fact: grassroots communication channels like MySpace and P2P file trading networks worked better than the major-label hype machine. The Arctic Monkeys became hugely popular because they wrote good songs, made them available to their fans for free, and encouraged them to share the MP3s with their friends.

Apologies to anyone who doesn't just have CNet on their Google Homepage:

http://blog.wired.com/cultofmac/

Yay, attribution!

But as one commentator on the story points out, the test compared protected WMA files with unprotected MP3 files. It should have compared protected-WMA to unprotected WMA, or Apple's FairPlay AAC versus unprotected AAC.

On June 28, 2004, VirginMega filed a complaint with the French Competition Council against Apple regarding its refusal to license Fairplay to VirginMega for use in their own online music commerce store.

Or this take on the Rokr:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.11/phone_pr. html

My mistake, it was never a 10-song limit. It was (and is) a 100 song limit, regardless of how much memory you have. AND no purchasing music thru Motorola or over the air, you MUST use iTunes. AND 30 seconds to transfer 4 Mb file, which means uploading 100 songs takes almost AND HOUR. Of course, you can just drag them to the SD using a reader on your PC, which is a nice workaround.

Oh, yeah. No major carrier agreed to sell the Rokr because of the one-sided deal with Apple. Cingular finally gave in, but isn't subsidizing the phone like they do with damn near every other phone. ($199 regardless of contract.)

Mission critical is cool, but if you cannot get it, are you going to leave out the OS altogether?

Also, these things are signed off by politicians, to whom mission critical means nothing, and preferred vendor everything. It wouldn't be the first time, you know.

""The simple root of the problem on Yorktown was that politics were played in the assigning of the contract -- there was not a discussion of engineers, it was just a very small group of people pitching for it," said an engineer close to the project, who spoke on the condition of anonymity."