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Apple responded to this issue back in July of 2010. The major fuck up is that the file is not encrypted.

And the fact it's synced to another device. And the fact that they've already altered the EULA to permit them to share precise location data with third parties. http://consumerist.com/2010/06/privacy-change-apple-knows-your-phone-is-and-is-telling-people.html

It's not the same kind of information at all. The android file (only available if you have root) is a temporary cache. That is totally difference then the Apple file which holds the data about your location since you bought the phone.

Talking about objectivity, where did you hear it holds data since you bought the phone ? The only date I've seen Wired's 10 months. Granted that's longer than the month (for cell) and year (for wifi) the data seems to be retained on Android but, crucially, we don't know the reason for this. There could be a technical reason, or it could be negligence but you choose to jump straight to maliciousness. You are making as many assumptions as the people you criticize, just from the opposite standpoint.

if that info is being used for other things (by Apple which has demonstrable need for the info local to the phone, or by Google which has demonstrable need for the info at their map-servers), or by third parties (who don't have legitimate need, in which case this is an Apple security bug, but the "spy on you" piece of evil intent goes to the third party NOT Apple), that's news. The fact that the info is there at all? Not news.

Capability does not prove intent.

Are you serious? We're talking about a for-profit company. Grow up. Apple stated in that PDF link that they will share this info with whoever they damn well please. Based on your argument, that "spy on you" complicity makes Apple intently evil.

the bug may simply be that this buffer isn't being flushed as anticipated

And, no, it isn't a bug...again, if you just read Apple's PDF, they tell you it's intended. Maybe this will help, but I'm beginning to doubt it seeing a pattern in your thoughts:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/apple-iphone-tracking/

Like OnStar?

Are you able to tell the difference between an expensive service that you want to intentionally subscribe to and knowingly pay for, and an unwanted security risk that shows up on the news to surprise everyone because it's first time the public has ever heard of it?

is there a similar location cache on Android? If so, the screech should be just as loud outside of Google's offices and every cell provider's offices. If it's evil for Apple to do, it is equally evil for Google to do, and you either call out both of them or neither of them. Selecting just one reveals the color of one's kneepads.

I thought I did say that Google would be rotten for doing it, but your own screeching must've blinded you. Oh, wait crapple-fanboy-syndrome stuck in a logical loop.

= N9 =

The data is unencrypted. Unlike the situation with iPhones, however, the data remains on the phone, and to access it one needs access to the operating system itself, known as "root access." On the iPhone, the location data was copied from the phone to a PC every time it was synced with iTunes. It was copying the data to the PC that creates a potential security problem.

Another difference is how big the location data files, called caches, are. On the Android phones they are limited in size to 50 unique cell sites and 200 WiFi access points. Apple's version was much larger

Also, according to a 13-page letter sent to Congress by Apple, they also upload your location history to Apple every 12 hours: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/apple-iphone-tracking/

According to Appleâ(TM)s letter, geodata is being tracked and transmitted to Apple only if a customer toggles the Location Services option in the settings menu to âoeOn.â If itâ(TM)s off, no location-based information will be collected.

If the Location Services setting is flipped on, the iPhone, 3G iPad and, to a more limited extent, the iPod Touch and the Wi-Fi iPad, are transmitting geodata to Apple under different circumstances.

Apple is collecting information about nearby cell towers and Wi-Fi access points whenever you request current location information. Sometimes it will also do this automatically when youâ(TM)re using a location-based service, such as a GPS app.

As for GPS information, Apple is collecting GPS location data only when a customer uses an application requiring GPS capabilities.

Apple claims the collected geodata is stored on the iOS device, then anonymized with a random identification number generated every 24 hours by the iOS device, and finally transmitted over an encrypted Wi-Fi network every 12 hours (or later if thereâ(TM)s no Wi-Fi available) to Apple. That means Apple and its partners canâ(TM)t use this collected geodata to personally identify a user.

At Apple, the data gets stored in a database âoeaccessible only by Apple,â the letter says.

âoeWhen a customer requests current location information, the device encrypts and transmits Cell Tower and Wi-Fi Access Point Information and the deviceâ(TM)s GPS coordinates (if available) over a secure Wi-Fi Internet connection to Apple,â Apple wrote in the letter.

Apple responded to this issue back in July of 2010. The major fuck up is that the file is not encrypted.

Apple responded to this issue back in July of 2010. The major fuck up is that the file is not encrypted.

Agree. The similarities kinda end when Cisco doesn't cause the death of people. But that isn't black and white either. It would ignore the fact that while they don't really have a large presence in totalitarian governments, they kinda don't care about who they do business with because indirectly oppressing people is profitable.

Government by the corporations, for the corporations.
War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.
With slavery and injustice for all (except the CEO).

Remember that Cisco probably sold a lot of equipment to China to build its 'Great Firewall'.
Dont believe me? Check it out:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/05/leaked-cisco-do/

I hope Cisco pays through the nose for this.

In my experience (and I've been working as a cashier the last ~7 months at a Walmart), parents usually don't give a damn.

Sure, that's probably the biggest group. It's also why many stores require cashiers to ask for ID. If a parent doesn't care, well, there's not much you can do beyond follow your employer's policy and your own code of ethics.

The original post complained about how well a single letter rating could summarize the content. I pointed out that it isn't meant to, and that there's a fine-grained system in place to clarify where the rating came from. Someone else complains that Wal-Mart's anti-theft system prevents you from using the fine-grained content descriptors on a large scale, but those aren't really relevant until you've already selected a game and are trying to decide if it's appropriate. It's not really fair to fault what is a pretty robust rating system for apathy on the part of a parent or a lousy anti-theft system.

Assuming you can even find an electronics associate who isn't busy with another customer. Or knows anything about their department.

And that would be but one of the reasons why I won't even bother with Wal-Mart. Incidentally, they're the only major retailer (besides Toys R Us) that I'm aware of that still uses the glass case method. Most either use individual anti-theft cases, dummy boxes, or something like Target's new system (the game boxes are all tethered to a storage cabinet) so that customers can pick up, handle, and read the game box.

When Amazon goes belly up in a few (or 45 years) where will my books be?

Wherever you'll put them. Here's how to strip away Kindle DRM.

(ironically, I back up mine - after doing the above - to Jungle Disk, which is hosted on Amazon S3)

All this right after I read Wired Science's article on 7 science-education battlegrounds of 2011 If the US wants to be effective in technology they have to stop being stupid in education - otherwise we Canadians, along with the rest of the world, will beat the crap out of you.

The US Air Force recently launched a challenge for a system "that can determine approximate age (adult, teen, child) and gender of small groups of people at a distance.", with the goal of reducing civilian casualties during UAV operations. It shouldn't be too hard to make a system that can guess ages (at least well enough for their purposes), so the research team practically netted $20k already.

Additional news coverage: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/boy-from-girl/

Some progress but we're still behind in many ways: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/quantum-photosynthesis/

A leaf may not be as efficient as some solar panels when directly compared, but a leaf actually builds itself. So the leaf might be more analogous to quantum tech "solar panels" plus factories building the panels, converting the raw materials, etc.

Some plants can even grow from a single leaf.

Google is your friend: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/how-to-strip-drm-from-kindle-e-books-and-others/

You might find this interesting: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/evolution-of-language

"It’s widely thought that human language evolved in universally similar ways, following trajectories common across place and culture, and possibly reflecting common linguistic structures in our brains. But a massive, millennium-spanning analysis of humanity’s major language families suggests otherwise.

Instead, language seems to have evolved along varied, complicated paths, guided less by neurological settings than cultural circumstance. If our minds do shape the evolution of language, it’s likely at levels deeper and more nuanced than many researchers anticipated. "

Sounds like he is an "idea" guy (he is not a programmer). "Oh, I have a great idea. Now the easy part; implementing it!" Apparently Ted Nelson was considered the King of Vaporware back in 1995... just to give you some background.

And I believe that it is all still vaporware today.

Sounds like he is an "idea" guy (he is not a programmer). "Oh, I have a great idea. Now the easy part; implementing it!" Apparently Ted Nelson was considered the King of Vaporware back in 1995... just to give you some background.

The Curse of Xanadu

GE has developed the highest efficiency, full-sized CdTe thin film solar panel ever reported; is building what its say will be the largest solar panel factory in the US; has made two considerable business acquisitions that support its solar endeavors and has taken 100 megawatts worth of orders for its thin-film solar panel products.... When at capacity, the new plant is supposed to produce enough panels per year to power 80,000 homes annually. GE currently estimates the facility will employ about 400 people.

More broadly, the cost of solar has plummeted, and the installed capacity is skyrocketing. Those are actual data, not predictions.

I'm excited about this. I live in New Mexico where sunny skies are the norm. If I got a motorcycle with a swappable battery so I could leave one home charging while I take the other on my 20 mile round-trip commute, I wouldn't need much from the grid or gas station at all.

I'm not too sure if I condone this behaviour, nor do I think this is a 'fun' way to catch pirates: A fun way was how the Nintendo DS version of Michael Jackson: The Experience made copied versions of the game unplayable and taunts gamers with the blaring sound of vuvuzelas: See here

The problem I have with these kinds of protections is that they also might affect paid customers; Same as with strict DRM.

I already bought Garry's Mod after having played it for free (as the HL2 mod).
It was less than 10 dollars, so a real bargain. But I would have reconsidered it if I heard of this beforehand.
Nonetheless, all power to the developer to protect their property.

I know this is /. and I'm supposed to be outraged; but surely I'm not the only one who thinks of ownership as a burden. With Netflix streaming, I can (cheaply) obtain access to far more movies than I ever care to watch. If one becomes unavailable (Moon, I'm looking at you!) I'll just pick one of the thousands of other movies to watch.

Same thing with my kindle. There are more books on Project Gutenberg than I'll ever get through, not to mention cheap/free modern electronically published works, never mind conventional publishers. If I can't read one, I'll move to the next.

A movie collection (even ripped) has storage and maintenance costs (time, money, space, storage for the physical disks, etc.). A book collection even more so - shelving, enough home space to house said shelving, ways to protect the books from my kids. If it becomes valuable enough, you need the added expense of security (plus living where the crime rate is low enough for security to work). Take away enough of the crap "ownership" (it still isn't yours, really) and your life will still be just as enriched as before, but less of your time/capital (and use of time to generate capital) is wrapped up in "stuff". In fact, that sounds like a major component of "wealth".

Welcome to the Rentership Society! The only thing I miss from home ownership is my own plot of land for a garden. Okay, I also wish we had better soundproofing in our walls/floors, but that's due to our budget choices, not rentership in general...

There is at least one hobbyist that has measured it by taking a surplus rubidium oscillator up mt. Rainier. "It was the best extra 22 nanoseconds I've ever spent with the kids,"

Don't be silly. Of course the government can authorize illegal activity. In fact it happens all the time, and we even have an entire theory of the constitutional presidency which justifies it. Whether they did in this case, though, I don't know.

The above link is just to a list of articles. Here's the actual link to the video: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/video-navy-laser-sets-ship-on-fire, which demonstrates the frickin laser beam setting an inflatable motorboat on fire a mile away.

It set the the outboard motors on fire. You can see a video here... http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/

Actually Jobs was choice number 3, after Sergey and Larry as co-CEO.

Wired has it this month, from the same author. Oddly I don't recall a book reference.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/03/mf_larrypage/

I've had 47 deg 9'S 126 deg 43'W bookmarked in Google Earth for years; can't wait for the deep sea view to be available!

The Great One beckons. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/hummingearth/

I'm not sure what that has to do with Lex Luthor defending mankind from an alien invader.

Anyway, this isn't always something I've always thought about. It's also the topic of Superman: The Black Ring

"It's the story of Lex Luthor as he's trying to put together a vast new source of power for himself. Lex Luthor is an interesting character because he's about an inch from being a superhero. He thinks he's continually saving the world from a terrifying super-powered alien. And in this story we put him up against a bunch of villains that are worse than he is!"

source: http://geek-news.mtv.com/2011/03/25/paul-cornell-talks-about-superman-the-black-ring-vol-1/

source: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/03/lex-luthor-superman-black-ring/

No need, they'll just continue to put their own judges in, along with continuing to bolster their efforts in the 'Justice' Department.

Are we at war with anyone with submarines this week? Didn't get that memo.

Yes, actually, we are... or at least the multi-hundred billion dollar 'defense' sector charged with defending the free world from unlicensed botanical products is.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/government-shutdown-will-screw-you-out-of-better-gps/

(Obligatory disclosure: My business is providing technical services for advocacy organizations in DC. My practice isn't Drupal-oriented, but obviously I have a financial interest in trends in that sector, so you may wish to discount my opinions accordingly.)

The answer is that it has critical mass in the advocacy/e-government sector. It isn't so much anything about Drupal per se that makes it the default choice; it's that in this line of business it's what everybody else uses. So you get lots of projects that start with the assumption that they're going to be using Drupal, without ever really evaluating how appropriate Drupal is versus competing alternatives. It's just What You Use. Partly this comes from having lots of tech people around who are familiar with it, so they reach for it first, and partly it comes from managers whose knowledge of Drupal begins and ends with having heard the name attached to other projects they're familiar with.

The result, of course, is that lots of projects end up trying to wrestle Drupal into strange configurations it was never meant to be in. You can kind of see that in this blog post from the Sunlight Foundation, an open-government think tank. It's called "Content Management Systems just don't work," but the title is a bit misleading, because what it's really about is content management systems (a.k.a. Drupal) not working when pressed into service for tasks other than content management. Drupal's a fine CMS; the problem comes in when people try to make it act like a framework, or a database platform, or a RAD tool, which it isn't.

The more interesting question isn't why people choose Drupal, it's how Drupal achieved critical mass in the DC technosphere in the first place. It's a long story, but the short version is that it goes back to the Howard Dean campaign in 2004. Dean was the first candidate to really raise serious money online, and his tech team had built lots of their tools on top of Drupal. (Here's an early example of Dean Drupal buzz.) When the 2004 campaign was over, every political candidate wanted a bit of that Howard Dean Internet fundraising magic for himself, so there was a brisk demand for ex-Dean staffers to write articles and speak at conferences, explaining how they did what they had done. These staffers were naturally asked what tools they had used, they said "Drupal," and the result was hordes of magazine-readers and conference-goers coming away with the impression that Drupal was Internet Success In A Box. Which completely missed the point of the Deaniacs' message, but it led to more Drupal usage in advocacy & e-politics projects, which led to more visibility for Drupal, which led to more usage, which led to more visibility, and so forth.

Of course, studies of this sort don't actually study criminal violence. Invariably, they study some other behavior which is taken to be a proxy for violence--aggressive play, for example, or in this case, answers to questions that are presumed to measure "moral reasoning."

Balanced against these behavioral studies under highly artificial conditions, we have the incontrovertible fact that as video games have massively increased in popularity, particularly among the demographic (young males) that is responsible for most violence, and as the realism of game violence has increased dramatically, the incidence of real-world violence has declined dramatically.

Of course, that is merely association. We cannot conclude that the inverse relationship between videogame violence and actual violence reflects an anti-violence effect of videogaming. What we can conclude is that any hypothetical pro-violence effect of videogames must be so small as to be completely swamped by other social, economic, or cultural factors impacting the incidence of violent crime.

Which raises the question: why is there so much research effort, and research funding, being directed toward a "problem" that either does not exist in the real world, or else is negligible compared to other factors? Is this merely another manifestation of the perpetual suspicion of an older generation that any activity that children engage in, but their parents did not, must necessarily be harmful?

Makes sense to me - you won't get tasered or shot if you abide by the law.

Can I live in this black & white world that you live in, where every person beaten, tasered, or shot is a hardcore criminal that deserved it? I understand that you're biased, as your daughter and son-in-law are both police officers, but there are many documented cases out there of police using tasers against people when it is absolutely unnecessary and even more dangerous.

The problem is that police officers are now using tasers beyond situations when their lives are in danger. They are using it to shock people into compliance for not following verbal orders. They're using it in cases when they would never even think about using their gun. If your daughter and her husband are two of the few police officers using tasers ONLY when the situation calls for it, then I am happy that they volunteered to be police officers. The force needs more people like them.

But there is a reason why the Federal Court in California limits police use of Tasers.

Makes sense to me - you won't get tasered or shot if you abide by the law.

Can I live in this black & white world that you live in, where every person beaten, tasered, or shot is a hardcore criminal that deserved it? I understand that you're biased, as your daughter and son-in-law are both police officers, but there are many documented cases out there of police using tasers against people when it is absolutely unnecessary and even more dangerous.

The problem is that police officers are now using tasers beyond situations when their lives are in danger. They are using it to shock people into compliance for not following verbal orders. They're using it in cases when they would never even think about using their gun. If your daughter and her husband are two of the few police officers using tasers ONLY when the situation calls for it, then I am happy that they volunteered to be police officers. The force needs more people like them.

But there is a reason why the Federal Court in California limits police use of Tasers.

Well, we know that isn't true. Try this: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/03/google-android-microsoft/. According to that, an MS rep said, "Microsoft has taken these actions against Barnes & Noble, Foxconn and Inventec because they are commercializing products that infringe our patented innovations.” That pretty much shows your "only defending against patent trolls" to be patently (pardon the pun) false. Microsoft historically has not been quick to sue for patent infringement, but in recent years has been much more likely to go to court. How about this one: http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3807801/Bruce-Perens-Analyzing-Microsofts-TomTom-Lawsuit.htm where they went after Tom-Tom for the patent on FAT32 of all things. You can no longer just claim that Microsoft doesn't go after patent infringement and doesn't attack other companies.

Now, your statement that MS isn't a patent troll is, of course, true. MS hasn't sued people over patents that MS isn't using in devices of their own. They aren't just an "IP holding company" like your normal patent troll. But they have clearly gone beyond the days of holding patents merely for defense.

I know. Like when they never sued Motorola or Barnes & Noble.

A claim whose figure was from Tesla's staff. Should be interesting court.

Top Gear was spot on about the real world implications - refueling time is one area electrics need to improve to be viable replacements, as opposed to short trip around town, vehicles.

Which is why ideas like Better place have come about. They suggest you have battery swap stations instead.

Unfortunately that requires a lot of new stations and standardised batteries. Tesla would no doubt always require high performance batteries, which may never be available at all these stations...

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." -John Adams

Nuclear power has one thing going for it:

• * High Energy Density

Nuclear power also has several strikes:

• * High maintenance - everything has to work all the time so that your plant doesn't explode and make hundreds of square miles uninhabitable
• * High initial cost
• * High shutdown costs
• * stuck with billion-dollar boiling water reactors and pressurized water reactors

Even if a superior reactor design comes along, there's an incredible financial incentive to stick with the technology that was first developed and deployed (see the Wired story on thorium).

The best argument in favor of nuclear power is that "it may have problems, but it's all we've got". Nuclear advocates rightly point out that, compared to coal, oil, natural gas, and even hydropower (complicated), perhaps nuclear isn't so bad. Coal is abundant but dirty, oil is expensive and dirty, natural gas is cleaner but still poisons the ocean with CO2, and hydropower has it's own challenges.

But the one "black swan" that never gets talked about is "disruptive technology" that changes the entire energy equation.

One example: I've mentioned Global Resource Corporation's Microwave here before. This device uses specific microwave frequencies to release gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons from solids, such as coal (diesel, propane, butane). The company had a prototype that worked on tires, but they fell apart before they could get commercial versions of their technology to market. Luckily archive.org has a copy of their website: http://waybackmachine.org/*/http://www.GlobalResourceCorp.com. I remember reading about a cool patent that used Magnetic Resonance to figure out what specific microwaves a given sample of "trash" would need to be broken down...

GRC's site talked about applying the technology to tar sands, to coal mining, breaking down hundreds of millions of used tires piled everywhere... How would the energy equation change if harvesting coal and tar sands didn't require massive amounts of energy?

Here's something else: according to an old story on money.cnn.com, the largest single use of electricity in southern California is pumping water. And very large amount of water is used to generate electricity.

So, with these twin issues... What if Raphial Morgado's MYT (Mighty) pump really is as good as he says it is? Suppose you could get 25% more water pumped for the same amount of electricity, or generate 25% more electricity with the same amount of steam?

Whereas Global Resource Corp's special microwaves haven't reached market because it was torpedo'd by mismanagement (or maybe there's a technical problem - I'm pretty certain that the science is sound), Morgado's pump is in limbo because he hasn't yet found anyone who'd lend him $4-million or $10-million to build a factory. He has plenty of offers to buy the technology outright, but he has the audacity to presume that he should be the one to profit from his invention.

Imagine if the demand for energy suddenly plunged by more than 25%. Oil is only going for $100/barell because demand roughly matches supply. If supply exceeds demand by a significant percentage, we'd be back to $1/gallon gas in a heartbeat.

These are just the two technologies that

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2006/05/fightclub, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13037439/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/, http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-05-29-fight-club_x.htm.

With that in mind, some thoughts about backing up Gmail data:

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Make_a_Local_Backup_Of_Your_Gmail_Account

-Chris

Well here's just one example from a quick search:

"Microsoft is expanding a program to give government organizations access to some of its tightly guarded software blueprints amid growing competition from rivals who make such source code freely available.
Beginning Monday, Microsoft will offer more than 60 governments and international organizations the option of viewing the proprietary source code for the latest version of its ubiquitous Office software, including the Outlook e-mail program, Microsoft Word and Excel spreadsheet application."

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2004/09/65018

So... Tesla waited 2 years before doing this when it could have set the record straight the moment it happened?

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2008/12/tesla-cries-fou/#more
http://www.allcarselectric.com/blog/1057580_tesla-sues-top-gear-for-libel-against-all-electric-roadster

The Californian startup claims that it had no other recourse, issuing a statement that it reluctantly took legal action after its repeated attempts to contact the makers of Top Gear and the BBC, over the course of months, were ignored.

First, they tried setting the record straight 2 years ago. Then they attempted to contact Top Gear and BBC probably to avoid a legal mess and were ignored. So of course after two years of this they finally had to go through the legal system to the record straight.

But it has since emerged that the Tesla, which can be powered from an ordinary domestic plug, did not run out of electricity.

The car's California-based manufacturer said that the charge on neither of the two Teslas used in the Top Gear test fell below 20%.

The BBC today denied it had misled viewers, saying that the programme had "at no time" claimed that the car had run out of power. Programme-makers instead showed it slowing down to illustrate what would happen when the car did run out of charge.

But some viewers were left with a different impression. "I understand trying to make interesting TV, but when it materially changes the image or performance of the product, it's pretty underhanded," said one viewer on a car website.

Another said: "How pointless, in the same way if a car runs out of petrol I know what happens without a reconstruction of the event."

So to summarize: Top Gear makes it appear that the Tesla ran out of juice during testing. Tesla called them on it. The BBC claims that despite everyone thinking that is what happened, they never claimed it did. And then, inexplicably, Tesla waits 2 years to sue.

In principle, you're right. There are both legal (HIPAA) and ethical concerns involved in releasing medical patient records. An earlier version of this article stated that Heritage Health Care was already aware of the privacy issues, and was trying to minimize potential risk by performing anonymization. As we've seen in the past with other competition such as the Netflix Challenge, anonymization schemes don't always work. On the other hand, there's already a precedent for releasing anonymized medical data into the public domain.

it's my belief that social networks will rise and fall, endlessly in succession

I see this idea on slashdot often. I want it to be true, and in some sort of ultimate all-companies-eventually-fail sense, it probably is true. But don't be so sure that Facebook can't achieve some sort of long term hegemony... it may very well still be king 5, 10, or 20 years down the road.

ubiquity eventually becomes a liability amongst a crowd who views exclusion and superiority to be more important

You are proposing that there exists a fundamental instability in the membership dynamics of social networks. That's a good way to prove your point, but I'm doubtful that exclusivity itself will be a large driver of membership migrations: whenever people talk about Facebook they emphasize that it allows them to keep touch with a large number of people (Kelly's more give more principal). As long as they don't abuse their base too much or muck up the user experience (like myspace), their adoption rate will exceed their defection rate for the foreseeable future (as more and more of humanity gets online).

facebook will not become ubiquitous plumbing. because they need to make money to survive. to make that money, they need to sell the personal details of their members. which is a force that will drive people from facebook as they wise up to how creepy that really is

Except that so far, they haven't. (Heck, if humanity were more like you and me, marketing data would be illegal and nobody would pay for cable TV that's one-third advertisements.) I think you'd have to see this spectacularly mismanaged before it made a dent. Facebook is not (to use your example) a night club: it's a communications venue and it could very much become like mail, email, telephone, etc... that is, obsolete but still necessary.

The only problem I have is that the actors were not presented as "advertisements" but "interviews" implying that they were real people. Could they be real users? I don't know but since it wasn't disclosed that they were actors and not CEOs and writers, it makes the whole thing a bit slimy. For testimonials on an ad, they may or may not be real people but they at least disclose if they were real people. Really is this any different from the MS switcher ads?

There's no way that a company the size of Microsoft does not have pirated software running somewhere. So pass the law, audit Microsoft, and stop them from selling Windows. The world would be a better place for it.

That sounds a lot like the Senator Hatch incident. See here.

nothing to see here?
Its rare to see the NSA in court. It was historically very rare to see the NSA in the press or books.
Recall "Computer ills hinder NSA 2 technology programs, weapons for the war on terrorism, have proved duds"
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2006-02-26/news/0602260086_1_cryptologic-agency-technology-programs
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/04/nsa-executive-charged/

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone