I always thought that the enormous government payouts to help prop up the banks after they fucked up so badly with the bogus mortgages etc, ought to have been conditional on the Head of the Banking corporations being fired on the spot. Any bank that paid its corporate heads bonuses after receiving public funds, should lose all of those funds. Its a heinous crime IMHO.
What I want to know is why the people who profited off the mortgage scams are not all rotting in jail with all of their personal assets seized and sold at auction? All I ever heard was a few people getting nailed, and the banks getting bailed out. Where are the several thousand new white collar criminals doing their time?
See this article on the lawsuit that Coca Cola Corp is currently facing in Colombia. they are accused of hiring hit men to kill the union leaders at their local bottling plant there.
By reinforcing the notion that the US and other NATO forces engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan are in fact "Crusaders" there to forcibly convert people to Christianity. There have been a few comments of a religious nature from US commanders in the past that probably helped reinforce the other sides propaganda efforts but this goes a step further. What more proof that we are engaged in fighting "Islam" the religion (and not Islamist terrorists) do you need to give to Al Qaida propagandists? What about the Muslim (or any other non-Christian religion) members of the US/NATO forces who suddenly discover they have been using a weapon with a religious quote that they might find personally find offensive?
You will never win the hearts and minds of a population by making them think you are there to completely uproot their lives, starting with telling them their religion is wrong, and that getting your help is conditional on them converting to your religion. What you will do is help create even more opposition to your presence.
I think the directors of this company should be fined the entire cost of the items sold to the military so far, from their own personal pocketbooks. What a hairbrained assinine and offensive stupid thing to do. I hope they pay for it.
I know its a joke that you Americans (I am assuming) find endlessly funny. However, its not.
Ever heard of the Napoleonic Wars? Ever heard of Napoleon for that matter? France used to be the most feared nation in the world and the most powerful military force bar none - most of the world's nations feared her, and most of Europe was conquered by her at one point or another.
You no longer live in a true democracy, corporations and their pet lobby groups have superceded the rights of the citizens of the US in many ways, and the IP Mafiaa can push through things like ACTA and other draconian legislation because they have effective control of the government. Its not that clear cut mind you, I am not preaching paranoia, but corporate interests have a disproportionate influence on the laws that are being enacted, and its not in the interests of the average citizen IMHO. I'm Canadian, so I don't have the legal option but isn't tossing out your government and replacing it with a better one a legal option down there in the US?
I agree completely. The Extras are already on the chopping block - look at the armies in Lord of the Rings, only a few were actors I believe. Once the database of mocap data, skinning data etc is built up, they can be provided for a film without the necessary bother of finding and paying them etc. Actors will be next, at first in niche shots - oh wait, that's been done too already - then in entire roles. Eventually studios will rise and fall based on the film components databases they maintain and the software to support them. Then the hacking of each other's data will begin and we have a new Neal Stephenson novel:)
Of course it is. Don't you find it just a LITTLE bit odd that if you convert "don't be evil" to Hexidecimal, move some of the numbers and letters around, and do a few arithmatic operations on some of the numbers, you can get the Hex for "osama bin laden"! Seriously sheeple, wake up!
Nice try Dan Brown, but no amount of foreshadowing here on/. is gonna let you crank out another extremely shitty book and make even more cash. Keep with the stealing from Holy Blood Holy Grail, its worked so far.
Having played COH extensively up until Mission Architect came out, and having tried CO for the open beta, I gotta say the 2 games are completely different. I realize CO is in its infancy, but its a different style of game. COH feels like a PC MMO and can have considerable depth and detail. Character classes have distinct roles - and quite frankly it still has the best group combat system of any MMO I have ever tried (and thats dozens of them). CO is a console game, it feels shallow, it feels simplistic, roles are extremely poorly designed while seeming flexible and the action never stops. Now, that may be your thing, but CO was complete and utter crap to me and my friends, because it felt like it was designed for the 8-12 yr old console crowd. COH is a mature game with a lot of great content in it. MA was an obvious mistake: if you let players create their own content, they will use that ability to create easy missions with huge benefits and massive powerleveling will ensue. They will not (typically) use it to create great new content that is clever, literate and challenging - because the majority of players are not that clever or creative. Whats the quote: "Think of how stupid people are on average, now realize that half of them are stupider than that" or something to that effect. I would ignore MA, and just play COH for the developer created content first, then you can check out MA if you want. See the quality first, before playing the crap, so that you see the great potential of the game, not the worst sheise the public can cough up in an attempt to get everything for nothing. If you haven't played COH its worth downloading the trial and checking it out. I am not a comic book/superhero fan per se, I played it reluctantly at first when my friends and my wife decided to give it a try, and to be honest I was blown away. That feeling continued for more or less 5 years off and on.
Everyone is well aware that Hollywood can't seem to get away from attempts to recreate the last successful show to come along of course, but I really hope they lose the idea that every new show must be done in the style of Battlestar Galactica to ensure it will be popular. That show worked - although personally I only ever watched about half a season if it, I do intend to watch it eventually and I could see its potential. I am watching Stargate:Universe now as my wife and I are longtime fans of Stargate (despite a lot of cheesiness at times), and I have to say its awful so far. Awful because they have tried to create the same atmosphere as BG, and as a result none of the characters are likeable and I care about none of them. Everything is conflict and every character is a bit of an asshole and thats the best thing you can say about any of them. BG remade worked well because they had an original style and presentation and good writing. That isn't a formula for success, though. Not every show needs to be BG repeated. Let some originality shine through - of course this is Hollywood where originality is often strangled at birth I know.
I imagine most of you have never seen this excellent British SF Series but you should. Despite those elements which date it horribly, it was still far far ahead of its time. This was my favorite show as a kid without doubt and in many ways its still an excellent show and aged well. It deserves a reboot if anything does. However, it needs to be redone by the British, not Americans, or at least a co-production. Letting American writers and producers loose with it would ruin the show I think - it had an air of understatement that American TV shows and Audiences seem unable to maintain. A US production would be totally over the top and I think that would be a mistake. By far the best show in the entire list - and amazingly ignored in all the comments I read.
Honestly I would love to see a series set in this universe. Plenty of things to discuss and a lot of opportunity for character development and all in an environment that would allow for kick-ass special effects. This book and its successors are nothing short of brilliant.
My understanding is that the Irish language is actually getting preserved fairly well, in large part because the Irish people and government decided a while back that their language was a good way to stick it to the English invaders as well as recognizing Ireland's own cultural heritage (much like the revival of hurling and Gaelic football). About half of the Irish speak it to some degree, and most study it as part of their public school curriculum.
Actually the language spoken in England when it was Celtic dominated would be similar to Welsh rather than Irish in all likelihood. Actually, the Welsh could be viewed as the remnants of that population I believe. Welsh is also doing fairly well and being taught in the school system, likely better than Irish although I can't be sure. Scot's Gaelic (a descendant of Irish Gaelic mostly) is on the rocks, but efforts are being made to increase the speaking population with some success. Cornish died out completely but they are trying to revive it, and Breton is slowly dying off under the heavy hand of French culture I believe but am not sure.
It does take a tremendous effort to preserve these languages and encourage speakers under the onslaught of major languages like English sadly. We are losing a human language every few days apparently, and it won't be all that long before the majority of them have gone. Since each represents a unique perspective on what it means to be human, I think this is a massive shame.
And as far as Nordic raiders are concerned, don't forget that a lot of modern English is also due to the Norman Conquest, when French-rooted words started moving in.
As far as the Norman raiders are concerned, lets not forget that they were descendants of other Viking Raiders who settled north of Paris and created Normandy. Yes, they adopted Frankish as their language, but the aggressive military culture the evolved was due in some part to the Norse heritage they came from. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normans
So none of these products compared the actual email address being used with the displayed one in the message? That would seem to me to be about the most obvious security check one could think of with regards to email.
You can only pull that off if your products are consistently of high quality, high reliability, and have a cutting edge design that sets the trend for the rest of the Industry. Apple consistently does these things from the innovative appearance of their products to the functionality of their OS.
After many years of owning an endless stream of PCs running Windows (and often Linux in some form of course), I switched to an iMac a few years ago. I will never willingly go back, because the product is consistently that good. The OS is superior to any version of Windows (and in my opinion superior to Linux varieties I have tried, in its polish and cohesiveness, if not functionality (which Linux has in spades of course)). The Ipod is clearly the best and most userfriendly MP3 player out there - and the latest one adds in a camera, voice recorder, step counter and a horde of other nice functions that go well with the target audience. I have never used an iPhone but I had an Ipod Touch and was very impressed with it overall. As long as everyone else is playing catchup to Apple in the products they design and produce, and as long as Apple can continue to produce top quality products, Apple will continue to be consistently cool in the public's eyes. Yes, of course they have a very good marketing department and thats a large part of their success.
Honestly, having tried Apples products, they deserve a lot of the kudos they receive. My iMac does everything I need it to do, including smoothly rebooting to XP when I want to play games. I have yet to have a single problem with it. When I compare that to the almost daily problems I have encountered with MS products, there really is no comparison. I use XP now only to play games - and that only because Microsoft has the games industry by the short and curlies. Microsoft produces toy operating systems for me now.
If Apple produces a tablet, it will work right out of the box and be a consistently thought out design that offers innovation and performance. They will have done their research and tailored their design to the requirements of the individuals who might use such a device, based on hours of research. I am not a fan-boy but I have come to expect good products from Apple and I don't let bias shape my opinion I hope.
If Microsoft produces a tablet, it will be based on the business need to be in a space that they feel threatened in, and which Apple is entering. It will lag in production long enough for them to determine some of the features of the Apple product so they can imitate them, and it will be based on insufficient research and design and be under a lot of restrictions based on their OS limitations. The end result will be cheaper, but not faster or better than the Apple product - for all values of cheaper. I don't expect a high quality product from Microsoft - and with a few clear exceptions (MS Word for instance) they seldom exceed those low expectations. I recognize they have a much harder job since they have to support a massive variety of hardware and Apple can specify the hardware themselves, but the end result is usually a pale immitation.
Lucas wanted to make a swashbuckling movie, he just put it in space. He hired as a consultant the man who wrote "the Hero with a Thousand Faces", about the commonality of archtypes in stories around the world and throughout history: and Star Wars follows this pattern very rigidly (and repeates it in Empire)
Don't get me wrong: I *love* Star Wars. But this complaint that Avatar is not original ignores that noting is original.
The "consultant who wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces" was Joseph Campbell - not some unknown numpty. He is quite well respected as an authority on the subject
Yes, Star Wars is not original - in the sense that no story is ever original, so it includes pretty much every movie ever made - because it follows principles that more or less define how a story can seem epic and meaningful to humans universally. This is of course true of just about every other story ever told that you can recall the details of, since Campbell has analyzed how we tell stories as humans.
However, in reference to movies the word Unoriginal is usually reserved for instances where a movie plot - or elements thereof - have been copied more or less transparently from some other movie or story. This is not the case with Star Wars. Point to the plot elements that have been derived from any one particular source, particularly another movie. Its been borrowed from every story ever told effectively. Yes, he borrowed some window-dressing stuff like imitating WWII combat chatter and film footage, but that's not really plot elements to speak of, its special effects and cinematics. It could have been filmed differently and it wouldn't have changed the story noticeably.
I will add however that I have seen a great number of semi-clad women appearing at the door, as well as quite a few appearing naked or sem-clad (the later is more common by far) and received a lot of views of exposed breasts by way of tips:)
Luckily I have only seen 1 naked male so far in several years of delivery:P
Yes, but all they have patented is the functionality to look up a given abbreviation and substitute the long form of it. My IDE will let me enter "fore" and have it bring up a list of matching options include "foreach", how is this any different other than its in relationship to communications i.e. "texting" and presumably email? Its exactly the sort of functionality that someone building a message client might think to add - and probably has of course - and as such I think its ridiculous that it could be patentable, or even that anyone would try.
Does this win some sort of stupidity award for the most ridiculous patenting of something that shouldn't be patentable? Whats next, patenting the use of punctuation in sentances?
Slashdot Mirror
I always thought that the enormous government payouts to help prop up the banks after they fucked up so badly with the bogus mortgages etc, ought to have been conditional on the Head of the Banking corporations being fired on the spot. Any bank that paid its corporate heads bonuses after receiving public funds, should lose all of those funds. Its a heinous crime IMHO.
What I want to know is why the people who profited off the mortgage scams are not all rotting in jail with all of their personal assets seized and sold at auction? All I ever heard was a few people getting nailed, and the banks getting bailed out. Where are the several thousand new white collar criminals doing their time?
See this article on the lawsuit that Coca Cola Corp is currently facing in Colombia. they are accused of hiring hit men to kill the union leaders at their local bottling plant there.
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Categories/Lawlawsuits/Lawsuitsregulatoryaction/LawsuitsSelectedcases/Coca-ColalawsuitreColombia?&batch_start=51
Here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8468981.stm
Seems the issue came up when some muslim members of the forces complained and asked why these inscriptions were there. Article has some good comments.
Why is this in Idle btw? Its not all that geeky but its not trivially unimportant either.
By reinforcing the notion that the US and other NATO forces engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan are in fact "Crusaders" there to forcibly convert people to Christianity. There have been a few comments of a religious nature from US commanders in the past that probably helped reinforce the other sides propaganda efforts but this goes a step further. What more proof that we are engaged in fighting "Islam" the religion (and not Islamist terrorists) do you need to give to Al Qaida propagandists? What about the Muslim (or any other non-Christian religion) members of the US/NATO forces who suddenly discover they have been using a weapon with a religious quote that they might find personally find offensive?
You will never win the hearts and minds of a population by making them think you are there to completely uproot their lives, starting with telling them their religion is wrong, and that getting your help is conditional on them converting to your religion. What you will do is help create even more opposition to your presence.
I think the directors of this company should be fined the entire cost of the items sold to the military so far, from their own personal pocketbooks. What a hairbrained assinine and offensive stupid thing to do. I hope they pay for it.
I know its a joke that you Americans (I am assuming) find endlessly funny. However, its not.
Ever heard of the Napoleonic Wars? Ever heard of Napoleon for that matter? France used to be the most feared nation in the world and the most powerful military force bar none - most of the world's nations feared her, and most of Europe was conquered by her at one point or another.
Much like the US at the moment.
You no longer live in a true democracy, corporations and their pet lobby groups have superceded the rights of the citizens of the US in many ways, and the IP Mafiaa can push through things like ACTA and other draconian legislation because they have effective control of the government. Its not that clear cut mind you, I am not preaching paranoia, but corporate interests have a disproportionate influence on the laws that are being enacted, and its not in the interests of the average citizen IMHO.
I'm Canadian, so I don't have the legal option but isn't tossing out your government and replacing it with a better one a legal option down there in the US?
I agree completely. The Extras are already on the chopping block - look at the armies in Lord of the Rings, only a few were actors I believe. Once the database of mocap data, skinning data etc is built up, they can be provided for a film without the necessary bother of finding and paying them etc. :)
Actors will be next, at first in niche shots - oh wait, that's been done too already - then in entire roles.
Eventually studios will rise and fall based on the film components databases they maintain and the software to support them.
Then the hacking of each other's data will begin and we have a new Neal Stephenson novel
So much for repair certifications like A+ etc, you just need the right headset and the ability to use simple tools apparently :)
Of course it is. Don't you find it just a LITTLE bit odd that if you convert "don't be evil" to Hexidecimal, move some of the numbers and letters around, and do a few arithmatic operations on some of the numbers, you can get the Hex for "osama bin laden"! Seriously sheeple, wake up!
Nice try Dan Brown, but no amount of foreshadowing here on /. is gonna let you crank out another extremely shitty book and make even more cash. Keep with the stealing from Holy Blood Holy Grail, its worked so far.
Having played COH extensively up until Mission Architect came out, and having tried CO for the open beta, I gotta say the 2 games are completely different. I realize CO is in its infancy, but its a different style of game. COH feels like a PC MMO and can have considerable depth and detail. Character classes have distinct roles - and quite frankly it still has the best group combat system of any MMO I have ever tried (and thats dozens of them). CO is a console game, it feels shallow, it feels simplistic, roles are extremely poorly designed while seeming flexible and the action never stops. Now, that may be your thing, but CO was complete and utter crap to me and my friends, because it felt like it was designed for the 8-12 yr old console crowd. COH is a mature game with a lot of great content in it.
MA was an obvious mistake: if you let players create their own content, they will use that ability to create easy missions with huge benefits and massive powerleveling will ensue. They will not (typically) use it to create great new content that is clever, literate and challenging - because the majority of players are not that clever or creative. Whats the quote: "Think of how stupid people are on average, now realize that half of them are stupider than that" or something to that effect. I would ignore MA, and just play COH for the developer created content first, then you can check out MA if you want. See the quality first, before playing the crap, so that you see the great potential of the game, not the worst sheise the public can cough up in an attempt to get everything for nothing.
If you haven't played COH its worth downloading the trial and checking it out. I am not a comic book/superhero fan per se, I played it reluctantly at first when my friends and my wife decided to give it a try, and to be honest I was blown away. That feeling continued for more or less 5 years off and on.
I forgot to include a link to a description of the series in my original post
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_(TV_series)
Reading it, it seems a remake is already in the works and it will be done in England. I hope it actually gets completed.
Everyone is well aware that Hollywood can't seem to get away from attempts to recreate the last successful show to come along of course, but I really hope they lose the idea that every new show must be done in the style of Battlestar Galactica to ensure it will be popular. That show worked - although personally I only ever watched about half a season if it, I do intend to watch it eventually and I could see its potential.
I am watching Stargate:Universe now as my wife and I are longtime fans of Stargate (despite a lot of cheesiness at times), and I have to say its awful so far. Awful because they have tried to create the same atmosphere as BG, and as a result none of the characters are likeable and I care about none of them. Everything is conflict and every character is a bit of an asshole and thats the best thing you can say about any of them.
BG remade worked well because they had an original style and presentation and good writing. That isn't a formula for success, though. Not every show needs to be BG repeated. Let some originality shine through - of course this is Hollywood where originality is often strangled at birth I know.
I imagine most of you have never seen this excellent British SF Series but you should. Despite those elements which date it horribly, it was still far far ahead of its time. This was my favorite show as a kid without doubt and in many ways its still an excellent show and aged well. It deserves a reboot if anything does.
However, it needs to be redone by the British, not Americans, or at least a co-production. Letting American writers and producers loose with it would ruin the show I think - it had an air of understatement that American TV shows and Audiences seem unable to maintain. A US production would be totally over the top and I think that would be a mistake.
By far the best show in the entire list - and amazingly ignored in all the comments I read.
Honestly I would love to see a series set in this universe. Plenty of things to discuss and a lot of opportunity for character development and all in an environment that would allow for kick-ass special effects. This book and its successors are nothing short of brilliant.
My understanding is that the Irish language is actually getting preserved fairly well, in large part because the Irish people and government decided a while back that their language was a good way to stick it to the English invaders as well as recognizing Ireland's own cultural heritage (much like the revival of hurling and Gaelic football). About half of the Irish speak it to some degree, and most study it as part of their public school curriculum.
Actually the language spoken in England when it was Celtic dominated would be similar to Welsh rather than Irish in all likelihood. Actually, the Welsh could be viewed as the remnants of that population I believe. Welsh is also doing fairly well and being taught in the school system, likely better than Irish although I can't be sure. Scot's Gaelic (a descendant of Irish Gaelic mostly) is on the rocks, but efforts are being made to increase the speaking population with some success. Cornish died out completely but they are trying to revive it, and Breton is slowly dying off under the heavy hand of French culture I believe but am not sure.
It does take a tremendous effort to preserve these languages and encourage speakers under the onslaught of major languages like English sadly. We are losing a human language every few days apparently, and it won't be all that long before the majority of them have gone. Since each represents a unique perspective on what it means to be human, I think this is a massive shame.
And as far as Nordic raiders are concerned, don't forget that a lot of modern English is also due to the Norman Conquest, when French-rooted words started moving in.
As far as the Norman raiders are concerned, lets not forget that they were descendants of other Viking Raiders who settled north of Paris and created Normandy. Yes, they adopted Frankish as their language, but the aggressive military culture the evolved was due in some part to the Norse heritage they came from.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normans
Hip-hop is an aboriginal Australian form of expression?
Yeah, and its been evolving there on its own for about 75000 years... :P
Okay thanks for the clarification. I know relatively little about email and how it is transmitted/received beyond how to use it :)
So none of these products compared the actual email address being used with the displayed one in the message? That would seem to me to be about the most obvious security check one could think of with regards to email.
You can only pull that off if your products are consistently of high quality, high reliability, and have a cutting edge design that sets the trend for the rest of the Industry. Apple consistently does these things from the innovative appearance of their products to the functionality of their OS.
After many years of owning an endless stream of PCs running Windows (and often Linux in some form of course), I switched to an iMac a few years ago. I will never willingly go back, because the product is consistently that good. The OS is superior to any version of Windows (and in my opinion superior to Linux varieties I have tried, in its polish and cohesiveness, if not functionality (which Linux has in spades of course)). The Ipod is clearly the best and most userfriendly MP3 player out there - and the latest one adds in a camera, voice recorder, step counter and a horde of other nice functions that go well with the target audience. I have never used an iPhone but I had an Ipod Touch and was very impressed with it overall.
As long as everyone else is playing catchup to Apple in the products they design and produce, and as long as Apple can continue to produce top quality products, Apple will continue to be consistently cool in the public's eyes. Yes, of course they have a very good marketing department and thats a large part of their success.
Honestly, having tried Apples products, they deserve a lot of the kudos they receive. My iMac does everything I need it to do, including smoothly rebooting to XP when I want to play games. I have yet to have a single problem with it. When I compare that to the almost daily problems I have encountered with MS products, there really is no comparison. I use XP now only to play games - and that only because Microsoft has the games industry by the short and curlies. Microsoft produces toy operating systems for me now.
If Apple produces a tablet, it will work right out of the box and be a consistently thought out design that offers innovation and performance. They will have done their research and tailored their design to the requirements of the individuals who might use such a device, based on hours of research. I am not a fan-boy but I have come to expect good products from Apple and I don't let bias shape my opinion I hope.
If Microsoft produces a tablet, it will be based on the business need to be in a space that they feel threatened in, and which Apple is entering. It will lag in production long enough for them to determine some of the features of the Apple product so they can imitate them, and it will be based on insufficient research and design and be under a lot of restrictions based on their OS limitations. The end result will be cheaper, but not faster or better than the Apple product - for all values of cheaper. I don't expect a high quality product from Microsoft - and with a few clear exceptions (MS Word for instance) they seldom exceed those low expectations. I recognize they have a much harder job since they have to support a massive variety of hardware and Apple can specify the hardware themselves, but the end result is usually a pale immitation.
Funny true story. StarWars is not original.
Lucas wanted to make a swashbuckling movie, he just put it in space. He hired as a consultant the man who wrote "the Hero with a Thousand Faces", about the commonality of archtypes in stories around the world and throughout history: and Star Wars follows this pattern very rigidly (and repeates it in Empire)
Don't get me wrong: I *love* Star Wars. But this complaint that Avatar is not original ignores that noting is original.
The "consultant who wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces" was Joseph Campbell - not some unknown numpty. He is quite well respected as an authority on the subject
Yes, Star Wars is not original - in the sense that no story is ever original, so it includes pretty much every movie ever made - because it follows principles that more or less define how a story can seem epic and meaningful to humans universally. This is of course true of just about every other story ever told that you can recall the details of, since Campbell has analyzed how we tell stories as humans.
However, in reference to movies the word Unoriginal is usually reserved for instances where a movie plot - or elements thereof - have been copied more or less transparently from some other movie or story. This is not the case with Star Wars. Point to the plot elements that have been derived from any one particular source, particularly another movie. Its been borrowed from every story ever told effectively. Yes, he borrowed some window-dressing stuff like imitating WWII combat chatter and film footage, but that's not really plot elements to speak of, its special effects and cinematics. It could have been filmed differently and it wouldn't have changed the story noticeably.
I will add however that I have seen a great number of semi-clad women appearing at the door, as well as quite a few appearing naked or sem-clad (the later is more common by far) and received a lot of views of exposed breasts by way of tips :)
Luckily I have only seen 1 naked male so far in several years of delivery :P
Porno movie pizza delivery guy sex rate vs actual pizza delivery guy sex rate
Well I can provide some hard data on this, as I deliver pizzas on the weekend:
Actual Pizza Delivery Guy Sex Rate (from delivering pizzas): 0
Yes, but all they have patented is the functionality to look up a given abbreviation and substitute the long form of it. My IDE will let me enter "fore" and have it bring up a list of matching options include "foreach", how is this any different other than its in relationship to communications i.e. "texting" and presumably email? Its exactly the sort of functionality that someone building a message client might think to add - and probably has of course - and as such I think its ridiculous that it could be patentable, or even that anyone would try.
Does this win some sort of stupidity award for the most ridiculous patenting of something that shouldn't be patentable? Whats next, patenting the use of punctuation in sentances?
Perhaps this is just a big conspiracy to help boost PVR sales? :P