Even if I like a software to be free as in freedom, I respect a software developer to do whatever with his software
There are and needs to be more stringent restrictions on what can be put in a license agreement. Right now you could sign away your first born with my Primary Recombinant DNA Acquisition license but I'd be SOL when I came to collect.
License often carry unreasonable terms for the licensee and no responsibility for the licenser. I think that licenses should be standardised (as in ISO) and have varying levels so that people can rapidly identify the restrictions of the license, for example the GPL would be a level 0 license with no restrictions, MS would be about a level 5 with a few restrictions and the likes of Apple and AutoCAD and ESRI who require specific hardware and place specific limits on what you can do would be a level 10. This should be prined on 3 sides of the box including the front so the purchaser knows full well what they are getting into before buying the product.
Outside of this, the developer has two choices, release under an approved license or don't release. Holding people to obscure licenses like the MS and Apple EULA's (Even the GPL has a bit too much legalese in it) that most people wouldn't be able to understand is wrong.
Ask the Greeks how great deficit spending to bloat up the nanny state and prop up social programs is working out.
And rational people ask if you know anything about economics.
Greece has no industry to speak of, the problem is that banks kept giving Greece easy credit despite having no real way of paying it back. This is the exact same thing that happened with banks in the US, they kept giving out credit to people who couldn't afford to pay it back. So we end up with the same effect, the taxpayer bails out the bond holders because the bond holders couldn't say no to easy profit despite the obvious and enormous risks.
Greece's problem never was money out, it was money in. The same thing would have happened without all those (mostly imaginary) social programs Greece had.
Ultimately, as the US and Greece have proven with their banking disasters that, the problem with Capitalism is that you eventually run out of other peoples money.
I'm just glad I live in one of those crazy socialist nations that regulated their banking system and forced them to maintain a percentage liquidity to credit.
No idea why this was marked insightful. The OS has nothing to do with tethering, it's the carrier.
And Android using Proxoid, PDA.net or EasyTether gets around that one completely as it's all client side and requires no co-operation from the carrier what so ever. Do you now see why the GP was modded Insightful and unfairly modded Troll and Overrated (this mod needs to die, it's only use is to be abused).
If you use an Android phone to tether with AT&T or Verizon with an "unlimited" data plan, you are breaking their rules
But they cannot control it remotely, in fact they cant even tell as all the traffic is coming from the Android phone and Proxiod will happily change the header to read as if it were the Android Browser.
Standard Apple Market speak. I will have to start calling it MacSpeak.
It's already "later".
Indeed, the US Iphone audience may finally get the functionality that I've enjoyed in Nokia phones in Australia for 4 years, or from my Android phone from day 1.
I've found Wave basically unusable on my netbook with Firefox for much the same reason, even with small waves. The fastest it runs is unacceptabley slow, and this on a machine that is powerful enough to run OpenOffice acceptably fast.
It's a beta.
I know Google produces exceptionally high quality betas, the quality of software that the likes of Microsoft and Apple would be proud to call a RTM version but please, it's still a beta. Submit a bug report if possible and help.
Well, if streaming media has proved *anything* over the years, it's that the general public doesn't care if the compression ruins the work as long as they can play it for free.
90% of regular computer users know how to google "CCCP Codec pack" and install it. It's kind of a given that people will install codec's and plugins in order to view media. Installing flash on a browser is second nature. Further more, if I find Flash installed on a server ever again, I will cut the fingers off the user who did it. Those bolt cutters behind my desk are not decorative.
Are you saying con artists and fraudsters (i thought those two were the same thing) are not a danger to other people?
If by danger, you mean a threat to ones life or physical well being the explicitly no.
Given the fact that is the definition in the context of this discussion. Con artists are in jail because they broke a law, not because they are dangerous. The opposite of dangerous is not a good person, please do not view it in such black and white terms.
In other contexts of "danger to other people", fraud and con artists are only a danger to those who cannot think critically.
I think I've seen the bug your talking about with a system on a small local network with a misconfigured Domain Manager and/or router. At one point there was an infinite loop (or at least a really long timeout period) for systems to establish their network connection to the domain, so as long as an Ethernet cable was detected it would keep on trying to establish its connection. Bloody difficult to figure out exactly what was wrong, and yet so simple to fix (apply a specific patch and configure the network correctly) once things were correctly diagnosed.
It was a joke, but thanks anyway.
I inherited my current network from two completely incompetent idiots, so if the DC is misconfigured it wouldn't surprise me, most machines boot fine, only the DC has this issue and eventually boots after 15 mins.
I understand your point completely, but how about giving the benefit of the doubt for once?
It's Sony.
If this comment was about IBM, Shell, BP, or even Microsoft I could somehow, in some weird alternate universe put aside my all too useful cynicism and give them the benefit of the doubt.
But it's Sony, one of the most anti-consumer companies ever to exist.
If people want some of the more exotic features, you pay a subscription. You don't have to, it won't cripple your current experience. If Sony manages to keep this strategy
I just can't see that happening. I reckon the PS3 hardware sales are going to level off, it's a natural thing for this to happen after a while and it will/has happended to the Wii and Xbox360 (and all products really) so it's a logical assumption that Sony wants to start monetising it's existing user base.
Things go wrong and you say that this is a reason why people DO WANT nuclear power in space?
Something is so very, very wrong with your reasoning. If NASA couldn't fix the problem we wouldn't just have a bit of space junk spewing out garbage transmissions, we'd have a bit NUCLEAR space junk spewing out garbage transmissions.
explosive drive
That is a very bad idea for two reasons (assuming you're referring to project Orion and not completely off your tree). 1. Nuclear bombs are very heavy and very destructive, not only do you have the cost of getting them up there but you also have the very real possibility of them being detonated at slightly the wrong angle or slightly the wrong distance vaporising the craft (we are talking about NUCLEAR fucking bombs people) or any of the myriad of other unpredicted problems you will encounter in deep space. 2. Once out in space, you do not need continual propulsion, deploying an explosive drive means sending up two propulsion systems rather then just putting more fuel into the first.
Two massive hurdles prevent the use of nuclear reactors in space, weight and the ability to operate them safely from remote. First, nuclear reactors are very very heavy with all that radiation shielding. Secondly we can not guarantee that remote systems will operate, it's hard enough to keep a well maintained reactor on the ground operating without constant human intervention (which is why they have constant human intervention) let alone one that will be completely unmaintained and far far from any human help. Solve these hurdles and the political one is trivial.
When has Xbox Live ever been free? I'm sure I've been paying for it since 2003
Launched in November 2002 there were two levels of subscription, Xbox Live Silver and Xbox Live Gold, the Silver subscription was free but fairly useless (I think it's still around but no-one acknowledges its existence any more). Microsoft was pretty quick to Monetise XBL.
Once upon a time, long ago there existed a service called Xbox Live. It was free and children played hapily, until the EVIL LORD GATES decided that he would monetise the service and the free version went away if you wanted to play on line.
The same thing will happen to the PSN, first they'll start by adding new features only for "Premium" subscribers just as MS only added new features for "Gold" subscribers. After a while Sony will start taking away features from the free service whilst maintaining them on the "Premium" service. Little features at first, hardly noticeable, a form of slow attrition. Then before you know it, there is no functionality left. Game publishers like EA and Activision will jump right on board making their games playable only over "Premium" subscriptions. Now Sony has the numbers on the Playstation 3 they will start to monetise it, to bleed money from their existing customer base as sales are bound to drop off.
It is antics like this that are the reason I remain a PC gamer. To be nickled and dimed for such basic service like online multiplayer and internet chat is ridiculous to me.
Why doesn't Slashdot have a Star Wars opening credits formatting option?
sn't it just as likely that "ugly people" are more likely to have self esteem issues, which would lead to a higher proclivity towards committing crimes (thus more convictions) and the odds of those crimes being more heinous (leading to longer sentences)?
The study was riddled with holes and inconsiderateness. It also ignore the fact that some of the ugliest criminals you will ever see walk from courtroom like nothing has ever happens because they wore a suit and hired a fancy lawyer. The study didn't seem to take socio-economic status into account, or anything else apparently.
Yes, SF continues to win contracts from Dynamics or whatever MS is calling their latest CRM this week.
SaleForce.com is winning customers away from Dynamics because Dynamics is an absolute pile of crap. If you managed to wade though the absolutely stupid way to customise Dynamics 3.0 you quickly found out that you needed to start from scratch again with 4.0 because MS changed everything and it's still a pile of crap.
Businesses wont use Dynamics despite MS giving away free licenses with every MAPS and partner subscription.
You cannot have something with tons of features and a minimal footprint. Just doesn't happen. Personally, I'll take the more features. Computers are not starved for memory or power these days. Let's use that for nice features, not whine and bitch that software should be spartan to same a few MB.
I'll back this one up. Firefox's base memory footprint is relatively tiny, it's when Firefox opens pages with a crapload of bad javascript, Java, Flash (Apple Fanboys take note HTML 5 will be exactly the same, poorly coded is poorly coded no matter what language you use). I turn off flashblock or adblock and Firefox's memory footprint doubles.
The reason I still use firefox is because of it's extensibility, Adblock, Flashblock, NoScript, AU dictionary and so forth. Chrome is fast but doesn't offer me half of what I use (and has some serious drawbacks like being completely incompatible with VMware Server), Safari is worse and nowhere near as fast as Chrome. Opera is nice but I don't like their idea of homepage trying to shove all that content in there when I just want a simple Google search page (havent figured out how to set this on Opera Mobile yet). I don't find Firefox taking over my system, quite the opposite in fact I find Firefox has allowed me to take control of my browsing experience rather then being stuck with someone else's idea of what it should be.
As a side note, Chrome on Android is great but in this case I really do need a spartan browser as opposed to a fully featured one.
The question is, does any mobile platform enable a "dead-man" switch, or call-home switch?
Blackberries can be set to wipe if the password is entered incorrectly a few too many times. I've seen similar functionality for available for Android such as wiping it when it receives an SMS.
I've never used Android but you seem to be telling me that it has opt-in gateway security and a local security model that's proven ineffectual to anyone unwilling to consider implications (re: Microsoft's UAC).
Show me a security model that protects the user from themselves.
Apples is worse, it gives the user a false sense of security by approving applications that are harmful.
I don't think you quite understand defence in depth and how having less local security and fewer users actively watching applications is a not good thing. Android's system at the moment relies on other users ratting out bad applications, whilst this is not 100% effective it's a lot better then giving a use false sense of security. With Apple you have one set of eyes watching thousands of applications, with Android you have a thousand eyes watching thousands of applications.
Need I point out just how weak an argument that is when Nokia has more marketshare then the Iphone and far more business mindshare. In case you missed my point about diversification, Nokia has it where as Apple pretty much relies on a single product.
When a business standardises on a Nokia S60 phone (happens far more often then a business standardising on a Iphone) they get all the tools they need pre-installed. Ovi failed because it wasn't needed by Nokia's core audience (Business people). Office, Exchange, Email, etc.. are pre-installed on the E71, on the E72 you have in built OCR when photographing documents. I've never had a request for additional software on an E71/72 in two years compared to literally hundreds on the Iphone.
I'm sorry dear fanboy but Nokia is going not failing because Nokia understands it's core audience, Nokia is also a huge part of the team developing new standards like LTE, HSPA+ and other next generation technologies whilst apple is working on "magical revolutions". Nokia will be around because unlike Apple, it is a team player in mobile R&D, LTE is being developed by the likes of Nokia, Siemens (Siemens networks is part of Nokia BTW), Motorola and Eriksson (Sony) meanwhile Apple is working exactly zero next generation technologies. In other words, Apple depends on Nokia and the others, not the other way around.
Orly, It seems incredibly easy to install undsigned applications on a WinMo phone. Not to mention that Microsoft literally gives out the dev tools for free (Visual Studio Express) if you dont want to pay for the full version (technet is A$400 a year and you get more then just VS professional) so nice try fanboy but you fail horribly.
But to access certain services it needs to be signed, though any nerdy enough user can sign it on their own.
So, local security is enforced and you call this a bad thing. You defeated your own point there by admitting all you have to do is self sign.
If you are a nerd and root it and install your own build,
Clearly you know nothing about Android. When I want to install an application from the web, I simply click on the link to the.apk file and Android asks me for permission to install it. This is on an un-rooted standard Motorola Milestone ROM and a un-rooted HTC Dream ROM. Other models from manufacturers are similar.
if the operator has installed a version that restricts you to signed apps (AT&T's latest shenanigans
In this case, AT&T is the problem, not Android so once again you defeat your own very weak point. You can get around AT&T by buying your phone outright. Unfortunately you cant circumvent the Iphone's restrictions by paying for the device up front. Blame lies with your corrupt and anti-competitive telco's, not Android.
So we are back where we started, no other mobile OS on the market has the same restrictions.
It comes down to if you cannot see the source don't trust it. As long as blackhat crooks are out there making closed binaries there will be problems with trojans. If Google is smart they will insist that all code must be visible to operate on the Android OS. Perhaps Rim will follow suit and make sure that all third party binaries are clean. I know this really irks some developers but if your code is clean, unique and has a copyright why are you afraid that others will see it?
RIM cant follow suit because their OS is based on WinCE. Fundamentally incompatible with open licenses. Plus RIM make money of selling hardware and services that rely on their products having no viable third party server software, fundamentally incompatible with the ideas of an open codebase.
Android has always won in the security stakes because Android has on device security. Android checks what API's the program accesses, if it asks for access to your contacts, to the internet or to services that will cost you money (phone calls, SMS's) then you know at installation time. This system is not infallible, nothing is but it is a hell of a lot better then the gateway only model Apple uses.
Apple User 1: This food looks poisoned and smells of death.
Apple User 2: The gatekeeper said it's OK.
Apple User 1: om nom nom nom nom, URK...
Apple's model of no local security is wrong. Any networked operating system should be built with security from the ground up. I fear with enough users, the Iphone OS may become as insecure as Windows not because it sacrifices a good security model for user friendliness wherever possible but because it gives it's users a false sense of security.
Android has on-device security which let the user know, in simple English what the application will do ("can access your contacts", "uses services that cost you money (SMS, makes phone calls)", "will access the internet") so when you download a fart application that wants access to your contacts and to the internet you have to figure out something isn't right.
As much as we hate Apple's walled-garden approach to an app store, having a central authority with a kill switch for any app,
But that isn't so useful as Apple's walled garden approach has forgone local security in favour of gateway only security, once you've gotten past the censors you have a free reign. Enterprises have known for some time that gateway only security is a complete and utter failure. You need both gateway and local security, which Android provides both although the gateway security is entirely voluntary (but enabled by default).
There have already been data miners for the Iphone that have gotten past Apple's ever watchful censors including at least one fake banking application (BOA, IIRC). This isn't including data miners like Arsebook.
Ultimately gateway and local security is preferred for end users, one should have a choice whether to use the gateway or not but local security is an absolute must, especially on a mobile device. Despite how good you think your gateway is it is fundamentally flawed.
or going to Thailand and having sex with somebody who would be considered underage in the US,
Considering that the age of consent for a farang (Thai for non-Asian foreigner) is 18 and the age of consent in the US is 16, that presents a problem on two fronts.
A minor nitpick I know but your analogy works better if you use Belgium (14) or Japan (12).
Slashdot Mirror
There are and needs to be more stringent restrictions on what can be put in a license agreement. Right now you could sign away your first born with my Primary Recombinant DNA Acquisition license but I'd be SOL when I came to collect.
License often carry unreasonable terms for the licensee and no responsibility for the licenser. I think that licenses should be standardised (as in ISO) and have varying levels so that people can rapidly identify the restrictions of the license, for example the GPL would be a level 0 license with no restrictions, MS would be about a level 5 with a few restrictions and the likes of Apple and AutoCAD and ESRI who require specific hardware and place specific limits on what you can do would be a level 10. This should be prined on 3 sides of the box including the front so the purchaser knows full well what they are getting into before buying the product.
Outside of this, the developer has two choices, release under an approved license or don't release. Holding people to obscure licenses like the MS and Apple EULA's (Even the GPL has a bit too much legalese in it) that most people wouldn't be able to understand is wrong.
And rational people ask if you know anything about economics.
Greece has no industry to speak of, the problem is that banks kept giving Greece easy credit despite having no real way of paying it back. This is the exact same thing that happened with banks in the US, they kept giving out credit to people who couldn't afford to pay it back. So we end up with the same effect, the taxpayer bails out the bond holders because the bond holders couldn't say no to easy profit despite the obvious and enormous risks.
Greece's problem never was money out, it was money in. The same thing would have happened without all those (mostly imaginary) social programs Greece had.
Ultimately, as the US and Greece have proven with their banking disasters that, the problem with Capitalism is that you eventually run out of other peoples money.
I'm just glad I live in one of those crazy socialist nations that regulated their banking system and forced them to maintain a percentage liquidity to credit.
And Android using Proxoid, PDA.net or EasyTether gets around that one completely as it's all client side and requires no co-operation from the carrier what so ever. Do you now see why the GP was modded Insightful and unfairly modded Troll and Overrated (this mod needs to die, it's only use is to be abused).
But they cannot control it remotely, in fact they cant even tell as all the traffic is coming from the Android phone and Proxiod will happily change the header to read as if it were the Android Browser.
Standard Apple Market speak. I will have to start calling it MacSpeak.
Indeed, the US Iphone audience may finally get the functionality that I've enjoyed in Nokia phones in Australia for 4 years, or from my Android phone from day 1.
It's a beta.
I know Google produces exceptionally high quality betas, the quality of software that the likes of Microsoft and Apple would be proud to call a RTM version but please, it's still a beta. Submit a bug report if possible and help.
Seeing as Chrome is part of Android I'd put good money on yes.
Via a third party plugin, just like with H.264 via Flash in IE8.
Wont put money on this one, given lord Jobs' dislike of Open Source. If they don't it will only be shooting themselves in the foot.
90% of regular computer users know how to google "CCCP Codec pack" and install it. It's kind of a given that people will install codec's and plugins in order to view media. Installing flash on a browser is second nature. Further more, if I find Flash installed on a server ever again, I will cut the fingers off the user who did it. Those bolt cutters behind my desk are not decorative.
If by danger, you mean a threat to ones life or physical well being the explicitly no.
Given the fact that is the definition in the context of this discussion. Con artists are in jail because they broke a law, not because they are dangerous. The opposite of dangerous is not a good person, please do not view it in such black and white terms.
In other contexts of "danger to other people", fraud and con artists are only a danger to those who cannot think critically.
It was a joke, but thanks anyway.
I inherited my current network from two completely incompetent idiots, so if the DC is misconfigured it wouldn't surprise me, most machines boot fine, only the DC has this issue and eventually boots after 15 mins.
It's Sony.
If this comment was about IBM, Shell, BP, or even Microsoft I could somehow, in some weird alternate universe put aside my all too useful cynicism and give them the benefit of the doubt.
But it's Sony, one of the most anti-consumer companies ever to exist.
I just can't see that happening. I reckon the PS3 hardware sales are going to level off, it's a natural thing for this to happen after a while and it will/has happended to the Wii and Xbox360 (and all products really) so it's a logical assumption that Sony wants to start monetising it's existing user base.
Things go wrong and you say that this is a reason why people DO WANT nuclear power in space?
Something is so very, very wrong with your reasoning. If NASA couldn't fix the problem we wouldn't just have a bit of space junk spewing out garbage transmissions, we'd have a bit NUCLEAR space junk spewing out garbage transmissions.
That is a very bad idea for two reasons (assuming you're referring to project Orion and not completely off your tree). 1. Nuclear bombs are very heavy and very destructive, not only do you have the cost of getting them up there but you also have the very real possibility of them being detonated at slightly the wrong angle or slightly the wrong distance vaporising the craft (we are talking about NUCLEAR fucking bombs people) or any of the myriad of other unpredicted problems you will encounter in deep space. 2. Once out in space, you do not need continual propulsion, deploying an explosive drive means sending up two propulsion systems rather then just putting more fuel into the first.
Two massive hurdles prevent the use of nuclear reactors in space, weight and the ability to operate them safely from remote. First, nuclear reactors are very very heavy with all that radiation shielding. Secondly we can not guarantee that remote systems will operate, it's hard enough to keep a well maintained reactor on the ground operating without constant human intervention (which is why they have constant human intervention) let alone one that will be completely unmaintained and far far from any human help. Solve these hurdles and the political one is trivial.
Launched in November 2002 there were two levels of subscription, Xbox Live Silver and Xbox Live Gold, the Silver subscription was free but fairly useless (I think it's still around but no-one acknowledges its existence any more). Microsoft was pretty quick to Monetise XBL.
Nah, thats just like rebooting a Windows 2003 server. 14 days and it's still "Applying Computer Settings"
Once upon a time, long ago there existed a service called Xbox Live. It was free and children played hapily, until the EVIL LORD GATES decided that he would monetise the service and the free version went away if you wanted to play on line.
The same thing will happen to the PSN, first they'll start by adding new features only for "Premium" subscribers just as MS only added new features for "Gold" subscribers. After a while Sony will start taking away features from the free service whilst maintaining them on the "Premium" service. Little features at first, hardly noticeable, a form of slow attrition. Then before you know it, there is no functionality left. Game publishers like EA and Activision will jump right on board making their games playable only over "Premium" subscriptions. Now Sony has the numbers on the Playstation 3 they will start to monetise it, to bleed money from their existing customer base as sales are bound to drop off.
It is antics like this that are the reason I remain a PC gamer. To be nickled and dimed for such basic service like online multiplayer and internet chat is ridiculous to me.
Why doesn't Slashdot have a Star Wars opening credits formatting option?
The study was riddled with holes and inconsiderateness. It also ignore the fact that some of the ugliest criminals you will ever see walk from courtroom like nothing has ever happens because they wore a suit and hired a fancy lawyer. The study didn't seem to take socio-economic status into account, or anything else apparently.
SaleForce.com is winning customers away from Dynamics because Dynamics is an absolute pile of crap. If you managed to wade though the absolutely stupid way to customise Dynamics 3.0 you quickly found out that you needed to start from scratch again with 4.0 because MS changed everything and it's still a pile of crap.
Businesses wont use Dynamics despite MS giving away free licenses with every MAPS and partner subscription.
Oh, and the reasons the parent mentioned.
I'll back this one up. Firefox's base memory footprint is relatively tiny, it's when Firefox opens pages with a crapload of bad javascript, Java, Flash (Apple Fanboys take note HTML 5 will be exactly the same, poorly coded is poorly coded no matter what language you use). I turn off flashblock or adblock and Firefox's memory footprint doubles.
The reason I still use firefox is because of it's extensibility, Adblock, Flashblock, NoScript, AU dictionary and so forth. Chrome is fast but doesn't offer me half of what I use (and has some serious drawbacks like being completely incompatible with VMware Server), Safari is worse and nowhere near as fast as Chrome. Opera is nice but I don't like their idea of homepage trying to shove all that content in there when I just want a simple Google search page (havent figured out how to set this on Opera Mobile yet). I don't find Firefox taking over my system, quite the opposite in fact I find Firefox has allowed me to take control of my browsing experience rather then being stuck with someone else's idea of what it should be.
As a side note, Chrome on Android is great but in this case I really do need a spartan browser as opposed to a fully featured one.
Blackberries can be set to wipe if the password is entered incorrectly a few too many times. I've seen similar functionality for available for Android such as wiping it when it receives an SMS.
Show me a security model that protects the user from themselves.
Apples is worse, it gives the user a false sense of security by approving applications that are harmful.
I don't think you quite understand defence in depth and how having less local security and fewer users actively watching applications is a not good thing. Android's system at the moment relies on other users ratting out bad applications, whilst this is not 100% effective it's a lot better then giving a use false sense of security. With Apple you have one set of eyes watching thousands of applications, with Android you have a thousand eyes watching thousands of applications.
So, your evidence is solely around Ovi.
Need I point out just how weak an argument that is when Nokia has more marketshare then the Iphone and far more business mindshare. In case you missed my point about diversification, Nokia has it where as Apple pretty much relies on a single product.
When a business standardises on a Nokia S60 phone (happens far more often then a business standardising on a Iphone) they get all the tools they need pre-installed. Ovi failed because it wasn't needed by Nokia's core audience (Business people). Office, Exchange, Email, etc.. are pre-installed on the E71, on the E72 you have in built OCR when photographing documents. I've never had a request for additional software on an E71/72 in two years compared to literally hundreds on the Iphone.
I'm sorry dear fanboy but Nokia is going not failing because Nokia understands it's core audience, Nokia is also a huge part of the team developing new standards like LTE, HSPA+ and other next generation technologies whilst apple is working on "magical revolutions". Nokia will be around because unlike Apple, it is a team player in mobile R&D, LTE is being developed by the likes of Nokia, Siemens (Siemens networks is part of Nokia BTW), Motorola and Eriksson (Sony) meanwhile Apple is working exactly zero next generation technologies. In other words, Apple depends on Nokia and the others, not the other way around.
Orly, It seems incredibly easy to install undsigned applications on a WinMo phone. Not to mention that Microsoft literally gives out the dev tools for free (Visual Studio Express) if you dont want to pay for the full version (technet is A$400 a year and you get more then just VS professional) so nice try fanboy but you fail horribly.
So, local security is enforced and you call this a bad thing. You defeated your own point there by admitting all you have to do is self sign.
Clearly you know nothing about Android. When I want to install an application from the web, I simply click on the link to the .apk file and Android asks me for permission to install it. This is on an un-rooted standard Motorola Milestone ROM and a un-rooted HTC Dream ROM. Other models from manufacturers are similar.
In this case, AT&T is the problem, not Android so once again you defeat your own very weak point. You can get around AT&T by buying your phone outright. Unfortunately you cant circumvent the Iphone's restrictions by paying for the device up front. Blame lies with your corrupt and anti-competitive telco's, not Android.
So we are back where we started, no other mobile OS on the market has the same restrictions.
RIM cant follow suit because their OS is based on WinCE. Fundamentally incompatible with open licenses. Plus RIM make money of selling hardware and services that rely on their products having no viable third party server software, fundamentally incompatible with the ideas of an open codebase.
Android has always won in the security stakes because Android has on device security. Android checks what API's the program accesses, if it asks for access to your contacts, to the internet or to services that will cost you money (phone calls, SMS's) then you know at installation time. This system is not infallible, nothing is but it is a hell of a lot better then the gateway only model Apple uses.
Apple User 1: This food looks poisoned and smells of death.
Apple User 2: The gatekeeper said it's OK.
Apple User 1: om nom nom nom nom, URK...
Apple's model of no local security is wrong. Any networked operating system should be built with security from the ground up. I fear with enough users, the Iphone OS may become as insecure as Windows not because it sacrifices a good security model for user friendliness wherever possible but because it gives it's users a false sense of security.
Android has on-device security which let the user know, in simple English what the application will do ("can access your contacts", "uses services that cost you money (SMS, makes phone calls)", "will access the internet") so when you download a fart application that wants access to your contacts and to the internet you have to figure out something isn't right.
But that isn't so useful as Apple's walled garden approach has forgone local security in favour of gateway only security, once you've gotten past the censors you have a free reign. Enterprises have known for some time that gateway only security is a complete and utter failure. You need both gateway and local security, which Android provides both although the gateway security is entirely voluntary (but enabled by default).
There have already been data miners for the Iphone that have gotten past Apple's ever watchful censors including at least one fake banking application (BOA, IIRC). This isn't including data miners like Arsebook.
Ultimately gateway and local security is preferred for end users, one should have a choice whether to use the gateway or not but local security is an absolute must, especially on a mobile device. Despite how good you think your gateway is it is fundamentally flawed.
Fraudsters, con artists, people who had 10 grams of marijuana on them.
People who are in jail because they violated a law and prison was their punishment, not because they were a danger to other people.
Considering that the age of consent for a farang (Thai for non-Asian foreigner) is 18 and the age of consent in the US is 16, that presents a problem on two fronts.
A minor nitpick I know but your analogy works better if you use Belgium (14) or Japan (12).