Don't get too cocky... the NSA has played around with that offer before. Use our encryption, that we use (so it MUST be good, riiiiight?), and to which only we have all the secret backdoor keys to. Only, they sorta left that last part out.

If you aren't careful, you will get what you wish for.

Interesting legal take. Similar to "You have the right to search my house with a warrant... you don't have a warrant to make me tell you where the drugs are hidden." But it doesn't actually work that way.

Unfortunately, the courts have ruled that like a search warrant, if you have a key to the front door, you must hand that key over, and that such a key to the front door is not self-incrimination.

I certainly get the arguments here about privacy and security, but for all the chest beating, that's NOT how the law actually works. In the case where the subject of a warrant is alive, you can and will sit in jail until you rot until you unlock that laptop.

The problem here is that while courts come down on some basic rights WITHOUT a warrant, courts have consistently said that WITH a warrant, the police (but really the court by extension) can do whatever the hell they please. So long as there is a warrant.

And the reason courts will say this, and continue to beat anyone over the head who disagrees is that courts actually have relatively little power. Besides contempt charges, the warrant is an extension of the court's power to not only control police, but to control and enforce the law on citizens.

The moment you think you're going to tell any court that they can't do what they want with a warrant, thereby asking them to reduce their own power even further, you've lost your ever loving mind.

This is why things like the All Writs Act matter so much to courts. As the arguably weakest branch, they are going to defend the use of their tools most of all.

And all the brash /. comments in the world won't get you out of prison short of a presidential pardon. Just ask Joe Arpaio about that. And the public jumped all over that because even the public generally sides with NOT removing power from courts.

And forget arguments against FISA. For all the correct arguments about a rubber stamp, the fact that they even bothered to include a court makes the courts themselves tickled pink.

Legislatures can cut funding. Executive branches have guns, bullets, and bombs. Courts only have "Please do what we say... pretty please?"

Well, $1 million for each eye... maybe we'll advance research enough to finally know how much costs an arm and a leg!

Telecommuting is still not ideal. Even with a decent setup like FiOS, Skype, Slack, etc, there is something to be said about physical presence that the current system simply doesn't support.

I personally don't foresee the day of true telecommuting being the norm again until the infrastructure is much more robust and the tools allow for no distinction of presence and telepresence. That includes technologies like Halolens, backbones of all fiber, and redundant cloud services.

Just as an example, look at how horrible many shows TWiT.tv get when someone is trying to Skype in over WiFi from some Google or Facebook event. Sure, they conference is getting hosed, but they're just trying to have a single conversation. I certainly wouldn't want my Fortune 500's... fortune... resting on the, excuse my language, CRAP infrastructure that we have today.

The question is, when we place all of our free speech eggs into the corporate basket... should we care? Or should we rather say, "Good! This is why you don't let Facebook/Twitter/Youtube be the sole carriers of your voice and online identity."

I, for one, think the latter reaction is more appropriate. Some are reacting like there was some "right" violated. Not at all. Company hits delete button. Because they can. Sure, this was a rogue employee, but if Twitter itself did it, the masses would be crying over their spilled free speech milk not realizing the glass was owned by Corp Inc.

Yeah, and since when does a car have auto-aim? You call that realistic driving? Any driver with a keyboard and mouse would beat the crap a console joystick driver!

Simple formula. To disprove something someone else did, make it yourself badly, and video tape it failing. Therefore the thing you is proven a failure, thus, nobody else anywhere can make it work.

Because just look at all the fools in the late 1800s who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars combined to create a heavier than air flying machine. We all know that one would have to be a brilliant engineer with millions of dollars to make something like that! What, you think a couple of bicycle mechanics could do that!?!

Better to own the domain, anyways. That's why I own I8-D.com. I leave the interpretation of my art up to my audience... is it a smiley face... or something more insidious!

Or, you could just use Lynx.

Or you could just stop using the web.

Or you could disable all images and javascript.

Pretty much anything is less work and less annoying than having to screw with all the times those tools screw up and you have to fix or whitelist a website. Just look at all the mental energy in this comment thread wasted trying to put together 5, 6, or 7 tools in the right combination like alchemists.

Or, you could just not give a damn so long as it's not flashing or covering the content, and avoid sites that do, because you don't feel like running 10 more unnecessary browser hacks/addons/extensions forever slowing down page loads rather than shrugging your shoulders and never giving it a second thought.

Or yeah, keep fighting the good fight, and Free Tibet... everyone needs a cause, I suppose. ;)

Yes, how dare Google dictate its own business terms! How dare they tell those making money off of their 100% completely free service (without even ads if they so chose not to have them) that the free ride won't last forever. Evil! Evil I say! Nay, Google... NAY!

Google should have no say over how they choose to do business. Instead, Google should be nationalized and operated by an independent board of poets, and every decision voted on by their users to make everyone happy. Their servers will then be converted to run on unicorn rainbow farts, and 99% of profits shall be given to EU newspapers to recoup all of the vast amounts of business they've lost by having Google link to their stories so that people can actually find them.

[/sarcasm]

I think I've read this plot in a book. http://www.goodreads.com/book/...

Please tell me you aren't serious. We've been hearing about a smart grid working with smart appliances for what seems like forever. If we'd done this in the days of dial up, we'd still be on dial up. When's the last time your water company increased the pipe size to your house as part of "innovative upgrade". Never, right? Exactly.

Would you still want a regulated monopoly/duopoly (government's fault)? I don't know about you, but taking back the last 20 years of profit to undo the broadband revolution seems like an insanely BAD idea.

Let's keep the sour grapes reactions under wraps so we don't get stuck in the dark ages of current speeds for the next 20 years. I agree the problem is with politicians in back pockets, but it's the local and state policies that stop competition we should be fighting. Pretending they'll innovate under threat of becoming a pure utility will not work. They'll simply become a utility.

If all police are going to wear cameras, I demand public outcry equivilant to Google Glass for any police officer entering a bar, going to the bathroom, or hanging out around playgrounds.

You think I'm joking... but if I take a video on Google Glass, it's for private use. If I take a video as a camera enabled police officer, that embarassing moment is caught on police video, which can be seen by anyone with authorization... and just look at all those "authorized" videos showing up on Cops, Amazing Chases, etc. And the show Cops proves that people will sit for hours watching mundane police activity so long as there are a few drunk/stupid/lying/disfigured/crazy citizen to laugh at.

...wondered, "Why is Slashdot posting cooking and preparation of eggs as 'women's work'? And why would that affect woman's career? Kinda sexist if you ask me..."