Cancer itself is caused by immune system.

The convenience of the cloud is not the space, but the convenience of a central repository. If you add and remove music all the time, having a central place for all your devices is a huge advantage.

Finch: What usually happens when people without guns stand up to people *with* guns

A rootkit is a program. To make a computer truly secure, you need to remove the ability to run programs. Thus, you need a computer which isn't a comp.... errr never mind.

I agree with major part of your post except one small discrepancy. Milestone does not have a monolithic kernel. in fact, none of the android devices do. Simply because a lot of the underlying device drivers are propriety while the Linux kernle is GPL so Module support is a must. Just an example of a thirdparty module with stock kernel: http://code.google.com/p/milestone-overclock/

In other news, freedom cannot exist without slavery.

One the prime reasons that cyber bullying is of particular focus now is that you simply can't escape it if you can't live without facebook/twitter/omg-the-interwebz-social-networking

There. Fixed it for you

I found it very interesting that "was" in the title is formated to stand out. The question is, considering that they were evil and no longer are, why is viacom suing google, and didn't sue youtube? Isn't suing a bigger company just because they have deeper pockets evil?

Generally I would agree, however, if you would've RTFA, you would've seen that a youtube cofounder himself uploaded copyrighted contents.

You have no fucking idea why people play MMOs, do you?

It is the escape from their miserable lives. Going into a world where they don't have to work hard to achieve what they want. Where they can be anyone they want without the effort it requires in real life.

When there is no innovation left in the gaming industry and when the decisions of the people buying those games are driven by not quality but by trends

here is the link to the actual bill: http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2009/Bills/Senate/PDF/S1004v0.pdf

In essence, what the bill is saying is that a govt provided internet service should be self-sufficient, unsubsidized and be applicable to all costs and taxes that a private organization is. It is not trying to establish a monoply but instead trying to take the unfair advantage away from a govt sponsored organization.

Here is the text from actual bill:

Requirements. â" A city that operates a public enterprise under G.S. 160A-311 that provides communications services to the public for a fee over a communications network that is directly or indirectly owned or operated by or provides a financial benefit to the city or another city shall meet the following conditions with respect to the provision of communications service:
  (1) Comply with all local, State, and federal laws, regulations, or other requirements that would apply to the communications services if provided by a private communications service provider.
(2) Establish a separate enterprise fund for communications service and shall use this fund to separately account for revenues, expenses, property, and source of investment dollars associated with the provision of communications service.
(3) Shall not subsidize the cost of providing communications service with funds from any other noncommunications service, operation, or other revenue source, including any funds or revenue generated from electric, gas, water, sewer, or garbage services. In complying with this requirement, a city owned communications service provider shall not price any communications service below the cost of providing the service.
(4) Shall, in calculating the cost incurred and in the rates to be charged for the provision of communications services, impute: (i) the cost of the capital component that is equivalent to the cost of capital available to private communications service providers in the same locality; and (ii) an amount equal to all taxes, including property taxes, licenses, fees, and other assessments that would apply to a private communications service provider including federal, state, and local taxes; rights-of-way, franchise, consent, or administrative fees; and pole attachment fees.
(5) Shall annually remit to the general fund of the city an amount equivalent to all taxes or fees a private communications service provider would be required to pay the city or county in which the city is located, including any applicable tax refunds received by the city owned communications service provider because of its government status and a sum equal to the amount of property tax that would have been due if the city owned communications service provider were a private communications service provider.
(6) Shall prepare and publish an independent annual audit in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles that reflect the fully allocated cost of providing the communications service, including all direct and indirect costs. The indirect costs shall include amounts for rights-of-way, franchise, consent, or administrative fees, regulatory fees, occupation taxes, pole attachment fees, and ad valorem taxes. The annual accounting shall reflect any direct or indirect subsidies received by the city owned communications service provider, and any buildings, equipment, vehicles, and personnel that
32 are jointly used with other city departments shall be fully allocated to the city owned communications service. The North Carolina Utilities Commission may adopt rules and regulations to ensure compliance with the provisions of this subdivision, and all records demonstrating compliance shall be filed with the North Carolina Utilities Commission and made available for public inspection and copying.

It is not yet on thepiratebay and the beta keys won't work with an RC release so it won't be any use even if it was. It will be cracked but not yet

>>American society seems to be built on the notion of keeping kids ignorant ("innocent") which is exactly the opposite of what our jobs as parents is meant to do. We're supposed to be teaching children about the world and preparing them to deal with it, not hiding it from them.

Its much more general. Not just kids and not just American. Every society is built around keeping majority of people ignorant. Every level of protection is added for the ignorants in society. Be it speed limits, warning on coffee cup, internet filters, ban on guns or so on. Society as we know it today would not survive if it not of wide spread ignorance.

I personally do not care about any of these protections. Just as a lock is meant to keep honest people (or people without lock picking skills/tools) out. So are these protections meant to keep ignorants continue to be ignorant. And they serve their purpose.
Whether these protections are good or bad is a completely different story and in different contexts, they maybe good or bad.