OpenBSD-reich

I think the better solution is a steep tax on the end product for any product containing at least one microprocessor which executes instructions from a mutable (even if "burned in") memory source, which totally and completely doesn't allow the owner to modify this memory with code of the owner's choice or authorship, with either physical or cryptographic mechanisms. All such devices should be treated as "rented" and not owned, and should have unlimited warranty which must be honored in perpetuity so long as a company exists (including future buyers of the company's assets).

It is a national security risk to allow commercial device makers to lock down the software on these devices and then abandon them in a few years. If in twenty years today's SmartTV has a network vulnerability discovered, the manufacturer (or whoever buys or merges with it) should be liable for updating the SmartTVs, unless it has made the device such that the owner can write and change the code at will.

This law should apply to cars, microwaves, smartphones, computers, washing machines, tractors, game consoles, etc. A twenty percent or more sales tax and perpetual warranty for "closed" platforms. Make it no longer economical to do business the way it currently is done!

Error handling is best done with asserts which check for off-domain inputs and off-range outputs, and explode the running program if triggered.

I mean, security trumps convenience and uptime, right guys? Y'all do build your functions with domain and range in mind, right guys?

I love my PocketCHIP. Perfect form factor. Get one or two on eBay before they become rare!

I want to try installing OpenBSD on mine sometime soon.

What will this do to Tor, which can't route UDP?

I agree. Laptops should be no thinner than 1.5". I would love a nerd machine that is 2" thick, has no less than ten various ports, has a fat battery that could last more than 24 hours at 'performance' energy settings, most things on replace-able/upgrade-able daughter boards (especially graphics), replace-able CPU on a socket, and four SSD + two optical drives. The replace-able parts following standards like desktop PCs do.

Laptops were the first to succumb to the thin/miniaturization cancer, and phones really took off with it. The best form factor smartphone IMO is still my first cellphone I had: Samsung SCH-i730. It had a screen which slid up revealing a physical keyboard, it had a camera, it had a large extended battery, it even had an extend-able antenna! It was not shy about being thick! I grew up loving tech, and now with faceb0rg + scr00gle spying, crapple + android thin-sh1t hardware, "smart tvs," more and more user-lockout in hardware (intel ME?), I'm finding myself hating it all more and more!

I've often thought there needs to be a 'church' for Atheists, basically a carbon copy of the modern churches but with jesus and bible stripped out completely. The social grouping is therapeudic and I think the religion meme hitches to this for continuation and longevity.

The other possibility is to make dues-free fraternal organizations. Churches are payment-optional so why not payment-optional frats? Say dues payment halves bar prices (and no-dues prices are somewhat uncomfortably high).