For those now wondering what their own uptime is (as did I), there's free Apps that can show you. E.g. for iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/dk/app/mocha-isys/id326673288?mt=8 (not pretty but gets the job done); For Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sysuptime.procomputation (haven't tried it).

Fair enough, turns out I was mixing up "Cloud" and "SaaS". Thanks for clarifying.

Yes, for you and me and the rest of the tech-savvy web, this poses a big chance (either for transitioning to one's 'own "cloud"' or for new services to emerge, maybe with new/better features than Google Reader). However, here's an interesting take from another angle: http://macsparky.com/blog/2013/3/the-rss-apocalypse. In a nutshell, it makes the point that *ordinary* people (aka 'the 95 percent') won't bother to actively transition to some other service, but rather call it quits with RSS and go somewhere else entirely. This could upheave Facebook et al to replace RSS for this majority of users, entering a vicious cycle of shrinking demand and supply. -> Let's hope for the best and expect the worst...

Yeah, you got the foul egg of AVM's support, there. Of course, the company sanctioned way to deal with your problem would have been to make you go through repeated hardware swaps before finally up-selling you on their newest model, "that comes without such limitations". Hope you catch the sarcasm ;)

It seems with the below findings, Notebooks are the only safe place to put SSDs, for now: https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/fast13/fast13-final80.pdf [quote] Our experimental results reveal that thirteen out of the fifteen tested SSD devices exhibit surprising failure behaviors under power faults, including bit corruption, shorn writes, unserializable writes, meta- data corruption, and total device failure. [/quote] (via http://www.zdnet.com/how-ssd-power-faults-scramble-your-data-7000011979/)

Effects on Standby time would be much more interesting. Whenever you're using the device, you expect to see the battery go down and probably wouldn't notice (let alone mind) the faster drain during a voice call. And for something completely different: http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/boeing-uses-20000-lbs-potatoes-check-aircraft-wireless-network-signals (URL says all but all: Basically, potatoes).

The scenario described in the linked blog post occurred to me as the 21st-century equivalent to a coin super-glued to the pavement to make passers-by reach out for it, only to find it immovable...

How about the HTML5 player (youtube.com/html5)? Also, would be interesting to see whether HTTP streaming (on mobile devices, e.g. iPhone) eases the encrypted distribution of streaming *content*.

"Bad idea" in this case is a huge understatement. The only thing worse I can come up with would be to charge incoming calls, even if I don't answer..

In case you're interested in tremendously detailed smartphone statistics, you may want to check out http://www.asymco.com (warning: Apple biased)

Maybe "trial" is the TelCo's "beta". Similar stunts are pulled with "soft launches". It just means: our hotline won't (or can't) help the customer if there are problems ;-)

In my appartment, 2G and 3G is nearly unusable so I have to rely on WiFi for staying online (for conveniences such as push notifications). Although I don't have WiFi reception problems per se, I recently had to adjust for what seems to be a new neighbor with high TX power. For a quick n dirty WiFi scan, this App for Android did better than I had expected: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer Maybe this can cut it for your WiFi as well. Cheers

Maybe Cox just realised they should have gone for a brand name that allows for fewer silly/childish word jokes from the start ;-) The first thing that occured to me after reading was that DSL providers have the advantage that they can put their initial network invests in a small region and still thrive with a focus on quality because they simply know, where their customers are going to use the service (i.e. at the subscriber's site). Mobile operators can't say "We cover $BIGCITY1 and $BIGCITY2 but nothing else (or maybe later)". In Germany, examples for such ISPs are HanseNet and NetCologne (even the names indicate that they have a narrow local focus). A new mobile operator that just spent gazillions on network infrastructure simply would have to hit the ground running (in terms of customer base) to be profitable from the start. From my point of view, it's too hard a market to emerge in, I think.

IMHO the problem as described above (lack of cloud availability == no access to your data) is not with the "cloud" per se. I'd like to point out the fundamental difference between using "the cloud" as "master" vs. "only" source of information. "Cloud sync" services that only sync information between your devices (e.g. Dropbox, iCloud and even Google sync via Exchange) have the advantage that the information is *on all your device(s)* at any time (security matters aside). Of course, if the sync engine or DB gets corrupted, you may loose data anyway. On the other hand, "Cloud only" services with the single purpose of delivering data in real time (e.g. Facebook stream, Twitter, Google+) depend more heavily on the availability of access (mobile broadband, server uptime).

I didn't read "Zero Day" (yet..) but from your post I take it that you would enjoy "Daemon" (http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/B003L1ZXCU) and "Freedom(tm)" (http://www.amazon.de/Freedom-Daniel-Suarez/dp/1849161763), both by Daniel Suarez, very much as well.

shouldn't it read "a base station usually has three sectorized cells each covering 120 degrees"? ;-) feature request: include gps position of cell changes. this could give you a better idea of the differences in density. train spotting, plane spotting, cell spotting..

Instead of messing with each and every Addon you wish to install, consider installing the "Firefox Nightly Tester Tools" (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nightly-tester-tools/). Once installed, you can easily surpress Firefox' version compatibility checking alltogether (about:config --> "nightly.disableCheckCompatibility" = false)

It's not only about speed and RTT: http://www.bgr.com/2011/03/28/htc-thunderbolt-review/

Just a thought on the higher delays in comparison to Europe you mentioned: Since PC World definitely would have measured End-to-End RTTs, maybe US Wireless Carrier's infrastructure that's necessary to enforce fair use policies, metered billing, lawful interception and whatnot is even more bloated than in Europe. Also, maybe they already have some kind of Deep Packet Inspection in place and on every packet, a lookup in the whitelist tables has to be performed (whitelist currently might only contain "*/*" so every packet gets a 'do not inspect').