Shacker said:

- Multi-selecting messages in an inbox. Try to Shift-click to select a range of messages, or Cmd- or Ctrl-click to select a bunch of arbitrary messages for deletion. Every desktop mail client can do this, but the only webmail systems I've seen that can are Apple's Mac.com mail and the obscure Roundcube system found on some web hosts. Maybe Yahoo! can - I haven't tried the new one; but I know GMail can't. Again, this is a total show stopper.

- Hotkey support in general is spotty at best. Again, showstopper.

Gmail and Yahoo can select multiple messages; Gmail's had this feature from its first version. Hold down shift, click the first message, click the last message, then do the operation you want. Gmail is even better at this than desktop clients because it selects conversations, not single messages -- so you can move a whole thread to the archive with only one selection.

Gmail and Yahoo and live Hotmail also have lots of keyboard shortcuts, more even than many desktop clients.

To select multiple messages, click on the check box next to the messages, not the subject line.

And here's why I prefer GMail's threading over Mail's: I can use it on any platform.

Hecate says that ratings on Netflix are different from photos on Flickr because ratings are used cumulatively -- to come up with an average rating for "Crash," say -- but photos are not. TinyBubbles says that I'm on shaky ground because Netflix informs me that it'll be keeping my data before I enter it.

First to Hecate: Why does the way that the data is used affect whether it should be portable? Flickr uses my photos to get people to its site and, therefore, sell ads. Netflix uses my ratings to create recommendation's for other users. So why is it proper to have data portability on Flickr but not on Netflix?

TinyBubbles: I didn't say that Netflix doesn't inform me of the fact that it wants to control my data; of course its own policy is spelled out on its site. I'm saying it's not a good policy, and I don't see how its terms change that fundamental fact.

When I said free, I meant it. Starbucks will give free Wi-Fi access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Store -- you pay T-Mobile nothing.

Do you pay $115 a year for cable? How?

Comcast's cheapest service in my area is $18 a month, about $20 with taxes and other fees -- $240 per year. Their next cheapest service -- "Standard Cable," the one that most people get -- is $52 per month, $624 per year.

For $240 a year, I can get 10 full series on iTunes at $23 per. For $624 a year, I can get 27 series -- or, fewer series and an Apple TV.

Is that a joke?

Ah, I suspected but wasn't sure. Nicely dry.

Nice try, guys. Not to get legalistic, but note I used future tense: "I'll bet you an iPhone *there'll* be some moment *in your life* in which a camera, your naked body, and an implacable sense of joie de vivre *will come* together to produce, without the least bit of planning, a nude photo."

We can only test this bet, of course, after you've lived your life. Hope that's not a problem.

He damnthatxanadu, thanks for posting that link. But can't you hear the Taser in there? Turn your speaker up loudly and play it again -- you can hear the thing going off.

As to your question about how he's able to walk out: Yes, they used the Taser in "drive stun" mode, which -- as I pointed out -- does NOT incapacitate the target, merely delivers pain that lasts while the taser is on. You can walk after you've been hit on drive stun. You will likely scream OW, OW, OW! though.

Just a niggling little point (and not responding to the substance of your post). You said: Think what you want to think but at least differentiate reality from your highly skewed perception of it.

That's not possible. People's perceptions of reality are, for them, reality. If you thought there was some other reality apart from your perception of it you'd have to conclude you were irrational, and most people consider themselves rational -- i.e., they believe that what they think is the truth.

Anon says "Any songs one buys through iTunes can be burned to a CD and then the CD's tracks converted into MP3 format for playback on any device that supports MP3s."

True. But of course that ruins your songs -- burning to MP3s and then ripping back to iTunes decompresses and then recompresses the music, introducing digital artifacts into music.

When I pointed out that you're ruining your songs this way you say that the distortion is only minimal. Even if you're right, I still don't get why you like this idea -- you've still got to burn and then rip your music in order to break it out of FairPlay, which you don't have to do with unrestricted MP3s. Don't you see some added benefit in that?

The Monday press release "strongly discourages" people from unlocking their phones (though that is their government-granted right) and points out, "The permanent inability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is not covered under the iPhone's warranty."

So while it isn't clear they set out to intentionally break unlocked phones -- instead, they could merely have not gone out of their way to preserve unlocked phones -- they did know that the phones would break and did decide, too, that they wouldn't help those affected. That's not hardball?

If you wish for it, it'll live forever for you, too.

I'm not agreeing with the RIAA that it is stealing; my point was that even if you go by their definition, the law's too severe. But for the reasons you state and others, of course, one can't agree with them in the first place.