It's about gummint's failure to do its most basic jobs in terms of maintenance for the last, roughly, 50 years. You're right that things weren't all that great 100 years ago, when the original pipes were laid, yet they were laid well and lasted a decent amount of time. There's a lesson there—government was doing its…

You are POTUS material for sure. All you need are some Greekish columns and TV time.

Yes, yes, yes!

Yup, this is what's been happening, while we've been paying bills and taxes to gummint goons who take the money and do whatever with it that buys them reelection, perks, prestige, and post-office-holding wealth and power, instead of maintaining infrastructure. Same at every level of gummint and related entities from…

Yeah, prefer powerstrip or an "octopus" extension cord. Not really liking the whimpy lamp cord with that many outlets coming off of it. I think I'd want at least 16 guage wire for that many outlets and probably some surge/noise protection.

Shouldn't the smiley be :()~

Nice tip to use the copper pot scrubber. I'll be getting a pack on my next trip to the store. I had a long discussion with another commenter about this on a "fix your damaged earbuds" thread a week or so ago. [lifehacker.com] Found good text and video soldering tutorials just by searching "how to solder."

It probably isn't junk, but it's also not a fairly marketed item—it's a lottery prize with your inconvenience as the ticket price and $199 as a prize claiming fee. Is the chance to get the item for $199 worth your invonvenience? Maybe. Is it worth all the other exploitation, including the abuse BB and others lay on…

Please tell that to the phone manufacturers and service providers. You shouldn't assume that only "garbage" apps present resource management problems—Google maps and swype are two examples of apps that present some "issues" for resource management and both are excellent, if not "must have" apps. I'm sure there are…

+10 V6 SuperCharger script + the kernelizer script (though I haven't tried the io tweaks they advise can cause problems). Running GB 2.3.4 on an OG Droid (PE 6.5) demands some memory management. LilTankDroid was decent before, but is very smooth and responsive after applying the V6 SC script. The latest version…

+10 for boycotting BF. It's nothing but exploitative BS. It's bad for store employees, who have to do a bunch of extra work, usually during holidays, for what is, at bottom, just a nasty marketing gimmick to get customers to compete with one another for stuff they still have to buy or if they don't debase themselves…

COTD, indeed! Prancing horse, 2x indeed!

Fair enough—thanks for all the good information. And happy Thanksgiving to all!

So, Jim, you're trolling. Thanks. Still, a good discussion, but I'm not clear on how you're claiming a virus gets root access. Do you have an Android device, with root to know what you're talking about? Not trying to be snarky, but after IDing yourself as an iPhone troll, it's a reasonable question.

Agreed as to McAfee and Norton—too much history in the PC world with those to trust them on Android. I haven't had the experience with Lookout you describe. My OG Droid is pretty archaic, but no problems with Lookout triggering Watchdog or showing up as a particularly bad resource hog. I suppose, like many things,…

Doesn't superuser have to authorize an app to run as root? I don't allow that automatically, except on an app by app basis. Does the exploit you mention also defeat the firewall? I'm really curious. I try to keep my computers as secure as reasonably possible and still get some enjoyment/use out of them, but must…

I've used Lookout since early beta and it does actively scan on install, update, and on schedule. If it's not doing anything, it's faking pretty well and eating up some resources in the process. It's backup function works well. I had a crash a while back and lost a bunch of otherwise unrecoverable photos and…

It'll be good to see what other LH'ers have to say about their experiences, 'cause in mine, the procedures, equipment, and extent of intrusion by TSA varies quite a bit from airport to airport. I got an early taste of the personal psych eval. procedure in the early fall this year at BWI—they look you kinda…

letitia.trent, totally! Thanks from an over-edumakated redneck whose earliest home memories are of an unpainted sharecropper shack and factory/refinery housing.

So much easier and neater than the butcher knife! But hey, this is Life HACKER after all.