I don't see an anti-space theme in Gravity. I see a survival theme, and a rebirth theme. For me, Bullock's character arc was about moving past the horrible shit that's happened to you and realizing that you still want to survive, still want to be reborn, to evolve and grow and experience new things. It wasn't about…

These people always talk about intelligence as though it were some kind of distinct quality not attached to a whole host of other things, most notably the need to tell stories, to listen and learn from others, to adapt, and - most importantly - to survive. What would be the raison d'être of a superintelligent machine?

This is what I'm wondering. If only the western hemisphere is covered in clouds, does that mean the western hemisphere is always facing the star? More heat/light = more instability?

Google should implement something like Activation Lock from iOS 7. That way a thief can't just wipe and restore the phone.

So I guess that means Foxconn deserves credit for the iPhone right? Since they manufacture it and all...

Yeah you're right. Putting an iPhone in a small box with boiling water and superglue fumes for 40 minutes won't damage the iPhone at all.

By the way, I'm not "trying to make these things sound hard", I'm trying to show that they're improbable, which they are. About as improbably as someone stealing your phone and mounting a brute force attack on your passcode. Of course it could happen.

1) How much useful information are you going to get from a phone that's not connected to the internet? Facebook messages? Their Twitter feed? What games they like to play? And how are you even going to access that, when the phone is wrapped in tin foil. At some point you have to remove it to activate Airplane Mode. By…

Activation Lock has nothing to do with the lock screen. It's an iCloud feature that irrevocably ties your hardware (IMEI) to the iTunes account that originally activated it. It can only be disabled by entering the iTunes password. Even a hard factory reset won't change this.

You're thinking of something else. Activation Lock is new.

Only if they connect to the internet, in which case the phone would be disabled through Activation Lock.

The steps described above would NOT be very easy for your wife/coworker/boss to pull off. In order for someone to go to all that trouble, you'd need to be keeping some pretty juicy secrets on your phone. If the information on your phone is that sensitive (or if your acquaintances are that malevolent), you shouldn't be…

No, they have until the phone runs out of battery. And that's only IF they want to sell the phone. If they're looking for access to your accounts, etc., they can't keep the phone in a faraday cage.

Okay, so now we've gotten to the point where:

What private info? Not banking data - that would only be stored in apps that don't stay logged in, and require a password. So, in other words, no different from before — Touch ID is useless there.

Tricking the fingerprint scanner won't get them a $600 phone. Activation Lock can't be disabled using Touch ID.

You can't stay logged in for very long on most secure pages (i.e. pages that store credit card info). As for social engineering - that takes time. As I said, once stolen the phone can simply be disabled using Activation Lock, which can't be bypassed even by putting the phone in DFU mode.

I hadn't, until you prompted me to. Here it is: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5949?view…

How would they get your bank account info using Touch ID? No bank or credit card company is going to release an app that allows access using fingerprint security.

It includes it but glosses over it. Let's face it, we're dealing with professionals here. Anyone who would do this is highly motivated and knows exactly what they're doing. No one is going to all this trouble just to glimpse at your photos and texts. A professional thief who had the wherewithal to pull this off would…