As a 911 operator, I hate the SOS function and it has just gotten worse. Between this and the “car crash” detection, I spend 40% of my work day tracking down false alarms, often at the expense of using resources for actual emergencies. If I ever meet the person who decided to turn on the SOS function by default, I’m going to punch them squarely in the nose.

I hope so. It’ll be fun to watch.

As a full-time linux user since 2005 and a guy who swears every time he has to use a windows machine now, the Windows phone was actually really good. It had very few apps available and it certainly never took off commercially, but my girlfriend had one back in the day and it was a surprisingly nice piece of work.

I have no doubts that if it had gained traction and still been around today that it would be absolutely unusable.

The Supreme Court struck down a similar law in 2002. Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234. The Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 prohibited “any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, or computer or computer-generated image or picture” that “is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct”.

I haven’t seen or read the language of this Louisiana law, and presumably intelligent law-makers would be aware that a law with a similar intent has been ruled unconstitutional, so maybe they changed enough so that this one will hold up.

Just this afternoon I kept one on the line for 15 minutes, and I don’t do it very often.