And you are here why?

Remember Ed Whiteacre (ex AT&T CEO) and his hilariously ridiculous statemen t about "paying for our pipes"?  To refresh your memory ( italics mine) How concerned are you about Internet upstarts like Google ( GOOG   ), MSN, Vonage, and others? How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free , but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using . Why should they be allowed to use my pipes? Lets break down this bit, so that we are absolutely clear about it. Kittehs! There, you now have a pressing urge to go hit up YouTube, right?  Kittehs ! I'll make it easier for you  You're watching the above Kitteh video, right?  Of course you are.... T...

One of the first things I do when I travel (Not in the U.S.!) is wander over to the nearest tabac / tabacchio / mobile store / whatever and buy a local SIM.  My Nexus Prime works in pretty much all countries out there (the good news), but roaming rates are insane the world over (the bad news).  Consequently, a simple 10 Euro / Pound / whatever SIM gives me enough data to tide me through the trip. Note:  I said data .  Thats because most everything I do with the phone consists of Maps / Camera / Email , and quite possibly in that order. I've built up quite a handy collection of SIMs, and as long as I've been to said country recently, its all good - I can even top up online.  But, if I haven't been for a while, I have to repeat the SIM Song And Dance , which invariably involves some combination of passport / address / code fiscale / whatever and other such idiocies.  Not even remotely insurmountable, but still Just Enough Friction to be ann...