DeepDuh

Rainwater and urine - ok. But when it comes to human waste (the other kind) I'll rather trust our waste processing / drinking water facilities (as well as a couple hundred kilometers of nature in form of rivers).

That fact is not just fun but incredibly helpful to understand what's going on with this story.

The Cola company is apparently not that altruistic after all - world view saved.

I feel like this thread might help you: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5161899 (It may not be the greatest post in general, but seems applicable here.)

Maybe part of the problem is the misnomer of the whole field itself. CS is not really science, it's math. It's about tools that every professional and scientist will later need. And as such, I'd argue that teaching is actually more important than research.

Of course, these tools need to be researched and developed as well, but more importantly do we need very capable teachers in order for people to build their foundation. IMO every Master of Science should have a good overview of which tools in math and "CS" there are available, and they should be proficient in at least two of each.

Where did I say that there isn't an election process for the EC? The point I'm trying to make is that the EC has way too much lawmaking power for it to be elected indirectly. The way I understand it, what the EC decides are not mere propositions to the parliament. Parliament seems to have to actively pressure to take down a new law by EC, which is a reversal of roles.

Also, concerning the parliament, I'm wondering: Do people actually have much choice in whom to elect? What do you need to do in order to rally for parliament? Are there different party lists for example? Is it depending on the national parties? E.g. do I need support from a national party to get into the EU parliament?

Your first point is what I keep asking pro EU people here in Europe about and for which I never get a satisfying answer on why this is acceptable. This and the cluelessness of their lawmakers when it comes to tech makes me thank the higher entity every day for not being an EU citizen (since I'm Swiss).

Microsoft Office "The version to buy" edition. Followed by Microsoft Office "The version to buy, now for real, don't even think about getting anything else" edition.

Well given (a) Valve's distaste for Microsoft's strategy and (b) their anyways insane profitability per employee I could see them at least releasing a title a few weeks earlier on linux and OSX than on Windows.

Or a release on Linux two weeks earlier..

Just imagine the effect an exclusive linux release of HL (ep?) 3 would have. If Valve really wanted to piss on Microsoft's foot, that's what they should do.

.... at the time. Jesus..

> Really helps frame the panic Google must have been in to get something on the market and fast.

The way I see Google from the outside they don't seem to be panicky when entering new markets. Half of the internet already belonged to them before Android, it's not like do or die in their case. Maybe Android's technically poor choice of backend architecture may have been due to inexperience in low power device software? Microsoft has much more experience there too, and they seem to have proven my point by releasing a very responsive WP7 about a year after (it should have been). Actually, seeing Microsoft's (and Palm's) situation, Google's 'worse is better' approach may have been just what they needed, so their management certainly deserves some slack there.

One thing that drives me nuts about the new native interface is how it handles subscriptions. I mean the feed you get is actually not that bad, but it's way too cumbersome to get to see only your subscriptions.

Is it possible from youtube's API to authenticate a user and then access his subscriptions (and maybe even the aggregated feed based on them)?

Looks quite neat. I'd like someone to bring some fresh approaches into this however, instead of just basically the Appstore interface with a different skin. Especially for web-apps I'm still not that sure how important the appstore starting point for finding apps actually is. How about a unified search built into the OS with priority set like 'installed apps > other available apps > local data > Google Search' ? Of course, for those who want to search by category it's still good to have a curated list somewhere. But isn't the search for webapps basically the same as a Google search with some meta information sugar on top?

I'd hold on with the 'brilliant' qualifier until we see the interface, but the concept certainly looks fitting to the OS model. Is this the entire JSON though? I'm missing at least a keywords child there.

Either your parent edited after your post or you conveniently skipped the '(and pay)' in your argument. I'd like to see some solid comparison of revenue numbers between Play store and Appstore. I'm pretty sure iOS would still come out ahead in that regard, until I get disproven on this. Of course I'm not saying that one should ignore Android, since this will quite possibly change in the (near) future, but still, from an economic standpoint it IMO still makes sense to target iOS first.

Thanks for some common sense. Couldn't this be easily solved by releasing two apps with different age ratings? The 17 rated app could additionally require a login to their verification system if they want to have a complete database of such users. I don't see the problem.

I see where you're coming from and it makes sense in your case. The way I work I've never needed an exported pdf or screenshot twice. Our servers are redundant and if all of them would fail I'd just go home. ;) I'm often working home office anyway.

There are tons of files that are created one-off and then sent by e-mail or attached to database systems. These files are usually exports (pdfs, screenshots, lower res images) from the actual working document that needs to be accessible by other people. IMO the desktop is the perfect place for that junk - it's easily accessible from any program, the files are not needed anymore after a short while, yet they keep staring me in the face so I won't forget to delete them at some point.

Also, it's kind of a neat ritual to scan through and delete all your desktop stuff right before starting a new project.

Thanks for all the great info, it's very helpful for someone like me, who's gonna come to the SF area the first time in march (attending / giving a talk at GTC San Jose 2013).

One more question, is there something like a weekly pass for the Caltrain, such that I could visit SF in the evenings after conference?

I keep hearing this. Could you explain why pure web technologies with no other options is better than giving developers the best of both worlds (deeply integrated web apps as well as native apps, if the performance is needed)? HTML5 browser technology isn't even able to render current iOS games in full blown desktop browsers, how is it going to be adequate for embedded devices in the coming few years?

In the long run you may be right, but it's going to take quite a bit longer and until then the mobile market is going to be even more entrenched than now.

The main problem seems to be that litigation in court is lucrative in the American system. It's not just righting something wrong, to cover ones damages, it's about making money you couldn't make otherwise. And that's when suing becomes a business model.

It's amazing to me how the USA is still so innovative despite that legal insecurity.

For Ubuntu?

Something like this: http://www.ted.com/talks/donald_sadoway_the_missing_link_to_... ?

> the initial setup is hard

Do you see what you're saying here? It means that the proven setup you describe here needs to be attained by the user. This is not something an average user will be able to do and even the tech crowd has many difficulties with it as shown in the other postz here.

And I disagree that it's the same as a clean windows install. See, for a clean install in windows I have a relatively well working to do list: the device manager. Yes I have to download the drivers manually, but IMO the package approach has one fatal flaw when it comes to built-in devices: which one will work for my hardware? If I just try, will removal still work afterwards? Usually it comes down to finding a community tutorial (which are often quite good, I admit). Of course, this difference comes from the fact, that most hardware vendors don't fully support linux. Ubuntu has made lots of progress here in that it tries to install the correct packages itself, but for bleeding edge hardware you're often out of luck.

Here's an idea: How about a webfrontend for that hardware auto configuration, Ubuntu uses? It would map some kind of hardware signature to package name, has some community mode built in as well as the vendor approved configurations (e.g. if distro+vendor mode fails, activate community. which configuration is pulled is being determined by 'votes' (does your sound work now? yes/no).

How about we generalize the law? The answer to headlines ending in a question mark is whatever the rhetoric question is not suggesting?

Also, tons of additional CG characters in the foreground.

Just kidding, I don't think PJ could fall that far.

I don't agree that this is Apple-centric. Putting together ARM tablets, notebooks and desktop computers, Apple now has a considerable market share and you have to include them in any market analysis.

Sadly true, it's incredibly hard for non EU citizens (which is the first thing I'd like to change btw., I'd prefer a green card system like in the US). I don't agree with your second phrase however. I don't see why this kind of immigration policy is essential for the survival of this political system. A steered kind of immigration from everywhere, ensuring that those people actually agree with the spirit of that system, would actually make life here even easier.

edit: we have >20% immigrant population without citizenship btw. High crime from some of these groups is what lead to these immigration unfriendly policies. Direct democracy, sadly, doesn't eliminate stupid policies. (However I'd argue that it tends to filter out extremist ones).

One thing I found strange about his analysis is that he kept on looking for new approaches after he got an upper boundary of 6.6% for the style result being random. I'd have introduced a more realistic model and looked at whether it get's me below 3% and be done with it (probably). He seems to like analysis just for the analysis sake. Of course it's still refreshing to see after reading tons of today's superficial blogosphere blabber (Google has ALWAYS blocked WP!!!11! ... wait no, sry).