bytefactory

It will, if the timeframes for these fluctuations are rapid enough. Imagine converting $1000 of USD you've converted this morning, and by tomorrow when you actually go in to place the order, the price has dropped to $800. You've lost $200 worth of purchasing power overnight!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the current Microsoft stunt is using a T-Mobile portable WiFi connection, so is only possible in the US. For any other countries, unless they'd tied up with a local provider, this wouldn't really be possible.

My impression was that Eric tried (successfully), to keep Google completely out of the picture, while only talking about issues from a personal perspective. A lot of the technical challenges JA mentioned would arguably be trivial for Google to solve, or attempt to solve (creating a name-hash network tree architecture like the one JA mentioned he'd liked to have seen become popular).

The problem I think is two-fold: 1. Google aligning with Wikileaks/JA will be seen as a political landmine for Google, since Wikileaks' agenda is very much at odds with many governments. This would obviously be something Google will have little interest in pursuing.

2. It's not in Google's best interest to propagate anonymity (as of now). Google's core revenue model derives from its ability to track people on the Internet. Making it easier for them to don anonymity will undermine and possibly destroy this model.

Whether Google's/Eric Schmidt's ultimate goals are good or evil is anybody's guess, and I don't think I gained any new insights into it based on this interview. It does appear that Eric/Google do have an interest in seeing freer access to information, as evidenced by them pushing for faster Internet, more secure/private browsing (https, 2-factor authentication, fighting official requests for access to user accounts [2]), access to the Internet in North Korea, etc. The more people are on the Internet, and the more they browse, the greater Google's revenues.

Google's upper management have also allegedly (and secretly) played a part in the Arab springs, which I would hazard a guess was a altruistic move, rather than a purely political one, but that's speculation [1].

Oh, and BTW, the timing of this 'leak' a few days before Eric Schmidt's book is highly suspect, no? :)

[1]: http://thepassionateattachment.com/2012/03/23/stratforleaks-... (sorry this is not the best source, but Googling around will get you the actual Wikileaks cables and analysis)

[2]: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2259557/google-figh...

Edit: formatting

Very interesting. I'm curious about the role Eric Schmidt and Google play in this, however.

From the looks of it, Eric definitely seemed to be a supporter (especially considering how he mentioned getting in trouble for being against Patriot I and Patriot II), yet Google hasn't spoken out against CISPA. Seeing as how Assange mentioned how important funding was for the movement, I would think it'd be very easy for Google to funnel a few million dollars to Wikileaks if they truly wanted to help.

Too bad there's not more about those aspects being discussed.

I'll agree with Pent that it's subjective, because I love it too. Wouldn't ever want to go back to the old one.

@jiggy2011 Thanks, that's very helpful! I meant NFS: Most Wanted, which came out in 2012.

CS:S on Linux is definitely awesome news, and makes me more confident of Linux gaming becoming viable in the near-term. I think the Steambox/Steam Linux, Ouya and other such systems are definitely helping improve adoption.

To be honest, I wouldn't spend much time trying to get something running under Wine unless it had a very high probability of success, and a moderate number of (easy) steps. After all, I already have the game running under Windows, and gaming's meant to be a casual activity I undertake after work :)

It's awesome that the option is available for Linux enthusiasts, however!

Edit: Ah, damn it, I meant CS:GO, not CS:S! I see that it's running fine under Wine, however!

That's interesting, I didn't know that! That makes the option of using an HTPC as a 'true' gaming platform (in addition to being a media center) a lot more likely.

Do most of the recent games (Need for Speed, Counter Strike : Source, Far Cry 3, Assassin's Creed 3) run well, or is it mostly older games?

I'd just like to add that while running is great, one of the most effective forms of running is HIITs (High Intensity Interval Training). Basically, you run at maximum speed (80-100% of your capacity) for short bursts (10-15 seconds when you're starting out), and at about 50-60% for the warm-up and cool-down periods before and after (around 2 minutes) [1]. You do a total of about 20 minutes of this (and believe me, this will destroy you the first few times).

The results are drastic, and unlike with marathon running, you don't lose muscle, instead you gain it.

You lose fat FAST and gain strength in the process [2]. Can't recommend it enough!

Note: I thought that EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption) meant you burnt calories for the next 24 hours, but that's possibly not as significant as it appears :( [3]

[1]: http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=... [2]: http://greatist.com/fitness/complete-guide-interval-training... [3]: http://ca.askmen.com/sports/bodybuilding_900/962_popular-met...

I've found that Now has started automatically showing me the distance to my frequently visited places. I suspect this is because I've navigated to their location a few times on Google Maps, so Google knows this is a location I care about.

I'm guessing you've already set your home and work location in Google Maps? You could then also search for your other work location, and Now should automatically start prioritizing it later, especially if you pull up that card often.

By the way, you probably know this, but you can change how often different cards show up, and when they show up in the settings. For example, I've set weather to only show up in the morning and evening, so it doesn't clutter up my cards.

I'm curious how many people have actually read his books before attacking his positions. A lot of the criticisms about his predictions seem to be based around the charts and graphs he's used in his Ted talks and articles.

In his books, he goes into great detail describing each aspect of the GNR (Genetic, Nano, Robotics) revolutions that will contribute to the singularity. He's actually addressed a lot of the criticisms that seem to crop up in HN, etc. over and over.

Forgive me if your position was based on having read his books (especially The Singularity is Near), but it didn't seem like it. Especially considering that cracking general AI is specifically mentioned as not being a requirement to obtain greater than human intelligence (for example, augmentation of biological human intelligence, specialized AI coming together to solve general problems, etc.).

Also, his prediction for the Singularity is 2045 (32 years from now), so your figure of 16 years seems to be incorrect.

Edit: D'oh, you were talking about the 2029 figure mentioned in the article, not the date of the technological singularity. I'm an idiot.

Just wanted to say, reading your post made my morning. I've noticed that with me, and (generalizing here, hopefully it doesn't dilute my message) a lot of us in the hacker community tend to be very good at finding flaws, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

It's very rare to see strangers stand up for each other, say a kind word, or generally just be..._nice_. Especially in semi-anonymous places like the comments section of HN. It's always a welcome change, and I hope we see a lot more of this.

I believe video chats have been replaced with hangouts (same icon launches a hangout instead of video chat).

I got a prompt asking me to do this the first time when the functionality was enabled, and now all my video chats are hangouts. Makes sense to me, as it's essentially the same functionality + the ability to invite multiple people to the video chat + include additional apps that add to the video chat functionality (live editing Google Docs, for example).

I have to say, I was pretty disappointed with the actual quality of audio calls (not a huge fan of video chatting with friends) when compared to Skype. I've tried many times over the past few years, but Skype still kicks Google's ass in terms of call quality. Is mine an exception to the general rule, or is this true for most people?

Thank you for this - I kept feeling I had hit a wall in my mindfulness meditation, and it's good to be reminded that it's the effort that's the goal, not the end result. :)

Apparently they've got Caesar III running on the emulator too!

I'm not sure if you're talking about the current state, but right now it does seem to have information on contacting them, including a 24/7 call center number: http://i.imgur.com/oonDP.png

Actually, their core enterprise services - Google Apps and AdWords do have phone support, which I have used extensively:

http://contact.googleapps.com/?&rd=1 and http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&... for example.

AdWords support is outstanding. As a client getting started with Google advertising, I had a dedicated account manager who set up the entire campaign for me, who would call me back whenever I had any questions I'd email to him and was very intelligent and helpful.

I am not surprised that their free services don't have a phone number to call. Can you imagine providing call-centre support for 400 million Gmail users, or 1 Billion+ Google search users?

Of course, if they want to enter other customer facing businesses like selling hardware or broadband Internet, they will have no choice but to set up call-centres for those departments.

> Those two are scary

Yup, quite, but I tend to believe that the trend of jobs being automated only to be replaced with new information technology/creative/human interaction jobs is going to continue, as it has for the last century or longer.

It might be difficult to imagine a future where there are enough jobs to keep everybody occupied, but then again, it was probably the same when automated manufacturing made line workers largely obsolete; computers made typists obsolete; farm equipment made much farm labour obsolete, etc.

What the missing jobs took away in jobs have been largely offset by improved standards of living for everybody, better infrastructure and an economy that provides a stronger social net that fewer people fall through; high-paying technology jobs that power even more progress for humanity. We're living in the most prosperous, peaceful, socially equal period of human history, and I (along with many experts) only expect this to get better.

Interesting Ted talk that talks about this: http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_diamandis_abundance_is_our_fu...

Edit: Quoted section of OP's comment that I was replying to.

Excellent question, and one I would love an answer to as well! I am very comfortable working with people, and get along great with everyone. I would go as far as to say I'm usually quite an important part of most groups I am a part of, once everybody gets to know me.

The thing that frustrates me, however, is how few people I end up "hanging out" with, and really enjoy the company of. I put that down to a sort of "social fatigue" because of my being an introvert. I'd be curious to see if this is a problem anybody else has managed to conquer.

Awesome, can't wait to try this out!

Interesting - my experiences are quite different. I can order some stuff from Amazon.com (US) from Canada, but many things aren't available. I can't use Amazon Prime (they won't even let me sign up without a US address), and I can't order books for my Amazon Kindle purchased in Dubai (it needs a US address as well).

With Google, however, nearly everything works. I've been using Google Music for some time now, although it isn't officially available in Canada. Same with Google Voice. All I had to do was sign up for both with a VPN for the first use, after which I can access it anywhere through the respective apps in any country with no hassles.

I can't believe people are making such a fuss about a non-issue. Google isn't being 'evil' by aggregating data from all its properties. I'm surprised they hadn't been doing this already!

Think about it. If you owned Facebook and Microsoft, wouldn't you want to co-relate the data in Facebook with Windows? For example, to see how many users of Windows 7 use Facebook, and how it affects bounce rates? Do you think companies don't already do this (Bing and Microsoft, Safari and iTunes, etc.)?

Do you think Google ALREADY wasn't co-relating data from its different properties? And what exactly is wrong with that anyways? You'd have to be pretty naive (and unreasonable) to expect a parent company not to have access to data from all its subsidiary operations. How does one "opt-out" of letting Windows co-relate data with Internet Explorer, short of just not using one of them?

Have you ever tried visiting https://www.google.com/dashboard/? This page shows you all the accounts and information Google associates with your account. This was always the case. All that's changed is that the privacy policies associated with all of these disparate accounts have been combined and simplified.

You CAN opt-out of the Google tracking for ads here: http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/ I've known about this option for ages but haven't used it, simply because I respect Google's approach here. I'd like to see Facebook offer a similar option.

You can also see the profile Google has collected about you here: https://www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/ as well as opting out of personalization.

Does this really seem evil to you?