cpher

EDIT: The reason I ask is I'm curious to know if the pressure to bill by the hour is as powerful as working to "build the next feature" for a product. The customer is different in each case. Does this make a difference?

That said, i find it really annoying as a parent to have to jump through hoops to make backups of my kids DVDs, or convert them to digital for the iPad. So, I'm not stealing anything as I already bought the DVD. I just want my kids to be able to watch it on the iPad.

I don't know of any DRM that "provides a benefit" to the user.

My wife and I were researching minivans in our metro area. We got calls from the dealership asking if we're still interested in the vehicle. We said 'yes'. One hour before we drove to the 'burbs' to check it out, I called to confirm the availability of said vehicle. They said 'yes, it's still here.' We get to the dealership only to find out that the vehicle was sold THE DAY BEFORE. A major car dealership didn't have a system in place to know their inventory at any given point in time. They're a part of a weird "sharing" system between dealerships that can borrow/trade/steal vehicles from their partner dealerships-- all within the same "family" company. But they clearly had no way to track this activity.

It seems that inventory control/management spans many domains. Needless to say, they lost our business and we bought from someone else.

My children have been learning Mandarin since age 4-5 (they're now 6-7) at a Chinese school (taught in English other than Mandarin lessons). They also have one-on-one lessons after school.

My wife and I are native English speakers, so we can't help them. There's a big push in our city (spoiler...Chicago) with learning Mandarin, but I see a bunch of high schools introducing the language, like it's Spanish. Nothing against Spanish, per se, but observing the Mandarin language makes me laugh at learning the romantic languages--there are no similarities.

Watching my kids write pinyin and asking me questions about things just blows my mind. So, are any of you non-"Chinese" speaking (Mandarin/Cantonese) people trying to guide your children down this path?

BTW, OP this looks awesome and I'm hoping to try it out soon. didn't mean to snark.

You also realize that there are many gay people who are against gay marriage, right? So, now, leaders in the business world have to conform to the most vocal group or else face professional harassment? Because actually agreeing with 50% of the population and the current political leaders isn't enough?

So, when the illegal immigrant situation blows up, are you saying that anyone that supports "legal" immigration and isn't outspoken about it must be professionally disgraced?

Let me introduce you to my neighbor down the street, the Rev. Jesse Jackson. His entire power structure is based upon leveraging boycotts as a means to an end. Each side is more than willing to play the victim game.

Edit: I think the player safety issue is completely separate. I would still get football fatigue even if we completely solved the head injury issue.

One month ago, my Comcast DVR's HDMI port failed, and I had to dig out my old component video cables for my 7-year-old plasma TV. They worked perfectly, after 15 years. But the quality is no different than the $2 Amazon-branded HDMI cables. My lesson: 1) premium audio cables are bullshit; 2) premium video cables are bullshit too.

There was a large contingent of "hobby farmers" who owned land through their family, but it was a "side project" for them. They often had jobs with the USDA, etc or other sources of income. Equipment was insanely expensive and capital intensive.

I'm not in the ag industry now, but computer technology in '97-'01 was like a magic elixir to farmers. Very little software existed to help them turn data into actionable information. I'm sure today it's very different.

Edit: I'll add that the "state-of-the art" at that time was to use military-grade GPS receivers (which we got as a part of USDA) to track soil samples and create GIS heat maps and basic fertility plans. There were no on-board computer systems. :)

If I were the professor and my job was to prepare students for the "real world", you know, that place where you actually have to make money, he would get an "F-". Even Rodney Dangerfield would have passed with an F+.

I'm sure Mr. Kim is super smart (smarter than me for sure), but what on earth made this MS marketing material HN-worthy? A book-smart 20-ish-year-old has somehow stumbled onto a saving marketing angle for Microsoft?! Kudos for him, that's superior self-marketing. But what a load of complete bullshit.

Plus, as others have mentioned below, most conceal carry firearm permits will require it, at least here in Illinois.

So, the govt. already knows that I'm a registered Republican, they have my fingerprints (twice), they know I have a FOID (Firearm ID in Illinois), they know my travel patterns (via airlines, gas stations, etc).

I think the last of my worries is some fingerprint scanner on a smartphone. At least I won't have to type in my PIN to unlock it while driving...