keithg

Disagree! You should see the amazingly creative things my kids can make using only the Chi pieces from the Chima sets! We have a lot of chi.

Kids seem to find ways to be creative no matter what. It gives me hope; the Lego masters of today are the tech geniuses of tomorrow!

Maybe I'm missing something here. A quick google search says Win 7 upgrade is around $60. A cheap laptop is $299. The cheapest macbook is $1299.

Yes. All pre-requisites will be downloaded during install.

Scott Hanselman has been an outspoken advocate for this type of move within Microsoft. Hard to say how much influence he has had, but I think it's probably not insignificant.

My guess is that they will soon introduce Xamarin into the MSDN subscription plans. Hook developers with the free tools, and then sell the cross-platform, mobile capabilities of Xamarin as an upgrade. There is already a 20% discount for MSDN premium and ultimate subscribers.

Looks tumblr-ish with a splash of Facebook thrown in. Or maybe tumblr/twitter hybrid?

All I know is that every one of my kids' friends knows about and plays Minecraft regularly. Even girls pay, though not as many. Among elementary school age kids, it's as close to universally accepted/known as you can get. We went on vacation to the beach, and my sons made friends with a boy, and they immediately started talking about Minecraft. The next thing, they are playing on the same server with each other, etc. Same with new friends in other activities like soccer.

Now we're starting to talk about mods or being able to write mods for Minecraft some day. As this young, enthusiastic population of users grows up, they will have a lot of buying power and interest in things like the customizations and programming aspects of the game.

In addition to being physically hard work, you need to get out and go to the job site. That incurs overhead in the form of fewer billable hours per day. So if you're 30 minutes to/from a 1 hour job, your rate is effectively cut by 1/3.

I'll add that it's pretty comfy sitting on a soft chair in an air conditioned or heated office to work.

Presumably citizens are allowed because they don't have the power to charge & convict you of some alleged crime. If the citizen's imagery were somehow brought into a legal matter, then it would be up to the judge to determine its legality. Conversely and unfortunately, law enforcement and government seem to enjoy a defacto legality until someone says otherwise. By limiting their use of this technology, hopefully it mitigates the defacto and clandestine nature of it, bringing it at least to a level of awareness during legal proceedings.

If you guys are interested in data-mining Strava, here is some interesting info on their metro project and how they are using it to affect change.

http://blog.strava.com/arent-we-all-people-for-bikes-7783/

http://metro.strava.com/

As much as I want to believe in these kinds of live sports services, I'm always disappointing in the quality and/or reliability of the feed. Maybe it's my ISP, I don't know. But for me streaming seems to be a second class citizen compared to cable & satellite.

As for the merger, I hate it because I actually think DirecTV is a pretty good product - even though the price is a bit high. I don't think a merger will do anything but reduce the quality of service, increase the price or both!

Is anyone else disappointed this thread is not about brewing your own beer?

I had the flu last month (actually tested positive), and the Tamiflu seemed to get me back on my feet pretty quickly. At the same time, my wife took a prophylactic dose and she did not get the flu.

Similarly, 3 years ago, both of my sons and my wife tested positive, all saw improvements within 24 hours of taking it. I took a prophylactic dose that time and did not get the flu.

Anecdotal, I guess, but I would take it again in similar circumstances.

I second the nomination for crashplan. I use it on Windows, but linux client is available.

I agree. If they wrap this into their MSDN subscription packages, then it opens up a ton of new users.

Maybe it's not about the shipping. Lots of people are "cutting the cord" of their cable or satellite providers in favor of online video content. Amazon sees the opportunity to get more from those customers with little price push back because $99/year is still cheaper than $99+/month for cable or satellite.

As a runner, I'm always looking out for portables and taking mental notes because you never know when you're going to need one. I joked with some friends a few years ago that this would make a good app/website for runners and cyclists. One idea was you could tag the location to indicate whether or not it had paper and/or soap for washing hands.

The reason email usage is so ubiquitous is because everyone has an email address, and the protocols are well-known and universal.

How else would you propose inviting people to a meeting? Put a paper memo in their mailbox asking for a written reply? Call everyone individually on the phone? Walk around the office and gather everyone together?

If you're thinking about the meeting problem, do you propose a meeting/calendar app/client or protocol that is separate from email? Then the problem becomes saturating your user community with your new client. What do you do if someone doesn't use your new meeting/calendar app/client?

I think what you are describing is a problem with meeting/calendars not email.

My model has a backlit keyboard and a little light near the videocam that shines down. You can rotate between modes (dim, med, bright keyboard, top light) using the FN-space combination.

Thanks. I'll take a look.

Got a laptop recently for a new project. All of my colleagues raved about Lenovo. I went with a Lenovo ThinkPad W530.

Great machine, right? I hate it. I hate it because they put the Fn key in the lower, left and moved the Ctrl key. Now I have to think every time I need to hit the Ctrl key!

Finally a tech company with enough good sense to realize that if you get a buyout offer that starts will "b" and ends with "illions", you take the money!

I agree. It's the first thing I thought when I read it.

This is a stunningly huge point of failure with a very high probability that any one patient will either: forget their phone, break their phone, not have a phone, have the wrong phone, have no charge on their phone, not know how to use their phone, have an out-dated phone, etc. I think you get the idea.

Science and technology are incremental. Someone needs to take the first step before the second can be taken.

I would ask the boss to sit down with me and give me some guidance and advice on how to improve.

I agree. I will continue to opt out.

When I opt out, I have never been asked why.

So what can we do about it? This is a serious question, not a rhetorical one. Given our recent enlightenment of government agency behavior, what can we as citizens do to get things moving in a different direction?

Except for Floyd Landis who was a cheater and liar. He followed that up by being manipulative and engaging in blackmail. And finished by being vengeful, greedy, and vindictive as he used all of those wonderful character traits to become the catalyst who took down Lance Armstrong and all of the recent generation of USA Cycling.

"The problem is really with the customer's perception of the value of a professional's time and the work that they do."

Actually I think it's the opposite. It has to do with the photographer's overvalued opinion of their work. How many family budgets can justify $500 for a set of family portraits? How may budgets can justify $1500 for a set of family portraits?

There are a lot more Hampton Inns than Ritz Carltons for a reason. Every photographer thinks they are the Ritz Carlton.