Irregardless

> They are being understated about it but doing exactly what business strategists talk about when they describe the long game as the one to play.

I had a hard time reading past that line since Google is literally ramming G+ down everyone's throats at every possible opportunity. It's almost impossible to use their services without being forced into a G+ account nowadays.

It's not that they're being understated, it's just that people aren't noticing because G+ is that boring to everyone.

Edit: And as I write this comment, I'm once again reminded of how idiotic the name 'Google+' is. Do I call it GPlus? G+? Google Plus? Google+? Should I put a space between them? How do you search for a plus sign? Oh, that's right... Google didn't realize they had to completely break that operator until AFTER they named their social network. How's that for a brilliant strategy?

> I think that you should first exhaust all regular avenues.

Good job jumping to conclusions. I'm sure OP appreciates the scolding and will now realize HN is a sacred place not to be disturbed by his frivolous technical dilemmas.

For anyone on HN, a more fitting title would probably be "Everything You Already Know About Massive Online Open Courses" -- the info is pretty basic.

The most interesting part was the article linked at the top of their timeline: "The False Promise of the Education Revolution" http://chronicle.com/article/The-False-Promise-of-the/136305...

I like the idea and I agree that this will be the way of the future, but it just doesn't seem practical at the moment. Portability is hamstrung by the need for a constant network connection to accomplish anything, and the cost savings of a Chromebook are almost completely washed out when you factor in at least $20/mo. for Linode.

Why not just get something from System76? Or install whatever OS you like on one of the notoriously Linux friendly Lenovo laptops? You end up with better hardware specs, more flexibility, and comparable portability for the same price.

> Quora's mission is to share and grow the world's knowledge

By hiding that knowledge from everyone who doesn't sign up or log in with Facebook/Twitter? Sorry, but I'll be celebrating the day Quora dies, hopefully at the hands of StackExchange.

*Slightly non work-safe image at the top of the linked page (full body scans of men and women).

Also, one category of TSA agents not mentioned in this piece: Those who seem to revel in the public's disdain because they can easily make a traveler's life hell if the mood strikes them. For example, the agents in this breast milk incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XhnZlmLGK8

Any job that grants authority over other people probably attracts this type of employee.

I upvoted you, even though you misunderstood what I was saying ;)

> “I will kill everything, except the floating ones and the swimming ones, who will get out due to a loophole.”

-- Eddie Izzard, speaking as god

I've never understood why bible fanatics are so fixated on that story, it's one of the bible's most conspicuous flaws.

Edit: When I say "bible fanatics" I'm referring specifically to bible fanatics: people who are obsessed with the bible and view it as the literal word of god. I'm not trying to classify all bible followers as "fanatics", nor do I mean to impart any negative connotation to that word.

If you read it the latter way, it's most likely a projection of your own bias -- either towards excessive political correctness or anti-theism.

Which inaccessible people are available on Gramicon? None? Oh, okay... moving along.

A great book for anyone curious about this topic (going from simple logic gates to more modern processing technology): http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softwa...

Why was this suddenly pulled from the front page? It's one of the first accurate posts I've seen about the Surface on HN.

How do I check the formatting before it's sent? How do I add a company logo or change the styling (colors, fonts, etc.)? Do I have to go back and forth through email if corrections are necessary? How do I send out a test survey then delete the results from my data set so they aren't included with the real one? Can I track who failed to respond and needs a follow-up email?

I'm (unfortunately) the one who gets stuck creating and sending out surveys for my company whenever it's necessary, and those are just a few questions I have after glancing at your demo. Right now, I can't see any situation where this would be preferable to SurveyMonkey. It might be acceptable for a quick and dirty internal survey, but I couldn't consider sending a questionnaire to our vendors or clients without having full control over the format and styling. Either that or I'd need to see evidence that your final product will be professional looking -- including some screenshots of a finished survey would help with that.

Sounds like the nail in the coffin on this topic.

It always sucks when you accuse an entire profession of overlooking a fundamental principle, only to find out you've committed the same error in a more egregious fashion.

> My problem is that I also took a job that wasn’t exactly what I wanted to be doing so that I could be in San Francisco, instead of staying where I was and honing my craft.

Nothing wrong with that. When it comes to finding a career, learning what you don't like about a job can be just as valuable as learning what you do like.

A lot of my friends in college already knew exactly what job they wanted the day they arrived at school (or so they thought). I don't know of a single one who got the job they'd been striving for and ended up genuinely enjoying it. Many are now in grad school and still trying to figure out what they really want to do.

Agreed, Gladiator is my favorite soundtrack of all time, and I've never heard a soundtrack of Zimmer's that I didn't like. I'd put him right up there with John Williams even though he's only received a fraction of the awards.

My questions as someone learning web development and always searching for new (quality) resources: Who are you? And why should I pay you $200?

> Previously I led the software design team at a local startup, but in the last year I have been working independently designing and developing my own apps.

After seeing the $200 price tag, I expected to read something along the lines of "My web apps have been used by over X million users", along with a few examples. Or maybe "I built the websites for these well known companies". Since that isn't the case, the next thing I looked for to establish your credibility was reviews. Hmm, also missing.

For the price of the book alone ($29), I could watch 100+ hours of tutorials on a site like Lynda or Tuts+ from a variety of developers with similar experience. I'm having a hard time verifying that the value of the resources matches the price tag.

Sorry if this seems overly critical, figured you might want the honest opinion of a hesitant customer who could potentially be converted. I may still buy one of the packages after I read through your blog some more.

These stories pop up at least once a month, and it always leads me back to this one: "Why It's Never Mattered That America's Schools Lag Behind Other Countries'"

http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/16/why-its-never-mattered-that...

In short: Kids aren't computers -- you can't just feed them facts and formulas then expect them to go apply those in meaningful ways. And economies are led by the top students who usually go to top schools, both of which we have more than our fair share of.

Are you saying their bike will regain traction in a high speed turn by maintaining the lean angle? It'd be interesting to see how it handles that situation, because it would result in a pretty violent high-side on a normal motorcycle.

In that pull test the straps were attached to the bike below its center of gravity. Regaining traction in a turn would be like pulling it with the straps near the top instead, and it could cause some serious problems if the person inside isn't wearing a helmet when that happens at high speed.

> One of the most common accidents for motorcyclists is falling while turning a corner.

Yes, due to loss of traction or excessive cornering speed. But those are both issues inherent to two-wheeled vehicles, and adding gyroscopes won't solve either.

So you gain the ability to ride in the rain without wearing rain gear, but you give up cargo space and visibility. Not to mention the fact that your head will now be in the perfect position to get rammed by a bumper, and the lower profile increases the likelihood that other drivers won't see you.

It's a nifty trick, but I don't see who this would appeal to. Most motorcyclists already have rain-proof gear, and non-motorcyclists will still think it's a death trap.

> Production: 2000–2003

Doesn't sound like it'll be an issue anymore.

> Professional firms that do this can charge upwards of $100,000 per processor for this kind of work.

> ... [Dr. Decapitator] was willing to do it just for the cost of the donor cartridges and supplies. This worked out to $250 per coprocessor.

Sounds like there's some room for improvement in that market. Either that or Dr. Decapitator is one extremely generous dude.

These aren't ads though, and Canonical isn't collecting this data with the intention of serving you ads -- they're just diplaying relevant Amazon results along with normal web results when you do a web search through the dash. It's also very easily disabled, and you still have the option of doing local searches confined to your machine.

Is the road to heaven similarly paved with bad intentions? And is it devoid of good intentions? I don't think so.

I'm actually not sure after reading both again -- Shuttleworth seems to imply that they're not doing this for money, but he doesn't explicitly say it.

Either way, these search results are distinctly different from the ads in the launcher that people were talking about a couple weeks ago, but everyone seems to be mixing the two up.

Both can be easily disabled, though. And searching your own machine is still an option.

> Use Super-A. You can tell Unity exactly what you want to search. And in future you’ll be able to do that from the home lens, too, more easily than the current Lens Bar at the bottom of the Dash.

From http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1182

It sounds like they're working to expand the search functionality with users' best interests in mind, not adding advertisements as everyone seems to think.

> it is being done to track my interests for monetary gain in the form of referral links

They're just search results, not ads. Read the blog post from Shuttleworth.

I stopped leaving my Gmail account logged in while browsing almost two years ago because I was already sick of all their recommendations, personalizations and tracking (search history being shared across all devices was especially creepy). Now I just log in to check my mail and immediately log out, making sure not to do any random browsing in between.

Sounds like I haven't been missing out on any of the fun.

True, Zuckerberg thinks we should all share everything. Apparently everything doesn't include things that might scare off advertisers.

Just call customer serv... oh, nevermind. You pay Facebook by surrendering privacy and personal information, but that's not enough for them to consider you a customer or offer support. The same server that automatically flagged your harmless photo will gladly issue you an equally automatic and thoughtless rejection when you appeal.

The faceless Facebook machine will march on, paying no regard to the innocent consumers it accidentally crushes in pursuit of more ad views.

It may have only been on shelves for 12 days, but people were free to preorder it all month, so you can't just divide the total sales by 12 and apply that to the other 18 days.

Also, a lot of people probably bought it for resale since it's the holiday season and the first new console in 6 years. Prices on Ebay are barely above retail though, so demand doesn't actually seem to be outpacing supply by very much.

It's somewhat awkward/clumsy and makes controlling standard games more difficult. Sure, in "Super Swipe Dart Throwing!" you'll have better control because of the touch screen, but no one would ever choose it over a PS3/360 controller for something like Call of Duty.