jwcooper

Some products have improved, and some have gotten worse (losing Exchange on Gmail, Reader, Google Talk, Google Checkout) and some haven't changed in years (Google Finance).

I use a lot of Google services, and it's frustrating when they keep removing features, or killing off products that I use daily. It's gotten to the point where I'd rather pay for a service now and be the customer rather than signing up for another Google product.

Yea, I didn't write that part out, but it would be fairly easy to write a bash script to turn it on and off (and even a simple web site with a on/off button, as you are running apache in one of the solutions). You could just move the dnsmasq.adlist.conf file out of the dnsmasq.d directory, and then restart dnsmasq.d, and vice versa.

The guide does include ways to whitelist sites [1] you'd like to support (and mentions it's a good idea!) and is on a per-site basis. It pulls in an ad list from a popular site [2].

[1] http://learn.adafruit.com/raspberry-pi-as-an-ad-blocking-acc... [2] http://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers

I agree about the quality getting much better, but the one thing I really miss with DDG is the Google Search Tools, and being able to narrow my searches down by date (last month, last year, last week), etc.

For technical searches it really helps being able weed out old content and solutions (old rails 2 solutions, etc).

The problem is that you (and the otherwise healthy (under|un)insured) probably wouldn't think twice about getting that cancer treatment, or heart transplant, even if it meant that others in your community would have to pay for you. Therein lies the reasoning why we need something other than optional health insurance.

My sarcasm meter might be off, but regardless, this is nonsense. You can easily mitigate the pressure issues by giving your kid something to snack on or a bottle during takeoff and landing.

I'm not a fan of patenting genes in seeds, but in this case he knew that some of the seeds he was buying contained Monsanto seeds, but figured since he was a small fish in a big pond that Monsanto wouldn't mind. In Monsanto's view, they need to protect their investments in R&D.

From the article:

Starting in 1999, he bought some ordinary soybeans from a small grain elevator where local farmers drop off their harvest. ... He knew that these beans probably had Monsanto's Roundup Ready gene in them, because that's mainly what farmers plant these days. But Bowman didn't think Monsanto controlled these soybeans anymore, and in any case, he was getting a motley collection of different varieties, hardly a threat to Monsanto's seed business. 'I couldn't imagine that they'd give a rat's behind,' " he said.

Germany isn't completely innocent here though either, even though it can look like they were frugal during the boom years.

From Michael Pettis [1]:

The strength of the German economy in recent years has largely to do with its export success. But for Germany to run a large current account surplus – the consequence I would argue of domestic policies aimed at suppressing consumption and subsidizing production – Spain and the other peripheral countries of Europe had to run large current account deficits. If they didn’t, the euro would have undoubtedly surged, and with it Germany’s export performance would have collapsed. Very low interest rates in the euro area (set largely by Germany) ensured that the peripheral countries would, indeed, run large trade deficits.

The funding by German banks of peripheral European borrowing, in other words, was a necessary part of deal, arrived at willingly or unwillingly, leading both to Germany’s export success and to the debt problems of the deficit countries.

[1] http://www.mpettis.com/2011/07/19/current-account-dilemma/

From the recent Esquire article[1]:

Over the past five years, FedEx and UPS have spent a combined $100 million lobbying Congress. Because neither company has a delivery network nearly as sprawling as Donahoe's, they contract with the postal service to deliver the "final mile" of much of their cargo. For instance, more than 21 percent of all FedEx deliveries are dropped off by a postal carrier. Meanwhile, millions of postal-service letters hitch rides on FedEx flights every day, for which the company gets paid $1 billion a year. FedEx and UPS don't want the postal service to go out of business but to remain contained, out of the way — one reason many of the addresses on packages that pass through Medford are handwritten by mothers and grandfathers and eBay minimoguls, rather than printed by manufacturers and retailers.

[1] http://www.esquire.com/print-this/post-office-business-troub...

I've only ever owned iOS devices, but when I see a Windows Phone, I kind of do a double take. Everything is so different, that I always want to play around with it, and try them out.

I really want Microsoft to succeed in Windows Phone 8, and Windows 8, for the simple reason that competition is good. We'll be much better off with 3 giant companies competing rather than two.

Also, the prospect of having a tablet computer with a full OS on it (Windows 8 Pro tablets) is pretty interesting to me. Loading up Steam, Visual Studio, a VM, while on the go (without the weight of a laptop) could be pretty neat.

Yup, the network code wasn't that great in the early days. It definitely seemed tuned to dial-up internet.

I was one of the lucky ones that got a cable modem in the early days (one way cable modem, down was cable, up was 56k!) and had a great advantage in player vs player, as I could outrun their lag, and generally do things faster than them if they were on dialup.

It's fun to place all blame on the USA, isn't it?

From the below link [1]: Mine clearance teams in Afghanistan report finding literally dozens of types of landmines, mainly from the ex-USSR, but also from Belgium, Italy, US and the UK. The most infamous mine used during the Soviet Union's occupation period was the so-called 'butterfly' mine. Helicopter crews dropped untold numbers (figures range into the millions) of the small mines from the air.

Also, I found this interesting. Clearly, it's not enough to demine the world, but it's more than the zero dollar amount you basically assume: [2] Despite its refusal to join the treaty, the U.S. has done more to counteract mines than any other country, spending $1.9 billion during the past 18 years through the Humanitarian Mine Action Program—roughly a quarter of the total spent on demining and other remediation activities around the world. There's been a special emphasis on helping Cambodia, which has received more than $80 million since 1993.

Reason for not signing treaty isn't too great, but there is hope: [2] The American position is complicated. The United States has not used antipersonnel land mines since 1991, not exported them since 1992, and not produced them since 1997. But the nation has a stockpile of some 10 million land mines, and prior to the '90s, it exported 4.4 million antipersonnel land mines, an unknown number of which are still in the ground. ... Nonetheless, under pressure from the United States Campaign to Ban Landmines, the Obama Administration has been conducting a comprehensive review of its land mine policy.

4.4 million exported, not clear if that includes how many they planted. This seems like it must be the majority, but it turns out there are an estimated 110 million planted in the world [3].

[1] http://www.afghan-network.net/Landmines/ [2] http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/01/landmines/jenkins-... [3] http://www.unicef.org/sowc96pk/hidekill.htm

The TiVo Premiere uses Flash for their UI, and a TiVo will last many years beyond this end of life. The article wasn't clear if it included this use of Flash, or if it is just for TV's using Flash in browsers?

Yea, it's pretty weak, and I'm sure the executives gave some ultimatums to the security team. Who knows though, when bonuses are on the line people will do some crazy things.

Good points, not sure why I disregarded the 6 other people at the door.

Although, it is a bit odd that after all this, he (Calderon) still hasn't reached out to the SFPD, as indicated in the SF Weekly's latest updates.

Before we all jump over Apple, this could just be one guy going somewhat 'rogue', and forgetting he's a retired police officer, and not an Apple Investigator in the private sector. If what is written is true, this investigator likely has a lot of explaining to do.

The conspiracist in me thinks the SF police dept worked with him, but didn't want it on the record for some reason, and will just shuffle the investigation under the rug.

An easy way to make the thread interesting again is to describe them as rocket ships, or pickles, or...well you get the picture.

Where did you host your mongodb instance at? How has your experience been with no.de?

If you can manage to keep the last few displaying, and not link all of them, it would make for an easier time viewing your recent drawings. This game is a blast seeing how these threads develop.

My first thought on seeing their site is that the search box, and email alert box look just like sidebar ads for some reason. I think it's because it looks like an image, and not an html form.

I wouldn't have used the search if I had visited from Google Finance.

For those of us that haven't used IntelliJ, but have used Eclipse, could you explain further how it's better?

I really don't have any issues with Eclipse, as long as I'm using a fast PC with a lot of RAM (SSD helps as well).

I haven't used an android phone, but the iPhone can use the cloud features of Google Accounts as well (maybe not as slick though?). Using Google Sync works pretty well on the iPhone for the calendar, contacts, and mail.