snom380

From back when I was working on AVRs at university (2003-2004), I remember there were a ton of programming settings to choose from, different ways to program it (SPI, parallel), and you could easily screw up something if you set the wrong fuses, used the wrong oscillator frequency etc. All of this complexity was taken away by Wiring / Arduino, so you could focus on your project without digging through datasheets.

So the simplified IDE and social aspect was only part of the story.

I'm not excited at all to see what they do with connected devices, because I expect them (and their partners) to have a go at it for a couple of years and then shut it down when the next shiny new market opportunity appears.

I have no idea why Firefox would have an advantage in this space over Google/Android. I'd also trust them more, but I just don't see it.

Personally I'll certainly use it as I'm a private pilot :)

In any case, let's come back in half a year or a year and see how other companies have responded to what, if anything Apple releases next week.

In half a year we're likely to see discussions about how whatever Apple is launching in 9 days was "obvious" and how they once again just happened to catch the wave at the right time. And for some reason other companies suddenly find it technologically feasible to fit NFC into their wearables, something that was apparently impossible before 9.9. 2014.

And it's a matter of eliminating contributing factors to accidents. Pilots have downed airplanes because of a malfunctioning pitot tube or fuel indicator light distracting them. People that don't get the laser pointer problem don't really understand why flying is so safe nowadays.

Next up I will give you basic landing training and you get to land a small aircraft at night all by yourself with a laser pointed at the cockpit. You are of course allowed to use the remaining eye.

More seriously, a next generation system that they are looking to implement in the future will involve aircraft automatically "negotiating" routes and deviations between themselves and digitizing ATC communications, which would reduce the need for air traffic controllers. However, getting there is a long term project because there are so many things that can go wrong and need to be accounted for.

The accident itself was worse and spread more radioactive material (the core exploded, the graphite ignited and spread a huge plume of smoke). But the cleanup effort if Fukushima will probably be worse because they are dealing with three reactors that still need cooling, leaking water etc.