But your entire argument is undermined by how buggy IE has historically been. Despite all of that QA, they've never managed to fix some quite serious bugs.
While there's truth to your argument that updates should be less frequent, I don't think IE should be the standard you're using for quality.
Wireless monopoly: the large operators in the wireless industry have exclusive, monopoly rights to broadcast on the frequencies they own. Wireless is not a 'free market' -- once the spectrum is purchased, there is no additional spectrum left to sell.
Cable: you live in an excellent area, and it sounds like your local government is well-functioning and actually does allow for multiple franchise agreements in both name and in practie. I'd be less concerned about net neutrality if everyone's local governments functioned this way.
Sadly, in the city I live in (San Francisco), and the last city I lived in (Pittsburgh), Comcast and AT&T have effective monopolies on the poles. Even though there is a theoretical opportunity for expansion in these cities, the cities refuse to grant additional franchise agreements.
I would get behind any 'Internet Freedom' movement/lobby effort that would remove or make equitable the crappy local zoning laws and franchise agreements that block additional landline competitors from going in.
In SF, AT&T has been trying to drop fiber for years, and they keep getting blocked by zoning laws. Two small ISPs (Sonic.net and MonkeyBrains) have been trying to build their own fiber networks, and are getting thwarted as well. None of these companies want anything special: no subsidies or handouts--they'd pay all expenses for installation. They just want to be able to lay the lines and have not been able to do so.
There are many other cities that have this same problem.
Totally true, and yet they're both involved.
"Internet Freedom" sounds like a phrase designed to make being anti-Net Neutrality sounds good.
And no wonder: Verizon and AT&T are heavy contributors to Rand Paul's campaign.
Make no mistake: there's nothing "free" about the state-granted monopolies the wireless and cable industry have. Since they're monopolies, they ought to be regulated.
And if regulation is removed, you know that the telecom industry will be hitting up Google and Netflix for cash right away.
"Internet Freedom" means freedom for Verizon, Comcast, and AT&T to charge siteowners like Google and Amazon just because they feel like it.
"Internet Freedom" means every single thing you do on the Internet is going to cost more because Verizon and Comcast need to keep posting massive increases in profits.
"Internet Freedom" means freedom for the carriers to hold you hostage.
Not correct. What you're describing as REAL NAME is your LEGAL NAME. I think it's just as likely that real name is what you're known as to the people around you.
I know many people who know Skud. SHE (not he!) is known to all of them as Skud. That is her real name.
Consider that when we're adding friends on Google+, we will all search for our friends and family members by the names we know them. We don't know the legal names of all our friends--so we're going to end up entering what we know them as, and we'd expect Google+ to come up with answers.
That Google is creating a system that forces people to use legal names and not real names is actually making it more difficult to link Google+ info to info about these people outside of Google+ -- since all of that info uses the person's real name.
It's tragic how our era's finest mathematical and technical minds are working on social networking. It's not right that they're wasting themselves trying to figure out how to monetize people sending pet photos to each other!
Why just a few short years ago people in that field were really doing great things for the world--like repurposing the Black-Scholes theorem to create increasingly complicated derivative financial instruments. Those instruments powered a revolution that brought prosperity to everyone.
If we can't get our best and brightest to go back to investment banks and get to work on developing new financial instruments, I don't know what will happen to our fine nation.
presumably, you really wanted to be an engineer AND you interviewed at a few places and got the job you wanted. few people are lucky enough to do what they want in life, and fewer still have the privilege of making things. you do. be excited.
appreciate that you get to be around people who are as excited about software engineering as you are. ask people about what they're working on. learn from them. if there's an opportunity to propose a good idea, do so. accept the feedback you get if you find that your idea wasn't perfect, but don't give up. keep in mind that you work in the software industry and not the mafia: you're not being paid for your silence, you're being paid for your ideas.
read every single line of code you can get your hands on. learn the system inside and out. be ready to pitch in and work on code you're responsible for.
i've been coding professionally for a while. everyday i get to collaborate with colleagues who are dedicated to making great software. i've learned so much from them, and i've been given many opportunities to contribute across the project i work on.
be kind to your colleagues: the industry is small, and you're going to be working with these people for years even as you switch companies. the colleagues you get along well with will help you find work when it's time for you to change jobs. that said, don't be a pushover either.
in short: play well with others, speak up, be curious, and do well.
you can use that too! you have your choice.
the Palm Pre has a standard OpenEmbedded based distro. you can install packages from the OptWare repository. enjoy fully supported, debugged and tested Linux components that are updated on a regular basis--all written by very talented engineers who are committed to getting awesomeness to customers as often as they can. (has Nokia ever released updates as often as Palm has for webOS?)
don't like javascript apps? rip out the webOS window manager and put whatever you want on it. or maybe you want both. you can always switch between the two. the development community has already figured out how to do this.
and the Mojo javascript development environment does have its strengths. it's the first platform since the computers of the 80s where you can hack on it right out of the box.
how could you not love a company that made the contra code an officially-supported way of entering development mode?
Waste not, get your budget cut next year.
