There are plenty more driverless cars today than there were at the end of 2019, but they're not going anywhere, and they're not self-driving. They're sitting in garages, driveways, and parking lots, seeing much less use while their owners are stuck at home.

+1

I follow Slashdot and a bunch of other feeds through Firefox and its "Live Bookmarks". I also use RSS feeds in various other ways at home and for work.

I don't think RSS is going away any time soon, but I'm not sure that standalone readers will ever become more popular. Instead, I think RSS will live on through features included in other applications, like Firefox, and integrations with other communication and productivity products, such as Slack.

I disagree. I think many of these wearables are just a bit ahead of their time. I see many people buying the cheaper "smart" watches that don't offer the full feature set but still offer more than traditional watches. I think the "premium" models like Motorola's are just too pricey for the limited advantages they offer. I think as the features expand and the prices drop, wearables will become quite common. These first-movers are going to suffer while the technology and the desirable use cases are fleshed out, but this is only the beginning. Few people would reject a watch that can display the notifications from their phone or allow them to manipulate phones (or other connected devices) with voice commands, but they may not be willing to pay a premium price for something that isn't so great at the traditional watch features.

Yep yep. They are just a convenience. For many (most?) people, the conveniences might not be enough to outweigh the inconveniences. I have a Samsung Gear Live, and I love it. It's big -- bigger than most people would want their watch to be -- but I have large wrists, so it fits me nicely. There's nothing it does that feels like a must-have feature, but it adds a number of little conveniences that I really appreciate. For example, when I put meatloaf in the oven, I raise my wrist and say "Ok Google. Set a timer for one hour." and walk away. Even if I'm nowhere near the oven, my wrist will vibrate and I'll know it's time to serve dinner.

Things I like about it:
  * I don't miss as many notifications (I often don't hear my phone, but the watch vibration gets my attention)
  * I can read notifications easily while on the go, and I can react to many of them with gestures and voice commands
  * I can use voice commands for simple actions like sending texts, setting timers, etc. without pulling out and unlocking my phone
  * I use it to control media software (for example, skipping videos on Kodi on my living room TV or songs on Spotify in the car), again, without pulling out the phone
  * It's another piece of many Tasker recipes (home automation and more)

Things I don't like:
  * "Is that an Apple Watch?"
  * Battery life (I get about a day and charge it overnight every night, so not a big deal)
  * It doesn't have a speaker -- I can imagine some additional use cases if it did

This! You might also mention who hosts your email, as that might impact your experience as well.

The operating system you are using will impact the clients that are available to you and how well some of those options will perform. I personally use and enjoy KMail - the KDE email client, from within Kontact. This gives me everything I used to enjoy from Thunderbird (and all of the things you list) plus a whole lot more. It is available on Windows, but I'm not sure how well it works there. If you happen to be using Linux and KDE, then there's no reason not to try KMail. Even if you're not using KDE, you could give it a try, but it's going to come with a lot of KDE dependencies.

Looking at your Fitbit data, we can only conclude that you're a sadistic bastard.

Judging by the article, it doesn't seem like the experiment supports the conclusion. The experiment demonstrates that applying the filters makes it more difficult to distinguish real objects from virtual objects, but it does not necessarily follow that this makes the experience more immersive than the unfiltered version. In general, a consistent experience is important to suspension of disbelief, but that is only one factor. Most people didn't have a problem "getting into" "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" or "Space Jam". Believable interactions is another important factor - one that these visual filters will impair. Obviously, the effectiveness of this approach will vary from person to person.

In any case, I can't imagine a use case for this technique. Such an approach would make interaction with the environment (including walking) more dangerous and frustrating. Attempting to interact with the environment would likely result in increased stress as your mind fights to determine what is real and what is not. If you're forced to remain stationary and can't trust what you see, what's the point in augmented reality?

It isn't terribly surprising that adding a cartoonish rendering effect to both real and virtual objects would make them more difficult to discern as such. I certainly wouldn't call it more immersive - quite the opposite, in fact. It is extremely obvious that what you are looking at has been altered and that you are not looking at "reality".

Actually, the flaw in bash was also embargoed for a couple of weeks. The problem is that the original patch that was given time to circulate didn't fully fix the issue, and nobody realized that until after the embargo was lifted and the problem became public knowledge. "Responsible disclosure" was exercised in both cases, it just didn't work out well with Shellshock.

This fairly well summarizes many of the steps I take. Additionally, I have Tasker set up to reboot the device if an incorrect PIN is entered too many times. Once triggered, the decryption key is no longer stored in RAM and they have more than the relatively simple PIN to deal with.

I wish I had mod points. Parent is exactly right. I'm sure there are other backend improvements that could be made, but the "classic" interface is exactly what we want. Implementing unicode and similar small improvements would be very welcome, but a complete overhaul is never going to go over well with this "audience". If you shed this audience - your current readers and contributors, you'll not likely get another.

None of us is as dumb as all of us.

First, you need to look at what skills the jobs will really require. If they are looking for an experienced DBA, you're a long way from qualified. If the postings you're looking at are with SMBs looking for some general IT staff, then you can probably already handle most of their needs.

Database administration is a discipline all its own. It takes a long time to learn databases at that level, and that's probably not what you want to do. Most of the shops looking for someone experienced with Exchange and SQL Server are looking for someone who can handle basic installation, configuration and, most importantly, troubleshooting. You can learn those skills pretty easily by just playing around with the software and using Google and maybe a few books. As others have already recommended, a TechNet subscription will be helpful here. SQL Express will get you started nicely. Don't consider yourself ready until you've managed to break things a few times and figure out the fixes on your own. I strongly encourage you to get familiar with Exchange 2012 and PowerShell, even if the job descriptions don't mention them - they're the way things in the MSFT world are going, and you'd need to deal with them sooner or later.

I still have the game. I know exactly where it is, along with my Atari consoles and controllers. I played it not too long ago - I pull it out from time to time to demonstrate it and other Atari games to those who missed out. I thought the game sucked when it was new, and I still think it sucks now. The game was horrible. Its contribution to Atari's downfall may be overstated, but the game really was terrible. It was one of my least favorite Atari titles, and that's saying a lot.

No, just "Walking on Sunshine"...