Yes, it was exactly when they started the digital version of the magazine. The advertising started to take up increasing space in the magazine. The worst were the not-too-subtle iProducts sentences interspersed into articles apparently at random.

I just went Mint with my home desktop and HTPC. Works well for both! Been using it since January, and will continue to do so.

Pros:
- Most Steam games work great via PlayOnLinux! This was a very nice surprise.
- All HTPC functions work really, really well (filesharing, video + music playback, emulators for old console games). XBMC is amazing.
- Sweet, sweet terminal. Oh, how I have missed you.
- Programming is way easier, especially for Python and C++.
- Lots of historically rough spots (e.g. sound playback) have been recently overhauled and work much better than they used to.
- The Software Manager is awesome. You type in what you want, and it gives it to you. Fast, intuitive, no hassle.

Cons:
- Learning curve will be harder than Win8 if you're coming from a Windows background like me. The options and settings are all very accessible and well laid out, but learning where to look for them takes a while. I Googled "how to change my wallpaper in Linux Mint" for several minutes last night, to find out the answer was "right click on the desktop". Setting up VPN access to work was a similar adventure (answer: "click on the network connection icon.") I kept expecting things to be harder than they actually were.
- Some games are just not meant to be, and won't work on Linux. Guild Wars 2 was more trouble than it was worth.
- GIMP is a pretty bad image editor.


Overall, I love Mint, and I'm sticking with it.

This is Slashdot. That only works on Kickstarter.

As opposed to Slashdot, where we discuss posts about blogs about Quora answers. Much more interesting..

The only way to know if an idea was good, is after you've already done it. Future prediction is always a crapshoot. People who claim to be good at it were typically just lucky, and are deluding themselves into thinking it was all skill.

This is why it's so important in biology to know people, or to have a PI who does. Friends tell friends their negative results, and that's how word gets around.

Depends how much larger, and how many of them you want. Milling machines are more expensive in setup cost, but *possibly* cheaper in the long run. As long as you don't break too many cutters, and you buy cheap wood. The author of the "guerilla guide" notes that he's spent tens of thousands of dollars on his milling setup over the years.

Another consideration when it comes to filament is that you don't need the total volume of the object to be filled in. All you need is a solid outside, and the inside of the object can be perhaps 10% full and still be pretty solid. So it doesn't take as much filament as you might think, although you're right -- cheap wood or MDF is still cheaper.

If you're making a large enough quantity that the cost of the machine isn't a factor, actually you don't want 3D printing OR milling. You want molding and casting. Plastic's cheaper than both. Send your model into Shapeways, get back one of the thing you want to make, make a mold of it, and cast a million. Or pay a Chinese guy to do it even cheaper.

Yeah, that doc is pretty damn awesome overall. There's a ton of great information in there.

However, it does push milling over 3D printing. For the author's application, making teeny tiny gears, he's right: milling machines are the right way to go. But 3D printing is awesome for making larger things, and it's a MUCH faster and simpler process than milling is. Not to mention cheaper. So bear that in mind as you read it.

I tried Wings3d first, and it's easy to get into and make some compositions of cubes and spheres and whatnot. There's a good starting tutorial here where you make a simple table.

However, as a programmer, I find it much faster and more intuitive to use OpenSCAD. Instead of clicking on things and moving them around on the screen, you edit code that generates the objects. There are thousands of examples to get you started at thingiverse. Here's one of mine.

At the other extreme, Google Sketchup is excellent for the "click and drag objects around" approach. Its UI is way more powerful than Wings3D, and it may even be an easier starting point for non-programmers.

People hate feeling stupid, and if you pass information to them in a way that makes them feel smart, it will stick better. Your average undergraduate doesn't care about what you're trying to teach them, but they DO care about looking better than their peers, and looking good to employers. Knowledge isn't an end, it's a means to an end. Before you try to teach something, make sure it's something they want to know (even if it's for a stupid reason).

A personal trainer helped me a TON. Wife and I went together for a year. It cost a bunch, but it established a habit. And the habit has stuck since. Now the game is, if one of us skips a gym session, that person must pay $20 the other's favorite charity. The EFF only made $60 from her last year :)

So Aaron Swartz did not get fairly treated by the justice system. THIS DOES NOT IMPLY THAT EVERYONE ELSE SHOULD GET THE SAME TREATMENT. The justice system is what needs to change.

Been playing since the 3AM release. It's worked *nearly* perfect. The achievement server has been up and down, but that does not impact any aspect of gameplay.

If Facebook has taught us anything at all, it's that trust becomes a non-issue for people, as long as the "vanity" and "convenience" payoffs are high enough.

The job of police and prosecutors is to establish guilt. They are not there to help you. They are there to harm you in any way they can. Do not talk to them at all if you can avoid it.

Don't Talk To Cops is a video detailing exactly how someone who is PURELY INNOCENT can have their words twisted to prove their "guilt". If you have not watched this, watch it. Make your kids watch it too.