Since when was efficacy or even logic a metric for whether or not a new department/task-group/domain/[insert group du jour] is deemed "necessary" for any govenrmental body? This is just another not-so-subtle attempt at widening the jurisdiction of the military. After all, if the boogyman is unmasked, why, another must be conjured lest we all wake up to the cold truth that these people are simply pissing large reams of money down the tubes.

In the end, all of this will be justified after the fact despite any protestations. War on terror, anyone?

ps. Although if you think about it, it's somewhat ironic that antivirus firms (Sophos, Symantec, etc), which have been frequent fear mongerers themselves, are calling the military on fear mongering.

+

"Get off my lawn"

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TFA??

This is really too bad. Up here in Canada, we're stuck with disgusting 3 year contracts (the 2 year ones have hardly any discount) with egregious profiteering (world's highest text msg prices for instance) and a culture of neglect after you've bought a phone from our oligopoly of carriers. The N1, expensive as it was, really was the best option for a good, unlocked, and free (as in freedom) smartphone. Any Android you get up here will assuredly be abandoned by the carriers - after all, new firmware means less sales according to the carrier. It really meant that the only consistently upgrade friendly Android phone was the N1.

Where I think Google failed was in not offering more choice like a certain fruit-labelled, obsessed-with-lock-in software maker. After all ~$500 for a phone, cheap though it may be over the long run, is a psychologically difficult barrier to overcome. I do believe, however, that having a few options that were cheaper (with appropriately pared down features) could have made it a more profitable venture. Sadly, I would have bought an N1 in the near future, but now it looks like I'll be sticking with my dumbphone.

Furthermore, trusting people to make buying decisions on long term fiscal calculations (without any assistance), might have been ambitious in retrospect. Maybe putting a cost calculator on the N1 website might have helped?

Maybe this was added on later (?), but they did give a reason for not putting in KOffice 2:

I think he's got a point about the "stable milestone" part - remember KDE4?

I find it ironic and more than a little insulting when certain hotels (ones that typically charge high room rates) try to gouge an insane amount of money for wifi from travellers when free wifi is all but the nearest coffee shop away. Why do these places, many of which cultivate an air of "our service separates us from the other rabble", treat their customers with such contempt when it comes to wifi? One would think they would do anything to keep what business they have and actively work to get more customers (especially when just about every small mom and pop B&B has free wifi!).

ps. Hyatt Regency Vancouver, I'm looking at you! (benefit of the doubt: that was a couple of years ago)

Ha, that's certainly somewhat more appropriate. However, I think the GECK was introduced in Fallout 2, IIRC.
Also, didn't the German version have all sorts of censorship - ie. no children in the game, less violence etc? Such silliness.

Is there a typo in TFA here?
"The result is a monochromatic green-tinted view of the area in front of it."

But the image caption under the green-tinted rendering is "Conventional night vision image, via David Kitson, Creative Commons 3.0". Plus, it looks pretty grainy/low-res compared to the newer BW rendering which is captioned "New 7-series to feature high-tech night vision system".

Regardless, if the IR image is overlaid onto the screen (HUP) display, mightn't oncoming traffic lights be blinding and actually restrict vision at times?

"...a starter kit for the first colonists."

I'd lobby for it to be called the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, but there might be fallout from that decision...

I guess I came across as somewhat facetious in my original message. Yet, I was only semi-joking and still stand by my message.

Visit a local community center, join a neighbourhood committee, take the dog for a walk, join your local friends for coffee, tea, lunch, movies, etc. I know enough people that've eschewed their real social lives for their web 2.0 social "life". Given the lack of privacy, the identity theft or targeting, and the sheer waste of time (how much of the time you spend on Facebook is spent solely on communicating rather than simply advertising the details of your life or, even worse, playing honeypot "games"?)

As for friends 5000+ miles away, there're plenty of IM clients for that!

"What social media options are out there for all of those non-uber-techy folks?"

How about you go outside and talk to honest-to-goodness real people for a change?

Stop making these useless world's smallest thingies already and make something someone might actually buy.

"IBM presents: The World's Smallest Violin."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAlTOfl9F2w&feature=related

I'm not sure how I'm ignoring the "American" issue. One of the points brought up was having an extra year in HS, was it not? As a province that already had that, I was giving a concrete example of how it the extra year had a beneficial impact on some students.

As for why CS and integral calculus (amongst other advanced aren't introduced earlier, it mostly comes down to time. Students need time to get through the immense amount of content the state expects them to (believe me, it ain't easy). Whether or not the material is effective at teaching them math and science skills is a whole different kettle of fish - and we (as teachers and parents) have to suffer with a dysfunctional system developed by people more concerned about mechanical efficiency than passing along the tools that facilitate real understanding (ie. the factory vs the mentor model). I could go on all day...

Reposted (I have no idea why my original was posted as AC while I was logged in?!)

I've seen enough "if they're smart, off to college!" type responses here and elsewhere to know that it's a fairly popular proposition. However, as someone who did just that - I left high school as an under-18 kid to enroll in a very demanding engineering faculty in a prestigious university - I can attest that the transition can be extremely difficult. I simply didn't have as mature a mindset I needed as well as the social skills to easily succeed that early. Eventually, I did graduate, but for the first couple of years, I was very close to simply dropping out (and I knew enough colleagues who did - which was a complete waste of their talent and knowledge). I know anecdote =! data, but high school allows a child to struggle and fail without some very real consequences (mostly having to do with the already high and growing cost of retaking courses in university and/or continued residency, or not being allowed to proceed in a field due to low marks, etc).

The Ontario (Canada) HS system used to have an "extra" year (Gr13 or OAC) that was abolished some years back. As someone training to become a teacher (thus, my nick), I've already observed some very obvious negative trends (from talking to and working besides teachers who've been on the front lines for the past 10-20 years) due to the loss of a school year. Without the extra year of prep, students interested in university are discouraged from taking courses outside of the core curricula necessary for entrance. Sadly, this means stuff like comp sci courses, which used to have packed classes, are now sparsely attended and are close to being removed (if not already gone) at many high schools. Other things like integration in calculus (something OAC math used to have) have been dropped for parity with students coming from HS boards that only go up to 12 (who don't teach it) - leading to students being behind the eight ball almost immediately upon walking into any high science or engineering math course.

These two factors (amongst others) can lead to a situation where your high achievers, the ones who are so glibly asked to "go to college!", are negatively impacted by timing pressures or the attitude that they can succeed purely on academic terms.

I don't know anything about this mayor, so I don't know his politics or whether or not this is just a thinly disguised cash grab (as some have implied), but extending HS is not such an evil thing in and of itself.

Honestly, I'm hearing as much (if not more) from the "my Wii gathers dust unless people come over" side of things. Outside of first-party games (published by Nintendo), the problem with the Wii seems to be with flash-style shovelware, tacked-on, or same-old wiimote interaction. There seems to be as much a paucity of "variety" in Wii titles as PS3 titles, albeit in different areas. Might I suggest, then, the possibility that you simply enjoy the type of gaming the Wii excels in over the type the PS3 (and ilk) excel in?

In other words, pot-kettle-black?