Depending on the size and stability of the GPs research budget, that may not be practical. I worked on a fairly large academic research team (by EE/CS standards) that had the budget to hire a few full-time staff members for certain things. After the main implementation push the project wound down a bit, and those staff moved on to other jobs, leaving the grad students to maintain the infrastructure. That was fine as it was, but could have been massively not-fine if the staff had used complex tools that required specialized knowledge that the students didn't have, and would have to divert their energies from research to tool-learning.

Basically, if you're hiring a DBA, make sure that you can keep them on staff indefinitely.

I was thinking about that, but I think I'm not enough of a multi-tasker for that to work well for me. I'd probably either (a) pay too much attention to the radio, and be less effective/efficient with my engineering, or (b) tune out the radio entirely and not absorb anything.

Although, maybe I could listen while cooking. Haven't done too much cooking lately though, unfortunately :-/

To quote the Simpsons' comic book guy: "A sarcasm detector, that's a real useful invention." *device explodes* :-D

I'd be really curious to see statistics on this. I'm probably on the upper end of the youth demographic, and the only way I get news is by reading it. I think TV news is mostly a waste of time, radio is too inefficient compared to quickly scanning an article, and streaming video is the worst of the two -- most of the "stories" delivered by video are just fluffy human interest pieces, or clips that have some spectacle to them. (Of course, this is all my personal experience, and I don't believe I'm necessarily typical. Hence, I'd like statistics.)

Naturally, I don't read printed newspapers, I read their websites. At least, the ones not behind a paywall.

I will rarely criticize anything as harshly as this, but, it has to be said: some of the analysis in this article could be used as a chapter in How to Lie with Statistics.

For example, the article cites Tim Kane's "analysis" that shows that startups were responsible for all US job creation since 1977. His proof of this is to take all the net jobs created by firms existing for one year or less and compare that to the net job creation of companies existing for more than one year.

Seriously, what kind of a piss-poor business can't manage to last a year? The least successful businesses I've ever seen, those one-off restaurants that crop up and then die, manage to last a year before their owners realize they're throwing away money. So, basically that data set lumps together a whole bunch of positive numbers in one category, and dumps all the negatives in the other.

Now, the analysis in the cited article does get more nuanced than that, and it does, eventually, explain what I just said. But, it's very, very easy to get a misleading opinion from that presentation, and the linked article seems to perpetuate that misperception.

And furthermore, what makes this different from reading the New York Times or Wall Street Journal on an iPad? I don't think "young people" are that easily duped. If you want news, you go read news, and if you don't, you don't.

I do think there has been some legitimate innovation in recent years, but nothing that belongs on your list - it's pretty hard to beat the printing press!

I think some of the most interesting recent creations have not really been technical, but social. For example, YouTube is not really groundbreaking from a technological standpoint. It is video, over the internet. Sure, there's a lot of technological infrastructure that must exist for YouTube to exist, but that's not really the main contribution of the service. It's a (mildly) novel method of communication, that's achieved enough popular momentum that you have the President of the United States releasing speeches via that channel. I think that counts for *something.*

What annoys me is how everything that Silicon Valley produces is hyped to the N-th degree. Every technology gets lauded as "revolutionary", and God forbid you release something merely "evolutionary." I'd love to see both of those words stricken from tech journalists vocabulary. Let's save "revolutionary" for things like the wheel. That even satisfies the other meaning <grin>.

Completely agreed. I really like Apple's products, but to say they're the lone innovators is complete crap. Their industrial and human/computer interface design is certainly innovative, and that's what makes their products so nice to use, but just because it's the most visible form of innovation doesn't make it the only.

I'm also incredulous at the statement that Google Maps was an incremental innovation. Surely people remember mapping websites pre-Google Maps, where you got served a basically static image, you couldn't drag around the map, zooming in and out was a high latency operation, the level of detail was always wrong, the maps were always too tiny, etc. etc. Before Google Maps I hated online maps, and Google Maps changed that instantly.

Sure, you could call it incremental, because, hey, it's pretty easy to imagine a piece of mapping software, but Google actually made it work, and that was worthwhile. Apple's innovation is really in a fairly similar vein: designing an excellent user interface for a fairly easy-to-imagine functionality.

It's entirely believable, because it happens all the time. Not in every public school, and not with every teacher, but it certainly happens. Some teachers feel threatened by intelligent pupils, and feel the need to cut them down to size. Of course it's entirely possible that the kid may have acted like a jerk in some situation, but it's funny how kids tend to act like jerks most often to adults that act the same way... sort of like, you know, adults.

I don't actually understand what it is about tailgating that inspires such rage. I mean, tailgating irritates me too, but I don't really understand why it should. They're not in my way... it's a safety hazard, I guess, but on a clear road with light traffic I'm not likely to stop suddenly anyways. Maybe it's just that I don't like being made to feel that I'm inconveniencing someone? Any other rationale?

And if you REALLY REALLY REALLY cared about the environment you would kill yourself so as to contribute no further fossil fuel emissions! :-)

But seriously, let's not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Buying a used car is probably more optimal environmentally speaking, but new cars will be bought, and they may as well be environmentally friendly. Furthermore, if enough people purchase hybrid cars (or pure electric cars, etc.), it will become obvious that a market exists for them, which will encourage auto manufacturers to produce them. It's a virtuous cycle.

I'd shudder to hand out 1-hour codes to customers. That makes the owner seem like a penny-pincher, and it destroys the casual atmosphere. If it's a slow Tuesday evening and a college kid wants to sit and nurse his one cup of coffee while surfing the web for a few hours, who cares? On the other hand, if it's crowded, I have no problem with the manager asking a couch potato to pack up and leave in favor of paying customers.

Human problems are best solved with human solutions, I'd say ;-)

Actually, charging for the WiFi isn't a very good idea, because your clientele will relocate to another nearby coffee shop that does offer free wireless.

This is the perfect response. I just want to add that it's amusing to see people come up with technological solutions, when the problem is so clearly a human one. If someone has been sitting at a table for the last four hours after buying one cup of coffee, and the place is packed with people looking for seats, then ask him to relocate. He's not generating any revenue for your store, and he's driving away other customers. What an amazing thought, that a manager should actually manage the store!

People really can be shameless, and it's usually a sign of bad management when "customers" (I use the term loosely) are allowed to get away with that. Most competent managers would ask such a group to either buy the review books or leave.