I hope it happens, Snow Crash is one of my favourite books of all time.

The Diamond Age would also be an incredible film too; if the Syfy Channel miniseries doesn't materialise, or even if...

And to top off a(non-Gibson) cyber-punk trilogy/cycle, I'd vote for a film adaptation of Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith.

There is no reason why Moore's law shouldn't also apply for displays, but there are/where a few stumbling blocks along the way:

-Manufacture collusion - for far too long a good portion of the manufactures where artificially controlling the price, and in turn holding back innovation and competition...
-Cable standards - Getting a sufficient amount of data to the screen is still a problem, current DisplayPort cable are barely capable of 4K...
-OS support - Better that is was a few years ago, but there still seems to be a prevailing view that high-PPI means small text rather than crisp text...
-Changing Markets - Computer where once the realm of tech. heads(who knew what was good and not), but times have changed, computer are largely consumer devices, bought by people who don't realise that FullHD is all probability a lower rez./PPI monitor than the CRT they had ten years ago...
-A change of tides in the management of the IT - Most IT company both hardware and software, are now run by non-technical management types seeking shot term goals to satisfying their myopic bonus objectives, rather than the tradition model of perusing long-term technical-research-development objectives...

As to the article, nice that they mentioned the IBM T220, I don't subscribe to their conclusions(obviously); chances are its just apple astroturfing...

How about AstroBoy, for the kid in all of us...

I would vote for any/all of the BladeRunner characters, but they are Replicants("A genetically engineered creature composed entirely of organic substance"), so don't count...

As for the choices, Bishop is cool, but Ash is so much more sci-fi!

This is just the sort of affirmation GS needs;

So, if code is not a physical object, and therefore stealing it is not theft, what dose that say about the digital currency (also non-physical) they trade every day...
And how about loosing it(the money)?

Back to the point, what if he printed the code...

I agree with the comments about not wanting to see news/articles in video form; but there is a place/requirement for video on /.

-This site is about commenting/discussion on things/events; in some instances, video is the original source(of discussion).
-A picture tells a thousand words, and a video... There are some thing that must be seen; also a relevant and appropriate usage IMHO.

Video for videos sake is never going to gel with the tradition /. crowd, but staying relevant is also important; video is a major source on the net today, and can be complementary to discussion, but redundant video, that's not worth my time.

There must be a "ted talk" or "technical seminar" video each month that warrants a discussion or two. Limiting discussion sources to text/web pages would seem to be excluding an increasingly important portion of the net...

Just politicians demonstrating how irrelevant and out-of-touch with they are with society in general...

Imagine if they where trying to ban sales of a board game, or books? Talk about inappropriate usage of public funds!

Also, how ironic that they would target an age group of people who are just about to make the first political decision/vote in there life; Which way do you think they'll vote. First impression count much for you?

And who is this supposed to be scoring points for? Could it be that there is an ulterior motive; history has showed us that's a slippery and dangerous path...

While like everyone I think DRM sucks, I do understand that piracy is still a bigish issue, but what I don't get why they inconvenience people that legitimately purchase a game, when the DRM is the first thing that is removed from any version on pirate-bay.

So the message they are trying to send is; "get a hacked version if you want to play off-line"? A bold move for what is traditionally a single-player(offline) game.

I jest though, the real reason I play Battlefield3(only EA game I play) on a ancient(by comparison) console instead of my PC, I wouldn't let Origin near my system with a ten foot stick! Not with those T's&C's; My data is MY data!

And the cheating... Punkbuster: the definition of irony...

The pricing is a bit hard to swallow too; your only getting a licence to access the game, rather than legally owning the game(i.e. no right to lend to friends).
It's a shame, I would have like to played the new SimCity; spoze I'll have to wait for Valve to buy EA, can't be long now...

As to the question, "Did the rules change?", I hope your kidding... It's name was DHS.

A major company concludes that the political climate for peace is bad for business, solution, change politics.
A government, in bed with company, see's privacy(and free speech) as a barrier to their vision of change, so when the opportunity presents it's self, why not kill two birds with one stone.

Shock & awe or smoke & mirrors, for right or wrong, we will be suffering from the ramification to privacy, personal liberty's and an apparent justification for mistrust for years to come, convenient for anyone with a vested interest, but how pervasive are we going to allow it to become?

Dose the justification remain, was the response appropriate(or justified), are those who made the decisions accountable, was it legal, the outcome positive and is the new framework being exploited; how long will we allow the specters of the past haunt us?

Are we citizens or subjects(of company)?

I was considering that, the R&D dept., but what would be the point, there's nothing to reverse engineer, it's all off the shelf, and both company use the same hardware(Both are intel/arm).

Apart from the fact that you can't run the same software on both, the only difference is the UI, and there's not much difference there either.

The biggest difference between the two company's is that one exclusively targets the consumer market(post-pc), and the other is still making the transition away from relevance.

But as for what the title eluded, any Microsoft employee using apple products personal, is just asking to be let go!
If a marketing campaign can get them, how could they be trusted with sensitive information...

One thing history has in common with the printed edition(but not with the online), it doesn't change...

2010 might be the end of a static-snapshot of history; now history can be reinterpreted to the end of time...

While it's important to re-analyse history, we have to be careful not to re-colour that interpretation(with modern ideals); have you ever read an old edition? The historical interpretation and context is almost as important as the events themselves.
It tells us about what our society was like, how we reacted to the events that have led up to it, and gives us a reference point to appreciate how much we've changed.

Are we one step closer to an Orwellian future?

Just look at any PC version of a game compared to a console, its like night and day...

There is a lot of fancy lighting and shadows that just can't be done(on consoles), but the big difference is draw distance and at what distance each item degrade to a low-rez version.

And that not even starting on the rez differences. e.g. I use 3x24" in portrait, 3600x1920 make a huge difference over 1920x1080, and games on consoles don't render at native rez anyway, not even close. i.e. Halo 3/ODST ran at 640p(on the xbox 360).

As long as money can be made consoles will be released; the only question is will your phone be better and cheaper, and make more money?
Most hi-end phones next year will have 1080p displays...

Do you think RIAA would stop seeking a SOPA/PIPA style solution if everyone stopped illegally downloading music and video?

How long would it take RIAA to run out of money for "legal bullying", if everyone stopped buying music and other media(as a protest)?

If a SOPA/PIPA style bill dose eventually get through, will it stop people from finding a new way to download music?
And if all the illegal down-loaders move on, will the ineffective and draconian censorship of the Internet be removed?

The problem with such bills is that they are so susceptible to abuse and manipulation, and ultimately, do not address the actual problem, just a symptom; at the end of the day stealing is already a crime, and law enforcement agency's around the world already have the power to shut-down counterfeiting operations, and do on a regular basis, we don't need "special laws" allowing proper due process and oversight to be circumvented.

Back before the Internet(can't find a ref.), in the late 80's, there was an excellent robo-trading system, that was eventually sold to a number of trading houses. The system worked very well for the company that developed the system, but after many versions of the system where competing against each other it all fell apart, resulting in a mini-crash... Laws where passed, and lessons learned.

By the mid 2000, all these lessons where no longer remembered, and the laws updated to reflect this convent amnesia, but the nature of dynamic system has not changed, and any company that profits from these systems, almost exclusively use programmers who understand this concept...

As a programmer that has lots of experience with agents and complex dynamic systems, I can tell you that for these systems to work they all have to be individual, otherwise they "feedback" on each other, and don't preform as expected.
Not to mention that they can be easily exploited when you know the internal decision making processes within them.

Goldman Sachs is only concerned about protecting it's advantage; individual and unknown code/heuristics being there advantage...
Personally I'm surprised they(GS) would ever let one of there programmers go, especially one that has worked on a system still in use.

If GS's analysis of there liabilities, in relation to there employees, is so far out of kilter, you've got to wonder about their broader investment decisions too...
Still, it's good to see the white-wash isn't sticking.

This whole issue of climate change seems to be a red herring to distract from the real issue; Pollution and air quality.

The fact is that it's very hard to prove a proposition where we don't understand the domain; we cant even predict the weather for next week!
Based on our observations and a bit of common sense though, it's not hard to see that something is awry, even if we can't prove it, yet.

It will probably take another 50 years to prove the science; are we really going to just wait and see?
Or just move the pollution generating industry to another country, out of sight, out of mind; Problem on earth is, everywhere is downwind eventually, and those "other" countries, have essentially non-existent pollution laws.

One thing that we should all be concerned about is air quality, funny thing is, its really easy to prove, and an excellent basis for defining our global environmental policy; so why are we so fascinated by the irrelevance issue of climate change, when the real and tangible issue of air quality is starting us directly in the face.

As an app producer, I see it breaking down like this:

-If you don't pay for an app, you have to assume that the producer will find other revenue streams, like "in app ads", or selling your "usage patterns".
-If you do pay for an app, you can usually assume that they don't violate your privacy...
-Or its a free, "sponsored production", like an app for your bank, or telco; not exactly free, as your already paying for it...
But in any instance, always check what "permissions" the app requires. i.e. Internet, location and/or contacts access, but dose not seem to need it...

Generally, I don't mind paying, say, up to the price of a burger, or a beer, for a basic app, and up to the price of a movie for something "cool", but usually stay away from free app, unless its from a respectable company. Personally, I value my privacy...

At the end of the day, if I put my time into producing something like an app, I will want to be reimbursed; after-all, why do you go to work?