I was wondering why ALA stopped offering them altogether after the New Year's. I guess they knew something was coming ahead of time and didn't want their name to be pushed into the mudslinging to come.

ASN.1 is a way to universally describe data. It's expressible in multiple languages though. So the gp is right.

Nah, C++ itself is the problem. Linus got it right. Instead of standardizing name mangling and RTTI, the language went in the direction of accomodating everyone who didn't think to use auto_ptr when returning containers from functions. The whole reason for virtual functions is to get around huge case statements resolving discriminated unions. But without standard discriminators for these discriminated unions (and relying on points into virtual table instead) these cannot be persisted or sent over the network. So you end up with people still using multiple enumeration schemes which cannot be even logged in a consistent way. Mess, mess, mess!

I don't remember the full list of programming languages that I use or have used at some point (yeah, like you remember that Expect script that you wrote 15 years ago), but I can promise you that Mathematica is, in fact, different. It lets you mix the compile-time and run-time constructs (and treat them pretty much the same). The only think that is even close to being as revolutionary as Mathematica is Python's "yield" keyword (which allows functions to not only be a substitute for a stack abstraction, but also for a queue abstraction).

If the DOJ needs data stored in Ireland, why not ask Ireland first? It's not exactly a safe heaven for drug trafficking. I am sure they'd extradite a drug dealer. So they would release any data in drug trafficking case. DOJ just wants to prove that they shouldn't have to ask?

It will act in accordance with the goals set for it. Same human beings can be caring fathers and deadly soldiers depending on the context in which they apply their intelligence. Intelligence is a capability. It is a key which opens many doors. What it will do will depend largely on what it is tasked to do by those who are setting goals for it. Once it becomes ubiquitous, there may be some nihilists who'd use it to entertain their end-of-the-world-screw-it-all-to-hell fancy.

And if UN thinks that EU should be broken up, does that mean it should?

You can cross-correlate multiple medical term searches and conditions and see the trends in search over broken down by regions. It's not limited to flu. You can do it by other (some slowly-spreading) medical conditions.

Given the opposition to software patents and the general demand that genius be considered a public property, it's hard to call him even insane. I didn't actually know that he was still alive. I just assumed he was part of Hilbert's generation because of the Grothendieck basis. Well, good for him I guess.

Why not google trends? It's already categorized.

Ok, as long as we agree that simple pride is not racism. The main commodity in tech development is attention span. Anyone who thinks that many would bother with outside priorities like ethnic or racial background is kidding themselves. Vi vs Emacs was about as heated as tech bias got and even that has largely gone away now.

Condescend all you want, but mandatory insurance produces higher premiums and lower payouts regardless of how well it is regulated. In fact, regulation only increases administrative regulatory costs instead of reducing premiums. However, you missed a subtle point. Most of the newly insured will lose money on this even if they get sick and will receive insurance payments to cover some of their medical costs. Insurance companies are now in the business of delaying treatment. Approvals, medical justifications, reviews, etc... it's all there to stretch the time between doctors' ordering procedures and patients getting the treatment. It lowers the treatment received per unit of time. And it's gotten significantly worse since Obama Care was passed. You can't possibly think that calling a mandate to buy something that lowers the quality of medical care and increases costs can be justifiably called "help."

Being forced to buy insurance is not "help." It's being forced to buy insurance. It may be a good idea for some, but calling it "help" is misleading. Most people with this insurance will see more of their money spent on premiums than they would receive in payments even when they do get sick and need medical care. The medical care savings accounts would have been much more helpful for most people in reducing their medical costs and in forcing them into long-term responsible behavior. But we couldn't do that. That would be too Republican an idea.

Most modern "computers" are not metal. Heck I usually run 5-6 instances of different virtual machines just at home. And that's at home. At work, it goes up to 15-20 at any one time. Any server needs to be designed to go up and down as quickly as possible and to have 1 instance of it running as transparently as 100 instances. Long start up times and monolithic servers whose start up can be observed by a human being are the thing of the 1990's. The world has moved on. Most cell phones today are more powerful computers than any server built in 2001. Quick spinning up of multiple instances of virtual servers is a requirement in today's world -- not a "nice thing to have."

sex lives of other executives... Ok, give me a break. Is this some pathetic attempt to make apple bashing seem like gay bashing? No one asked the question and no one thought more or less of Steve Jobs because of his rather tumultuous sex life. So I'd say stick your announcements to the product line unless, of course, you are trying to divert attention from your failing product line.