This is insanely crazy. Many of Google's own software engineers would not qualify either, being degree-less Autodidacts like myself. Maybe I'm missing the point here. Oh well. I'll just stick to my AI projects. Because I am simply too undereducated to test a self-driving car.

I try to get agreements upfront about such matters. Already I've had to grab two open source projects and fix them, and in those cases I did put the fixes back out there in OSS land. Just make the agreement up front.

And there has been those times I wanted to release a new tool I created to open source, because others may have found it useful and they weren't part of the core business. And I was denied. And what can you do? As someone already stated, they are paying for the code, so it's their call.

And then there is the Grace Hopper approach to things. Do that at your own risk. lol

If only I were the Star Child.

Indeed. They have long since gotten around the built-in popup block in most browsers by doing the same directly at the HTML level. Nothing is more annoying than the entire page darkening up while I'm reading and then seeing that annoying sneaky pop-up. I usually close the tab at that point.

Tracking is becoming more insidious every day. Now, Hotspots will record the probe requests your cellphones send out looking for a WiFi to connect to, and will include your MAC address for technical reasons (can probe faster that way). Many are storing that MAC and sending up to a central server for analysis.

Imagine as you drive around a city your MAC address is being used to trace your movements. If you go to a posh mall and afterwards go to pick up your kids from day care, that can be used to profile you. And if your own WiFi router is also phoning this info back somewhere... well, you see where this is going.

Every since the publication of "The Fractal Geometry of Nature", my views of our Universe have been transformed.

And in case you haven't noticed, the title here is a paraphrase of a title of a chapter of a story (or film) of another Great that, too, is no longer with us. Let's see if you recognize it.

It is sad that brilliant minds die. But it happens. And may you fall into an infinite trench of Fractal wonders.

Mandelbrot has inspired many, and has inspired me to create Gravity Set Fractals.

http://www.fredmitchell.net/fractals/index.html

Long Live Self-Similarity!!!

What if a rogue app turns on the microphone or camera on command from some central server unbeknownst to you? The app could easedrop and spy on you. Is is my hope no app stoops that low, but you never know!

"Only install apps you can trust..."

Isn't that a bit of a tautology?

More importantly, just how are you supposed to know what you can trust or not? If an app zips your private info off to a server somewhere, you'd never know it. Even if you sniff the packets, it could still be encrypted or stenographized.

Google should give the user finer control and log what private info has been requested by what app.

Not just software patents should be denied, but lifeform patents as well. In fact, I would love to see all lifeform patents invalidated, as this would take the wind out of the sails of Monsanto.

On the graph it states that spending in Iraq and Afghanistan was "mostly" excluded, so we're not looking at a complete picture.

Yes, entitlements will eat the US alive. It was not sustainable to begin with. Something will have to give, and to "fix" the problem means either raising taxes, which would be devestaving, or cutting the entitlements, which will impact those who have the expectation of getting them.

My retirement plans do NOT include entitlements of any sort. They simply will not be solvent by that time, or will pay so little it'll be a joke.

This is the government's Ponzi at Gunpoint Scheme that it forces us all to "buy" into, but will leave us much worse than high and dry.

If you have to keep borrowing and borrowing, and doing so faster than you can pay it off, meanwhile the basis of your credit is shrinking, it's a disaster waiting to happen.

The Military sucks up a HUGE portion of the national budget. If you got rid of that alone, we'd probably be OK. Or at least not as bad off as we are.

But what's wrong with being cash positive rather than cash negative? Continuous borrowing is always a loosing proposition, both for the borrower and the creditor.

I'm not trolling, actually, but that's besides the point.

Worthless? Really? Can I have your gold then? I watch the financial markets nearly every day and gold is anything but worthless.

Ah, see, you are proving my point already, but let's continue.

So us human citizens are being used as collateral for the debt! Ah, therein lies the rub! Unless you have infinite growth, this model fails. The planet is only so big, and there are only so many resources, places to live, farmland, etc. Population growth cannot continue to grow indefinitely -- it's mathematically impossible.

So now what happens when your assumptions of infinite growth are dashed to the hills? You have enslaved all of your citizens into paying off this debt, and you have to use force to "exact tribute " -- the IRS -- but now the bottom falls out because you hit zero population growth, or perhaps population begins to decline.

So now your creditors become restless and may wish to call back in the loan in full. Or drop you as a basis. Hello, what has China been doing recently? Making lots of noise about switching from the USD to some other standard for world currency -- like GOLD!

Why don't you explain to China and India how "worthless" gold is. Go ahead. I dare ya.

To rephrase what you've just stated, "we" -- really the US government, not us -- took us off a solid standard with builtin accountability, sold us all out and decided to use you and me as collateral for a debt they keep running up, higher and deeper.

The wars fought today have nothing to do with "National Security" and everything to do with control of resources to keep the illusion going that the debt model will continue indefinitely -- which it will not.

You may love a world of debt servitude, but I do not. You and I did not choose to become debt slaves -- we were signed up for it at birth, and you fully admit it.

So thank you for making my point for me. I couldn't have said it better myself!!!!!

You miss my point entirely. We've become a nation that floats on debt. Always in the red. It's the mode of operation that's the problem. You cannot keep borrowing forever without repayment; something has to give eventually. When was the last time the US actually had a surplus? My point entirely.

The debt model that the US has been operating under for the many decades is simply not sustainable.

The US went bankrupt many years ago. Why do you think all the gold was confiscated back in 1933

http://www.the-privateer.com/1933-gold-confiscation.html

and Nixon took the USD completely off the gold standard?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Shock

You only resort to these extreme measures if you have a negative ROI. If you have sustained negative ROI, that's actually worse than actual bankruptcy, which is an admission that you failed and promise to restructure. Nope, the rampant spending continues, and the fiat money flows. The broken system becomes even more broken, as fiscal fantasy becomes even more out of line with fiscal reality.

That party cannot continue forever, I don't think.

And that is why I say "NO" to Apple. They are darned too controlling of the User Experience. I'll take my Android over the iPhone anytime!!!

As one who does have a patent to his name, I have thought about this entire patent issue quite a bit.

The original intent of the patent was to give the lone inventor a monopoly over his invention in order to spur innovation. And it may have served that purpose once. But today, patents have taken on a completely different use -- the leverage for big deep-pocket corporations to beat up on other corporations and obliterate any possible competition from "the little guy", who could not possibly afford patent litigation.

So, it is my view that patents no longer serve it original intended purpose, and thus should be eliminated. Monsanto patents organisms and genes and uses that to force small farmers to buy their GMO seeds; Microsoft may use patents to beat down startups they deem as a threat, and so on.

Today, people will innovate whether or not patents exist. And most innovations don't ever see a patent, I think. It's just too expensive to procure a patent -- $5,000 to $10,000 -- and if ever someone -- even another little guy -- violated your patent "rights", you could not afford the litigation, anyway.

So let's abolish all patents and close down the USPTO!