There will be a million negative posts (maybe not here) about practicality, weight, viability in weather etc., but they have a plane that flies using solar power, which is a much better performance than all of the naysayers expected from them before yesterday.

Good for them, I'm impressed.

I'd help clarify that comment by recommending Peter F. Hamilton's book Pandora's Star (search Amazon)...he envisioned an implanted HUD display where people could access the Internet analog and do other comp sci stuff. Pretty cool ideas there.

I like J.J.'s work (minus lens flares), and I'm willing to support it. A nitpick, the definition of 'Star Wars canon' will be argued here,

My view (and apparently George Lucas' at one time or another) is that the movies are canonical, the rest is fanboy fan fiction. Some of it is very well written fan fiction, and it brings you back to that special place in your head where you enjoyed the Death Star blowing up, but they are still not what Lucas made.

I agree 1, 2, and 3, were not to the story quality of 4, 5, and 6, and I also agree that J. J. is not George Lucas so even these new ones won't technically be a Lucasfilm, but George signed off on it and he's a consulting producer, so that's canon enough for me. Here's hoping the force is with them.

I've attended hundreds of hours of classes, and I've taught graduate courses in engineering. If your lecture has an introduction, preferably with a motivational topic, followed by an outline, a thorough discussion that includes examples for each concept, and then a summary, your students will learn more than if they did not show up and just read the notes.

Of course you need to engage them, ask them questions (I find ways to get them to contribute by offering homework points (capped) for interaction), but that's part of preparing a good lecture. I think most of the lectures that are criticized are those prepared by teachers that would rather do something else.

It seems to me if you add coding to math curriculum, it would enhance both. In my high school during the '80's, boolean logic was not discussed at all, nor were principles like recursion, numerical approximation, and general algorithms. If those were added to algebra, geometry, and shown how computers help solve normally unsolvable problems (e.g. the simple pendulum without the law of sines approximation), the students understanding of both math and computer science would synergistically increase.

Okay, if I make the following (probably erroneous) logical information lifecycle assumptions:

1. Assume the theory that we have short term memories feeding long term memories,

2. We have five senses that effectively record terabytes of information with near analog frequency (for example, you feel sensations, or no sensations, from the entire surface area of your skin as well as any internal nerves, and that can be recorded).

3. The short term pushes the most pronounced sensory data into long-term memory, and that long term memory is persistent..

4. Long term memory is persistent, but may not be completely accessible.

5. Memories of accessing those long term memories are persistent, and can be accessed, effectively creating copies.

6. Multiple access/copy loops in short periods of time are more likely to persist that memory copy more accurately, and fewer accesses increases likeliehood of loss/alteration.

7. The incredibly large vector of sensory data, for which no two humans will have identical experiences, coupled with differences in memory storage capacity, physiological differences, chemical exposure differences, and plain luck lead to effectively a chaotic system that cannot be computed because you're dealing with n>1e8 vectors expanding factorially over time leads to this still incredibly difficult to define concept of 'consciousness,'

So I guess I agree with the thesis that we can't compute consciousness, it's a chaotic system, but I wouldn't be surprised if it could be copied.

Not sure about the legality of the transaction, but the execution of the transaction will be tough.

Just how are you going to get paid before you give up the spot? The seeker will have to double park (illegal) before paying, unless Monkey does the transaction by credit card transfer. Even still, when you're auctioning a spot, others will want it too, leading to nightmare traffic in the area.

For those that don't know the city, there are a lot of parking garages and the prices vary from 10-15 dollars an hour, so that'll be the limit. Also note that most houses don't have enough parking for the tenants so street parking is very common. New buildings for certain have good parking garages, but many of the city buildings and houses won't be scraped for years. Also, drilling a parking garage into the side of a hill of a seismically active area has it's own engineering/city construction code challenges.

The app may work, I don't know if it's illegal, but I don't like it, and it will increase the aggravation factor by an order of 10 on busy days.

That's my quarter.

Depends if you limit yourself to the United States. During a business trip in Korea, I watched not one, but two channels of Starcraft competitions and those players were simply rock stars, and they made serious bank. If the gaming companies find viable ways to set up sponsored competitions, then sure, the best players could live comfortably, and as you would expect, the average players would get nothing.

I bet with the right marketing there could there be more players than the 1600 professional football players. Maybe they could get Pete Townshend to write a song about it.

I don't think it needs to be a life-long career, if they peak for three years and make seed money for college or something else, it's time well spent. Gaming isn't exactly productive, but in most cases it's not a big time loss, and millions of people spend equivalent time watching TV, knitting, or listening to music, all of which have almost zero potential marketability.

Slightly off topic, regarding the violence of the games in the article, I remember a game where people were watching a guy writhe in pain with his arm broken in half. Wait a minute, that was my arm, when I was playing American football. And that doctor's bill was huge.

Current nuclear sub designs are not refueled. The cores are designed to last the 30 year life of the sub.

The Goods:
1. Say what you want, but J.J. can make actors act to their potential, puts emotions into scenes, and by all accounts is a fan of the Star Wars franchise.
2. At least some attempt at a continuity will be welcome.
3. I've never liked the EU books, so I'm not turned off.

The Bads:
1. Watch out for that LENS FLARE!
2. I went to Disneyland last week with my girls and I saw Mickey Mouse swinging a light saber. How many hidden Mickey's will be in the film, and those that aren't so hidden? The script notes from the executives may kill the chance at a good story.

I'm looking forward to it, fanboys will always complain, but I'll give the creator of LOST his shot.

Boron fusion is a candidate, you'd need a few hundred kilograms instead of the millions of kilograms.

Perhaps I'm guilty of humpty dumpty regarding my quote of Howard Stern (even if there are four synonyms and one heteronym for public company in the link you provided). Yes, I know Mozilla is a NGO, and I can accept your arguments above. No doubt OK Cupid is for profit, so they most likely made their stand for exposure and not ethics.

Meanwhile, Mozilla's revenue is paltry $4M compared to other corporate entities, and Brendan Eich was making about $700K per year where others of his talent get that for an annual bonus (guidestar.org). Their leadership is shaken, which will shake the rest of the company for a while, and losing him will hurt in the long run, he's been CTO for a while.

But the smell in Denmark that bothers me is why they picked him in the first place, why did he accept, and why are they doing such an about face (regarding the recent post by Mitchell)? They knew this storm would come. He's clearly the right technical person, but the baggage was well known. It's like the company was a person that poured honey all over himself and then sat on a fire ant hole.

I did not say publicly traded company. It is a non-profit 501c3 corporation, and I agree it does not have a ticker symbol. It does have a very public presence, so I would guess this nitpick exchange is a draw.

Okay, I'm trying to summarize all of the events and make some sense out of it. In 2008, Eich gives $1,000 for support of Prop 8. I voted against Prop 8, as did 48% of the other Californians who voted that day (remember the measure passed). To my knowledge, he has said nothing otherwise and apparently did not interfere with apparently LGBT friendly policies of the Mozilla Corporation. In 2012, his donation was leaked somehow, and it causes headlines to flare. Two years ago. Late March 2014, the Mozilla board selects him as the CEO (he obviously is qualified for the job based on experience), full well knowing about his donation and the internal opposition. In April 2014, virtual blip on the online dating scene, OkCupid, capitalizes first and makes a glorious stand against the Mozilla browser because of a 6 year old donation. The media puts them on every front page, highlighting their commitment to LGBT rights and providing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free advertising.

So what do I get out of this? The board saw a win-win, if he can weather the storm of the Prop 8 fiasco then they get one of the most technically competent CEOs available, otherwise, they push him out and get a lot of visibility for doing so (and maybe more converts).

OkCupid was smart to capitalize, and Eich, whom I disagree with, gets the hammer.

I think Howard Stern was right, if you're planning on leading a public company, keep your mouth shut and be everybody's best friend.

Perhaps the object of the carpool lane is to reduce traffic, but the reality of the carpool lane is that it increases traffic. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I see it all the time when the lane enforcement starts at 3 pm, the 4 lane road that can handle 20,000 cars per hour is reduced to three lanes handling 18,000 cars per hour and 2,000 cars in the under used carpool lane. Those three lanes get congested, mean distance between cars decreases, accidents increase, and the CHP has the chance to give more tickets to those who see if they can make it in the carpool lane for just a few miles. In theory everything works in practice, in government regulations it doesn't.