I really don't understand this hostility towards hydrogen. Is it really worse than gasoline? Why not build an electric car with a hydrogen range extender? No smog, no CO2 from the car itself. 95% of driving could be done on the electric battery, with the hydrogen system serving as an extender for long trips. Meanwhile, as green power generation gets better, the environmental downsides of hydrogen will decrease. Plus, the battery can also be smaller because it only really needs to cover your "normal" travel.

Applause to Cisco for doing this, but I'll bet the NSA pushes for a law to make interfering with their operations like this illegal.

If by sheer stupidity such a law actually gets passed, expect it to get used against developers who release security patches not long after.

A doctor that prescribes antibiotics for a viral infection, over the patient's objections, should have his medical license taken away (unless there's some special circumstance, like an underlying condition, that would require it).

Actually, when patients demand antibiotics for a cold or flu, that's when the doctor should prescribe a placebo.

That may be true, but they're being very underhanded in the way that they're conducting these layoffs. Apparently some employees took a deal in the past couple of years that protected them from layoffs, in return for early retirement after a few years of reduced hours. The only exception was if they got the lowest score on their evaluation. Suddenly competent employees are being found incompetent, so that they can be fired.

That's one example. I don't work for IBM, never did, and after they pull this, they'll have trouble convincing anyone who has another option to work for them. They've screwed themselves for years, any agreement they make is clearly not worth the paper it's written on.

I think IBM's management must know the company is in its death throes, they're just slowly shedding people to minimize chaos.

I don't see what any of the links have to do with Wikiwand, which is what both my comments were about.

I should also point out that if you do install their Wikiwand's highjacker extension, the constant begs to install their extension are replaced with begs to spam your friends/contacts. It's utter shite. According to their Wikipedia article, they plan to monetize by running ads for books and courses. I'll bet the next incarnation of Corinthian ends up advertising through them (they'll pay the most).

To add: If you mouse over the wrong part of their stupid hovering toolbar, it will pop-up yet another message to dismiss (without being clicked, it activates on hover). Also, try searching for "Java". Notice that they've "improved" the content by removing the the link at the top to the disambiguation page. Because clearly, there's only one thing called Java.

Why would they be worried about Wikiwand? Within the first five minutes I first got a "pop-up" begging me to "switch to Wikiwand" and then a minute later an annoying, intrusive banner comes up for the same thing. When I try to close it it doesn't go away, but instead tries to make me answer what is essentially a push-poll question. (Why don't I want to "switch"? Because I've only been here 5 minutes, not because I'm a luddite).

Wikiwand seems at least as annoying as Wikipedia's donation ads, except Wikipedia seems a bit less annoying (at least you only have to dismiss one message instead of three).

I've heard of them, somebody managed to steal my CC # and spend $150 on Zoosk, followed by charges at Target and Macy's. I didn't find out until Macy's called me to confirm the purchase. Bit odd the first transactions were Zoosk. You've gotta wonder what kind of site would cost $150...

Ride sharing services in California are regulated, legal, and required to carry insurance. Uber and Lyft both carry insurance in CA.

It's worth remembering Uber started in a city with one of the worst Taxi systems in the country - San Francisco. Regulatory capture from the taxi cartel meant the city had far fewer medallions than it needed. Even in the densest commercial districts it was difficult to get a cab. In residential areas it was impossible. It was in the medallion owners' best interest to keep it this way, because the medallions can be sold and will keep their value better if the supply is over-restricted.

I hear they're auctioning additional medallions, probably because the cabbies realized SF residents would gleefully allow Uber to destroy the taxi cartel. After waiting 30 minutes in a dense area of SOMA for a cab over a year ago I've never taken a cab since. They don't patrol near my apartment anyway, but Uber drivers do.

In my experience every part of Uber works better than Taxis. They're easier to hail, easier to get to where you want to go, and easier to pay. The taxi industry could and should have done this too, instead thry decided to dig their feet in and demand the government defend their bad service and luddite attitudes. They're already paying for it dearly in SF, which is no better than they deserve.

I really hope you're missing a sarcasm tag there. The primary purpose of the mail system today is to waste resources (paper, ink, fuel, labor, space, etc.). There's a secondary purpose of providing a crutch for those businesses and individuals that haven't 'gone digital' yet, but that becomes less important by the day.

Now of course, parcel mail is still useful, but most of my packages are delivered by OnTrac or directly by Amazon (they're running their own trucks now). Outside CA you're more likely to see FedEx or UPS, but the point remains.

USPS is dependent on junk mail for revenue now, which will be its downfall. The moment there's an opportunity people will gleefully rip down the USPS just to stop receiving junk.

First, it's not a union, it's what the individual employees actually think, and those employees are critical for the company to succeed. Plus, they're not threatening to strike, they're threatening to quit, which could be fatal for Mozilla.

Secondly, while Prop 8 may have passed in California, it's offensive to the Bay Area and Silicon Valley in particular. Santa Clara and San Francisco counties actually sued to overturn it. Even Republicans here aren't suicidal enough to support Prop 8.

Third, how you voted or which party you're registered for is very different from actually financially supporting such an offensive piece of legislation.

It's perfectly acceptable to say you don't want to work for someone who has taken a public political position like this, especially if they backed it up with cash. If it so happens that there are so many like-minded employees willing to do the same that the company is threatened, then it's time to find a different CEO. Though I think Eich could probably resolve this by outright saying he now thinks that Prop 8 was wrong.

In this industry, in this area (I'm an engineer for a tech startup in SF, and I used to line in San Jose) supporting Prop 8 is as far to the right as banning birth control would be in the rest of the country.

I don't know what it's like at Mozilla, but I know the CEO of my company. Everyone knows everyone here. If a Prop 8 supporter suddenly became the CEO of my company, I'd likely turn in my resignation the same day. I really doubt I'd be the only one either.

Whether it's related to his job or not, if people are willing to stop working for Mozilla because of his beliefs, that is related to his job. This isn't some low-level lackey threatened with termination because he voted for the wrong party. This is his subordinates threatening to leave because they don't want to work for him. If enough people are willing to leave, firing him will do less damage.

Mozilla can absolutely fire them, but how much talent are they willing to shed so that this guy can be CEO? In Silicon Valley, a lot of these people can probably walk across the street and get a new job, even if their explicit reason for leaving the last one was that the new CEO supported Prop 8. Mozilla's board has got to be thinking about how much damage could be done before this guy has really even started.