Seems to me that if you modify the law to split the loss by default, both parties will be very well motivated to ensure that security procedures are properly followed. Follow-on litigation can take care of additional liability on either side for unreasonable conduct or procedures.

Allowing banks to write a contract that says they aren't liable doesn't make sense, but neither does providing blanket protection for business.

Agreed. Flips a switch, thinks he's a fucking hero.

Go build something like Google's distributed computation grid world-wide, "hero".

You know -- that thing you (hilariously) think you are like.

It was built by old dogs who are infinitely smarter and better than you will ever be.

And that makes me happy.

Social security cards are required for non-citizens with work authorizations from the INS. They do indicate that they are valid only with INS authorization, on the face.

Sounds like he's headed to spend the next five years as a pediatrician resident. What strikes me is this: After all the acceleration, does he end up simple having a professional career that's ten years longer than normal? Without some exceptional accomplishments along the way, it might not have been the best trade-off.

Goes right along with my vote for the best job title -- "Principal Thermal Engineer".

Any idea how many actual terrorists have actually been discovered by TSA personnel doing security inspections? Seems to me that the most likely answer is zero. You can then make the argument that the increased security procedures have scared off potential terrorists, I suppose.

There just doesn't seem to be any limit to how far ball-free politicians will go to make air travel appear to be "safer", while at the same time completely ignoring other modes of transportation that are equally dangerous (and equally pointless to monitor).

Seems to me that the main weakness in the system was the lack of lockable cockpit doors. That has been corrected.

Completely agree. I mean, what's more likely? Hotmail was hacked, or this guy's password was compromised? In addition to a third party web-site any device he used could have had a logger.

Not sure if hotmail offers two-factor id like gmail...

I guess the summary of his story is that he blames hotmail for his bad, multi-use, compromised password.

Nice prior art. I poked around and found http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/bpia2314.pdf, which describes pen-based gestures including drag-and-drop. I'm sure there are many more. The conceptual distance between pen and single-touch is very small.

If that analogy were accurate, it might be. It isn't.

Mobile carriers know how price sensitive their customers are. So what they're doing is changing the product itself. They're still calling it a data plan, but they're putting arbitrary limits on data transfers, in the name of network stability. What they're really after is the ability to wedge themselves into the value chain, between (say) you and Netflix.

It's like you buy gas at $3.00 a gallon. Just as you're signing the bill, the attendant says -- hey, hey, wait...where are you GOING with that gas? you reply you're heading across town. the attendant then tells you that you owe an extra $3 if you're driving there.

It's mildly hilarious that your "libertarian" posting starts with a stack of regulations and rules. What happened to laissez faire?

Funny thing is, of course I googled your name prior to writing the post. Didn't see anything on par with, say, Bret Victor, a pretty-famous-in-smart-circles kinda guy. But of course I may be overlooking something obvious.

Thing is, I agree with what you have to say, most of the time. You're wrong on this one, though. Nobody wants to binary-search their way through an edit-compile-run cycle to find generative structures or constant values. If you look at some of his other work, he's really trying to show how direct manipulation is the "right thing to do" for many user situations, even with complex contexts.

Interactive, direct-manipulation documents and graphics are his specialty (or his current interest). Like Our Choice.

Ever wonder why annual reports always lump together "Marketing and Research"? Yep. So do I.

While you're the sitting thinking that you're the only real programmer in the world, you're really just embarrassing yourself. "Actual programming" works at many levels of abstraction. Again, you might want to do a few google searches before making yourself look like such an idiot.

Have a look at http://worrydream.com/#!/Alesis before you go too much further. Yeah, he understands low-level programming, and all the other shit you're talking about. Most of us do.

The point is, these kinds of interactions can help quickly solve a certain class of programming problem. Not all; just some.

It gets even funnier if you misread "It is not certain why the crash happened, since the cottage hasn't been used all winter".

It's the only rational explanation.