There's some Flash content I still want to view. But I want to look at content, not fight to focus my attention away from screaming, flashing, pulsing, squirming ads on every side. If you want me to run your program, make it worth my while. Especially when the platform on which you want me to run it might let it infect my machine.

Static ads are still fine. I don't much care if you track me and focus them. I'll even click through them occasionally. But I won't let you run down my battery and my brain with animations. I don't care if your marketing macaques say they get more clicks. I've made my choice. I'll never see them.

Because the majority said so.

LOL.

Ting: $6/month/device. All minutes/messages/data are shared buckets, although you can set caps for each device individually. They still have charge by thresholds, not per-minute/message/meg, unless your usage is really huge, but the only way you'll spend more money with them is if you're a data pig.

We've got five phones with them. Two are pretty much backup/emergency units, and sometimes have no usage at all in a month. One is for a child, and has cellular data turned off. The highest monthly bill we've ever had, for FIVE PHONES, is less than US$75 -- and that's with taxes. Usually, it's closer to $60. If you think the biggies will sell us a plan anywhere near that, well, I'm all ears.

I'm expecting Google will come in at comparable price points, maybe lower, and crush everyone with their marketing muscle. I kind of hope I'm wrong; I like it that we're getting some actual diversity in available offers, and I'd rather not replace that with yet another monolith.

If they want to let people bring their existing phones, supporting both networks greatly increases their audience. It can also make a big difference in coverage if you can roam across to one of the big networks.

This seems like particularly alarming news for Ting, which currently runs over Sprint's network, and is apparently getting ready to add T-Mobile.

Only in the book they were using neutrinos, I think. Lotsa luck with that...

Freedom isn't free!

No, no, you're falling into the old fallacy of confusing "information" and "data".

That's very, very cool. How long are exposures? Are these devices effectively counting photons at each pixel?

I'm still waiting for that sensor that reports timestamp, energy, angle of incidence, and x/y coordinates for each photon that hits it. THEN the fun can start.

I'd guess the real step forward is workflow. The array can view twelve targets at once, with no dependencies (except they all have to be visible from the site). It can presumably shift from target to target pretty quickly, so I guess they'd sample many objects per telescope per night -- after all, transits happen with a timescale on the order of hours (possibly minutes in extreme cases), not seconds.

The big deal, though, seems like the relatively high-resolution brightness measurements (one part per thousand is pretty darn good), and long-term logging and correlation.

I hope someone more informed than me will chime in...

Yeah, I'd love to try this -- I'd be happy to spring for a Note 4 and the mount. But I'm one of the poor unfortunates who's highly susceptible to VR sickness. Not full-blown cookie-tossing, but twenty minutes in a CAVE or other immersive environment is enough to leave me feeling crappy for the rest of the day.

I'm hoping super-low latency, high frame rates and short persistence will produce something I can use without getting sick, but I don't think it's right around the corner. A shame, too; I've been wanting VR for decades.

Yeah, cancer sucks. I just lost a very good friend to it, way too young.

But facing cancer after 120+ years of healthy, happy life, instead of dying from heart disease or arthritis-enforced inactivity or dementia at 85 or 90? I'd sign up for that in the blink of an eye.

Actually, I'm surprised that the algorithm doesn't outperform spouses as well.

Do any of your friends tirelessly catalog, index, analyze and correlate every chuckle or offhand comment you make within their earshot? Do you continue to talk freely in front of them, knowing they're doing it? If so, they can probably outperform this algorithm.

The real fun will come from correlating the physiological signals coming in from fitness bands, eye-trackers, and eventually EEG pickups. Your soul will be laid barer than lunar regolith.

The anaerobes have written a letter about that new-fangled "photosynthesis" mutation.

What are you complaining about? For your laptop battery to last 200 miles, you only have to be averaging 50 mph.

I'm with you on the printing press. Kosher food rules are too close to halal food rules, though. If I'd been writing it, the lone loser would've landed in a (pork) barbecue pit, or sprawled under the spilled contents of an overturned hot-dog cart.