Try the test before reading the article:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qxt2Uo_GuXI

Enterprise Resource Planning - software that's supposed to be the backbone of a company that handles all business processes, invoices, payroll, inventory, operation scheduling, finance etc, but is usually just a pain in the ass that employees have to endure.

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

"Senator Andy Hill is 'the first Senate budget chair ever to request Excel files instead of paper spreadsheets.'"

Please tell me this is a joke. Sure, bash Microsoft and Excel all you want.... But how the hell did they plan the budget before this?

It's a project that students are likely to be involved with and BP is interested in developing people with the skills they require (i.e. subsea engineering).

How exactly does a natural disaster reduce the cost of living?
Or political instability for that matter?

I think most people here are missing the point. I doubt the aim of his research is to develop things that are immediately useful. It is more about understanding the behaviour of complex multi agent systems. A lot of systems around us follow this same model. For example, the economy is just the sum of the actions of many "simple" agents. This research aims to look into exactly that. Really it is amazing that few simple agents without any higher form of control can accomplish anything when their behaviour is based on maybe 2-3 rules.

Surely this goes totally against the main advantage of 3D printing - create a complex shape in CAD and click print - no crafting knowledge/skill necessary! You get accuracy and get to go do other stuff while your creation is being printed.

This just looks like.... hassle.

This is possible in Google Earth, it is a really neat feature. For some areas they have imagery that dates back to the 80s.

For instance, you can check naval bases and see which aircraft carriers have been in at certain times. Or, more mundane, just look at how your neighbourhood/city has expanded/changed over the years.

Not sure where you're getting this from. As an actual Windows Phone user I have tried Nokia Maps, Bing Maps and Google maps. And at least in my local area (central UK) Nokia maps are the worst, followed by Bing. Google maps come out on top.

It will be interesting to see what combination of sensors Toyota is using and how they've incorporated the ungodly looking sets of LIDARs and cameras into the body of the car.

What if I need to, say, rush my wife or kid to the hospital and I happen to not give a shit of the "check engine" light is on or one of the brake lights does not function?

What are these "books" you speak of?

This will make 2012 the year of the linux desktop for sure!