Sad? Perhaps. But it certainly is not the OP's fault any more than it is mine or yours. It's part of living in our modern, western civilization.

Thousands of people will die today and odds are I will not know any of them. What is the difference whether or not we have passed near each other at some point or even exchanged pleasantries over the years?

The OP never said that they were glad every one of them died or even that these people weren't important. Only, that they would not notice their absence. Just because you would recognize someone if you saw them again doesn't mean that you would notice if you didn't.

If the person who picked the tomato you have with your lunch today or sewed you slacks dies today, would you know? These people are feeding and clothing you after all, but you won't notice because you never knew them. Is it sad that they are gone? Sure, but what can your reaction be when you are not even aware of it. At the end of the day there are still tomatoes, there are still slacks, and there are still people on the sidewalk that you don't know.

Does the IOC maintain a list of the "Official ____ of the Olympics" products?

I want to be on the winning team and buy all of the products that our fine athletes will be pimping non-stop between now and the next Olympics.

Specifically, I need to know which companies they have chosen for the "official" toilet paper, ball-point pen, aerosol cheese product and galvanized roofing nails.

TIA!

Depending on how you look at it they either made too little or too many to ruin their reputation amongst some consumers.

Interesting little story. I bought my dad a point-and-shoot camera for Christmas this year. He has a Canon DSLR but doesn't want to haul that around everywhere and was looking for something very small but with good picture quality. I got him a Sony Cyber-Shot camera because A) it got good reviews and B) I got a great deal on it.

So, on Christmas morning when he opens it up the first thing he does is looks at me, grimaces, and asks, "Does this camera take those memory-stick things?" I said no, it works with common SD media. After hearing that he was happy/relieved. It is a nice camera despite the name "Sony" on it.

So, my father, a relative Luddite compared to most of us here, knew enough about Sony to know that memory stick = overpriced, hard-to-find, proprietary equipment. That is how bad Sony f'd up. My dad was consciously avoiding Sony products because he figured they all (still) used memory sticks. Who knows how many others out there have similar beliefs -- and share them with others?

Yup. I didn't even know Nest existed until it appeared on Slashdot a few months back in regards to this lawsuit.

I now own one.

Now, anything the Nest can do other thermostats can do arguably better and certainly cheaper but they cannot do it with as much style. So we're definitely in Apple territory here. But when I buy any Honeywell thermostat it feels like a static, WYSIWYG device (well, because usually it is). The Nest feels more like a dynamic, evolving machine. They just released a new update the other day which added a few new (mostly useful) features. I like that, it's like someone else said in a blog post the other day, "I never thought I'd be getting excited about a firmware update for my thermostat!"

I can't really justify the purchase however, other than the fact that I like gadgets and I don't mind being a guinea pig.

I think there are plenty of interesting jobs out there, it's just that finding the boring ones are so much easier. I live in a midwestern town of less than 150K people. I've worked here for 17 years (2 different jobs) both doing embedded work, both small companies. There are also a few large engineering firms in the area, almost everyone goes to work for them because they are always hiring (and firing).

Most people (especially newbies) that work for the large firms end up mainly doing (my idea of) grunt work: testing, database coding and documentation. With my employers everyone codes. And, in the embedded world, code is (almost) always interesting IMHO. And there are sooo many places that need embedded developers. Any manufacturer of any electronic device needs embedded developers -- and we are surrounded by electronic devices. Yes, most of that stuff is not made in America, but enough still is that it provides plenty of jobs even here in the states. Also, embedded code now-a-days is pretty much the same as coding for the desktop. It's not like you'll being doing everything in assembly. Most use Linux or a Windows variant (CE, XP embedded, etc).

I guess my point is: Don't just apply to the big engineering/computer firms that everyone applies to. Look around in the nooks and crannies for software jobs. You'll have better odds of having much more job security, flexibility and satisfaction. And, the big firms are always your safety net if you can't find a job somewhere interesting.

It's a double-edged sword. Someone skimmed my credit card several months ago and my number went on a shopping spree at some retailers in my area. The merchants visited all had self-service terminals so the card would never have to be handed to the merchant. This way the criminal can just take a random card, reprogram it and not even bother with making sure that the name, bank, card number, etc. actually reflect what's on the stripe. Yes, having your average sales person look at a card doesn't guarantee they'll notice it's a fake but It definitely makes the criminal's life easier when it's not even part of the equation.

I will never hand a debit card (tied to my checking/savings account) to any human. I even avoid using it at self-service terminals. I use it at my bank and at my bank's ATMs and only after I've done my best to check for any 3rd party contraption attached to the ATM's card reader. While the credit card fraud has been rather painless for me, I rather not find out how long it will take to get my cash back after someone wipes out my checking account.

The American credit card system needs a serious security overhaul. The amount of money lost to fraud each year is staggering.

I usually drive with one (left) hand (in America). Up until my current car I've always driven manual transmission vehicles. If it is comfortable I'll rest my elbow on the door and usually hold the wheel between 7 and 9. My current car is has no good place to rest my elbow, so I lock my arm straight out and hold the wheel at about the 10 position.

Whether you drive with one hand or two. When you are about to get into an accident you will most likely be using two hands. I've had the airbags deploy in my vehicle after running over a deer at 75 mph (it came out from in front of a car I was passing on the left and fell down in the road -- I was in a 1995 Ford Probe -- same as a Mazda 626). So I knew I was going to have an accident and I grabbed the wheel with both hands which is what most people instinctively would do -- I can't remember my hand positions at that moment.

The airbags deployed and shattered my windshield (plastic dash airbag cover on the passenger side) and rear-view mirror (driver airbag). My brother (the passenger) claims he was hit in the side of the face by the airbag. I don't remember feeling or seeing the airbags -- though I do sit pretty far back from the steering wheel. Regardless, my arms/face/etc felt fine afterwards.

Right after the impact I was kind of in shock. It was night, the windshield was shattered, the cabin was full of dust from the airbags deploying, lights were blinking on the dash, a deer was tangled up in my front driver side wheel so I couldn't really steer and I was still going 55+ mph. I just kept the wheel straight and let the vehicle come to a stop. The airbags definitely did not help in that accident. They just made controlling the vehicle harder and damn near tripled the repair bill.

...and the ability to pause a flick when someone has something to say is priceless...

Agreed. I set up my media player so that when I hit the pause button the screen displays the text "Let the beatings commence!" Plus, my remote is custom, made from the guts of a Logitech Harmony One and a baseball bat.

The popularization of curated computing ... And that's all Apple's fault

Except that curated computing is exactly what game console manufacturers have been doing for the last 30+ years. This "popularization" hasn't had any negative impacts on any of my other computing platforms.

Apple is now abusing patents worse than IBM or MS ever did

I'd say that's pretty arguable. Even if it is true -- why get mad at Apple? Get mad at our joke of a patent system. Get mad at the lawyers. Get mad at our legislators. Get mad at yourself. Apple is just playing by the rules that you and I enabled by voting greedy, short-sighted morons into office.

... currently the #1 employer of ethically questionable labor.

Hmm, would like to see a source for that. Those titles are usually held by garment manufacturers and mining operations. Still, not good company to be in, eh?

The way I see it if you hated MS in the 90's you should sure as hell hate Apple now.

Fair enough. Though, personally, I was much more worried about Microsoft litigating Linux out of existence than I am about Apple getting an injunction to bar the sale of some random Samsung tablet with round corners in Lithuania.

Exactly. We use it to exert our will over every other nation on earth and then we punish them with sanctions and war if they violate any of the resolutions. When other nations try to use the U.N. to exert their influence over us or hold us to prior agreements, we just ignore them with virtually no consequences. It's a pretty sweet deal.

Thanks, that's good to know. It is interesting that UV protection has not been in there since day one (although, I imagine cataract surgery has been around for quite a while). It seems like common sense to me that if UV damages your skin that it probably isn't good for your retina either. Perhaps it was not technologically feasible at the time?

Regardless, hopefully I never need any IOLs in the first place. I was looking at a blue light product to help correct my circadian rhythm (maybe it's all snake oil, I don't know) and that's where I came across this issue with blue (high intensity) light. I'm afraid to try one of the devices out now. To me it's not worth even a 1% chance of additional eye damage just so I would (possibly) have a bit more energy in the afternoons. I guess it's something I'll talk to my eye doctor about during my next appointment.

UV light and even blue light are damaging to the retina and UV light is a major contributor to cataract formation. The replacement lens you get after surgery may not block UV light at all (currently some replacement lenses do offer UV & blue light protection).

Cataract surgery patients are advised to avoid blue light therapy products and, obviously, direct sources of UV radiation. Of course, protecting your eyes from UV radiation is generally a good idea for everyone.

As someone who has a has a Grandfather with AMD (age-related macular degeneration) and I myself have, according to a genetic test, factors that make it more likely that I too will experience AMD, I try to protect my eyes as much as possible from both UV and blue light.

Looking at a TV in the average person's living room is akin to looking at a small to moderately sized window from a distance of 8 feet. The 3D effects are limited to that relatively tiny area of the room. You can't really have something "come right at you" unless it comes straight on, and even then it ends up "hitting" the box formed by the bezel on your TV. Unless you sit 1 foot from the screen I don't see how this will ever be a truly amazing experience.

That's a perk of watching a 3D movie in a theater since that screen takes up so much more of your field of vision. An IMAX screen is even better. But the ultimate is a headset with dedicated right and left high-resolution screens surrounding each eye. Yes, the headset concept is fairly antisocial but I'm the type that doesn't consider movie watching to be an inherently social event in the first place -- I've never understood the whole dinner and a movie date thing. The dinner part, yes. The sitting next to each other in the dark without talking watching a long A/V sequence part, not so much. But I digress..

Yeah, these headsets are nothing new but they've never really been pushed hard at a consumer level. Sony is dabbling in the consumer market with their "Personal 3D Viewer" but it runs around $800 (US). It will be interesting to see if they manage to have any sort of impact with that product.

Why in God's name would people shop like this at a bookstore? I mean, I can kind of understand shopping like this for furniture or appliances where you want to get a better idea of the size or quality of a product that maybe could not be gleaned from pictures. But books?? What is the advantage of browsing for books at a store (and then buying online) when you can browse online, still preview the item (albeit in a more limited fashion) and then order it from your recliner. I guess people must really like the coffee or leering at the other customers.

My problem with book stores is half the time I go look for a book they don't have it in stock anyway (granted it's usually technical stuff). "Sorry sir, we don't have that in stock but we can order it for you." Seriously, I appreciate the help, but do I look like I'm 75? (answer: no) We came to the store because we wanted it now, otherwise I would have saved myself the hassle and ordered it myself.

me: *dials ISP*
isp: Hello, blah blah blah, may I have your account number?
me: Yeah, blah blah blah
isp: How can we help you today Mr. Blah?
me: Well, I've got a bit of an emergency here, I need you to look through my web usage history and tell me what site I was on yesterday at 11:47 PM.
isp: I'm sorry Mr. Blah, I don't...
me: See, I'm not at my computer right now, I'm on the bus surfing from my phone and I'm trying to remember who the fine ass b*tch was that I was jerking it to last night.
isp: ...
me: I know it was around a quarter till midnight because the rebroadcast of Charlie Rose was on the TV in the room and couldn't masturbate with Charlie Rose in my field of vision, so I had to turn the TV off.
isp: ...
isp: I'm sorry Mr. Blah but we do not have access to that information. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
me: Well, I was really hoping to get that URL before my stop which is about 5 minutes away. But, while I've got you on the line, you know, uh, I don't know if anyone has ever told you this, but you've got a really pretty voice..