7 years? Yeah, it'll be around. It may not be the same /. as it is today, but this is hardly the same place it was 7 years ago either. That's not necessarily a bad thing; evolve or die.

It's also interesting to me since I IMDB'd her birthday that she's one day older than my girlfriend :)

Honestly, I know it's probably an unpopular opinion around here because it's fun to hate on Microsoft... but having now owned a first-gen Surface Pro for about 2 months I have to say that it's the best tablet I've ever owned. I picked it up on the clearance when the Gen 2 was released because despite some misgivings I really did appreciate the concept.

It's not a great laptop, and it's a rather bulky and heavy tablet but the ability to have a REAL computer that I can carry around easily is incredibly valuable to me. That and being able to use WiFi on planes any more means that I can be in touch and even work in a coach seat while flying across the country. Given I've just completed business trip #4 for the year so far this has become very useful to me.

Despite its limitations, it has surprisingly managed to supplant any number of laptops or tablets I have had at home for just about everything except for very niche uses. It's really fast for just basic web surfing when kicked back on the couch, the stylus is awesome for writing a few hand-written notes in OneNote and having my Type keyboard close at hand means I can plop down on my dining room table and do everything from write a quick email to fire up MobaXterm and get some real work done on the Linux systems I have at home and at my virtual hosting service. As a general-purpose computer it has become a better form factor and a better system than anything else I have at home. My iPad is gathering dust in a drawer due to lack of really good productivity apps or SSH apps, my Macbook Pro sits around mostly waiting for me to feel like firing up a game on Steam or to work in my image library (the big hard drive helps, here!) and my Linux laptop is... well... mostly gathering dust next to the iPad. I have a smattering of Android tablets including a Nexus 7 that I haven't charged in months.

I know this is anecdotal and the Surface Pro isn't really for everyone. For my needs though it's absolutely perfect. Since I moved to a smaller home a year ago (by choice, a condo) I no longer have a study or even a desk so a desktop PC is out and a laptop has to be used on my dining room table or (uncomfortably) on the couch. My Surface Pro I can hold like a tablet if I see fit or plonk down on the table at a moment's notice. This works for me, and as well as the aforementioned coach seat it's also awesome when I travel so I can bring it to breakfast at hotels with me and check email/Slashdot/etc. while I eat and drink coffee.

And a quick snippet of advice for anyone with a 1G Surface Pro... if you want to significantly increase your battery life you can set the maximum CPU on battery to ~60% in the power management settings, then you get at least 30-40% more battery life with no noticeable decrease in performance unless you're doing something really heavy duty. Since I mostly just do web surfing and email on battery and more intensive stuff (like work) on the power adapter this works really well.

Oh and we have looked at other tablet/convertible type laptops at work recently and are probably going to standardize on the Lenovo Yoga as our corporate standard. However, in terms of sheer build quality I still feel my Surface Pro has the Yoga beat hands down.

Good for you... but truth is you're probably an exception.

Not everyone can code; it requires a very specific mindset and very specific way of thinking to effectively code. It also requires a desire to code. Being a carpenter probably actually set you up much better to be a programmer than you think; it's all geometry and understanding load. I know because my best friend happens to be a carpenter. A coal miner... well I'll be honest I don't know what skill set is required for that but I'd wager that it falls into the realm of unskilled labor, whereas carpenter is definitely skilled labor. There's a difference.

Now on my second point; desire to code. I'm really good at coding. I learned at an early age, self-taught and was writing assembly language stuff in my teens while my class at school was struggling with Pascal. I wrote tight, well-written code that I shared with friends and took code they shared with me and together we built great stuff including a game... which granted didn't do well but it was a hell of an accomplishment for four teenage boys with no Internet and communicating mostly through the phone and by mailing floppy disks. But when I was in my 20's I realized suddenly that I didn't like coding. I still don't. While the feeling of accomplishment was great when something worked, there was a degree of slog in getting there. After a fashion I made the realization that hardware was where I found the most interest, not software. So I pursued work as a hardware engineer in embedded systems.

Now at 40 I have settled into being a (well, actually THE) storage administrator and systems engineer for a multinational company... because it interests me. The skillset is extremely specialized, but used in a lot of companies and so therefore isn't going to leave me without a job anytime soon. The risks are high because if I screw up I potentially affect a lot of people, but the rewards are also pretty damned good. The closest I've gotten to coding in the last 20 years has been writing scripts to make my job easier. I do it quite a bit, and while it's similar to coding it's far more focused on immediate needs. I still build great "code" but it's an adjunct to my day job, not my entire day job. I think if I were to code for a living I would've quit long ago to pursue something more enlightening. But that's just me.

Also be aware that there are people who have no desire to learn. I've dealt with them many times too. They settle into unskilled labor not because their brains can't handle the information but because they choose not to. And add to that whether you like it or not as one gets older it becomes far harder to learn a new skill. Add all these factors up and yes... Bloomberg is probably right on this one. He's an ass, and quite often wrong... but on this one I have to give him credit.

Thing is; it's valid. There are cars that have been built in my lifetime (I'm 41) for which you have to buy new wheels if you want to put tires on them because the tire sizes, materials and rim requirements have changed so much. Yeah, I happen to also hang around with a lot of car guys because a lot of them are fun... it's interesting how much of the parts we take for granted to repair our cars now have to be worked around or even fabricated for cars built as late as the mid 80's.

Accelerating?

There's almost zero indication of the size of the rock in question. The background is clouds and there's no absolute way to tell how close that rock is to the camera lens. Could be 20 feet, could be 2 inches.

I'll side with you a bit. I do technical remote support for a couple of small companies near me. While I have actually paid for the paid version of TeamViewer for supporting their PC's, I do use SSH -L when I'm doing server-side work more often than not. I don't like putting remote access solutions onto my servers, and having an SSH connection available is really handy... though not on port 22! :)

Honestly, your solution is just fine for the technical... and if you're a little lazy there's nothing stopping you from creating a set of shell scripts for frequent connections. I do this all the time.

Of course, the advantage of a solution like LogMeIn or TeamViewer is simply that you don't need static IP's for it... or even for RDP to be turned on (it isn't at most of the companies I do business with except for servers).

Welcome to the future :)

Yeah, I've been running TeamViewer for a while. I have my two home servers (one Linux, one Windows) and my two personal laptops (Linux and a Mac) connected to my account. While I'm at work it's sometimes really handy to dial into any one of these and do some stuff (use Windows at work)... particularly when doing online banking or stuff like that.

The only gotcha I've found is versioning; quite often with the Linux client when they update the Windows client the backward compatibility with the Linux client isn't terribly good. It usually works fine for one major version back on Mac, but when they update the major version number you probably need to upgrade your Linux clients first. It's a minor maintenance issue in my opinion, and I just add it to my workflow when I do system updates on the Linux boxes to check for a new version of TeamViewer.

Even free, it's really handy for helping out with technical problems for friends and relatives, too. Just two weeks ago my son had a problem with his laptop and I was able to connect in while I was out of town in Denver and fix his problems. Even if they don't have TeamViewer installed there's a standalone executable version that you can talk someone through downloading through an emailed link or even on the phone. Now obviously if they are having network or Internet problems that's not going to work... but neither is any other solution short of an on-site visit.

As many have already pointed out, it's irrelevant. Different tools do different jobs better, and that's just the way it's always been. I find managing my email in a GUI a hell of a lot easier than a command line for example, but when it comes to managing the Brocade switches at work (I'm at least partly a storage admin) it's a hell of a lot quicker for me to SSH in and type a few commands. Of course, it doesn't help that the Brocade GUI is probably one of the worst out there but my point still stands. Managing the SANs I manage is actually easier with a well designed GUI (primarily Compellent at the moment) because I don't have to use my own brain-cycles to visualize it; I can see it on the screen. But yes, if I'm doing bulk stuff then dropping to a command line is key. Similarly, I also manage vSphere... for day to day management the GUI is pretty good but when doing a lot of repetitive stuff I use PowerCLI which is VMware's PowerShell extensions... they work fantastically well and make me look like a hero.

Now having said that I do see the point of the article a little. My personal feeling is that as a parent it falls to me to make sure my son is familiar with the command line and sees the value in it as well as the GUI. I decided to put my money where my mouth is and bought him a Fuze for Christmas. I was concerned he would hate it because he is used to having a Windows-based laptop and is well familiar with the GUI tools there. But he has really taken to it, learning BASIC programming and fiddling with the command line with a few things I've taught him. In fact this morning I was having a hard time getting out the door and heading to work because he wanted to show off the program he'd written to flash a set of LED's in the breadboard in sequence. I was incredibly proud of him for it and wanted to show my enthusiasm. I was late for work and didn't care.

Honestly the way I see it; my 13 year old boy if he continues on this path will be programming and working with the hardware that goes into satellites, space probes and the like where a BSOD cannot be tolerated. He will have work for life because there will be even more need for the microcontroller programmers in the electronic, wearable and increasingly digital world he will grow up in. Meanwhile his peers will compete to administer Windows computers and maybe write apps for the iPhone 26... and may even struggle to make ends meet as they convince themselves that their app will make them a billionaire. So long as my son continues what he's doing and learning even as I write this, he'll find himself comfortable and in-demand until he retires. Just like his old man (hopefully!)

Despite my working as an administrator of systems, I have a background in programming. The command line taught me how to pipe, how to use variables and so on. I write a surprising number of scripts in a number of languages because they make my job easier and make me look like a hero. I find myself occasionally competing with new kids coming into the workplace with their "Mad GUI Skillz" and their macros. If they go toe-to-toe with me they can rarely compete. The ones who know command line stuff and scripting we tend to keep... the ones who don't, tend not to last.

Glance on my Pebble Smartwatch does this. I think a smartwatch is a much better place for a true "panic button". I mean, in a truly difficult situation you're going to have problems entering a passcode or pattern if you have your device locked... which you should, by the way.

In Glance there's a function that allows me to set a button long press to send an emergency text to the contact of my choice including my longitude and latitude (obviously only as precise as the smartphone itself can manage). Quite a nice feature in my opinion. And it's a lot easier to do a long press on a button on your wrist than fish your phone out of your pocket or purse, enter a passcode, find and launch an app and hit a button on the screen.

A physical panic button is the best solution. If you're in dire need (heart attack, accident etc) then you may not be in a position to use the app on the phone. The old "really dumb phones" like the Firefly had it right.

I don't mind soldered-in RAM so much... but only 4GB of it? Ouch.

Even as an Asimov fan, I liked the movie. It stayed true particularly to later Asimov books that delved into the fundamental flaws of the "Three Laws" and how interpretation would win out with a sufficiently intelligent machine.

No, it wasn't I, Robot... but it was a decently good science fiction romp that I rather enjoyed. I could've done without the ridiculous product placement, but it also didn't really detract from the story to me... just gave me a few eye-rolling moments.

Circuses have CLOWNS, man!!! Of course they're fear!

I'm not quite sure where you're getting the impression that you need to take off and land from an airport in the USA. While I've never done it I have seen a helicopter land and take off from the parking lot of a business here in St. Louis on more than one occasion. With an appropriately equipped plane you can also take off and land in fields without anyone batting an eyelid... so long as you have the permission of the land owner or own the land yourself.

Can you cite a FAR that shows that you can't fly from anywhere but an airport?

My experience says that if it's an Jaguar, pretty much all of it.