I'm sorry, I read the word sheeples and I stopped reading. You might have had an important and well-defended point to make, but now I'll never read it; that word is too closely associated with snarky teenagers and tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorists for me to take it seriously. It's like trying to use phonies in serious conversation. You may be using it correctly, but you're associating yourself with people who you probably don't want to be associated with.

Just some helpful advice: I'd avoid using it in the future.

I get what your trying to say, but this probably isn't the best way to say it. It's hard to argue something isn't Turing-complete when I can go and download a Turing machine app.

While I'd readily agree that XCode is basically the best thing ever for coding in Objective C, I do take issue with your last comment.

I love working in Emacs, thank you very much. Just because you don't doesn't mean nobody else does. Given that OSX comes with many common Emacs keystrokes automatically enabled, I'm sure I'm not alone.

Yeah, that's my only major complaint with Diaspora so far. I'm a developer that's interested and would love to contribute, but I just do not have enough time to learn a whole new framework. Just installing all the stuff you need to run it takes almost too long for me, although it looks like it's gotten a lot better (smaller) since I looked at it last.

I know people like to hate on Diaspora around here, but this would be an ideal platform for it. Run your diaspora seed for you and a few friends on a wall-wart server. You could even pre-install diaspora, and sell them online for the non-tech-minded. Just unwrap, plug in, and setup through a web browser.

This isn't a new idea, but I think it's a good one (that is, if Diaspora ever takes off...)

Gentoo was probably what taught me how to use Linux properly, because the installation itself is an educational experience. You partition your drives with fdisk, format them with mke2fs (and friends), compile your own kernel, and write your own grub configuration, all with a fairly well-written guide for each step. There's very little magick going on in a Gentoo system, because you write most of the configuration yourself.

After a few installations of Gentoo (and about a year maintaining a Gentoo system) I knew about enough to build my own Linux system.

Your description is good, so I'll attempt to ride your coattails and tack on my own. It's not an original idea, but I think it's a good one.

Anonymous is a Stand Alone Complex, or a group of copycats with no original. Or, a sort of similar thinking (and action) caused by a confluence of similar media and the rapid exchange of ideas (such as over the internet). Particularly (from above link):

Because the technologically-illiterate have come to hear "jailbroken" as meaning "being able to put whatever you want on it", or worse, "being able to put pirated stuff on it", not the original meaning of "removing write protection on the root", or "breaking out of a chroot". Rather like "CPU" became the general term for the big box all the wires plug into.

I was showing off my iPad one day and mentioned it was jailbroken, and suddenly everyone thought I was a software pirate. No, sorry, just wanted to install LaTeX...

I wouldn't be surprised, if this picks up steam, if some products in the future advertise having a "jailbroken mode", even though there was no jail in the first place.

That's a very impressive tech demo there, but I cringe every time this guy says "OpenGL". It's pretty clear he has no idea what OpenGL actually is, because he's constantly acting amazed that OpenGL can do realtime rendering (*gasp*).

Choice quote: "The VBOs have been like pumped up for OpenGL..." (around 4:20)

One small clarification: When I said "A lot of the readers even run a small web server so you can upload your books via web browser, no iTunes required.", I meant that the ebook reader software itself has the web server built in. It's quite user-friendly, and even gives you the web address to enter in to your browser on the iPad's screen. I was very impressed.

While you've made your point on various counts, there are a few things that I'll contest here just because I think they're misleading. Overall, I will not agree that an iPad is a replacement for a laptop, the way techies use laptops. It is, however, a great replacement for a netbook, the way non-techies use a netbook.

Also, I'd assume you jailbreak your iPad. Yes, this means doing something to unlock features you should already have. But jailbreaking makes the iPad much more tech-friendly.

You get used to the on-screen keyboard very quickly, and the same with the touch screen. It's actually quite accurate once your fingers calibrate themselves :D. I would not recommend using emacs via an SSH client, though. I have tried, and it's not fun.

Honestly, I'm curious. When was the last time you've had to use a CD drive? It's been years for me, but maybe you (or I) have some non-standard use patterns.

It's a little-known fact that the USB keyboard adapter is actually just a standard USB host adapter. You're only some hotplug scripts away from USB drive happiness! Not easy, for sure, but not technically impossible.

I was not aware of this... that's quite sad. Subtitles are important! Fortunately all my GitS has pre-baked subtitles so it's easier to figure out how, exactly, the characters are talking to each other, so I've never noticed this before.

I've never needed iTunes to put eBooks on it. The reader I use (which was free at the time, though maybe not now) lets you copy and paste URLs to download, and handles just about anything. For extra points, it includes an "eBook Store" that includes the free Project Gutenberg texts. A lot of the readers even run a small web server so you can upload your books via web browser, no iTunes required.

You underestimate the power of a larger screen, I think. It's way nicer on your eyes, even if you don't notice it immediately. I carry mine in my book bag, instead of carrying all my textbooks -- a good tradeoff, if you ask me.

Basically, yes, it is not a laptop replacement, and it's dumb to even suggest that. However it is quite a bit nicer than most people make it seem.

It's more that kids may never find out they want to do math without calculus.

If I never took calculus, I'd have never learned I love math.

I, for one, hope they continue to teach calculus in schools.

Everything you learn up to calculus is basically arithmetic. With algebra, you get into some more complicated math, but it still seems like just adding and multiplying, which you've been doing for years by then. It's not really very interesting.

But calculus, oh boy. There is some interesting mathematics in there. In fact, I'd say that this is the first exposure students get to "real" math, with analysis rolled in for fun. Not to mention with calculus you get to start solving complicated, interesting problems that are actually useful to solve, like acceleration and velocity calculations, the first introduction of new operators since 1st grade, and the more existential problems like the completeness of reals.

If we drop calculus, all we end up teaching kids about math in schools is the boring stuff, and I fear that's what they'll think. Boring is not what math is about! We need to teach students calculus because it's the first real introduction to the type mathematics you work on as a mathematician.

I liked math before, but after calculus, I loved it. Now I'm working on a physics/math double major, and the physics is looking less and less interesting.

Sure, the source is distributed, but it is inaccessible . There is no way to access files on iOS without jailbreaking it. It would be like if you bought some files from me, and I distributed them as encrypted archives without giving you the password. You expected readable files, but all you got was unusable extra data that contain those files, somewhere.

Even if you ignore the distribution problem, though, anyone who downloads GPL'd apps from the app store is not free to modify and distribute usable binaries. The last part is the important part for GPLv3 software, which was targeted at a similar thing Tivo did a while back (and may still do) to exploit a loophole in the GPLv2.

If I download GPL software, the GPL explicitly gives me rights as a user. I am free to modify and free to distribute. The first one works here; I can download Apple's SDK freely, and modify the source provided (again, ignoring the source distribution problem). I am also free to distribute my modified work so others can use it; This I cannot do on iOS without paying Apple $100 for the privilege, and even then I can only do this as many times as I want by getting AppStore approved (not free, as in freedom), or paying for the enterprise option (significantly not free, as in money).

I would like to know where you got this number (92%), because I suspect it is much lower. I have no proof of this, though, and I'd like to know what the number actually is.

Also, I would like to note that not all GPL'd source is AppStore incompatible, because of one thing. If I write software (from scratch) that I license under the GPL, I'm still free to distribute it however I want (as the copyright owner). So I can put it on the AppStore. However, I couldn't do that if I also pulled in other GPL sources, since I do not own the copyright on all the code anymore and therefore must adhere to their licenses.