Found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_Angels_(science_fiction_novel) Looks like the right one.

I'm guessing that whatever Rift drive code Carmack writes will find itself embedded into iDTechn+1, meaning that any game that leverages that version of iDTech will automatically work like a champ with the Rift. VR at no added cost. Game developers might actually be drawn to this, especially with Carmack's track record. Now if the doodz behind the Unreal Engine throw their .02 in too, that would seal it.

Internet ALL the things!

It's turtles, I mean investigations, all the way down. Unless it was an external non-related investigating body doing the work, I sincerely doubt the veracity of their conclusions. You'd think the most scientifically advanced (okay, arguably) place of higher learning in the world would have tried to remove any perception of bias on the part of the investigating body. Hire an outside firm at the very least.

I know when my Netflix stuff starts throttling (not saying it's intentional by my cable co) I just sit and watch slightly more pixelated versions of whatever I was watching at the time. My last reaction is "Dammit, gotta get my ass off the couch, pants on, get in car, drive to Redbox, get disc, watch disc, remember to go back to Redbox and return disc because that's a lot less hassle."

Now they just need a decent product to sell in that store-within-a-store.

New York CITY?! ... Get a rope.

But... Like... That's not NEARLY as sensational sounding. In fact, it seems goddamn downright reasonable and logical. That's not how I like my news!

*moon. I suck.

During a press conference surrounding the annoucement, Branson confirmed a name for the proposed space station has not been put forward, though he clarified "Nobody will mistake it for a mood, and please, call me Darth."

I wonder if you work for Virgin if they give you discounts? You know, like the airlines do with normal flights? That would be a hell of an incentive and may just gather the greatest nerdforce in history.

When I see things like these, especially with grandkids as the spokespeople, it just makes me think it's a cash grab. It's not due to any "inspirational" mojo behind hanging it up somewhere. If that were the case, they should just donate it outright, and maybe have people pay a couple bucks a gander, and toss that to the Francis Crick Institute. Not "a portion" of the proceeds, which could be $10 on a potential windfall.

I CAN'T GET TO LOLGOATS!

Wow - in my position (US based consultant) we are the ones who have to take 11 PM - 1 AM status calls twice a week. We're the ones who have no accomodation from the Indian side because everyone needs to leave precisely at 5:33 PM IST to catch their bus to go home. We're the ones who have to lead changes during maintenance windows (overnight) because there are no suitable offshore counterparts who can execute on a playbook. In a separate comment I mentioned that the rockstars offshore quickly move on, so when we do find a great resource they're often not around for long, leaving us to dip back in the pool of talent. If India is going to accept its new worldwide role of being the frontline tech sector frontrunner, it should probably start moving away from the "assimilation" type of education it's traditionally been doing and move more towards a more western "application of concepts" approach that you mentioned. There should be no reason at all someone, whether they be an onshore new hire or an offshore new hire, in a tech role at a really large IT company, should stop everything they're doing when confronted with a "Click Finish to Complete Installation" dialog box with an "OK" and "Cancel" button on it just because it wasn't detailed in the install doc. Click OK! Spread those wings and fly, baby bird! Learn on your own! Maybe I'm the weird one who would like it more if someone said "I tried X, Y, and Z. They didn't work. Ideas?" as opposed to "I ran into this at 12 PM my time, tried nothing, and now it's 18 hours later and you have finally told me to click OK. Until I run into another dialog box that says "You sure?" with another OK button and we waste a complete day back and forth again."

I'd love to see an objective measurement of IBM's quality of service from 2002 to now, mapped against the shift to a majorly offshore work model. I work for a subsidy of a very large consulting competitor of IBM's, and are witnessing the same phenomenon - more and more offshore workers tacked on to project teams that just drag everything down. The more offshore we're shackled with (and I really mean that - we're given no choice by service line leadership) the worse we are able to deliver on our projects. The biggest issue for me is that once we've been able to identify the offshore rockstars - the fabled guys you can actually work well with, trust, and receive good quality work product from, they either get instapromoted to management or realize they can get more than just the 17k/year salary or whatever it is they're getting and GTFO. Either way you don't get to work with them for long. Then you get whoever's free in the pool when you're building a project team - no calling "dibs" on the right guys for the job. Quite often you just get a warm body who isn't familiar with the tech you're working with, the processes of project delivery, or will refuse to perform any work unless you have mapped it out to the click.