In the early days, internet service did not require regulation because there was plenty of competition. The barriers to entry were low; anyone could set up a modem bank and T1 service and start serving dial-up customers. My provider was a local one-man operation, with service just as good as (and cheaper than) the big names.

But with the transition to broadband, the incumbent phone and cable providers gained immense power. Their existing physical infrastructure gave them a largely insurmountable advantage over potential new entrants. This created an effective duopoly, one that still persists today in many markets. In such a situation, the free market cannot function, and government regulation is required to prevent abuses.

Wow, almost the exact opposite of my response. If your post wasn't older, I'd almost think you were trolling me ;)

To wit: If you can't understand the tremendous difference between physical coordination and abstract reasoning/creativity, I feel for ya, but I'm not likely to hire you...

My typing speed maxed out in high school typing class. 15 years of daily programming has done nothing to increase it beyond that level.

There is a wide variability in individuals' ability to type fast; it's one of those things where innate talent really *is* as important as learned skill. But there is no evidence I'm aware that that particular talent is in any way correlated with superior programming ability. It's a matter of physical coordination, which is based in the cerebellum, and has nothing to do with cerebral functioning.

Of course, I consider myself well into the "moderate" range (~50wpm), so maybe I'm not who you're talking about (but then that's Cook's whole point). And I would hope that any serious programmer would take the time to take a typing class, so 2-fingers is indeed a bit suspect. But even now I stumble a bit with the occasional special character (and doubly so when another person is watching). Heck, if I had good coordination, I would would have been an athlete instead! (or a pianist...)

I've been told that this is how it works in at least some European firms. You can take as many sick days as you like, but heaven help you if you aren't at home (or place of treatment) when someone shows up to check on you --and they WILL show up.

The whole point of B&N (or Amazon) releasing their own e-reader is to lock people into buying e-books exclusively from them. I'm wiling to bet that they subsidize the cost of their devices in exchange for the expected profits from this vendor lock-in. If so, then every Nook that isn't used to buy e-books, or that is used to buy e-books from a rival source, represents a net loss for B&N. Allowing the Nook Color to remain rooted would encourage just such alternative uses, which is why I don't expect it to be tolerated.

Currently it's an "X" button that appears to the right of each post when you mouse over it. Click and you'll get options to Hide posts from that user, or from that application if it's an app-generated message (eg. Farmville crud).

I've noticed this myself when watching Netflix streams. I'm only bothered by low picture quality for the first few minutes; once I'm into the story I don't notice it at all. Even crappy "Starz play" is fine after a while. And this is on a 100" projector display.

The Register has an interesting piece on Net Neutrality and Google's co-location deals. El Reg posits that Google is trying to eat its cake and have it too: appearing to be the good-guy by supporting Net Neutrality, while knowing that its own private backbone network and ISP server co-location will give it a de-facto advantage regardless:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/09/neutrality_new_net_hypergiants/

Temperament doesn't change; that is, your basic innate tendency to react one way or another. However, personality is more than just temperament; it also includes emotional scars, life lessons, and the results of concerted effort to control your innate tendencies.

Basically, a naturally timid individual will never become a natural daredevil --though s/he might learn to fake it very well. In fact, sometimes people learn to fake it so well that they even manage to fool themselves, with the truth only revealed once the constant strain of impulse-denial and self-deception finally gets the better of them.

But it's also possible to truly moderate one's responses, given the right life experiences and lots of hard work. It's not a matter of becoming the opposite of what you are, more of learning to rein in your natural responses when possible, and to compensate for what can't be controlled. You may not ever become, say, more extroverted than Mr. Popularity, but you can still make strides toward the middle of the spectrum, sometimes enough to make your old self seem like a completely different person.

Yes, they can throttle you. But people get annoyed when they do that, and some even wind up canceling the service.

Getting the USPS to drop Saturday delivery would be a way for them to reduce DVD volume without getting blamed for it.

Technically they have no need to "import" workers from outside the country, as they already use their rural population for that purpose. There are really two Chinas; the prosperous, urban free market zones, and the desperately poor rural areas. People from the latter realm are treated as second-class citizens at best, and when they go to the cities for work they are treated essentially as if they were foreign migrant workers: not allowed to settle permanently, forced to live in dormitories, etc.

What's not clear to me is whether these minimum-wage reforms apply to those folks, or just to the "native" urban Chinese, some of whom also work in less-than-ideal conditions? If it applies to the rural migrants, then that really would signal a change in the Chinese government's socio-economic policy.

The two main studies highlighted in the article both suffer from a sort of self-selection bias: the people in the "heavy-multitasking" group(s) are there because of a chosen lifestyle. Perhaps the reason they multitask so much in everyday life is *because* they can't filter out information as well as the average person?

They can't help but be constantly distracted, so they suffer the downsides of multitasking whether they use technology or not. Deliberate multitasking might actually represent a coping mechanism for them, saturating their awareness with tasks and information sources that are at least somewhat productive, thus leaving no room for truly random distractions. Or perhaps priding themselves on their "multitasking skills" is just a way to paper over their inherent weakness and re-frame it as a positive attribute?

Nope, instead you just take your one shiny $500 device that scratches easily...

In embedded programming there's still plenty of opportunity for ground-up design. Eg. writing a new driver for custom or unsupported hardware, creating custom applications to do whatever unique thing your widget does, etc.

Yes, you tend to get into framework-hell on the GUI side, and occasionally in other areas as well. But even then I get a sense of pride knowing that I made these things work on a platform they were never designed for.

I had this discussion recently with a restaurant/bar owner, but it applies to any sort of privately-owned business. Simply put, the owners put up the money to start the company, and they ultimately reap the consequences for any mistakes. Therefore, they have the exclusive right to take risks with their company/money.

When you (an employee) take a risk, you're risking someone else's money (specifically, the owners'). So they make rules to prevent employees from taking such risks, and punish those who do. But when they take a risk, they're risking their own money; it's a very different thing from an ethical perspective. Of course, if there are multiple owners then they share the potential loss; but if they all agree about taking that risk, then it amounts to the same thing.