New York City was one of their biggest Achilles heel after they released the iPhone. A city with millions of people and a network nowhere NEAR able to cope with it. Pretty much everyone I know in NY who had an iPhone basically said it was unusable if you were not at a WiFi hot spot.

It is conspicuous that they have chosen not to roll out to such a large market in the first wave (which Verizon did). I guess they really don't want to get another black eye like they did with the iPhone roll out.

On the other hand, with things like software and business model patents, this is disastrous.

1. Some open source developer creates some cool piece of software, algorithm, or whatever.
2. Big Company (tm) see's this and decides it's cool, and files patent.
3. Big Company (tm) sues open source guy (and any other competitors it feels like) over said patent.
4. Open source developer who invented the cool software/algorithm/etc. is forced to abandon his/her own code because or fight in court - probably signing the rights over to Big Company (tm) to avoid being sued (just the cost of defending against a suit is big enough to make most people give up, even with smaller damages).
5. Profit for Big Company (tm) as they re-brand open source developer's code in their own name.

The cost and effort of filing for patents means that a lot of open source developers, and small businesses just won't do it. First to File combined with software patents has the potential to be a nuclear device in the software world - where only the bigger players are protected (by having large patent portfolios that they can use against each other) - the smaller fish are now no longer protected by being able to prove they actually invented their own code first - because they just didn't have the resources to file a patent on it.

Sure, First to File is easier for the patent administration office - but this is one case where 'well everyone ELSE is doing it that way' is not a good excuse for changing the law. There are some things (for example health care) where the US can and should take a page from other country's books (socialized medicine is really not a bad thing - and no, it won't create a nanny state, but your health should be a fundamental right, just like your freedom of speech). The first-to-invent part of patent law is something where the US got it right and the rest of the world didn't, they took the easy route - but not necessarily the better one.

So I say, keep 'prior art' or get rid of software & business model patents (which should never have been allowed in the first place). Losing the former without ditching the latter doesn't bring the US in line with the rest of the world anyway (very few places in the world allow software patents) and the combination is disastrous.

1 Metric Fuckton = 1 Imperial Fuckload.

That said, it is somewhat true. The first world status of Australia means the communications in general (including TV news and such) and disaster warning systems are much more advanced. And more of the population is able to get up-to-date information very quickly and thus warnings can actually have an impact. Population density does play a part, especially since so far the flooding has not hit a major city, and the overwhelming majority of the population IS in the top 5 cities - but not as much as the infrastructure in place.

Plus, Australians are now less likely to stubbornly stay in their house when they've been told a natural disaster is bearing down upon them. A hard lesson learned in a country where natural disasters are frequent (most often in the form of bush fires). The most recent lesson being the 2009 fires in Victoria. Course, that doesn't stop people being stupid and trying to drive through flood waters, but at least they knew not to stay in their home and drown in there.

Makes me nostalgic for the gopher:// protocol.

The Raping Internet Privacy Act?

Does that make the local nightclub the G-Spot?

The new Tesla Roadster claims that it can do 245 miles on a single charge ... and it's a hell of a lot cooler than a volt! 100 miles on a charge, pfft! :)

Actually, no.

Even with a warrant, you don't have to unlock your front door, the police just have the right to break it down or get a locksmith to pick it if you don't.

Same with a safe - with a warrant you don't have to provide the combination, but they can legally crack it or cut it open.

So if you want to extend it to cryptography - you don't need to provide the password, but they're free to try and crack or break into the encrypted 'container.' ... they're just upset because unlike a physical object like a safe or a door, brute force isn't sufficient this time.

But regardless, a password, safe combination, or any number of other things are stored in your mind - and the state (in the USA at least) cannot force you to divest the contents of your mind against your will. That's what the 5th amendment is all about and why sodium pentathol and it's ilk are barred from being used to gather evidence.

I didn't say I wanted to work for someone who could DO my job, I said I wanted to work for someone who in the past HAS DONE something similar to my job.

A dev manager should be an EX-coder. They may not have programmed in many years, maybe not in remotely the same language, and is probably not abreast of the latest technologies or techniques. However they should understand the fundamental concepts having done it before and be able to be a useful participant in design discussions. Above the 'dev manager' level (ie. not dealing directly with programmers), then it's completely different.

I used to work for a manager that had never been a programmer, and it was the worst experience of my life - he wanted to know the details of things so many times I had to explain things as if I were describing it to a 5 year old. It caused a lot of friction between me and him, because I spent half my time explaining things to him instead of getting things actually done.

Not to mention, if the manager understands they're not programmers, and knows they're never going to be asked to perform as one, but they HAVE been programmers, they also then tend to know what to look for and cut through the smoke screen in interviews. I can't tell you how many people who I've been called in to do an interview with who had very impressive resumes but in the end, could probably do a little more than "Hello World", but not much.

Why would any self-respecting geek want to work in a place where there is no possibility of being management, and all the management is, self-admittedly, not 'qualified' to do their job?

I'm sorry, but I've never been able to respect a manager who could not have done my job, and has done in previous years. Now that doesn't mean everyone up to the CEO needs to be a programmer, very quickly managers stop being programmers and their day focuses on other things (read: meetings and bureaucracy).

So by my example, a dev manager should be a former programmer, his/her manager should have experience leading a team of tech people, his/her manager should have been a manager for other tech managers before, etc. In other words, each level should have experience doing the day-to-day job of the level below.

And what about career advancement - it sounds pretty lame when all the management positions are pre-filled, so the only way to move up the chain is for someone higher up to retire, or get dishonorably discharged (I assume the guys in management are career military, not doing a tour).

50 light-years EACH WAY don't forget.

When you get back, she certainly won't be worth the diamond anymore - because you really won't want to 'hit that' in 100 years, even assuming you can travel at light speed ;P

And if you remember the 80's documentary "The Navigator", where he was gone 4 years and everyone else aged 12, then by extension, 100 light years will turn into 300 years.

Depending on your finances, I recently bought an MSI WindTop for my toddler (2) and special needs 5 year old.

This is a touch screen all-in-one computer, and after seeing one setup in the local library, and how easily my 2 year old interacted with it without having mouse skills, it was a no-brainer.

And having set the computer up in the kitchen (it has built in wifi), I can use it as a kitchen computer when I need it, and sit the kids in front of it when they want to use it. And from there you can just get any regular kids software, and they just touch the screen instead of use the mouse.

If you want to take it one step further, try http://www.awe-net.com/ - they have fully pre-built WindTop PCs, loaded with a bunch of software for kids from 2 - 10, so it will be useful for years to come. This is what my local library has, and it's great.

No, you're a troll if you try and enforce IP rights to IP you don't actually own.

Just like patent trolls are only trolls if they try to enforce patents on products or ideas that they don't actually make or use themselves.

Completely different if you wrote something, then go after people for copyright violations on what you wrote. Or you invented something, got a patent, and actively manufacture things using that patented method, and go after other making stuff that also uses that method without paying you.

Remember those disk compression utilities (DoubleSpace and such)? Well, I used them back in the day, and every so often, for some reason, the file system header would get corrupted. I actually had to re-create it manually, with a hex editor. But once I did the disk would boot and work just fine until the next time.

True story.