As a professional engineer, I have to certify the designs I send out were created by me. In the past, a rubber stamp and an ink signature were used (still are in many places), but I sign everything digitally. I've created and posted a public key hosted on my web server which has been sufficient for 99.9% of clients to date - all but 2. One client required a know authority to hold the certificate, but wasn't willing to pay for it, so we "compromised" and I hand signed the sheets. The other client simply wouldn't accept digital signatures.

There aren't 8300 people working on each patent application. The USPTO received 609,052 patent applications last year. There are (roughly) 200 working days in a calendar year (accounting for sick leave, vacation, an minimal training/in-service time). Each patent receives (on average) less than 3 man-days total for your diligence in determining the patent background, current state of the art, etc.

Any biometric password should be based on a certificate, not a direct digital representation of the biometric.

15 years ago it was close to $300 each for decent seats in San Francisco. The only Pro game I've seen was a pregame San Diego game at $60 a seat. At $60 a seat, it was worth it and a lot of fun. At a couple hundred, there's no reason to bother.

Driving by a S-W a few months ago I wondered if that was the least "green" logo in use today, perhaps ever.

Nominations, anyone?

I know, that sounds like defining "is" or "sex with that woman" but...

TFA indicates that they have no "recognized terrorist group affiliation ties". So does that parse to
(1) American citizens who have no ties to a terrorist group
(2) no known ties to a terrorist group, but the NSA could have metadata that shows contact with one or multiple known members of those groups,
(3) ties to groups which we suspect may have terrorist motives/wings/connections but are not currently recognized as terrorist groups
(4) ties to or current or prior foreign citizenship from state which sponsor or harbor terror groups

Option (1) is what the article would suggest. Here's a similarly ambiguous statement, which is 100% truthful: "Of the 280,000 people on the list who have no recognized terrorist group affiliation ties, none are identified in the article as being Americans citizens." Of course, the infographic indicates that, of the 660,000 people on the watchlist, 3300 are American citizens (0.5%), but not that any of those 3300 are in the unaffiliated group. Which is why I suggest items (3) and (4), which (I'm guessing) make up the vast majority of those in the 40%.

"a reported $400 million, five-year deal. That includes interactive content to help sell Xbox home video game consoles."

Yes, that's where the money comes into play. 25 tablets over 32 teams does not a $400M deal make, but throw in broadcasting rights and it starts to make sense. Except that it's not really an Xbox thing - you have to buy ST in order to stream through the Xbox. Kind of like HBO Go, except that the only place you can buy ST is DirecTV, so you're still stuck with the satco payment (unless you're in a select market that allows the direct purchase). And, like HBO Go, you can use a whole range of devices - not just Xbox - to stream.

Unless they're wrong in the article http://www.theverge.com/2014/8... and the deal means a la carte no-sat-req'd subscriptions.

I'm still not quite sure how it is they've solved this issue they claim, however the ability to selectively transmit information to make the image seem to appear between the eye and the screen is the wrong solution. For those over 40, the problem isn't moving the screen closer but rather needing it further away. I have this happen if I put my phone too close in the car - I can't effectively see the GPS prompts or warnings without a second or so of re-focusing effort, and even then it's a challenge with my normal glasses on (seeing it without my glasses is fine, but then distant objects are indistinct).

What's needed is to be able to focus on this object as if it were further away than the screen.

TiVo was awesome, but $120/yr for a metadata stream seemed like a poor value. So we dropped it.

I mean, if they can spy on congress they can spy on anybody and we'll get new laws protecting our individual freedoms now. Right?

*crickets*

Books (paperbacks) seem to sell for about 1/3 of they "new" cost as used - or $0-$4 per book; many sell for nothing more than a $4 shipping fee (about $2.50 of which is postage). Even if you buy used and resell, you're going through the hassle of selling, packaging, and shipping a book for $1.50. Now, that's certainly more than nothing, but you start wondering very quickly if it's even worth your time to list, package, and ship those books.

Well, after subtracting the 3% that goes to Visa/Mastercard, that leaves the retailer, editor, publisher, and website manager a 1% loss to split amongst themselves.

Of course, you could do it like the recording industry and give the authors a big share on paper, and then charge them ridiculous "retail" rates for all those services. But then you'd find out that, at the end of the run, the author is still in the red and receives practically nothing. At least in Amazon's accounting, the author is getting gross points.

Since there is near-zero cost of producing the nth unit for sale, even small changes in elasticity are valuable to the entire chain. It may not have been worthwhile for their example if the production of the physical hardcover copy costs $3.25 to produce - the increase in sales would be a wash. With eBooks, though, there are no print runs or disposal costs - there's no reason not to maximize number of copies as long as the gross receipts is maximized.

Imagine you have a store the size of you typical WalMart Supercenter, packed with aisle upon aisle of app boxes. There are 5-6 generalized sections, and absolutely no organization within the sections - apps just set in rows on the shelf. Except it's not even that convenient, because when you walk into the store you are in a small space with what are effectively endcaps for each section. To get through to the rest of the store, you have to go around the side of this front display area through a small, unmarked door. So you usually just pick what's on the endcap and checkout because even for people who have wandered into the main body of the store, they find it's just stocked with thousands upon thousands of seemingly identical products for a single task - most of which mirror an app that's on the end cap with a 4+ star review from a million users.

It's dysfunctional, but in a very Apple way.

Or just fill it with beer and duct tape the door on.