Google used to be an AND sort of search engine, but nowadays I find myself adding " " and + signs to get what I want...

Do you think we'll ever be able to travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum?

I used to have to re-tie my shoes a few times a day until I found Ian's knot site. Now I tie them with the Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot and stopped having problems. I don't even need to tie them so tightly as before, and they are almost as easy to untie as before.

I'm glad someone else remembered Ogg the caveman. I still miss his presence in /. sometimes.

Hi, I've been reading /. since 1999 or so. In these 12 years I've seen the fantastic growth and transformation it went through, with user accounts, more and more customization settings, and a great community in no small part due to the moderation system.

Some mock the /. community (it has its flaws ofc), but even after all these years you can still be surprised by how informed and insightful it can be on nearly anything.

Rob, I wish you all the best in your future endeavours, and hope /. will remain a great community for years to come.

Oblig. xkcd http://xkcd.com/523/

The bulk of scientific research is done by grad students (or others like them with various kinds of scholarships). The professors whose name is at the end of paper's author list guide and oversee what is done, but don't have time for the daily grind of research. Their main job is to teach and get funding.

Latex beamer is often used for scientific presentations because it's much easier to include formulas. You don't even need to know Latex, you can write the presentations using Lyx. The resulting presentation is a pdf.

When I was a kid I had to wait five minutes for a game to load on the ZX Spectrum. Now I have to wait a quite a few minutes to start the computer, steam, then the game and connect to a server. Somewhere in between I had DOS games that started mostly instantly.

Back in 2000 the Portuguese government announced the creation of up to 1 million email accounts. It was a flop I think, as most people that had internet access already had an email account, but still it looks good in the press releases...

Android OS is linux, so a root-friendly Android phone could be an option. I don't know if you can bypass the google account requirement, but if you install a firewall on the (rooted) phone you can control what gets network access or not. I particularly dislike the fact that google wants to sync all your contacts and get all your phone numbers, etc. For me that is going too far.

Most Android apps will require full net access, mostly to show you ads, but some want to know your location as well, and it's a all or nothing proposition, you either accept giving all the permissions the app asks an run it, or you don't install it at all, there's no finer control of access privileges.

Maybe someone more knowledgeable could give more insights? It might be a good idea to hold on to that N900, even if you are missing out on a large ecosystem of apps.

I just found a recent slashdot article that you should read: http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/01/06/1344223/Smartphones-For-Text-SSH-Use-Re-Revisited

Unfortunately there are people involved in the ownership of these mobile devices [...]

Unfortunately you don't really own a smartphone, even one that isn't tied down to a contract and paid big bucks to carry around. The phone doesn't obey to you instead obeys to the manufacturer, to google, to the app developers, etc. It keeps sipping information and reporting it back to headquarters, and it's blocked in such a way that bypassing that is not practical.

I was surprised to find that android phones *require* a google account, or that a iPod Touch requires being connected with iTunes to start. A HTC Desire comes with lots of widgets running in the background that you can't turn off (and it's even worse on Android 2.2, Froyo) and the terms of service clearly states they may collect data on you (duh!). Many apps requires far more permissions than they should, so after a while you either give up and ignore the permission requests or don't use any of them.

Mobile privacy? Is there such a thing?

Although I do agree that google seems to be on a descending path, the alternatives don't have an index as comprehensive. So, until then, you either accept sub-optimal results or you have to use google.

I have noticed a disproportionate number of intellectuals are depressed.

Ecclesiastes 1:18 (King James Version)

For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

Do you smoke? Smoke has a tendency to shorten CD/DVD-ROM drives lifetime / make them fail.