Over the weekend I heard a different take on this (Reply All podcast). For Hasidic Jews - the internet contains immoral content. While they have their own websites that meet religious requirements, there is a company that builds special blocking software for accessing more public websites (Amazon was the example). For example it causes images of people to appear as blacked out - just in case it was a scantily-clad woman.

It is like net-nanny on steroids. Except steroids are immoral so it would be - not that.

> This is regulation in favor of the people. We don't see a lot of that and so it's a bit of a surprise.

Bernie for President !!!

Yes - and.... These seismic activities take place - which they measure. Are they not Forecasting which one will become an Earthquake? A tropical storm begins to form (Prediction by your definition) - and then teams begin to Forecast its path, how strong, and other damages (storm surge etc).

Does a "tropical storm" form beneath the earth - these gases, heat, micro-quakes. And from that information Forecast "this will be an earthquake, it will take place [here], and damages are likely to be [y]" ?

Scientists have been predicting a big quake in California for years. It will be an interesting future. "Make sure you have your hard hat and survival gear today, the quake outlook appears to be 70% and could reach magnitude 4.4 for those in the valley"

ah yes - I had a similar experience. Little known is the quality of the Keurig. They stop working. My previous one had to be replaced after 5 years - and the replacement is 2 years old. However my old style Filter "Mr coffee" pot still works after 15 years.

The printer ink analogy comparison isn't quite right. You can't buy ink at the store. However you can buy coffee everywhere - it existed before K-cups. It is an industry by god! While the grocery store now stock mostly K-cups -- coffee is available from plenty of shops. Their failure was attempting to DRM something regularly available from other sources. Maybe like music - you can buy CDs..but Apple made it dirt easy to buy. Did Keurig make it easy to *buy* coffee? (brew/make it --- yes). Now it is harder to buy - and more expensive. And they didn't solve the Eco problem.

But the point is...my experience around K-cup 2.0 is like yours. When I go to the store to buy cups it has become confusing. At least they gave them a different name. People buy me coffee as a present - v1.0 cups thankfully because that's all they know.

Recently we switched to a refillable K-cup and buy bulk coffee. The TCO hasn't been very good for these machines. Expensive up front purchase, expensive coffee pods, and relatively short life. Couple that with the new machine forcing you to buy the even-more expensive pods - and I just didn't see a reason to switch.

Thankfully some innovators have made a reusable coffee pod device that fits in the native hole. The one Keurig provides is a PITA to operate.

v1.0 doesn't exactly make the best tasting coffee. I heard v2.0 was better...but the cost doesn't make sense.

I just can't believe that FedEx/UPS isn't already doing something like this. Each driver carries a "mobile device" for which package pickup instructions are sent. "Please pickup 1 item at Business X" and later "Please pickup 2 items at Business X" Plus when the driver delivers the package they scan the item to mark it as delivered.

I know that Police cars and Fire trucks are "mobile things" - which are tracked and they know when they arrive at destination. AND - the Seattle bus system already tracks buses and sends you a text msg saying "the bus will be at your stop in 10 minutes" My friend has been using that app for many many years. Granted you aren't adding more items and exchanging money. But the prior art is thick.

and - what is the difference between a text message and email? If I had a web page that refreshed (polled) to show this status --- is that a new patent?

oh no - my mother always said that getting a tattoo was a bad idea! She said, "just you wait - you'll see."