Is it not? ... I wish people - especially those with enough brain-power to put computers and networks to creative use - would use more precise and less inflative wording.

I'm beginning to think that Android has a real fragmentation problem. The recent things happening with Cyanogenmod alone make my head spin.

It would be best if Google focuses on offering a top-notch Android experience and - at the same time - alow for Geeks to fiddle with their devices, root them and such.

If Google implements a fixed release cylce and does end-user marketing whilst catering to the geek crows (opinion leaders) at the same time, then they can
leapfrog the vendors messing with their own versions of android and allow for more seamless updates. In fact, I think they should offer customisation services for every vendor who want's their own visuals in the launcher and specifically support vendors who stick as close as possible to the mint Android experience.

Whatever they do, they have to put some effort into curbing fragmentation, because that's the number 1 thing that bugs Androids attractiveness.

Likewise, if Apple sticks to they minimised choices and manageble line of systems and devices, they'll continue to have the edge in that department and maintain their market, no matter how powerful Google gets in the low- and midrange global markets.

My 2 cents.

The most important thing we need is a FOSS Distributed Google Apps Palette.
I mean the whole thing.
Think the magnitude of KDE, Gnome and LibreOffice, together.
For mobile and web.

FOSS Docs (mobile app and web based collaborative editing)
FOSS Drive (mobile app and web based doc & file management)
FOSS+ & FOSS Hangouts (mobile app and web bases social networking and chat - preferably encrypted)
FOSS Picasa (images, tied in with the FOSS Social Network)

I'd even think about redoing DNS to be more abstract - some encryption-based domain registry scheme to become independant from the registrars. And, of course, a complete redo of this bizar, totally outdated and completely out-of-its-depth service called E-Mail. I'd argue, with a properly implemented, new E-Mail service social networks would become obsolete. ... No suprise actually, if you think what insane amouts of hassle go into setting up an email account - not to mention server - for a service that is more tha 40 years old and beyond insecure and, compared to Facebook, Google+, Hangouts and Whatscrap, totally unusable.

Seriously, mobile fragmentation and comoditisation has reached the same pre-PC level of the 80ies, that had Atari, Amiga, Apple, Sinclair and the likes had us deal with back then. Yet now we have the power to build a layer on top of that, that is entirely FOSS, encrypted, secure and uses its own independat protocols.

Now that would be a FOSS undertaking that would actually matter and make a difference.

1.) Linus' wording is pretty moderate.
2.) He's right. Again.

Aside from building the hardware and the OS and making it fit, Apple also builds their own batteries, which, truth be told, are almost second to none. On top of that, Apple was first to dare build a non-replaceable battery into their MB Air. On top of that they put serious custom built power-management into their notebooks. I've got an MB Air myself and after 4 years of usage the battery life still is impressive. Note: I'm not an Apple fanboy either, although I do own the mbair and a 2007 Macmini.

I'm 44, my daughter is 17 and roughly two years away from leaving the house. I've picked up more physical activity again and plan to do dive into regular intensive yoga next year. Also as a long term investment in my health and old age.

Sex is better than ever, allthough I've finally had a pleasant share of affairs in the last few years and thus don't feel like I'm missing out all the time anymore - which takes away quite some pressure and is a great thing too. I've also grown man enough not to take any crap from woman anymore whilst at the same time treating them with respect and fairness. I picked up tango dancing 7 years back and since have gained a bunch of lady-friends that are smart, intelligent, breathtakingly beautiful and of the type I wouldn't have dreamt of even talking to 15 years ago.

I've gained in self-respect and in respect for others and I've made a point of systematically and continously improving my social skills. Wore a tie for the first time in my life 2 weeks back. Gray hair == shirt & tie person with decision authority. Neat. I've gained solid experience for the job (web-centric FOSS web development), smell bad projects from miles away and know how to treat marketing, customers and collegues so as to get along with them.

It's the nerd advantage all over, if you take good care of yourself. Which I strongly recommend. And don't wait to long for having children. 27 seemed to early for me back then and I was scared shitless, but I'm so glad it happend so early today. Later in life your former jock classmates will be all fat and wasted and you'll just be running up to full throttle.

Avoid alcohol and smoking, pick up something intelligent with excercise (Martial Art like Aikido, Kung-Fu or something, or social dancing like Swing or Argentine Tango (helps you meet the ladies too)) and see to it that you have a solid throughput of encounters with the opposite sex. Learn a musical instrument and learn to shut off the computer, go out, meet and talk to people. Learn to technically manage your habits, especially the bad ones.

Who knows, once my daughter is on her own I might even to a career switch or move to some cool city like Amsterdam, Berlin or Paris.

Stay healthy, avoid dept and to many material goods and bondings like the plague and be ready to learn and change your vantage point on life once in a while. Do all that and aside from some wrinkles, gray hair and a constant increasing pool of experience and coolness you won't have any signs of aging for most of your life. Types of people of whom you never thought would be interested in you will ask your advice, crave your presence and even look up to you. It's a very awkward and suprising, and a whole new experience - but an ultimately rewarding one. Don't miss out on that.

Good luck in your life.

What's astonishing with these rich people is that all this is insanely tasteles. Personally I'd have to invest roughly another 10 million to get all the crap removed. For instance: WTF are these fountains noisily piddling into the pool constantly and blocking the view?? Which architect had that brilliant idea? ... I'd fire the guy instantly. ...
Rich people: Lot's of money, no taste.

MS is transitioning, ... trying to transition to a service company. Which they should've done 10 years ago, imho. Couldn't tell if they're to late. Even FOSSing .Net came to late, imho. If they succeed, they'll become something like another IBM and Oracle.

However, I expect them to feel even more pressure in the next few years. At least in the consumer and services market MS looks like a toddler joining an NBA Final between Apple and Google. And in the new-gen consoles department they're currently getting their ass kicked by Sony. Doesn't look to good, if you ask me. They've got nothing for the consumer they can offer, that any of the above mentioned can offer better and/or cheaper with less tie-ins. The latest Surface devices appear to be at least somewhat pleasing to the consumer crowd, but I couldn't say it's enough to gain critical mass in that market. Apple has to much mindshare and their margins are *huge*. For anybody for whom Apple is to expensive, there's the devices with Google's Android and Chrome OS. With things and computer time spent moving further and further into the web, it's not looking good for MS.

My 2 cents.

Jaguar and LandRover show of amature video masking in tacky engineer-made product video.

'nuff said.

Of course, for men who are circumcised and so who already lost most of their ability to feel what sex is...

Sorry, pal, but I think you're on the wrong foot here. I happen to be circumcised - my dad was a Baptist and considered it standard procedure - and while I do find the idea of the ritual and especially its religious reasons to be beyond bizar, I personally, gladly, am fine with being circumcised. I've heard there may be medical arguments that are pro-circumsision - couldn't say for sure though and don't really care. It was done when I was freshly born, by a doctor and with anesthesia - which is the *only* acceptable way to to it, btw.! . As a kid I thought of it as a simple anatomic variation, such as color of hair. Now I know better of course.

I could imagine that from constant exposure the tip of the penis of somebody who is circumcised perhaps gets less sensitive over time, not sure about that though. Could also be the regular manual work I do and access to infinite pr0n I have - just like the rest of us. (BTW, fellas, check out the Nobnom challenge).

As for the sex, I can assure you, I *do* know what sex is (gladly) and I've had my fair share of female intimate partners, most of which, thankfully, were awesome up to flat-out stellar, p*rnstyle playmates. And I can also assure you, do hookiepookie in the right mood with the right partner and the right amount of moisture in her vulva and Ooomph in your member way more than anything else determines wether you feel what sex is or not. Likewise, play Closet-Polo with someone who is a turnoff and can't keep the mood for 5 seconds, and you'll never know what sex is, no matter how intact and sophisticated your foreskin may be.

Keep that in mind before you go about telling everybody that circumcised men don't know what sex is - some might take offense in that, as you can see here in this thread already.

My 2 cents.

Only faggots such as yourself are obsessed with whether or not a penis is circumcised and adopt such an elitist stance that circumcised men don't know what sex feels like.

Wow, what's with all the hatred? I don't see anything offensive in the above, just an incomplete perception. Maybe simply explaining the matter would've been enough.

Grading is mostly bogus. You have a maximum of 30 numbers on a sheet of paper at the age of 19 that's supposed to determine wether you are suitable for this or that specialist job. Utter bullshit in specialist cases such as CS.

Think of specialist cases as the same with musicians. If you haven't plaved the piano since the age of 12 at least - good luck finding a conservatory that will take you. Same with ballett: You have to be good and dancing and have the right body measures and start in your single digit ages. Grades be damned, if you don't have that, you won't become a professional ballett dancer.

To go into CS simply based on a grade average, with no affinity to abstract thinking, a solid math foundation and solid teenage experience with computers and some fundamental programming skills is like joining a dance-company at the age of 19, overweight and never having moved your body around other than to get from a to b the easiest way possible, with no sports or anything similar. Silly, wouldn't that be? Excactly.

Same should apply for CS. People who have bad grades but are genius programmers - I'd bet there are quite a few of those - should have mentors asking them to join college, no matter what their report card says. Likewise, people who just won't cut it and bog the industry down with crappy experience should be asked to leave.

Here in Germany CS has no NC, because it's so hard. Which means whenever I join a CS track I have to waste 3 semesters of the college filtering out the idiots in mandatory "Programming for idiots who took CS because they like playing Wow all day 101" courses. It's a huge PITA and is the largest downside I see in taking a path to an academic degreee. I so whish I could take Math and leave programing for n00bs out and skip a semester or two.

Beer is supposed to have foam! Of course, the donkey pee-pee you guys and the dutch call beer doesn't have any foam, but in Germany a Beer is only well-tapped if it's "Foamcrown" (that's what it's called) can carry a 2-Euro coin.

Ok, so much for the education. Here comes a beer-joke, somewhat on the subject:
A guy from Collogne, a guy from Duesseldorf and a guy from Muenster walk into a bar. Mr. Collogne order a "Koelsch", Mr. Duesseldorf an "Alt" and the guy from Muenster a Coke. Both Mr. Collogne and Mr. Duesseldorf turn to him and ask: "Why do you order a coke?" - "Well, if you guys don't drink any beer, I won't either."

Aparently his last movie, Exodus, is crap. ... I hope he doesn't screw this up.

Captain Obvious submitted again.

Open Source matters for sensitive anything. In fact, I, and any professional I've talked to, would say if it's not FOSS or at least using a free open standard in data format, it's of no use for anything sensitive or mission critical. We've arrived at the point where critical systems that are not FOSS aren't even considered to be enterprise ready by a large portion if not even the majority of IT experts. Which is a good thing, IMHO.

For instance, anybody nowadays talking Unix and not thinking of a FOSS *nix but suggesting something other (exotic I guess you'd call it today) would be laughed out of the room. One of the reasons I find RMSes insistence on the GNU/Linux term a tad backwards - although he is right about most of the important things.