Yeah, I know exactly how the Chromecast works and its advantages and disadvantages... I have developed streaming software for it and many other devices.

If you want to have an ultra-portable device for traveling it has potential, but is not nearly as convenient as you describe for first time setup. When you move it to a different AP you have to go through the whole process to set it up again (though it does remember a few after you have done it). And if you are in, say, a hotel room with a walled garden sign up you are screwed, and need to bring your own wireless AP to set up the connection.

Not to mention it has a pretty anemic processor and can *barely* stream/decode 1080p content.

But anyway, I agree that Chromecast is a very different beast than something like a Roku. My point was if you want a device to plug into WIRED ETHERNET (the point of this article!) for streaming, it's very likely in a fixed location where portability is not an issue, and there are such better options for fixed-location streaming devices than Chromecast. Ie. the hardwired Chromecast adaptor is a pretty niche product.

And with that you can't play (legal) 1080p video to a TV... which is ALL I want to do, and without any effort.

A Roku (or many other devices, including PS3/PS4, many TVs and BDs) takes 10 minutes to set up and you are able to watch pretty much any movie or TV show you could think up via Netflix, VUDU, Amazon, Hulu, etc. No way your "$140 real linux PC" was at that point after a couple of hours (and probably never). Either way not worth the effort - I have a "real PC" (boots whatever I want) that cost a lot more than $140, but that doesn't mean I need to go through the pain of trying to watch a new release movie on my living room TV with it...

No buts - it requires another device, period.

Chromecast is one of the least useful of "the sticks", I agree, but really all of the sticks are currently horribly underpowered with fairly poor wifi reception.

Basically now for $30 + $15 = $45 you can get a slow "stick" device that still requires another device to work, but even when it does the experience kind of sucks. Or you can spend ~$90 for a Roku 3 that is blazingly fast for what it does, has a great remote, full wifi or IR control for other devices, and hundreds of 3rd party apps (not to mention the wifi signal is actually solid).

Don't underestimate convenience - that extra $45 cost will pay itself off in an hour for many people who actually value their free time and don't feel like fighting with a Chromecast.

I'm with you. Lagunitas and Rogue are two of my top 5... add Stone, Speakeasy, Firestone, Mendocino, Bear Republic... apparently I can't even pick 5, and those are just my tops on the West Coast, heh.

Anyway, as you can see I'm not going to argue that the American microbrewery movement doesn't blow away anywhere else in the world. Just that US MACRObreweries are ironically also the worst in the world :)

Wouldn't be surprised if there was some recompilation to improve the emulator. Just downloading new code would be pretty tiny compared to the assets. Or maybe all of the system libraries are x86 native. I'd be REALLY surprised if it was anything as simple as a PPC emulator running the XB360 OS.

It's not just suspect, it's incorrect. I have developed apps for both and XBOne is definitely faster on single threaded code. The 1.75GHz x86-64 is faster than the 3.2GHz PPC (obviously clock rates aren't really relevant to the comparison, so his "clock for clock" is pointless) but a big part of it is a 32MB on-die cache on the XBOne CPU vs a 1MB L2 cache on the XB360.

Sure, they have a bunch of labels, but they are all pretty poor to average at best:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

And of course Coors and Coors Light are still their signature brands. Just because they have a few decent niche brands doesn't mean they should be given a pass for the rest.

Not saying the US doesn't have good beer, but that "award" is clearly bullshit if COORS is considered the best "large brewery" in the world. IMO it's the worst in the *US*, and there are a lot of bad large US breweries.

Anyway, at the high end anyone can make good wine, beer, and cheese. Where Europe really smacks down the US is in the high quality of the basic, low cost items.

I can't believe that I haven't seen a single comment pointing out Elon Musk's hypocrisy and denial that his success was largely based (or at least enabled) by public support.

One of many available articles on the topic: http://www.motherjones.com/pol...

A few gems:

1. as soon at Tesla paid off their $465M loan, he stated that he thought the government should no longer loan money to companies like that. How convenient...

2. SolarCity basically lives or dies off of tax credits - *income* tax credits. But he has come out against income tax and in favor of use taxes - a very regressive tax policy that overly burdens the poor while letting the rich keep building their fortunes at an ever increasing rate.

3. he claimed he "got rich" from his earlier companies (Zip2 and Paypal) and "got zero government anything" to do so. He did make a total of ~$180M (before taxes) from those companies , but is worth $13B now - due mostly to Tesla and SolarCity IPOs. He seems good at math, so he really doesn't notice that almost 99% of his fortune was from his highly-government subsidized ventures?

Honestly I really want to like Musk, but the most I hear from him the more he is giving off a real Steve Jobs vibe - business genius, douchebag human. If he'd just drop some of the hypocritical libertarian "self made billionaire" attitude I might change my mind.

Absolutely - I agree with a programming overview, just that the details of computer science/programming beyond "this is basically how it works" is better left to college courses, same as anatomy for premed or fluid dynamics for ME, etc.

A vague hint? Methyl salicylate would be a methylated salicylic acid (which anyone who has taken organic chemistry has heard of), aka an ester, so likely used for aroma/flavor which would be very common in foods and probably nothing to worry about in an ingredient list (though I have never seen it so I assume you are trying to be clever or it has a more common name?)

Ok, of course had to look it up. Wintergreen, eh. I think my above guess was fairly close. And why? CHEMISTRY! So, do YOU know what an ester is? If not, chemistry would have helped you. If so, chemistry DID help you.

Totally - I can't even BEGIN to imagine what politicians and mainstream media think when people talk about coding. I'm guessing it's somewhere in between Office Space, Hackers, and Swordfish, which would explain a lot.

How about reading a basic food label and not being terrified? You wouldn't believe how many people are in favor of banning dihydrogen monoxide. Ignorance is ignorance.

Another poster already made a similar point, but since you used the "let's apply that same logic" argument... do you really understand the engineering behind every technology you use in daily life? Of course not. And most people I assume understand even LESS, but can still use it just fine. Computers themselves are a TOOL used by non-engineers 100x more than by engineers. Learning to use one is like learning to drive, not learning to build a car.

I was referring to subjects traditionally taught in school, of source. I'm pretty sure everything you mentioned is better learned by just LIVING.

Though I do believe some of those skills ARE improved via a good liberal arts education - as well as, IMO, the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT SKILL learned in college: research.

I don't care what your field is, if you have learned to be an expert in researching, you can quickly pick up a huge variety of skills/information you need in order to adapt to your specific job. It's always been important, but now with the Internet this skill has become an almost indescribably important tool.

I mostly agree with him.

I (and I'm sure MANY of us!) didn't learn any programming skills formally until college (and some not even there). I learned basic skills on my own because I thought it was fun, learned more formally in college, and really only made the decision to go into software engineering soon before graduation.

I just think kids are better off learning more general areas - math, physics, chemistry, writing/literature, social sciences, economics, and BASIC (pun intended) computer science/programming. Leave the specialization to a time where they know what that even means.