Attacking spelling is the last resort of someone who can't come up with a cogent counter-argument...

and often ears a "+5, Informative" on Slashdot, depending on the point under discussion.

The summary makes it sound like this is an algorithm tuning problem - "err on the side of too much in focus" - which isn't the case. It's a byproduct of sensor size.

Even with real cameras the rule of thumb is a full frame (35mm film equivalent size) camera, at a given focal length, has a stop "better" depth of field than a camera with an APS-C sensor taking the same picture - so a Nikon D7100 would need to shoot at f/2.0 to get the same blurring as a D800 shooting the same photo at f/2.8.

Most camera phone sensors are rather tiny compared to real cameras.

On a side note... pedants may going to have fun nitpicking all of this apart. :-)

A truly "stabilized" hybrid is usually considered open pollinated - no longer a hybrid. The loss of hybrid vigor is a recognized byproduct of stabilization.

However, as you allude to, for many varieties of legume the flowers self-pollinate. With soybeans and snap beans in particular, the flowers pollinate themselves before they're even open - which incidentally makes it much more difficult to develop new varieties (whether the goal is a hybrid or the development of a new OP). Species like that have developed their own methods of dealing with the problems that usually come with in-breeding. I'd guess (but do not know) that those genetic coping strategies might also help counter the usual loss of vigor that would normally be observed as the generations progress.

One thing that's sort of buried in the article is this movement is also anti-hybrid, which is not all that surprising. But hybrids offer a definite, measurable benefit to the farmer - not only are they more uniform (important for commercial harvesting), they are invariably more vigorous than open pollinated varieties. Greater vigor per plant means greater profit per plant.

As a gardener I understand and applaud attempts to develop and improve open pollinated varieties of vegetables and fruits. It's fun to save your own seeds, and OPs have more diverse genes - so they are important to the continued existence of plant species. But it's going to be an uphill battle trying to convince farmers to give up hybrids, if that's really the movement's goal. And I don't think it's really what they should be focussing on. But plant purists can be every bit as inflexible as the most ardent GPL zealot, so I expect philosophy will win out over practicality.

I'm just sayin'...

He's a roadie for the Rolling Stones - they refer to him as "the kid".

And likely a government-funded one, to boot!

While I agree with you in principle, it is a little more complicated than that.

What Netflix is paying for is a peering tie-in inside of Comcast's data centers.

One year I filed an extension... then completely forgot about it! Fortunately they owed me money (I had sent a check for my estimated taxes due when I filed for the extension, and it turns out I'd overpaid), so when I finally filed it a few years late I wasn't in trouble. But the only reason I ever remembered was I got a letter from the IRS saying "we never received this tax return, and if you don't file before XX-XX-XXXX any money we might owe you will be forfeit".

I don't want a Java app anywhere near my financial information.

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

I've used TaxAct for quite a few years - it works well, and it's under ten bucks for most people. Heck, for a federal return it doesn't have to cost anything at all.

The IRS itself has gradually been making it easier to file directly with them, for free. Up until now my wife and I have fallen above the income cutoff they've artificially chosen; but it appears they've been gradually increasing their capacity over the past few years - I suspect, either next year or the year after, we all will be able to go to irs.gov and take care of it there. My taxes aren't that difficult, so having to use a paid service (or paper) just because I want to do them myself seems quite silly.

When I rode the train in to work this morning, the app failed miserably when I tried to find the best place to park it in the rail yard. Also, the conductor's goons stopped me from getting to the locomotive.

Hmm... I have a fully updated 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) box that's been my media server for a number of years - it doesn't get used for anything else, even web browsing (it's an old MacBook Pro with a non-functional screen). Just now I connected to it using screen sharing, opened up Safari and went to the CloudFlare Challenge website. It loaded just fine, with no warnings whatsoever.

I put Firefox on it and went to the same URL - Firefox tells me the certificate has been revoked.

On iOS I get no such warning...

And actually, the default OS X settings don't check revocation lists either. To enable that you need to open up "Keychain Access", go to "Preferences -> Certificates", and set both OCSP and CRL to "Best Attempt".