Flash also sucks on Linux. Even with setting the configuration to force hardware acceleration my core I7 machine struggles with full screen flash. The newest version of Flash is a huge improvement, but it still has a ways to go.

I'm not sure Google needs to do anything about it. Instead carriers need to. I personally am a bit pissed that my G1 is stuck at 1.6. When I replace it (fairly soon), one of the requirements will be that it is on the current Android release and that it follows the current releases for at least awhile (G1 followed for 4 months?) If the carrier cannot do this I'll just go to a different one.

I suspect that most people will feel the same way, so, it is only a matter of time before it becomes the standard (hoping).

Failing gracefully is very important. Typical software projects are complicated - you will be assigned too much work, assigned work that has such poor requirements that you wonder who was gathering them, have co-workers that fail to deliver their parts of the system in a timely manner (might not be their fault either), and be completely surprised when new requirements appear as if from nowhere. Make sure you keep good notes (lessons the surprises), keep your boss informed of what you are doing and any difficulties or successes you are having (so he knows if you are overloaded, if there is any assistance you can be given, or if you need more work from someone else). Keeping the boss informed is important even when you are senior as you tend to get more complicated work that requires more interaction with other people.

So, simply, communication.

Why would they replace the code that already works with different code? I can sort of understand the not invented here, but that is a plain waste of money.

They already owned the code, rewriting it would just introduce bugs and take lots of time. I'm sure they have modified it extensively, but rewritten, no.

Hell, my copy of Windows 7 - picked it up using the MSDN subscription my work gives me - installed out of curiosity. It worked fine after installation and I was fairly impressed that the tablet functions worked right out of the box. The last time I booted it (it is installed on a rather old and unused tablet computer) it kindly told me my copy of Windows 7 wasn't genuine. I was stunned by this, I'm using the software key that the MSDN website generated, how can this key be invalid?

If it is this faulty in determining valid from invalid I shudder think of what it will be like in the wild.

I didn't bother to even attempt to figure out what was wrong with it; the machine is used purely for fiddling with different OSs.

It all probably depends on who / what is cheaper. If organizing, feeding, educating, and controlling a bunch of people is cheaper than designing, building, maintaining, and programing a bunch of robots then people will be used, otherwise robots will be used. Basically it comes down to resource usage.

As people have pretty low minimum needs I suspect we will be used (that is the correct term) to work in our computer overlords salt mines (or equivalent).

Agree 100%. Amarok jumped the shark when it went to version 2.x. To the point where it was one of the best mp3 players to what the hell is this?

That said, KDE was almost unusable at 4.0 but is now quite nice (I used Gnome for a bit).

At least with the G1 the turn by turn directions were added as a download from the applications store. So, the phone is still at 1.6, but the maps application has the turn by turn directions.

While neither of us knows all the specific details of the case there are a few important points:
1) Just including GPL code -i.e. shipping and using Busy Box does not require the whole shebang to be GPL'd. If it wasn't linked to it then they just need to provide the source for Busy Box and all their modifications to Busy Box.

2) If they are indeed linking to a GPL (instead of LGPL) library then they do indeed need to GPL the whole shebang, or more likely if this is the case, remove the linking.

I worked for a place that shipped Emacs as part of the application install (we basically included a development environment). Emacs as all properly noted and the source was provided if needed, and the elisp extensions were provided as source. Including Emacs didn't require everything else to be GPL'd.

Stored Procedure do just the opposite, if you are using stored procedures then your application is in the database as well as using it. It is more tightly bound to the database then before. That said, there are times when using stored procedures is the best solution - speed, clarity come to mind.

Particularly as you would be typing tab in there to auto complete most of the path.

Have a D620 and does the same thing. Suckiest laptop I've ever had. Think I'm on the fourth motherboard and second CPU. Probably have a couple of months until it starts doing it again.

I have this exact same issue on a Dell D620 Latitude. It typically happens when compiling code. The exact same symptoms - machine is working hard, begins to heat up, machine gets really slow and cools off but remains glacial slow. I've ran one of the speed / temp sensor plotting tools and can see the result CPU running at half speed but working at 100%. System is so slow that moving the mouse and the like around is practically impossible, only a hard reboot clears the machine, if I soft reboot the problem is even in the bios (pushing down arrow is about 1 second to move to next selection). The machine normally does ~6000 bogomips, when running slow is about 200 bogomips.

I have had the motherboard and cpu replaced multiple times (4? 5? something like that). It always reoccurs a couple of months after the repair. This issue isn't confined to my D620, but all my co-workers which receive the same model Dell laptop have also had significant issues. It is so bad that we will be replacing our machines a year before they would normally be replaced. I'm lobbying hard to get something other than a Dell, but this is a challenge as they are my companies primary supplier.

The most annoying thing, is when the problem happens and you call Dell up they are always - please reinstall the operating system. I know it isn't the operating system, I can reproduce it in the bios. But they still persist in believing it is the OS (and yes, they are trying to blame Microsoft, this case, purely Dell's problem).

I'm not really sure. Visual Studio fails the most basic requirements for editing code. It isn't actually very good at editing text. The vaunted intellisense frequently fails to suggest anything, I have to actually think about indenting when using it, I can't define custom syntax highlighting, management of buffers is lacking (how can I put the same file into two windows displayed side by side?), and the compiler is really slow.

Perhaps this is a reaction to people "voting with their dollars" - i.e. dvd sales are down because rentals (Netflix, Redbox, ...), video on demand (Comcast was offering video on demand the same day as the dvd goes on sale, not sure if they are anymore), and piracy. Basically it is preferred to spend a couple of bucks, watch the movie and then not buy the dvd (why own it, will only watch a couple of times ever).

I switched to Netflix perhaps six months ago, and before that was using On Demand from Comcast. I struggle to remember the last dvd purchased, it was at least a couple of years back. I don't think my experience is unusual, On Demand and Netflix are fully taking care of all my video needs (including child that wishes to watch the same video 80 times). I have voted with my wallet - dvds have too high a cost for too little benefit, in fact, the cost of dvds actively interferes with other entertainment.