That's code for not enforcing net neutrality.

"Revolutionary it is not."

I think you have a very short memory. Or are extremely jaded. The Wiimote was and is a revolutionary controller. Swinging the controller for golf, tennis, baseball, frisbee, sword fighting, etc. was revolutionary.

You need to read this. Sony and Microsoft were offered the technology that powers the Wiimote. They turned it down. Nintendo now controls the patent on the technology. So yes, it is a niche. But not because it is a gimmick - because Nintendo owns it, and uses it as a competitive differentiator.

- Jasen.

That seems like a really stupid license restriction. I bought this thing, it has software on it, I use it.

Oops. Can't use it to design a sign for my yard sale or track a church bake sale. Can't use it for Craigslist or eBay listings. Can't use it for my Tupperware or Amway business.

Does MS even want customers anymore?

- Jasen.

Check out
http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/
http://www.sizzix.com/shop/eclips
http://www.cricut.com/
and there are many other brands of 2D cutters used by the crafting community.

The women who are really into scrapbooking, card making, and such will jump at the opportunity to make their own napkin holders, salt & pepper shakers, and other doodads.

I expect to see http://www.etsy.com/Etsy filled with 3D printed items in a few years.

- Jasen.

I prefer Better Place's approach of using swappable battery modules. It's faster for the consumer. Batteries can be tested and replaced before they degrade.

- Jasen.

We have a Cricut and a Silhouette - electronic paper cutters.
The home crafting market is one I think a 3D printer would do well in, and this one seems to be aiming in that direction. There are lots of moms & grandmas who sew, quilt, knit, make cards, scrapbook, etc. Many of those women are incorporating computer driven tools into their workflows. A 3D printer would let them print cutsie embellishments, cupcake holders, party favors, napkin rings, and "girlie" things that are completely off the radar of the "hacker space" boys club.

- Jasen.

Are you interested in making developers happy and feel good, or interested in producing good (great?) products? The two are not necessarily complimentary.

A faithfully used bug tracking & task assigning tool will give great accountability of what people are working on, where the product is in the schedule, prioritize tasks, etc. But using it may be considered burdensome micro-management by developers. A "good" developer should want to use those tools, though.

I interpreted the question along the lines of tools that should be available and used by the development team. Trackers, continuous integration, VMs, debuggers, source-control, IDEs, that sort of thing. Provide a rich, discipled set of software development tools, enforce consistent use, and teach the newer guys to use them.

Whether you have Hawaiian shirt day or free Red Bull should be pretty far down the list of concerns. Free drinks & snacks are nice, though, as they make being in the office a bit more comfortable. That sort of social, interpersonal thing is definitely going to be different from group to group - even within an office. But the company recognizing the importance of that social bonding and allocating some time and funds for it is certainly a moral booster.

In summary:
1) First focus on the work. Provide the tools to do the work well. Make people use them and teach people to use them.
2) Provide some personal social tradition to help the group bond.

- Jasen.

I'll throw in a vote for Grails. It is a convention over configuration app framework that has you code your domain objects and then it generates CRUD pages for you.

The documentation is pretty good. There's lots of tags for the web page side.

It lives on top of Spring, Hibernate, & JQuery so it has some solid frameworks at its core.

It uses Groovy as its language rather than Java, but Groovy is 100% compatible with Java and is mostly syntactic shortcuts & convenience tricks on top of Java (like no need for semicolons). So it is very easy to learn if you're a Java guy; you can slowly start using more idiomatic Groovy while still writing very Java-esque code.

If Groovy scares you, try Roo (http://www.springsource.org/spring-roo). It's a pure Java based app framework also from Spring that uses the Spring libraries.

Now, having said all that. If you plan to deploy to iOS or Android, you may want to consider RhoMobile (http://rhomobile.com). It is a Ruby-on-Rails environment that runs on top of the native OS. So developing a RoR app for the client-server PC side and then porting to RhoMobile should be very easy. I don't know of a solution on the Java side that will take a Java servlet based app and move it over to the mobile OSes conveniently.

The reasoning was, "We haven't covered that so the answer is 'it can't be done'". The accuracy of my answer was irrelevant. We hadn't covered negative numbers in class, so I could give no answer.

Reading further in this thread, I see many people have had similar experiences.

It amazes me that I remember the incident so vividly. It is truly one of my earliest and foundational memories of cynicism. Authority does not care if you are "right" only if you give the answer they want.

I went on to be an A,B and occasional C student without trying very hard. I saw no value in pushing myself when I could be near the top of the class and provide the answers expected. Anything more was wasted effort.

Same experience here. In third grade, I believe, we had a quiz question where the answer was a negative number. I put the negative number answer and got it marked wrong. The teacher's response was that it was impossible in our class.

Cynicism was born in me that day 30+ years ago. You only need to work hard enough to pass and give the expected answers. Anything beyond that makes you a troublemaker.

Cool Story Bro:
When I was in third grade, there was a question on a math test, it was something like:

  4444444
-5555555
--------------

I answered -1111111 and had it marked wrong. I argued with the teacher that the answer was correct and his response that it wasn't in this class; the correct answer was that the problem couldn't be done.

This deeply affected my perception and attitude toward school. Cynicism was born that day. It's not about doing your best or learning as much as you can; it's about towing the line, giving the expected answer, making the system happy.

30+ years on I still remember that incident. And its lesson still holds true - quietly obeying a broken system is often easier and more personally advantageous than being right or doing your best.

FWIW, we are homeschooling our child. My wife worked as a sub while our child was in kindergarten and first grade. She saw the ugly truth of the local school system and we plan to keep our child out of that environment.

Cool Story Bro:
My mother-in-law is a retired secretary from the local school system. She is now working part time for the administration so that they can justify hiring a full time person. She sits and reads books most of the time! The system is paying her - and a couple of other retirees - to sit around doing nothing so they can show the need for a new full time admin person.

Shameful.

From http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/120325-james-cameron-mariana-trench-challenger-deep-deepest-science-sub/ ..."is to jettison steel weights attached to the sub and shoot back to the surface."

Can't we go anywhere and follow the "Leave No Trace" ethos? What effect will those weights have on the local ecosystem?

- Jasen.

Came here to say this, but not as eloquently. This is why I wish the two party system in the USA could be busted.

- Jasen.

I voted for Ron Paul.

soap, ballot, ammo. Boxes to be used in that order.