What's with all the hosted bookmarks/social bookmarking sites looking like they are going to close down all of the sudden? XMarks nearly did, but they sold out to somebody else. Maybe that company (lastpass?) can buy delicious too and maintain both products.

Imagine a Beowulf cluster of th^H^H^H

Ah, forget it, the darn thing practically is one already! :/

"Imagine exactly ONE of those" just doesn't sound the same.

Sure, you're right. Perhaps it's a bit of wishful thinking showing through. Nitpicking aside, is it not a positive trend that we are getting annoyed by stories of people trying to send up these balloons? There has to be some reason multiple people have been motivated to do more of these "experiments" or whatever you want to call them. I'm HOPING it's because they are interested in space, science, and fun.

I would hope that we would rather consider the meaning of the fact that the general public has an interest in reaching space again, and by doing it themselves. Sure, maybe a balloon to the upper reaches of the atmosphere is not anywhere close to launching an Atlas rocket, but I for one am glad that people are still dreaming, and experimenting!

We are one step closer to idiocracy! I for one welcome my new "AOL Time Warner Taco Bell US Government Long Distance" overlords.

Mmmm.. foamy lattes.

-6d

Hello, devil's advocate here... I totally agree with the sentiment that keeping things simpler is preferable, and that there are problems created by programmers who either don't care, are trying to preserve their job security (or pad their resumes with buzzwords), don't know better, or don't take the time to think out the design/maintainability of what they are doing.

On a recent project to provide real-time, asynchronously updating, data-driven, interactive graphs and gauges on a modern web application, I had no choice other than to make use of: HTML, CSS, jQuery, Javascript, XML, Flash, PHP, CodeIgniter framework, SQL (MySQL), SimpleUnit, etc. It is always frustrating to realize that we basically have to program in 6 or so different languages/tools (or more) to accomplish something. As you pointed out, even I probably omittted a plethora of other little utilities, supporting infrastructure or OS functionality that was used to support this app.

So, I know your circumstances might have been specific, but, how else do you propose one to meet such a requirement, given today's bag of technology options? The complexity today is just the nature of the beast........ which is why it's ever more important to try darn hard to K.I.S.S.

-6d

** This post was automatically generated by a computer **

Just got a Droid 2 and was transferring my old phone numbers over. I had just transferred the Google 411 number, and then jumped on Slashdot and determined I shouldn't bother!

It was nice to have, even though I suppose it's not as necessary with a smartphone. Still, cheaper than calling 411 on my carrier!

So long and thanks for all the fish!

6d

Heh, I see. Perhaps the old meme "^([0-9]*)(PB|GB|TB|MB|KB|B|Pb|Gb|Tb|Mb|Kb|b) should be enough for anyone$" needs to be revised since we're always running out of something, somewhere.

So the answer really comes down to.. need to boil the ocean? Get a bigger pot!

I was once told by another fellow Slashgeek, regarding the IPv6/IPv4 debate, that "one cannot boil the ocean"! I think we probably need these interim steps and solutions.. that's probably the only way things will continue working during the changeover. We do have to be careful not to fall into the trap of implementing an interim measure and getting stuck with it for a long time, when the better solution is almost never reached as soon as was desired. How many systems get implemented to be "temporary" and then become production for years?

At the same time, massive direct cutover changes almost never work. Although, that may not be entirely true - the recent change from analog to digital television seems to have gone reasonably well and that was a direct cutover.

6d

Some professional associations offer group health insurance plans, like IEEE. I don't know how good the coverage is, but it might be worth researching.

SixD

Hmm.. first complex HTML5 app maybe?

I'm probably not the first person to say it, but thank GOODNESS somebody is pushing HTML and web markup tech forward again. Even though some folks don't like some of the new elements present in HTML5, at least it's progressing again. Let's hope this continues!

-6d