Twenty minutes to demonstrate binary sort by tearing apart (literally!) phone books to find a person listed there, is how CS50 opens its classes. Take a look at the opencourseware site cs50.tv. It's practical, it's interactive, and it really shows the computational aspects that we take for granted. Twenty minutes to demonstrate selection sort and merge sort might be a bit tight though.

I think a discussion of the more "non-computer" parts of computer science would keep an audience more interested than a discussion about programming languages, which could easily lose people in the first five minutes.

The days of secure employment are long over, and management will eliminate your role if it makes financial sense to. You should stay "loyal" only insofar as that the employment is mutually beneficial and both sides get good value of the other.

The major restriction is on the redistribution part. I can modify all I want and not redistribute, and that's fine too. This "modify and not redistribute" might be called "using" the software.

Under copyright law, you never had any license of redistribution in the first place. The GNU GPL is a license which stipulates you must also redistribute your changes if you redistribute at all. That is, you're allowed to download and install and use Linux whether or not you accept the GPL. But you can't distribute Linux (the kernel) without also opening the source and modifications.

So the CEO gets very good pay for things they didn't cause either? Don't give me that when a company fails it's always due to market circumstances (justifying the parachute) but when it's successful it's due to sound leadership (justifying the very high compensation).

Encrypted connections are used for online banking. Or would you prefer to have a man listening in for your passwords and emptying your bank account with your login?

You're actually asking readers to "construct you a curriculum," without even starting to discuss what you've found so far. That reeks of laziness and apathy. More important than actually going through the material is the motivation to get through it. You seem to be of the mind that you'll "get around to it." That's not motivation.

Still, that's not a very helpful reply, so I'll give you a hint: MIT OpenCourseWare. Or go to any university website, look through their "Physics" program, check the degree prerequisites, and start grabbing the textbooks for those courses. That'll be a comprehensive curriculum on its own.

I don't think the restricted share units is the problem, it's the sheer number of them. Sure, he "participates with the shareholders" but I don't think he'll be particularly hurt if those shares lose 75% of their value. I can't honestly see anybody caring about losing $300 million if they still get to keep $100 million afterwards.

$100 million is probably 30 times what you'll make in a lifetime.

Had to post this link...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121219687026134617.html

Building inadequate sewage infrastructure... and its consequences.

This is why the FSF asks for copyright assignment in GNU projects. They become party to the license, and can act on its infringement.

Even professional math/finance PhD folks can make disastrous mistakes. Long Term Capital Management was founded with two Nobel Prize winners in Finance... didn't stop them from blowing up and needing a bailout.

Cry me a river about "the highway" when the developers already dismiss the best alternative application marketplace (Android). To the developers: Android dollars or no dollars. Or bending over for the will of Apple.

The price differential on Business versus Economy is insane in dollar terms, but "reasonable" in points. The usual price in frequent flyer points for Business is 2x Economy, which is a great comparative value to the 3.5x dollar price difference.

A business class ticket USA-Asia would be $6000 versus $1000, but 115,000 versus 60,000 FF points.

I'm nowhere near the top 5% of typists, but it was not all that hard to get 85WPM. Perhaps the sample studied is not representative of the population?

I'm reminded of a Miss Manners quote.

"If you're willing to marry a man that will cheat on his wife, you are marrying a man that will cheat on his wife."

This seems like a fast way to force Net Neutrality laws, as the resulting carnage of takeovers and mergers create segregated islands of content. Even congressmen and senators should find it difficult to swallow needing all of a Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon connections to obtain their Disney, FOX, and HGTV channels.

Although I also think the telecoms are underestimating the power of the "independent" content providers, like Google or Yahoo. Clout-wise, companies like that might actually be able to extract payment from the backbones for the privilege of getting customers to them. What's Comcast going to do, say "sorry you can't do that" to their customers because they don't have an agreement with Google?