"People get angry at Glass. They get angry at you for wearing Glass. They talk about you openly. It inspires the most aggressive of passive aggression. ... Wearing Glass separates you. It sets you apart from everyone else. It says you not only had $1,500 to plunk down to be part of the âoeexplorerâ program, but that Google deemed you special enough to warrant inclusion (not everyone who wanted Glass got it; you had to be selected). Glass is a class divide on your face." [emph. added]

I agree and disagree with many of the above statements, but overall, I just think he simply doesn't get it.

People start talking about you openly because, hello, you are there with a device that can record their every action and every word they say, and you wear the device knowing what it can do, and without caring about whether other people like that or not. So if you allow yourself the liberty to disregard everyone else, why would you expect to be treated any differently? Maybe they think talking about you will make you stop, since for legal reasons they might not have any other way to stop you at most public spaces - besides common sense and basic social etiquette which you might consider learning about sometime.

And yes, wearing it might set you apart, but not because we might think you are 'special', or that Google thought you're 'special', but because it makes an obvious statement that you don't care about other people's opinion of being monitored and recorded without notice, which makes you a jerk (at least).

When meeting with GGlass-wearing people, I ask them to put it away while having a conversation. If they don't, then I shouldn't be talking to them anyway.

I'd like to make mandatory to post the age of a submitter alongside any 'news' item. Why? Because if the poster of this item is a 10 year old, then I'd say OK, someone getting into the game is looking around, good job. However, I don't think this is the case here, I even thought first that it was a joke, which it doesn't seem so. I'd suggest redirecting noobies into other forums instead of posting their totally useless submissions on /.

"Ever since tablets got popular, it's been almost impossible to find a decent notebook."

So right. There are some good ones, but much less to choose from then we could a few years ago. Thats why I'm happy I got an xps13 when it came out, still using it, especially when I'm travelling since I'm much more productive with it than with any tablet. I just hope that when I'll have to ditch it there will still be some decent notebooks to pick from (I'm not too optimistic though).

I'm not a physicist, but I'm pretty sure these materials can't 'bend' inertia and mass, making this talk about diverting tsunami waves sound pure nonsense.

"In this case, the "reason" was because they suspected the fella of importing "objectionable" material. So making a copy and then giving the device back wouldn't serve the purpose ..."

Why wouldn't it serve the purpose? If they'd make a copy that could perfectly well used in any criminal case they'd raise against the guy afterwards, if ever.

My point is, at a lot of airports - US airports included - they can do with anyone what they did with this guy, and while I can (not easily, but still) accept their point, I'd much prefer giving them my data from the devices than the devices themselves. Especially regarding phones, which would be much easier and faster to backup, and it's probably the one device even the most privacy-fanatic people don't wipe before every travel...

"making copies can take time. drives are pretty large today and it can take a while to zip up your media"

I don't much care, I'd still prefer to wait instead of the hassle that would be caused by taking all the devices away for god knows how long.

OK, first I have to say I travel a lot and I know they can check your devices at a lot of airports, and I hate that as much as everyone. However, my question is why don't they just make a copy/backup/etc of all the devices you have and give them all back? Why do they have to take everything away? It's not that I'd have something sensitive or illegal on my devices: I never take sensitive information with me on travels, I always access them remotely on our servers, all the software I use is legit or free, and I buy all my music and videos. However, taking the devices away can cause a lot of problems, the most important being making you unreachable (and making you unable to reach people). Yes, you can buy a new tablet or a new laptop, and you can buy a new phone, but good luck trying to convince your phone company to forward your calls to a new number if you don't actually have the device and you're not even in your home country... and propagating your new number to all your important contacts could be a real PITA. Yes, some can use Google Voice, but others would be simply fscked. All in all, I don't see how one could come out OK from such an encounter.

My opinion is that every new printed book should have a free ebook 'companion' version available right on release, obtainable with some code/qr from the printed book, with let's say a 6 months expiration date. Then, the ones who have the printed version could purchase the electronic version for let's say 5% of the printed price, and for 20% if you don't have the printed version.

I'm sure I wasn't the first to think of such a scheme, but it seems they just don't want the ebook market to grow 100x faster than it is now, so they don't implement such a structure.

And that's exactly why I never bought any electronic book. The only electronic reading material I ever bought are scientific articles, and even that is very rare, since I find most of them for free somewhere, or get it directly from the authors.

Oh, most certainly you can do a postdoc. And you don't even have to be a postdoc for it :D

Anyway, on the serious side, postdoc jobs mean one thing: working for food. But, there are much worse places to do that than at some university's research lab, so at least you might be at a nice place to be exploited while you figure out a). where to go to actually make some money and then leave, or b). that you can't actually get a job where you could make money so you get stuck. Problem is when one gets to be a postdoc at 27-28 years of age - calculating with 5 years university and 3-5 years until the phd degree, which is pretty normal -, and realizing you're just starting to - eventually - earn some real money, with some friends having got to well-paying positions during those 3-5 years you've spent for that degree.

Especially since there are now companies who actually don't want to hire phd's based on some weird philosophies. Go figure.

It sounds best with an Italian accent :)

So, 'Monitor How You Drive Can Be a Good Thing'. Maybe it can. Problem is, how we drive and how they think we drive will never mean the same.

Firstly, dangerous drivers who present the most risk are not those, who drive faster, make one or two sudden moves from time to time, or drive more than the average. Dangerous drivers are those who can't drive fast enough - ever been in a jam caused by some idots holding everyone back? -, those who can't drive safely according to environmental conditions - ever seen Californians drive in a rain? -, those who are not patient enough - remember those idiots jumping lanes like a kangoroo? -, those who aretoo inexperienced to judge any traffic situation and cause even more trouble, and so on and so forth.

Secondly, if they are not there, and can't judge the circumstances, than they are in no position to make decisions on how safely we drive. They can calculate your prices based on the speeds you drive at, the roads you drive on, the moves you make, and while they all might be safe and adhering to current traffic situations, you might still end up paying more.

This is all too short to speak about all relevant issues, but all things considered, I'll never opt for monitoring-based payments. If my fees will be higher because of this, I'll still be fine with that, since at least they won't lie to my face about how honestly and objectively and correctly they calculated those fees.

Quickoffice? How is ths news? Not long back they made it free, and we even got free extra Google Drive space for downloading and installing it. And it doesn't need to be KitKat, it works with earlier versions as well.

Again, how is this news?

Right.

"However, switch to what is the question?"

oovoo

No, seriously, http://www.oovoo.com./ While the name is idiotic, been using it - along with skype - for a few years now on windows and android, and it's quite alright.

While I could definitely see the benefits of eliminating unnecessary risks from the road, my problem with approximations is that they seldomly come true. While the number of accidents might decrease, that doesn't mean the number of incidents will. E.g. autonomous vehicles can also brake down, algorithms can go haywire, situations can occur when prompt human intervention would be important (and won't happen since they are not paying attention), etc. etc.

One situation where I'd really welcome more self-driving vehicles is in southern CA during rains. Yes, they are rare, however, most people drive like idiots during rainfall, and accidents become much more frequent. Probably because they have so little experience in driving in rainy conditions, so they drive too close to each other, or drive too fast, or drive to slow, and one more thing: they make me lose my temper :) which I really don't like. So yeah, bring self-driving cars on.

Just please, pretty please, make'm so that the autonomous driving mode can be disabled for the times when you actually want to enjoy a nice driving-around from time to time.

Well, I'd be interested to hear him actually pronounce that: 'Oh god, a fuel cell is so bull@%!#'. He knows it, we know it, everyone knows it, so why the hell can't we write the proper word. Ehh.