If you view this as an imperialist move by China as opposed to a western style company taking a risky bet, does that change things at all?

Recall that many Chinese "companies" are appendages of the Chinese government -- and sometimes, even the Chinese Military (acting with quasi-autonomy from the government itself).

So, if some fragile corrupt African government attempts to nationalize Chinese investments, there's a good chance that China will simply dispense with the problematic elements of said government in whatever way doesn't risk significant repercussions from other world powers. Given what China is willing to provoke between Taiwan and Japan -- two US allies with protection agreements -- I don't think China is going to lose any sleep if it needs to steamroll a few African governments. The US won't do anything about it, and neither will anyone else.

Finally, why are you still in SA? It sounds like a wretched mess. Turn off the lights on your way out....

Complete and utter bullshit. I can take you to have lunch in the United States and pay for it with money. Good luck doing anything useful or at least demonstrable with your "god".

Nobody is dismissing the idea; they're telling you that you're a fucking idiot for believing that the idea represents reality.

Non-idiots have been laughing at both of those things for years now.

As soon as you find one, please, let us know! That would be the biggest boon to science in history.

With Oculus Rift-like displays, you can have very very big 2D "screens", and very many 2D "screens", and also 3D Abax/"Sand Tables" and Environments.

And that's why I'm very disappointed with Microsoft, Microsoft Research etc, for crap like Windows 8.

High powered personal computers with such screens and a suitable UI could let you do a lot more, quicker than what's possible now (and also check facebook/slashdot in a fancier way ;) ). Add thought-macros and we might actually have what I'd call progress. If you head in this direction, the mobile devices won't be competing with your Desktop/Personal Computers, OS and UIs for quite a while yet. What is likely to happen is they become complementary or even synergistic. The mobile stuff will let you do your virtual telepathy, virtual telekinesis and virtual savant stuff (eidetic memory, fast counting/math, face/gun/etc recognition), while the desktop stuff will help you use up all the cores Intel/AMD can provide (see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... many people are capable of much more, a suitable UI might make it almost natural).

While it's true there isn't much of a market for such devices yet, but the OS and UI has to be in a position to support such devices first. You need the infra, APIs, frameworks so that developers ("Developers! Developers! Developers!") can start building stuff.

Even if it's merely an announcement of direction with no actual tangibles yet, it'll make me more hopeful and excited. The roadmap/direction they've been announcing has been disappointing for all the supposed creative geniuses they are supposedly paying. Who gets excited about Microsoft turning their desktop computer into a more powerful tablet?

Someone will eventually do it. I doubt the present Desktop Linux bunch will or can, nowadays it seems their idea of innovation is to make a UI that's worse than whatever Microsoft shits out. They're so bad that I sometimes wonder if they're being paid to sabotage Desktop Linux.

Maybe Apple might? If Google or Apple succeed in making a decent virtual savant/telepathy/telekinesis wearable device or make a better general purpose UI for Oculus Rift stuff I'd say it's genuinely "Insanely Great".

If you look up "appeal to authority" logical fallacy, there is an exception for Donald Knuth:

"footnote: It is never fallacious to properly cite Donald Knuth in lieu of providing your own argument."

Oh, well then your comment adds absolutely nothing to this thread. This is something we all already know. C# (and .NET, and CLR) is the new kid on the block, of course it's not going to have the same market presence as Java. But I'd argue that that's the primary impetus behind opening it up: the common excuse for why people don't use .NET is because it's tied to Windows.

And there's the irony: Java got successful enough to rest on its laurels in lieu of external competition. Then it got tossed around around between companies, so it hasn't had a smooth existence. For instance, C# has had lambda expressions since 2007 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Sharp_%28programming_language%29#Versions). Java finally got lambdas literally just this year. Now, admittedly, they are two very different languages when it comes to design philosophy, but their markets do overlap, and these features are incredibly useful in those markets.

In which ways? C# has historically been years ahead of Java in terms of features and flexibility. Now, if you want to argue about JVM vs. .NET, then you might have an argument.

Yes and no, depending on which ones you're referring to.

Yes and no, depending on which ones you're referring to. Mostly no.

Yes and no, depending on which ones you're referring to. Mostly no.

Haven't met any of those, not convinced they exist. If they do, they're not terrorists, just fucking stupid. The ones lobbing rockets into Israel while treading on the faces of their own people, though? Yep.

Yep.

Either you're making a suggestion which shows that you don't understand what "unaffiliated with a nation state" means, or this part just makes no sense whatsoever.

Oh, sure. All the attacks which get stopped are "ones which were never going to succeed", and all the ones which succeed are ones which "clearly show the incompetence and futility of the security apparatus", amirite? Nice rhetoric bro; wee bit lacking on the intellectual integrity front.

This is just uneducated white-guilt garbage. Yes, it's Americans who are walking into Arab coffee shops and detonating themselves. Sure it is. It's the small fraction of Arabs killed by Americans which other Arabs will remember; not the much larger fraction killed by the factions within their own borders. Ignore the Iraqis and Kurds all crying for help within a couple years of the US leaving; it's not because they need saving from the same people we've been fighting all along, but rather because those poor bastards must have been so terrorized by the Eevil Amerikkan Pigdogs that they've developed Stockholm Syndrome. They hate the US so much they can't wait to see you again.

And this is just ignorant anti-American bullshit posing as open-minded progressive thought. Yes, just go ahead and label an entire nation an "axis of evil", based on the demonstrably false claim that they're targeting "anyone over 18". Go ahead and mix lies and hypocrisy, in an attempt to justify bigotry.

I know that you don't actually believe what you're saying; I'm just not sure if that makes it more evil or less. I do, however, know that you are scum, and that I have far more in common with the average Iraqi than I do with a fanatic like you.

Judging by your example there's no point in trying. You're basically saying:

"people are going to lie about what you did and then hate you based on those lies, so you have to be perfect, which will magically stop them from lying about you"

-5,000, Lying Bastard

Suggesting that what the Japanese did was equivalent to the modern usage of the word "waterboarding" is a bit like suggesting that the Nazis really did just give the Jews a nice shower.

So, so according to you, the US used to give guards the death penalty for performing a rectal exam?

Hah. As if any of the blame-America-first crowd would ever concede any kind of high ground!

"What's that? You're not torturing? Well, err, you're invading. For OIL!"
"What's that? Not invading? Err ... umm ... well, you have too many bases around and the world and that's bad because reasons!"
"What's that? No more bases? Well, erm, you're evil because racism! And bad healtchare! And hicks!"

Face it - doesn't matter what the US does or doesn't do; the battle lines are already drawn. Trying to placate those who hate you is asinine. As for those of us who don't hate you, torturing a few scumbags certainly isn't going to push us over the line.

Certain based on what? The zero scientific evidence which shows any risk of harm greater than existing drilling methods?

How can you be certain that someone whom you've never met or spoken to actually knows something which cannot even be shown to be true? This would be like me saying "I'm certain that Obama knows that an alien spaceship was recovered in Roswell, but he's covering it up because there's money to be made". Hilarious, maybe, but completely nonsensical.