The irony is that companies, like the one I am employed by, will spend millions to renovate an existing cube farm to the open equivalent. This completely throws the idea of cost reduction out the window. All because the hair-brained CEO saw that layout at another company and liked the idea of it. And in spite of the fact that an initial trial group of employees all indicated that distractions out weighted any benefits.

Every day I have to go back there is the worst day of my life...

I think it must come from some sort of CEO Bullshit Handbook they all get when they start the job. The CEO at my company has been saying this exact same phrase for about 5 years as she continually does rounds of layoffs, while increasing stock buyback and dividends.

I wouldn't know because I've been fortunate to live in a country that doesn't suffer from fundamentalist, totalitarian rule. Maybe there are some christians in North Korea that would want to buy a bible?

You're obviously struggling to disconnect the tech from what it could be used for though. You're question was why this tech should exist. I gave you a very benign purpose that one could use it for as an example, thinking you could extrapolate on what other uses you might take for granted that not every person in the world is allowed. The medication example I used was meant to be the more compelling argument.

Having watched Dallas Buyer's Club a few weeks back, it comes to mind that one could want to purchase medications that are arbitrarily banned by the FDA because corporate interests have a large lobbying arm.

I agree with your point that the majority of U.S. users will not be engaging in "legitimate" business dealings, but I doubt there has been a government that has never banned a substance/item/idea because of pressure from special interest groups. A system like this could be used by people in [OppressiveCountryName] for something as honest as buying a book that has been banned.

The question is specific to mobile apps.

Exactly. I work at a large tech company and our engineering staff is probably close to 40% non-white. He needs to go the schools and communities to encourage education if he wants to see the numbers of his minority rise, not corporate boardrooms.

Sounds to me like they just need to build a really big wall. Problem solved!

I've found Udacity to have some pretty good online CS classes. They have been expanding into other areas as well lately, but their focus has mainly been CS. I thought the Web Applications class was really well done. Python is even my new favorite scripting language because of it.

The US is just making an effort to be leading from the rear. 'Merica!

Interesting side-note: It was President Jimmy Carter that changed this law. Carter, himself, was a teetotaler.

No, fibromyalgia is primarily just a lot of pain.

Stranger in a Strange Land. Our cultures tend to want to kill anyone that is too far from our version of normal.

The only reason that I've been anticipating VLC on Android is for SMB streaming on my Xoom. The 10.1" screen is perfect for watching a flick in bed, so the tiny screen concern kind of evaporates. I have no interest, whatsoever, in configuring transcoding: I just want my device to be able to play videos natively, and across my existing network.

Can someone who's tried the Beta comment on whether it has SMB support? Bonus points if you can tell me whether Tegra 2 seems to be able to play an average 720p H.264 reasonably well.

Couldn't agree more. Amnesia is the only game that I've ever played where I had to stop playing it too late at night because it creeped me out. I highly recommend playing the game in a dark room with headphones.

FTFA: "Hart, CEO of International Game Technology, a gaming machine manufacturer, told the Yahoo board that the board asked her to step down from her seat." She is CEO of IGT, and the IGT board of directors are the ones that asked her to resign from Yahoo because it is a huge distraction.

//Full disclosure: I work at IGT