Facebook asked me "to empower and educate users about our robust privacy controls." That's a great idea. Let me educate you: Facebook has no privacy controls whatsoever. Everything you ever post to Facebook will be exposed for money. That didn't take so long. I think we should all do as Facebook says and educate as many people as possible.

Have you read this thread? There are far more blindly critical posts than blindly positive posts.

As a teacher I can tell you that the main benefit of getting computers in the hands of kids is that it teaches them how to use computers. Which, generally speaking, is a skill that they will need if they are to thrive in the future. Sure, a really good program can help a kid learn math, or English, or history, or whatever. But mostly they need to learn how to use computers, and that requires time spent using them.

When I got my BA in psychology (in 1982) I was struck by the fact that every major theory in the history of psychology was developed by someone who had the exact problem that dominates the theory. Freud had major issues with his mom; his theory is that everyone has major issues with their mom. Jung had major issues with authority figures—Freud, specifically—and wrote how everyone has major issues with authority figures.

When a company is as successful as FaceBook, it can sometimes be hard to imagine how they could fail. But an IPO suggests at least one possible scenario: To "maximize shareholder return," as US public corporations are required by law to do (caveat: IANAL), they start charging for something. This pisses everybody off, but most people go along with it at first because there's no alternative. Then they start charging for a bunch of things. They they start charging for everything. And more and more people get pissed off, until some tipping point is reaches, and suddenly everybody switches to some free alternative. The end.

I think the most amazing thing about this story is that you were able to throw a crumpled ball of paper 40 feet into a stiff wind. I just went into my front yard with a crumpled ball of paper and could not get more than 33 feet, and that's with no wind at all.

Just wanted to acknowledge the Thomas Dolby reference. Very subtle but appreciated.

The Cyberiad is my favorite book of Science Fiction. It's a collection of short stories that tell the adventures of Trurl and Klapaucius, the constructors. Impossible to believe that this is not currently available as an ebook. Everything by Lem is worth reading, but especially His Master's Voice and The Chain of Chance (this last isn't scifi, but you can't have everything).

Lem is the master. He's not really forgotten, but you can only get maybe two or three of his books as ebooks. The Cyberiad is my favorite work of science fiction.

But... you're the one on the way out, right?

So is a "nanostrain" equal to 1/40th of an inch? That seems too big for the nano prefix.

From TFA:

"... forcing the company to publicly drop Christoforo as its marketing representative."

and from the guy

"I haven't lost any clients."

...capable of playing just about any type of sport they like. Take the money you saved on the test and buy your kid a bicycle.

This is the first bit of science I've seen that could plausibly be turned into one of the staples of SciFi, the tractor beam. How long before they have one that can move the (levitating) puck at a distance?

Neither product is designed to be used from 10 feet away. The test should be how similar they appear at the actual distance they are used, i.e. arm's length.