That's nearly true; if it were me now, I'd just plow through even though the material was becoming decreasingly relevant to what I was (and did) persevere to do in spite of them (goals/career-wise.) Then again, NOW, I have the financial foundation to feed myself and afford books, transit, and rent ... and further have a distinct sense of what I want to do with myself. Wasn't quite the case at the time ... and when the choice became between their gouging me for ten times more than I had, or the decent paying but full-time and demanding job I'd already found and conquered. Yeah... it's not a great feeling thing to look back upon; I might have had a much better experience if I'd put off university for a couple years and dabbled at work FIRST. Regardless, do not condone messing with students FINANCIALLY. Make their courses tough (As Markovsky always told us in discreet structures, after having shown us a clipped down version of starwars, day one, suggesting recursion was akin to the 'force', 'I'll feel as if I've failed if any more than two of you (out of 20 or so) pass this course this semester. I don't want to hear another tale of patients suffering fatal or nearfatal doses of xrays because the software behind the hospitals' machines didn't cope well with someone who typed too fast at the console.') ... but don't lie about the upcoming expenses and then withhold the 95% of the money you've already been paid even while classes are starting (and said student is being kicked out of labs for lack of fees paid) while leaving said student to beg around looking for 3rd party private loans with crap terms.

I've heard this; that commits to Github/CPAN are far more important to good employers than a CV or particular degree (though both are not unimportant.) To that end I have been spinning out some of my ideas; I describe my long-term employer as a bit of a sheltered bay. We developed an in-house MVC framework that predated and could well have taken on the life that Moose/Catalyst have, had we the wits to open source it early on. But never having done that, not having the option now to do that, and spending so much time developing and maintaining something that is going to remain an relative unknown to anyone else... it can make one rusty. In the meantime, I whittle away at personal projects and even now contribute to some nonprofit projects so as to do good for others while hopefully doing good for my discernibility on the talent market. Still... not having a degree I put a lot of time into, regardless of my current capacities and pay-grade... it feels like a personal failure even if the financial aide department gave me much to legitimately rant about.

I never finished my degree as my original university seemed to delight in messing with my finances and withholding books; I also slipped into an IT/Software Dev career and am doing reasonably well, but also feel like the lack of an official degree (and some need for brushing up) is a bit threatening. I'd love to poke away slowly at a degree (I'm going to assume that, since what CS I do have is about 12 years old now, little of it will transfer into a new one.)

Sadly, no... skype is currently not allowed to make emergency service calls. I'm speaking of a telephony service that is 100% exchangeable with modern requirements of having a damn phone number (yes, I hate phones.) If I didn't have to write down a phone number on forms I'd probably not even have one... but as long as I MUST, I'd just as soon not having to have a separate and ultimately unused object that handles it.

I'm holding out, myself, for the all-in-one tablet... powerful enough to manage as an IT/developer's tool (I figure they're close enough already, but to the point that I won't be crippled without a laptop nearby) and includes FULL telephony... I realize one isn't about to hold a tablet up to their ear, but with bluetooth one could have one of those in-ear things just as they do now with an iphone... I'm simply not willing to buy multiple devices that have so much overlap but one damn feature or two that is unique when there's really no good reason for it.

The system you mention would be just about the only thing that really should be able to have access to this kind of power; my concern is that that system is being pressured by the likes of monsanto and the NRA and walmart and you name whatever mutlinational corporation you like. Concentrated power attracts corruption even if it was originally created with the best on intentions. I'm all for constitutional requirements; I'm just not 100% convinced that they're holding sway anymore... and no, I'm not anti-obama. If drones are being abused, it's by the military-industrial complex we were warned about so many decades ago, and Obama can't stop that kind of thing alone... and support from the masses is not sufficient at this time to back him if there really were a contest of wills going on between corporations, the military, and civilian control of 'presure points' of power.

Look, the way we took down bin Laden was the RIGHT way to do it and it was the way it should have been done from the very beginning... if you have an enemy, decapitate him. But instead we treated (and treat) entire populations as if they were the enemy, which really only serves to make US the enemy instead. So I'm torn... on the one hand, if drones can do this, then good... on the other, what happens when our relatively lack of accountability in using them takes a darker turn? What happens when a peacenik (as suggested by Goering at the nuremburg trials) is denounced at a traitor and subject to 'droning,' too? Who decides who is a terrorist?

It is true to say that google is an app that extends the cabilities on the human mind; but this is not news and not new. The hoe was an extention of the human arm and hand that broadened out abilities. The abacus and the calculator enhanced our ability to do math. Telegraphs and phone wires and electromagnetic squeaks allow us to communicate far behind the physical limitations of our vocal chords. Google is simply the amalgamation of many minds into a common memory store. And this will progress as the scale of technology is further reduced and literally disappears inside our bodies through nanotech, without so much as a scar (yes, implants are essentially obsolete even before they've gained much traction.) We'll be dreaming together and having conversations in our heads with folk over the internet, witnessing events with our own eyes as they occur on the other side of the globe, et cetera, within just a couple decades, if not less. The point is; we have essentially been cyborging ourselves since the invention of technology itself. It is nothing new.

not exactly... asteroids from the inner system have some water in them... but the bodies in the outer system are primarily NOT asteroids, but in stead are comets and kuipers. Mostly water as opposed to Mostly rock/metal... kind of a huge difference, really, when one is trying to punch its way through your atmosphere.

I mean, look at what we see with other protostars forming out there; the compaction of gasses from nebulae... and with the building blocks of water being so extremely common out there (contrary to the plot of 'ice pirates') its only natural that water will condense into these protosystems as well... and water has a tendency to build up a static charge, which would probably influence its distribution, especially in 'warmer' parts of the forming system. I would resume that it would congregate easier closer in, and most of what is found in the outer system (oort and kuiper type structures) may be what was thrust out there by the 'ignition (for lack of a better term)' of the new star. It's all speculation, but based on observations.

I've no basis for arguing with that =3

The developers of EVE online adore agile and have noted a dramatic uptick in productivity, reliability, and content delivery since adopting it... and even went so far as to do a presentation about the whole thing. So I guess it CAN work... it just doesn't necessarily work by default

We need this; use your patent or lose it... period. I understand rewarding an inventor who has made the world a little better through invention by giving him or her (or it, as the case may be) the initial windfall of profit from it... but sitting on patents as a means of thwarting competition, et cetera... should be criminal for the damage it does the world.

Given the scale of space and the ease of refracting light, combat in space will probably resemble long-distance submarine warfare more than anything else. Silent light-refracting source-seeking missiles guided by spherical cameras with intensely high resolution looking for occlusions (i.e., the silhouettes of ships passing in front of the stellar background.) Since it's so easy to coast, and ships would have to be superiorly insulated ANYWAYS, looking for heat signatures would require extremely sensitive instruments... but would probably be viable in tandem with silhouette detectors. All in all, it would likely be a matter of extreme hiding, long distance (many many thousands of miles at the closest probably, and more typically hundreds of thousands.)

Assuming this technology pans out, why would you call it fake? Just like a lab-grown emerald, it is chemically identical to the natural source without all the damage to the landscape, infection(inclusion) exposure, or unnecessary cost. (sure it costs a lot now, it's an experiment. In a couple decades time, it'll clock in at a ten, maybe a hundredth of the cost of 'real-but-otherwise-inferior' meat off the killed organism.)