I use Waze for most of my navigation now, which also uses an open mapping back-end that's user editable. Winter roads are one of the features I've requested that it doesn't understand yet -- telling me to take a shortcut through a back road that's not open in January for example. Of course, as soon as I avoid it, it re-routes me properly.

One of the things I love about Waze is that it tracks your actual routes you take, and saves them on the routing server to help it make better decisions in the future.

Yes, and patented, so that we can avoid building on it in the FOSS world and wait twenty odd years to be able to make use of this research.

What's the functional difference between buying a scientist and paying him to do science and buying a researcher and paying him to do research?

Google hires people who are good fits for their goals and pays them to achieve those goals. I see no problem here.

Yes, Microsoft Research harkens back to a time of the failed Xerox PARC labs, but while funding generic research is really cool from a geeky perspective, its not so different from paying people to achieve specific goals if you're innovative enough.

I apply a very small amount and do the left side of my mouth, then another very sparing amount and do the right side. I do this to avoid the "where you start gets all the paste" problem, and since I use a sensitive tooth toothpaste to reduce sensitivity, its nice to actually have it work on both sides of one's mouth.

You may be right about how idiotic people are as I'm never one to claim people are intelligent by nature, but I disagree with your theory of why. The markings are clear, the information is clearly written, and people simply aren't following directions.

I'm reminded of yesterday's interview on the radio with a rep from Scott's Lawn products saying that most of the complaints she fields are from users who didn't follow the directions (specifically watering requirements).

I can honestly say the vast majority of my tech support calls are the same problem as well -- people who don't follow directions. It doesn't matter how often I write them down, or make them write them down, people ignore directions and do it their own way anyway. Those people deserve the blame entirely, not the company who wrote out clear directions they didn't follow.

I've never had a hard time reading the lines on a cap for laundry detergent -- its clearly marked and has been on every A list product I've ever used.

Meanwhile the bottle specifically says to use a pea-sized amount. The version shown on TV is huge so as to show off the sparkly pretty colours in the bottle, not as an example of how to brush your teeth.

Anyone who uses advertising as a life lesson deserves the result.

As long as you believe we haven't secretly learned to create fully remote controlled nanobots posing as hydrophobic coatings ... you'll be fine.

I have a suspicion that with the amount of both salt and sugar in a ketchup bottle very few ever go bad.

That said, I suppose externally introduced molds and such could get in there ...

Actually they're not remotely alike. A study was done (find the link with Google if you're interested) and found that Heinz ketchup hasn't changed flavour in so long because it is essentially perfect. Nobody else has created a product that even remotely competes with it.

... except the 'whole internet' often says "too bad, you'll have to wait for a fix" with proprietary software whereas "Oh, try this patch over here" often happens on FOSS instead.