..yeah, no thanks. All I want or need is something that receives and sends a voice signal well, and isn't going to break down and need to be replaced in a couple years. You can keep your so-called "smart", your "apps", and all your other silly bells and whistles. I'll stick to something that is quality, and if I need some "smarts" beyond what my Nokia 6100 can do for me, I'll add a laptop.

they use Android tablets.

Google's current CEO, Larry Page, took Steve Jobs' advice to heart and is cutting the bloat (e.g. Google Wave, Google Labs, etc. have all been cut in the last several months). That means less 20%-time projects from engineers who have no experience with product development and more polished projects from the top management and PMs.

So apparently this guy is being jailed for reading the wrong things and thinking the wrong thoughts. Fuck the UK.

If you're not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about. In this post-9/11 world, we must give up some of our rights to enjoy freedom. By allowing this so-called right not to have GPS attached to a car, the liberal Supreme Court has allowed terrorists to step one inch closer to Lady Liberty.

Vote pro-America in 2012. Vote Gingrinch.

Why does it matter why a programming language is popular?

Suppose increasingly popular embedded systems require C programming; does that make C growth any less valid?

Suppose increasingly popular financial systems require Cobol; does that make Cobol growth any less valid?

Suppose increasingly popular Web browser apps require JavaScript; does that make JavaScript growth any less valid?

So a company that you like doesn't have valid patents, whereas a company that you do like does have valid patents, and you don't have any solid numbers to back up your conclusions.

IEEE Spectrum magazine annually puts out an international "Patent Power" scorecard for all the major industries to measure patent quality. In its most recent index published in November 2011, Apple was graded as having the powerful patent portfolio among the consumer electronics companies. Note that companies are listed in only one category, and Samsung is listed in the semiconductor industry, most likely because that is the domain where the majority of its patents are filed. IBM dwarfs all other companies; it is listed in the "Computer Systems" category. In the PDF file that has the actual metrics, the key value to look for is "adjusted pipeline power".

Apple legally acquired the rights, you fucking idiot. Why don't you use some common sense before embarrassing yourself again, asshole?

I'm an experienced photographer. To simplify your search, there are only two features/metrics that you should look for: (1) the option for the camera to shoot both JPEG and RAW (a manufacturer-proprietary format that captures more data for important pictures, which you can then subsequently convert to JPEG); and (2) sensor pixel density.

For (1), Dpreview.com recently published a nice roundup of RAW-shooting compact cameras. You can't go wrong with any camera in that group even if you never use the RAW feature.

For (2), look for cameras with a sensor size at least as large as APS-C; a larger sensor will capture more light, and for a given number of pixels, a larger sensor will produce less noise than a smaller sensor. APS-C signifies a sensor size around 23mm x 15mm. (A full-frame sensor is 36mm x 24mm, which is found in high-end DSLRs.) An APS-C sensor can fortunately now be found in several small cameras that have come out in the last year or so, but they are still relatively rare and relatively expensive. Such APS-C compact cameras include: Sony Nex-3, Nex-5, and Nex-7; Fuji X100; Samsung NX100 and NX200; and Leica X1. The Micro-4/3 MILC cameras typically have a sensor size around 17mm x 13mm. Note that the compact cameras listed in (1) above have even smaller sensors around 8mm x 6mm.