What a load of crap. Taking advantage of increased irrational demand isn't a problem. It's following market trends, and that's good business. The smart people that are interested in her music will simply wait a while before buying, allowing prices to go back to normal. Nothing wrong with capitalizing on people who are 1) willing to pay more or 2) have so little self-control that they can't wait.

Lots of other "big" titles that launched recently have since gone free-to-play. Star Wars Online and DC Universe Online are recent examples. I give SWTOR a year (more than the average due to the Star Wars name) before they start letting people in free. They might not call it "F2P" but at the very least they'll have playable trial accounts that expose 75% of the game.

I don't have cable any more. The main reason is that I was paying $60/month for a package that had only three channels that I used. (MLB Network, ESPN, Versus in HD - I watch live sports but not much else.) If I could pay $15/month just for those channels, I'd be doing it. But since I can't, I just ditched the whole thing. I realize I'm not the typical customer, but it would be awfully nice if there was a company that could cater to those of us that really only want a few channels, and aren't willing to pay ridiculous amounts for them.

I know I'm way behind on this, just now discovered IFTTT, but I have to say it's an awesome idea. I love the ability to automatically link up some of these web apps without requiring code. Could I code those linkages? Sure, but that makes me spend time, and host that code, and maintain it...with IFTTT all that work is abstracted away. This is just like the adapter integration model...build one adapter for each of your end applications, then hook up the adapters. Swap out an end application, and as long as you keep the adapter the same, your integrations still work. Same principle applies here and it's a great idea!

Before this whole price thing blew up, I gave up on Netflix. Why?

1. If I want anime (my favorite genre), I'm better off with http://www.rentanime.com./ It costs $20/month, but the selection is significantly better. I'd already seen pretty much all the good anime that was on Netflix anyway.
2. If I want TV shows, go damn near anywhere on the Internet these days and you'll hit a way to get TV shows. From Hulu+ to iTunes, to Amazon, they're everywhere. Pretty cheap, too.
3. For new movie DVD releases, there's http://www.redbox.com./ Sure, it's not quite as convenient as Netflix was, but I only watch 1-2 movies a month, so it's a *lot* cheaper. Plus it has the spur-of-the-moment factor...as long as I'm willing to put some pants on and drive 5 minutes, I can get the DVD right away.

About the only thing left is older movie DVD releases. You can get most of those on Amazon too.

At the end of the article: "But the main thing is to be truthful and not exaggerate because we actually have to deliver." When there are some real-world examples, then graphene will be worth reading about.

I don't want my wireless access point open because my bandwidth is crappy enough as it is. I don't need to be giving random other people access to fill up that bandwidth.

If I were running DropBox, I wouldn't go after the guys who exploited a weakness in the way my filesharing worked...I'd fix it. Seems very odd that DropBox would worry about DropShip at all. Now I don't know anything about how this stuff works and so it may not be a simple change, but if you're going to be a company that wants to provide secure filesharing, then you've got to make the change anyway, DropShip or no DropShip. So, update your code to close the loophole so it doesn't work any more. Problem solved, not only for DropShip but also for any other person looking at the same thing.

Google alerts. Automatic. Shows up in my inbox daily so I can easily check if there's anything I need to worry about.

http://www.google.com/alerts

As a side benefit, I learn interesting things about people who share my name.

http://scratch.mit.edu/ is a good place to start, I would think. Let him do some of that and then when you start to hear, "I wish I could do X", point him toward something more complex. I've seen Python and Ruby both suggested as that next step, and I'd add Perl to the list.

Absolutely. There's the very basic support, like ordering the food and making sure the cleaning people don't turn off all the lights, which is very useful. But more importantly, being available when something comes up that the developer needs help with. Question about requirements comes up? The manager can call the functional guy and ask. Problem with access? The manager can call up the sysadmins and get the ball moving. It's pretty rare that something is so completely cut-and-dried that the developer can work late hours with no outside support to get it done. When that outside support is needed, having the manager right there to get the help that is needed can be a great help.