Valid question.

I'm simply pointing out that people who hang out on facebook for extended periods of time are perceived as creepers. I would certainly rather be associated with Apple products than Facebook products. Since the main appeal of Apple seems to be the "cool" factor, there is no way that Facebook can win against Apple.

Apple has kept their "cool" factor. Facebook is quickly loosing it. Just think of the difference:
Person A uses facebook for 2 hours a day.
Person B uses their apple product for 2 hours a day.

Which person would you rather hang out with?

I will not work for a company that wants to bring their home drama to work with them. Simple as that.

I can't agree enough. The salary and job security of an engineer is not enough to keep me in the field, or encourage me to get a masters. It is going to get outsourced anyways.

Yet, the managers that do the outsourcing keep their jobs.

It is a co-op game, not a competitive game. It doesn't matter if the PC gamer has an advantage, since you are still working together to reach the same goal.

The Xbox 360 allows you to copy a game to the HDD, significantly reducing loading times. In addition, the Xbox 360 has been hacked for a while using a JTAG to run unsigned code. Once someone hacks the game, a player can download the hack by using the xbox Media Center, a USB drive to transfer the files, or just by joining a game with someone that has the mod. (Modern Warfare, I'm looking at you!)

You can also do a combination of bridging host and running unsigned code to give you all kinds of control. (Bridging host = forcing XBL to give you host). For example, one hack was able to return all players in a game lobby to level 1. (Modern Warfare 2, players would lose all of the weapons and perks that they unlocked.) There were also "10th Prestige" lobbies that would automatically boost you to the max level, unlocking all of the weapons and perks in the game.

All of your typical Counter-Strike style cheats can be applied to XBL. Some studios have done a significantly better job at banning cheaters than others. For example, Bungie has done a great job filtering out the cheaters, but Infinity Ward was absolutely horrible at it. (A lot of cheating) Microsoft has done a decent job, but certainly not enough.

Yes, there are also "bugs", but exploiting a bug in the game won't result in a ban.

In the end, there are a LOT of ways to cheat. XBL is not pristine, but it does have some controls to ban Cheaters.

The fascination is based on an attack with X country. If they knew of a crippling zero-day exploit (For example, a "recloser- Open" command, or a "MV Switch ON/OFF" command), they could theoretically disable portions of the grid from the safety of their own home.

Heaven forbid they can download custom firmware. Then they could tell every Smart Car Charger to charge their electric automobiles at the same time. Think about it. A neighborhood full of electric cars charging at the same time. Makes most utility guys cringe just thinking about it.

Lets assume they are using the +20MHz spectrum. There are a few installations in the US (I believe one is in Colorado). Essentially, a collector is installed on the LV side of a power line transformer. (The transformer acts like a filter to the signal, isolating the connection from other neighborhoods.) This collector is typically connected to another technology as the backhaul. In Europe, it is reasonable to expect 200 homes on a single transformer, so it is very cost-effective for this kind of utilization. In the US, you get only 1-8 homes per transformer, so the cost is fairly large. If you really need to, you can use the MV line to transmit this PLC as a backhaul.

200Mbps is the Maximum amount, used for marketing purposes. In Europe, they can have a couple hundred houses connected to the same LV transformer. This means that you are sharing a 200 Mbps connection with the neighborhood. If you assume 100 homes for one transformer and 50% utilization, a home can get a maximum of 2Mbps (assuming an ideal backhaul). As you all know, this is an "ideal" number. If they try to use PLC as the backhaul (instead of fiber), then you share the bandwidth with other neighborhoods, reducing your datarate well below 1Mbps.

Other considerations: Repeaters.
Underground wiring is another filter. This kind of technology will require a repeater every 100 meters for a full underground installation. Overhead wires need a repeater every 500 meters or so. If you are in a high-noise environment (as in, there is a factory connected to your substation), datarates are decreased and more repeaters are required.

Simply put, the final system will look closer to 500Kbps per home and it will cost a significant amount of money to the homeowner, either through taxes or through required rate hikes on your utility bill.)

So if you want to use PLC to help solve the ISP monopoly, you are looking in the wrong place.

Signed,
A Smart-Grid researcher and designer for the US market

I hate the fact that I have well over 20 passwords. I also have at least 5 different machines that I need to use.

Give me a better option, please!!!!

Goog411 was amazing! No ads, good results. Thankfully I have a smartphone, but there were still times that Goog411 was faster than using my smartphone.

I guess I will go back to 1-800-Free411

The Fart App is the new Hello World!

You have to get experience writing for a platform somehow. Your first few programs may be throw-away, just to get used to the platform.

The end user just needs to Feel comfortable. Once a user gets into a web browser, they don't really care about the OS. Something like this would be great for hotel lobbies (with free internet), libraries, and other public access sites.

My wife (a linux hater) used it in a hotel lobby to print out some airline tickets. She had no idea it was Linux, but I noticed the differences. She had a great experience (managed to get her items printed out without an issue), and just assumed it was a windows machine.

Her view of the hotel improved because of a simple amenity that helped her out. The hotel had a PC without a costly OS, saving them money. I can easily see the value in something like this.

They just can't use the DMCA in their defense. They may find some other loophole to prosecute you, and they may still brick your phone with some kind of firmware update.

Was Sony involved?

According to the article, there are about 51,000 manholes in New York. A few hundred explosions occur every year. (Lets say 300). So the algorithm listed (51,000*.02)=1020 manholes that were high risk. Out of that 1020 manholes, they were correct on (300*.11)=33 manholes.

In my industry, we would call this a complete failure. Even the weather forecaster would call this a failure. It reminds me of Demolition Man