Hey cool I'll have to check that out! IMHO, despite making money implementing the various UI's on various platforms(I'm an embedded sw guy), I would much prefer a 3rd party UI to unite everything.

D'oh sorry, that's what I meant. Definitely worth the $14.99 or whatever it is they're charging me. Vastly better content library than Netflix.

to continue to have access to their mediocre collection of content.

Hulu Plus with adblocking is far and away a better return on investment... that said, I cut the cable, so I'll happily throw $10 at them so I can keep myself busy browsing their catalog for something to watch. That activity alone eats up hours of my time every month.

On an unrelated note... Does anyone else feel like we should be able to pay for access to content separately from the UI? I know solutions like TiVo allow you to search multiple content providers, but you still have to use a different user interface for each provider. I'd rather have a single UI(don't mind paying for it) and just pay Hulu, Netflix, Vudu, etc for access to their content. I don't need 5 streaming apps, each with it's own quirky UI.

I'd buy a super mac-mini in a heartbeat. The wife and I are pretty tired of OSX, but I'd still go for it if it was available. We're looking to upgrade our 2008 24" iMac and at this point we're both(!!! - she's not a nerd) leaning towards Linux or even Windows. I'm just not willing to pay the mac tax for outdated hardware. I could go for an iMac, but then I have the same problem I'm facing now - a nice display that's going to go in the garbage because the associated hardware is outdated.

Just remember, a closed-source device that can do TTS locally, and one which can connect to the net, can possess nearly all of the same nefarious capability as one which sends everything to the cloud.

It would be trivial to load(and even field upgrade) a list of watch words which trigger steganographic(or just overt) communication back to a server regarding what is being said. Uploading the raw data to the cloud just makes it easier.

Run the ad in a jail and don't let the pixels it wants to draw ever reach the viewer. Sure, your browser is still bogged down by the ads but your mind won't have to deal with them.

> serial-to-Ethernet stuff

Haha, I worked at a company whose bread and butter were devices like that... then they got into payment processing as well.

Products were barely cobbled together by people with not enough time or understanding to make a secure system. I left, and they tried to get me back to do some consulting.. I asked em about what kinds of security testing they do... 'well we use openssl'... hahaha ok... sure.. jesus.

Even if you *can* program it doesn't mean you'll actually want to do it.

Many aspects of programming are boring and tedious. You need someone who can handle the abstract thinking, memorize the various components involved, understand how they fit and how to change them, and then sort through the various administrative steps(version control, bugtracking, communicating with devs/qa/mgmt, etc). Also, many programming jobs are very un-social. I've had times at work where I did't speak to another human for several weeks.

A few of us current engineers got started as kids doing stupid things that only resembled real engineering. I used to spend my allowance at radio shack buying random components only to hook them up to a 9v battery and a metal file to make sparks.

Take away the backstory about how his dad probably used the kid for politics and political gain, and take away the family's scary religion, and you have a guy a lot of us would sympathize with. We were weird kids who did stupid things and scared people.

I guess if I sat around listening to the right wing shitstorm over the issue I might feel differently. As much as I am appalled at the family's lawsuit and monetary demands, I have to admit that they did a good job trolling a bunch of stupid school administrators and small town law enforcement. The over reaction of the school and cops opened them up to this. Seriously... interrogating a kid without his parents? I remember when they tried that shit on me.

The drone bikes/skateboards/small cars will come first. Especially easy when the cars are also driving themselves, however, cars currently integrate pretty well with bicycles, so I see no reason they couldn't integrate with a self-driving, smaller sized vehicle.

There's no reason to send a package via air unless speed it the utmost priority. Even when Amazon can offer drone delivery by air, they'll likely deliver more packages via ground based drones. I see a future of skateboard-sized vehicles which grab your package via a vacuum. They roll up to your house, wait, and when you pick up the package they roll on. You could standardize a (inductive?) charging system too, so they can charge while they wait.

For efficiency, I could see a larger vehicle like a UPS truck which deploys the smaller package delivery vehicles.

9 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Probably done a lot earlier than that.

Why is it that R/C helicopter with 2 blades == good, but 4 blades on a "drone" == scary evil skynet?

I bet you could craft a local, static HTML page which would present you with a search box into which you could type your search. You could then wrap each term in quotes and send the whole thing off to google.

You could also make a second text entry box when you want the entire string to be quoted.

Yes, you can always add quotes manually, but that's tedious.

I wonder if Firefox has an extension which provides a 'literal google' search option?

I've always wondered about skimming using nothing more than a high speed camera and a zoom lens. I'm guessing you could point a camera at a gas station card reader from 200' away and read the entire back of the card as it goes in and out.

I look like a nutcase when I use my credit card in public for this very reason. Sadly it's easy to get a misread when you're awkwardly trying to shield both sides of the card with your hands.

HP Pavillion DV6700

Core2 Duo T5850 @ 2.16GHz
GeForce 8400 GS 256MB
4GB RAM
512GB SSD - Samsung Evo
Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24"W Monitor
Ergotron monitor arm
StandDesk adjustable desk
Microsoft Natural Wireless 7000 Keyboard & Mouse

Fast enough not to upgrade. Used it on the road doing software consulting but for most of the last 7 years it has functioned as my desktop. I keep thinking of upgrading, but haven't found a compelling reason to yet.

Why not just create a telepresence robot that, say, let's grandma wash dishes and fold laundry for the kids who live 2,000 miles away? You don't have to wait for fancy AI - just low-latency video and control channels. Maybe it sounds like a way to enslave the elderly, but my mom would go nuts at the chance to help out her kids.