Yo, you fucked up spelling "hindrance". ;)

If you have to wonder, you haven't been paying enough attention. :(

Ohmy, I'm having a hard time staying current with all these technologies. Maybe I'm getting old and resist change too much?

Yeah if only people would write GNU/Linux... wait, most distros aren't purely made up of a Linux kernel and GNU tools. Um, SomewhatGNU/Linux? NotJustGNU/Linux? OpenAndOrFreeSource/Linux? But what about whichever distro is using the FreeBSD kernel but the same userland as their Linux-based version? FreeBSD isn't just a kernel, it's an entire OS, so what would that be then? NotJustGNU/FreeBSDKernel?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I think saying "Linux" and "Android" is about as clear as it's going to get. To non-geeks it conveys the necessary distinction, and geeks already know (and debate) the distinction. Context is a wonderful thing after all.

If I had modpoints you'd get 'em!

Don't get me wrong, Firefox is still my preferred browser, but I so wish it would slim down a bit. You know, be a browser instead of a kitchen sink. Then again, I'm a vi user, not an emacs user... ;)

Digital "change" was introduced in Sweden about 14 years ago. It didn't take off, mostly (as far as I understand - and this includes personal experience) because it was cumbersome to work out how much change you had.

Without a display on the card it meant either finding your personal reader (I still have mine somewhere), or a store where you could check. This lack of convenience was the deciding factor. Sure, it didn't have the wave-or-tap ability (it was good old-fashioned swipe), and card-to-card wasn't available, but those I never had a need for. Quickly checking whether I had enough "change" to go and grab a quick snack, I most definitely had. Unless this new system solves the display issue, I don't see this going very far. TFA doesn't seem to mention this aspect at all, so I'm going to guess they haven't addressed it.

A handful of years ago I ended up switching from a custom window manager / desktop setup (WindowMaker based, if you care) to Gnome2. The driver for this was simply effort required to get something useful running in a short amount of time. As a developer I'm not getting paid to faff around with getting a desktop environment up and running. Gnome served me well, and even convinced me to switch away from xterm/uxterm. On a fresh Ubuntu install, all I needed was a few tweaks to the terminal config, a keyboard shortcut or two (launch terminal + virtual desktop switching), and I could feel "home" enough to be productive. Fantastic.

== Caution: incoming rant. ==

However, as of a few months ago I'm back to using WindowMaker. Why? Because of the unholy fustercluck which is known as Ubuntu / Unity / Gnome3. I had a perfectly fine desktop environment running on my 10.04 install. After upgrading to the next LTS release, my entire desktop was, to put it mildly, fubared. Whoever thought they were entitled to completely replace a user's desktop environment, and not provide a fallback option is worthy of being C-level at EA.

Even after manually adding "gnome-shell" back to the system to try to get my desktop environment back in a working order, I discovered that my keyboard short-cut settings were gone, as were half my panels and virtual desktops. Evicting the gnome-shell and loading up MATE didn't improve the situation (it kept missing keyboard shortcuts, amongst other issues). I tried KDE, but it was, quite frankly, far too "flashy" for me. Oh, and the screenlock refused to work. After having spent over a day trying to get my workstation back into a state where I could actually _work_, I said "stuff it" and installed WindowMaker, grabbed a few dock-apps by source, hacked my xsession to configure my dual-screen setup, set up the ssh-agent, xlock, etc etc. I really haven't missed having to do all of that manually, but by golly, right now there doesn't seem to be an easily usable alternative!

I've installed my last Ubuntu system, that's for sure.

Here endeth rant.

I don't believe that...

Where can I pre-order my opt-out of all this 3D tech?

I remember that scene from Back to the Future II all too well, thank-you-very-much! :P

"Brought to you by the knights who say NiH!"

Dude, if you're refuelling on the go, surely the tanker could also sport a chute for dropping more pringles and coke through the side window*?

*) I'd suggest opening the window first though.

This is what I'm currently doing:

At work: Use a sit/stand height-adjustable desk. Some days I sit, some days I (mostly) stand, some days I grab a bar stool from the kitchen and do something in between. Having the flexibility to do whatever feels best at the time is a huge win.

To/from work: I'm fortunate enough to be within walking distance, so while I catch the train to work in the morning (to get in on time without having to get up too early), I typically walk home. It takes about 45 minutes at a semi-brisk pace, which for me strikes a good balance between getting some fresh air / light exercise, and time spent.

Outside work: Martial arts, Aikido to be precise. As someone already mentioned, the martial arts have many things of interest to the geek mindset - it all comes down to optimizing your body/movements. A lot of the traits that make geeks good developers are of value here, such as problem solving (a combat situation is really just a physics problem to be solved), perseverance to keep at it while feeling like you're getting nowhere (chasing obscure bugs, anyone?), and of course the basic desire to understand how things work and through that get in control.

Also, when I'm geeking out at home I have a sit/stand desk there too, though I'm trying to reduce the amount of time I spend at the computer. Currently I've taken to doing a bit of wood work to make my own weapons for my aiki training, and am enjoying that a lot.

Palmer just likes the lime light and will say anything to get it. Nothing to see here...

Bzzzt! That's not declaring software_patents NULL and void, that's declaring NULL to be a substitution macro for a void pointer of value zero. :)