Some people fail to pass themselves off as a thinking people.

For God's sake, I've called IT help desks and call centres and had people so inept and keen to keep to their scripts that they ignore what I say. - Yes I do have examples.

On talking to machines, I admit to not having a lot of experience here - mostly by choice. I find commands generally faster to click the buttons. (eg voice dial on my phone is much slower than finding the name in address book). As for dictation of documents....I also find the longer path from brain to my fingers gives me time to think about what I'm trying to say rather than my usual vocal ramblings.

I think I saw that one too.

One comment I thought was worth reflecting on was that vaccines have actually been quite successful in eliminating these illnesses from the community. So much so that people have now forgotten what these diseases are like and now focussing on the much smaller rate of (alleged) complications.

If I had a mod point!! - You'd have it.

The lifting body design (Boeing) has been publicly tested at NASA for a couple of years now. They are even at the stage of scale testing in wind tunnels. The other concepts are .... well concepts as far as I can tell.

Agreed,

Big companies will want to protect their data. So using your equipment is a sure fire way to loose your privacy.

Having your own latest equipment has a lot of draw backs too.

You'll have to support and maintain it. You'll have to replace it if stolen or broken, You'll have to allow them to scan it.

My God, I can't think of anything more creepy then bringing my own stuff in to work on and allowing them access to it. Besides, my work does not require I have the latest fastest equipment and mobile phone. Unless I become a 3d texture artist or something, I doubt very much that I'd be any more productive with it. The human brain can only work so fast, and the time we spend waiting for the network, or applications is a good time to think about what we are doing. - Secondly most of my waiting time is network latency, has nothing to do with my desktop speed at all.!

Summary, your nuts if you want to bring your own kit into work. Too many serous implications for you personally!

Oh come on.... you really expect that argument holds any weight??

"It's my car...house...equipment I bought it therefore I can do what I like with it", including something forbidden by terms of use and by the law? - I think not.

The divide is whether you think that it's you right to backup and protect your media investment, and companies like Sony should not stop you from doing that. - End of the day, Sony are protecting their interests, while we try to protect ours (the right to make backups of fragile media).

They made it fuckin hard to crack the PS3 to play copies of whatever. Then when people came up with methods to do that, they removed "other OS feature" that allowed the crack. Then this guy finds a method and Sony loose control. I don't agree with Sony's over bearing control of the PS3, in particular the removal of features. However, I think it's clear what Sony are doing. They are making an example of what happens to you if you thumb your nose at them - publicly.

I for one am FOR vaccination for life threatening diseases.

I am totally amazed by the ability of people to discount all science and information that does not support their view.

Eg, Anti-Vax people will not look at the long term results from Japan banning the MMR or will latch on to recent statement of this doctor saying his research is valid and it's all a big conspiracy. They will do their "research" only on the internet and will only accept information from sites that have a clear anti-vax point of view. My opinion is that anti-vax people do not do research at all... they "gather supporting information" only.

Now I'm not saying that there is no harm in vaccinations. I believe there are cases where there is an adverse reaction. I do not know in my circle, anyone who has had an adverse reaction to any of the major vaccinations. (Flu vax an exception here). However back when my mum and dad were at school (many many years ago), they both knew people suffering from polio. Point is, the adverse reaction rate is orders of magnitude lower than the infection-mortality rate.

Agree; If I had a mod point you'd get it.

What about the security implications of smudges?

CNET article "Could touch-screen smudges reveal passwords?"
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20013478-1.html

basically you can use smudges to figure out pin's and passwords

Firstly I would not trust facebook with the combination to my bike lock let alone my online identity.

I created an account to have a look around when it was new. Now It just sits there dormant while I consider deleting it.

For me the point is that for all of my important logins I WANT a separate login to have my security compartmentalised.

I just wish that more forums allowed anon posting so I didn't have to sign up for a one of question.

I used to play FPS heaps. My favourite style of game.

I have Dead Space and Bioshock 2 unfinished. I can't figure out why I just don't pull them out and finish them. By the time I do I usually have lost the muscle memory to survive the level of my last saved game.

I don't play FPS online any more, (too many trash talking 12 year olds with superior fast twitch muscles).

I friend of mine put me onto Eve online, and I've been at it for 6 months. I can play it for as long and short as I like and if Mrs or kids need me while I'm at it, usually I can just leave it where I am and attend to real life.

Almost forgot
and basic geometry

Getting fired was probably a bit harsh. However I am getting concerned with how many spotty teenagers working in retail cannot do basic addition and subtraction. My wife (who is scary smart at mental arithmetic), had a situation where she was short changed and the teenager and his supervisor couldn't figure out how to get it right without the cash register.

Much to my shame, I don't claim any prowess with mental arithmetic. With hindsight I wish I'd have put more effort in memorising the times tables and practising mental arithmetic.

My opinion, our work requires us to work at such a pace that we can't afford the time screwing about with basic maths. We should know the basic maths and be working with the real problem.

My list of what an average person needs to know?
Times tables
Metal addition + subtraction
basic division
Linear algebra
Basic statistics