"No thanks?" Do you sleep with your phone in your pocket? =) Gotta put it down sometime. Why not on a mat. Saves the plug in step, that's something. Innovation is always incremental. It'll get better.

All innovation is small incremental steps. You never go from horses directly to a Tesla Roadster.

Right, but as a geek, aren't you curious what the numbers look like?

"In 2008, a measles outbreak spread in California. It was traced to a child whose parents had decided not to vaccinate him. He brought the disease back from Europe, infecting other children at his doctor's office and his classmates."

This begs the question, were the other children and classmates that got infected, vaccinated but still got sick anyhow? Or were all of the people who got sick not vaccinated?

While vaccinations are essential, miracles of modern science, I would still like to know what the data is on effectiveness per vaccine formulation variation and so on. For example, I've read the current whooping cough vaccine is weaker and therefore less effective than its predecessor that had some minor side effects in some people.

nga nga not gonna fly here any more. haha =P

This is the classic designer first vs. sales/engineer first debate to designing software.

Typically in PC land, the sales team says, we need something new to sell. The engineers say sure we can do anything, but we don't know what people want, so we're just going to make it "customizable" and let users figure it out. We geek out on making it so flexible. More to do in the product often leaves less time to perfect the code which then ships with more bugs, we just patch in a service pack. It also leads to usability issues like stuffing more and more "features" into menus, eventually overstuffing the product with so much, users can't find anything to get the job done.

Apple takes the opposite approach, they battle it out in boardrooms for whether or not a feature deserves to be in the product in the first place. The designer first approach leads to a lower quantity of features, which provides them more time to get those fewer features perfected and polished to a shine.

FWIW, more and more people are giving the designer first approach a try in Silicon Valley. Top designers are being snatched up left and right.

"Others can embrace and extend when the patent expires."

The problem with that line of thinking, is not realizing that all that is created is evolutionary. Everything we build is done in small incremental steps, building on what was just built. No one goes from a horse and buggy to a Ferrari. You go from a horse, to a horse and buggy, to a motorized carriage and so on. Everything that Apple or anyone else has built, was done standing on the shoulders of giants.

Just wish we could easily re-order columns with FKs. =)

Another analogy that fits better is this.

Is it Verizon or AT&T's responsibility to police phone lines for someone who might be planning a robbery with another robber over the telephone? Is it the phone company's responsibility to do a criminal background check before handing out a phone book full of address information? Google is just a 411 service for the internet. And internet service providers just provide the pipes.

Really wish Josh would have thought it through more, it was an important televised moment to speak truth to power, in this whole piracy debate.

I've observed on dating websites, I see a lot of women who say "you must love animals" or that they love animals. Think there was even a movie called "Must love dogs". And there's that crazy ASPCA commercial with Sarah McLachlan. Or the ladies getting naked for PETA.

Maybe it's because I'm a dude, but I've never felt any moments of affection or empathy towards animals like I do with people. Just an awe and general admiration for nature from watching the Discovery channel.

But many women seem to be wired differently in this regard.

This is key, making the distinction for what the *purpose* of the cookie is. I hope they got that right in the legislation. Tracking cookies are probably fine to regulate. But they need to make sure they're not interfering with the stateless nature of the protocol we have to work around by using cookies, for keeping people logged in, shopping carts, or knowing this person has consented in the first place.

Exactly. Every stupid law like this tries to force an outcome by attempting to manufacture it, rather than carefully examining the underlying cause and dealing with whatever can actually be dealt with at the root level. Drives me crazy.

The Judge said he will rule on this issue next week. Also, to update the summary, they cancelled the Damages phase of the trial.

Why do we pass so many laws restricting our freedom, when so many Americans have literally given their lives to provide it.

Well, he doesn't have power any longer, he's retired.

It sounds like he isn't familiar with, or just doesn't care about, how bad it has become. His view must be limited to his world of the courtroom, instead of everyone else out in the real world being extorted and/or shut down, stifling innovation before it even makes it into the courtroom.

But mostly, it sounds like he's trying to save face for a flawed system, because he's so invested in it, rather than being interested in solving the problem. Perhaps even deluding himself into thinking his legacy, his life, had meaning, for all the years of what he did on the bench were good, instead of really just perpetuating the problem.