My coding style is *really* different - it kind of reflects that I started with asm and worked my way up, so I tend to look at problems differently.

As for TV, I really didn't watch much this last couple of years, despite finally buying a big-screen TV - it would sit there for months not turned on. It's only lately that I'm starting to "get into it", since it's a lot easier to look at than a monitor - I don't *need* to see all the detail to enjoy the story.

As for politics, I've run 3x, but that was long ago, when I was really naive, my neighbors encouraged it because they were fed up with the bogosity of it all. It's funny - after one loss, one of the opposition's workers said that it was good that I lost because it would probably have changed me, like it does everyone. That took a bit of the sting out of it - not much, but a bit.

That said, I'm not sure how feasible it would be in modern times to maintain locally-served copies of the entire body of public discussion threads going on on the Internet.

Well, you wouldn't have to - just the stuff each individual is interested in. With the way hard disk capacity is growing, it wouldn't be inconceivable, especially if you de-duped the data. You could then even serve it up via a bittorrent- like data exchange. Sort fo FidoNET++

Thanks. I am figuring out how to deal with some of the issues, to slow down the deterioration. Things like "don't lift anything" and "don't bend over to pick up stuff". It's advice that, one day while waiting to talk to the medical secretary to schedule an appointment, the other patient waiting and I started talking, and he shared those tidbits (I pretty much always end up talking with whoever's waiting ... better than trying to read a book :-) He had to stop doing yoga because the increase in blood pressure to the head from some of the positions would cause vessels in the eye to leak. It really doesn't take much.

I can still write (writing is a lot less "eye-intense" than coding, since a misplaced = sign won't kill you, and I can write with my eyes closed if I have to), and one of my friends is encouraging me to write about the more interesting things that have happened to me (the really dark stuff I've never written about here) - maybe I'll try that.

They both still work okay for stuff like watching TV. A 50" screen helps a lot - but if I were a hockey fan, forget it - even standing 3 feet away, there's no way I could follow the puck.

Which is okay because I'd rather watch 2 Broke Girls anyway :-)

It's just that I was really, really hoping that I could at least get *some* work done. There just don't seem to be any real job options at this point.

About the only real option left is politics - it seems to be where everyone who's otherwise useless ends up.

Since the HTML5 standard (through sloppy unintentional drafting, no doubt) allows the second, why not use it for clarity and ease of reading?

Moses: "How much are these tablets anyway?"
God: "They're free."
Moses: "Awesome, I'll take two!"

Pros of the original G*dPad:
1. Readable in full sunlight
2. No battery issues
3. Huge display compared to modern devices
4. Made from 100% natural environmentally friendly materials
5. No need for a stylus
6. Fingerprints didn't smear the display

Cons of the original G*dPad:
1. Terrible refresh rate
2. No firmware updates available
3. No new content in a compatible format
4. Not exactly portable
5. Limited geographical and demographic market
6. No unicode or multi-lingual support
7. No support for newer standards
8. Poor market penetration - the manufacturer stopped production soon after launch
9. Short life - the first two made broke when they were dropped.
10. Since the design was pretty much set in stone, it was quickly obsoleted

It would be too difficult to launch an updated G*pPad because too many different organizations now claim conflicting "intellectual property rights" with the original manufacturer.

Privacy is going to be a problem, and I also agree that, just as people have managed to evolve privacy behaviours in public (remember your mom telling you "It's not polite to stare!") we'll evolve the same sort of coping mechanisms.

After all, people have had binoculars and telescopes for decades, and yet someone spying on their neighbor getting undressed is still a peeper who can be arrested if caught ...

These days we can pick our noses in our cars and expect de facto privacy,

Those days are long gone :-) There are over 6 million hits for "youtube driver picking nose", including videos of people, how can I put this delicately .... "grabbing a quick snack"?

Pretty much every electronic device can interact with your video SPEKZ, which can be anything from a pair of plain-jane NokiaSofts to the latest cool shades from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). Cars, streetlight surveillance cams, water meters, televisions, and even your clock radio are all talking to each other -- and your SPEKZ are piggybacking on their data streams. There's not a single laptop, desktop, smartphone or tablet computer in sight.

It's an amazingly seamless experience. The tiny twin cams on your SPEKZ let you share what you see with your friends and stream a copy to your home server. Your watch and charm bracelet contain sensors to detect your wrist movements and the muscles and tendons of your fingers flexing, all descended from Nintendo WiiMote technology.

As for driving with the future versions, it will be safer, since:they will give the driver full night vision, as well as the ability to display an enhanced view of traffic despite road glare, sun in the eyes, torrential rain, etc. It would be nice to see that deer well before it goes through your windshield.

Android was supposed to be a stop-gap measure. Like too many stop-gaps, it's "well, now that we have it in production and people are using it, we can't fix the problems."

It's the same thing with the widespread use of the crap language called javascript. It was supposed to be only one of many browser-run languages. Browsers were supposed to be able to run a ton of different interpreters with no serious problems by now, safely handle binaries, have proper separation of processes, all the "hotness" we were promised a decade ago.

Instead, we have crap.

The browser is not a platform, and trying to make it one is a mistake. W#e end up with the browser hosting an interpreter which hosts another interpreter which then runs an interpreter that interprets javascript which itself too often implements its own "interpreter". What a mess!

A good example is slashdot ... its basically a web-based re-implementation of a usenet news group, but worse.

Eventually, alternatives to google will arise ... the question is, what to do in the meantime.

To have a passport is privilege, itâ(TM)s not entitled to you by citizenship

Au contraire, it IS something you're entitled to by your citizenship. You don't get an American passport if you're, say, Russian, or vice versa.

Of course, if you're MOSSAD, you can get a US passport, a Canadian passport, or pretty much any sort of passport ...

I only pointed out the fact that unemployed men do less work around the house than their working spouses because of attempts to portray women as doing the same amount of work overall, if you consider both paid and unpaid work (which was a false assumption).

Depression definitely comes into play, and women generally realize that mens egos are fragile things, in part because they're "not allowed to be" fragile. It's one of those conundrums of society, where having to keep up the appearance of power and strength actually weakens men, and women, being "allowed" to be seen as weaker, can actually be more honest and open in dealing with certain problems. It's why men don't want to talk about things, and women do. "Talking about" a problem leads to the possibility of being seen as weaker. Women can "afford" it, men less so. Ultimately, we all pay the price.

Now, as to the quality of housework, yes, it's easier to just give up on trying to get the guy to do it right, because who wants to be seen as a nag? And yet, guys manage to get the latrines spotless in the military ... and they can spend all afternoon washing, waxing, and detailing a car. Part of it is motivation. Guys don't see "the nest" the same way, I guess.

This same difference is also expressed in fashion. Guys wear the same basic outfit to work every day of the week. If two programmers show up with the same grungy dead metal band t-shirt, it's "Hey, Dude! Awesome!" If 5 of them do, it's high 5's all around.

Contrast that to two women showing up with the same outfit ... it's ... awkward.

And unlike guys, if a woman shows up wearing the same basic outfit day in, day out, even the men will notice and comment on it. "What's wrong with her?" So now you know why we need more closet space. And more shoes. And jackets and coats and hats.

This same attention to "extraneous" detail comes into play, not just for housework and clothing, but in a lot of areas.

It might also be why men simply don't take many of the sexual harassment scenarios all that seriously. "In one ear, out the other ..." In this discussion it was brushed off as "it's even more under-reported by men." How many men have been groped by a stranger in the subway? How many men have had someone they don't even know grab them and try to shove their tongue down their throats in broad daylight? Not too many. And yet, try to find a woman who hasn't experienced that sort of stupidity, or worse. Good luck with your search. There are definite inequalities.

This doesn't mean that all men are jerks or all women are saints. Just that the realities of differences in physical strength, levels of aggression, and the concommittent responses (women mostly just want to get away and get somewhere safe, whereas men subject to the same treatment are more likely to want to fight) are also facts.

Same with inequality of employment. Being paid considerably less than the people you're leading based on your gender is just one example. Others include differences in consensus-seeking, etc.

As for men who think that women are gold-diggers because some women, when they finally get fed up with not being treated equally, end up with someone with more money. Are they gold-diggers, or is it just part of the odds - in any re-distribution some will end up with someone who makes more money, some will end up with someone who makes less ...? Maybe the ones whose ex-spouses end up better off financially are using this as a salve for their egos, the same as the ones whose ex-spouses end up worse off financially are going around saying "ha! look where she is now!" I've seen both (guys, if there's one thing a woman doesn't want to hear, it's how rotten your ex was ... over and over and over and over and over. If it's over, please, get over it, hmmm???)

Now, the whole trying to equate orgasm frequency with wealth and arguing that that "proves" women are biologically attracted to money is ridiculous, as well as insulting and degrading. It could more easily be argued that men who are richer must be better in bed ... but the relationship between the two variables is a lot more complicated, as I pointed out.

BTW - I had a rule for my daughters and their messy rooms - you can have it as messy as you want - just you're not allowed any food in your rooms because I don't want bugs. If you can't find something because of the mess, it's your problem, not mine.

It works, because eventually they get so angry at themselves for not being able to find anything that they pretty much turn into neat freaks, but it doesn't happen overnight. You can't "pour that knowledge" into their head - they have to realize it on their own.

Good luck on your job hunt.