Obviously you've never written code for a Windows system. Shared memory pages for libraries is so incredibly rare it isn't funny. Also, because the Windows DLL interface isn't intelligent enough, most people end up having to distribute their own copy of any libraries they use anyway so they can't be shared with other applications.

The most important bit here is the server-side. The actual thermostat is well-manufactured hardware (and I've never been as impressed with someone's packaging and included documentation as I am with Nest's) and worth more than average -- but the real cost to Nest.com is building and administering the servers on the back-end.

That's a poor question. The question is, how much damage could someone do to your life by taking over your home electronics via an Internet-connected black box *if* they hacked it?

Agreed, although I own a Nest -- and I wish it supported direct communications with my phone/tablet instead of needing the Internet. I'd even be okay with having to run a management service on my Linux box that it talks to as an intermediary.

Correction to my statement: using voice commands on someone else's device in public is funny and acceptable ... although the xkcd wasn't that funny personally ;-)

If you have to specify implementation-specific special codes within your data stream then your language doesn't support the thing, your code is doing it.

std::cout http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/NCURSES-Programming-HOWTO/attrib.html

C++ doesn't understand Unicode strings (which Python now does for instance) and doesn't understand screen resolutions, emulations or graphics either. Do these belong in the standard library? If they're used as frequently as I think they are, I'd say yes.

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be impressed that C# uses retarded names for its types or if you're just trying to point out that Java has no unsigned types (likely the latter, sadly).

For a more complete list, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_C_Sharp_and_Java

Especially fun when the guy at the bus stop clutches his chest and the lady next to him tries to dial 911.

A theatre half an hour away does that too but the keep the house lights on dim until the main feature, at which point they go completely dark.

That's almost never true.

In private, using voice to search on my Android device is much much faster than typing it out. I also find myself dictating notes to my device and watching it type out my words instead of jotting my thoughts down manually.

In public, nobody should use voice commands.

My local theatres displays the "please turn off your phones" banner *after* the previews and before the main feature just to reinforce this point.

I'm betting they also have a fantastic profit margin.

I loved the sarcasm, it was not immediately obvious -- which is absolutely the best kind.

Granted, on a tech site full of Sheldons, it might be a good idea to throw in a [/sarcasm] at the end of the post ... just in case someone missed it.

I was thinking that he deserves to be paid *more* than his local counterparts as well.