(emp. mine, found here) Amazing that so many projects can't get this most basic communication right. A one sentence description should be a priority for any project, otherwise how do you know what you're making?

With Postgres it can be plain old SQL not some variant that has to be custom built for each table/DB (and which changes per SaaS platform).

Trying to replicate all the tables in all the DBs would be a huge pain, not to mention slower and development intensive, compared to true DB replication.

Salesforce makes SQL access difficult (or impossible). They can switch to Postgres without changing their web platform and then open the DBs for reporting, read replication, and sell write access. SQL is still the power-tool of enterprise integration.

We can just have the FBI take command of local paramilitary units and raid their mansion.

Worst. Interface. Ever. - It's slow! Collapsed text at the bottom. Little popup text links hidden in the photo. Photos are either resized or cropped.

> When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England.

Maybe smart phones can fill this role? Peer connections and transfer is a recurring theme for phones, and the Internet is full of "social". The social rules for cell phones aren't set in stone, and gathering in impromptu groups to 'bump' phones would let people meet strangers and chat, if that's the way the technology worked.

Here's an idea: An app that knows about your interests and notifies you when you're physically near someone who shares your interest. It wouldn't advertise what you're into, or ID the other person, just notify you when they're within, say, 25 feet. Then you can put in obscure things and find the few people in you life who share those interests.

Another idea: a comm station where people gather to use and take care of phones. It would have power, highspeed connections, virus scanning, docking stations (kvm), alternate systems for temporary use if your device is broken, etc...

Spot on. The Internet has changed everything, public legacies included. The facts can't be forgotten. Authors aren't vetted by the establishment. Even societal norms (don't speak ill of the dead) can't constrain the discussion in a multi-cultural environment.

People in the future aren't going to accept a glossy, official legacy when the details are easily available.

Browsers need to fix tracking, like they did for popups and malware sites. Aggressive technical measures can bring tracking networks in line. Tracking networks pay popular websites to include their crap and then sell the data they collect. Make it a pain for websites that include 300 tracking networks and we'll be attacking the money.

At the very least browsers should:
* Lockdown the user-agent string
* Force plugins (like flash) to either not have cookies (or storage), or let the browser control any tracking
* Raise awareness by warning users when they are obviously being tracked
* Limit the number of cookies generated by visiting a single web page -- don't let one page lead to 300 cookies from hundreds of domains

Here's an idea: the browser won't download anything from any 3rd party domain, unless the primary website asserts responsibility for the 3rd party domain (either in source or headers). No website would want to take responsibility for an advertising network, much less a tracking network. Advertisers would be under enormous scrutiny to not track people, because their clients would be the ones getting sued.

Here's another idea: Mozilla runs it's own adblock-style blocking list. Companies would have to convince Mozilla they're not tracking people, and possible sign legal agreements to enforce it. Mozilla could simply block any site they don't think is acting honorably. If they collected info on 0 byte images they'd know most of the worst players right away.

Another idea: browsers could auto-change identities every 10 minutes; like switching to a new profile. If cookies from active tabs were saved it would eliminate 80% of the problems without the user having to do anything.

How do you get from unfounded accusations ("fake takedowns, incentives for copyright violations") to "MegaUpload really was a criminal enterprise"?

If you think the takedown compliance was "fake" because it un-linked a file without deleting it, you should know that Google does the same thing with their music service -- uploaded music is hashed and linked, not stored uniquely. Accusing MegaUpload of "incentives" is as nebulous as it gets. What did they do that was illegal?

DNT is 5+ years old and has resulted in nothing. It's an industry excuse.

The Course resource looks like an amateur listing everything they could think of, and they still got it wrong. Look at "minimumAvailableCredit" and "maximumAvailableCredit". First, this is just bad data design: either lookup the min/max on the data tables, or if these are proscriptive then there's no way to deal with changes in regulations over time. Second, academic credits vary by many factors (like classroom hours, enrollment types like auditing, etc...) and it'll be meaningless to say the minimum is zero for every course. Third, "academic" credits are not the only type of credits that schools deal with (think lab credits, on-the-job credits, etc...).

This looks like they're trying to build a Cathedral

DNT was never going to work in any practical way. Advertisers weren't going to change because of a voluntary system. So were the proponents naive idealists or playing politics? DNT has made an issue out of data tracking (people++) but also given industry and politicians years of cover (theman++) while it's debated.

I can't help but see this as a near total victory for industry: they haven't actually changed at all. The core issue hasn't been debated in any technical sense (what counts as tracking? how long can data be kept?...) There's little to no discussion about civil rights and privacy. No discussion about security or the legal status of the data (what happens when lawyers want tracking data for a divorce case?).

DNT is an April Fools joke (evil bit) transformed into a mock-policy discussion.

Imagine they had said: you can help support developers by installing these apps. Oh well, Xubuntu 12.04 is LTS.

Optional today, required tomorrow. But don't worry because it'll work with Android and Windows Phone 8, and you'll get to choose the software you like best!

Swearing about PARANOIA seems more than a little unfair since the government has tried this strategy -- but without the iPhone -- before. It looks like they're currently calling it TSA PreCheck but they'll probably change it to "PhoneCheck".