Nice job reading a bunch of stuff I didn't say into my post. I stated that I was going by evidence of other social networking sites that I have seen; several people have POLITELY disagreed with me, you had to be rude about it. (Based on the polite responses, I may go take a look tonight after work - the firewall here blocks it - as apparently it's considerably less idiotic than the social networking sites I have seen.)

I never said that "anyone who has a need for something like it is an idiot". I understand that other people have a different set of needs than I do. Social networking sites may be the best solution in some cases - I just can't think of any.

As for communicating with others in different timezones or those who are unavailable for long periods: E-mail will wait to be read until your brothers are awake; forum posts are always available and can be responded to; a personal blog would allow your submariner cousin to catch up what you've been up to when he surfaces.

Obviously there is a niche for social networking websites; I just don't understand the appeal of them, and I don't see how they could be a better solution for communicating with friends than other methods that were out before social networking sites.

From TFS:

Karpinski emphasized that correlation does not equal causation and that the grades association could be caused by something else.

I would posit that the "something else" is that Facebook (and MySpace, etc.) users are idiots. I've never looked at Facebook, but if what I see on MySpace is any indication, it will be at least 98% crud (and that's giving Facebook users a lot of credit - 99.999% of MySpace content is crud).

You didn't make your point very clear in your first paragraph - it sounded like you were just saying "using this thing one-handed is going to be a pain in the ass and I think people will drop it all the time", which is something that happens frequently with PDAs in those environments today (mostly because people are holding onto railings/poles with their elbow and attempting to use the PDA with the stylus). Now that I know that your issue with it is that you think it will be harder to hold onto, thus making the dropping problem worse; I agree with you on that point. Actually, allowing (but not forcing) a pointer controlled with a small trackball like is used on Blackberries might solve the "hard to use one handed because thumbs are wide" issue just as well and without requiring a looser grip on the device.

I'm not sure what point you were trying to making linking the the Wikipedia article on thumbs. This technology allows for a PDA that can be used without a stylus and without your thumb getting in the way of the screen. I think this is great, as I often miss the button I intended to hit when using my thumb rather than the stylus on my smartphone. I am somewhat disinclined to believe that an index finger is dextrous enough to cover the whole screen of a typical modern PDA, though.

As for Codex, it's not a DS with an accelerometer. It's a DS with a position sensor in the hinge, and (apparently) the ability to turn both screens to the outside. Tablet PC on table - hinge at 105 degrees, screens to the inside; book on table - hinge at 180 degrees; battleship mode - hinge at 0 degrees, screens to the outside. I'm not sure how you think that even a simple program would have trouble distinguishing between these.

Well, look at the group that is usually 'bothered' by it. Liberals / Democrats.

They have the mindset that they know what is best for you. They will dictate the rules that everyone but them has to follow.

Republicans have the exact same mindset, they just choose a different set of rules that you have to follow and they don't. How many Republican politicians have been caught in infidelity or gay sex scandals in the past five years?

Obviously you've never gotten into the middle of flamewar over various flavors of BSD. Those people are psychotic about there chosen variant, I tell ya. Claiming that and flavor of Unix is "dying" is flamebait around here, as is claiming that it will never be the year of the Linux desktop because Unix doesn't belong on desktops.

You are right about one thing - the post I linked to is too stupid to be insulting.

Mod parent up...to +50 bazillion. If every programmer working on Linux or Linux apps understood this, it really could be the year of the Linux desktop!

Hehe, got around the lameness filter with HTML escape sequences! (Maybe the lameness filter needs some improvement?)

ME TOO!

</AOL>

I don't play WoW, either. I think it would be nice if they had included the ability to link to characters in other games, as well. Specifically, I think they should have included ability to link to characters in Kingdom of Loathing, since the game itself is essentially a giant, geeky, joke. However, they would have to limit to a single character link, otherwise we'd get people trying to play 50 different MMO games and link all their characters to get more achievements.

Not only do they exist, Wikipedia has a (probably incomplete) list of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-English-based_programming_languages

I remember running across a reference to one additional language - IIRC, its name began with symbol used for the unit angstrom, and it was developed in one of the Scandinavian countries.

About as many times as we have heard "The network is the computer"...um, I mean, "thin clients"...no, that's it not, I think it was "client-server architecture". Or was it "AJAX and Web 2.0 will allow us to move more applications on to the web"? I'm so confused! (Or maybe I'm just getting old. Everybody but mcgrew, get off my lawn!)

The desktop isn't going away. Distributed computing will be stick around as well, as will AJAX and "Web 2.0" (whatever that means). How much software is created for each of these, and the distribution of how much we spend working with applications that use each of these models, will change over time. Increased network speeds and availability have made models that require access networks less cumbersome and will probably continue to do so, but I don't think that there will ever be a complete "death of the desktop" (just like there has never been a complete death of COBOL).

There is an ethical dilemna inherent in having children anyway. Actually, come to think of it, there are several.

1) You will always want, but never be able, to provide the "best possible" environment for a child. In fact, it's possible that humans are so complex that it is impossible for a human to know what is the best possible environment for a child.

2) The kid didn't ask to be here. Sure, most 5-year-olds are busily enjoying life most of time (except when they are throwing tantrums because you won't buy them Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs)...but what about the ones with horrid degenerative diseases, malformities, dwarfism, etc? If you are the child's parent, it's YOUR FAULT that the child is this way.

3) What if you child, rather than finding the cure for cancer or being the next Einstein, turns out to be the next Hitler?

4) More people - especially in the Western, "civilized" world - means a greater environmental impact, which may reduce the time we have to find a way off this planet before being poisoned by our own wastes.

Of course, I've neatly sidestepped all of these by deciding that I'm not going to have children for reasons that have nothing to do with the above dilemnas.