Glorified money laundering is exactly what Yahoo's investment in this app amounts to. It's the tech world equivalent of investing millions of dollars in concept art for the purposes of avoiding tax. Like concept art (Damien Hirst et al), everyone knows it's a crock but the art world keeps the pretence up because the gravy train is too good.

Peace,
Andy.

Just let it go. It's not worth the time or the hassle.

IANAT and probably don't appreciate everything that being a teacher entails, but whatever happened to engaging with students and knowing who requires extra attention or some other method of engagement to get them motivated?

I'm all for technology, but some problems are human problems and won't be solved by adding new technology to the mix. If anything it will make some situations worse, as we become lazier (rely on the machines to do our job) and further removed from each other.

Just my 2 cents.

Peace,
Andy.

Read my replies to the other posters in this thread who made the same comment.

I wasn't referring to targeted covert surveillance. I'm talking about data capture by innocent people wearing Google Glass who are not aware of their actions, with the data being stored in a central location that may be searched later for incriminating behaviour. But this idea seems lost on you, I guess it means you're never doing anything that would warrant attention from the police.

This scenario would require targeted, convert behaviour which is always going to be possible.

With Google Glass the problem is more sinister because the glasses are always on and point in whatever random direction the wearer happens to point. Further, the data will most likely be logged with Google which may mean it can be searched by law enforcement agents (now or sometime in the future).

A random person using a video camera is much less likely to upload the data to a central "all seeing" company like Google.

The problem with this technology - if indeed it does feature "always on" data capture - is that it takes just one person in a crowd to ruin it for everyone else.

You are at an event with a large crowd. Some of the behaviour in this crowd may be illegal (concert goers smoking marijuana for example) or at least frowned up by the authorities (dissidents gathering to protest). There is an unwritten rule amongst the participants that no one will film or take photos due to the nature of this group behaviour.

At this point, it takes just one person wearing Google Glass to break the unwritten rule. Most of the participants will be oblivious to the presence of the glasses. Yes this could happen with a handheld camera or similar, but the camera is outwardly very obvious. Goggle Glass is designed to blend in with the wearer and the surroundings.

Hyperbole? Perhaps. Do you want to find out? I certainly don't.

Peace,
Andy.

Yes, once. Shortly after lunch, on the 27th of June 1996.

You'll be back, just like the rest of us: slaves to some long distant memory of a once great site ;-)

I never said anything about not requiring previous effort - someone who has never played an instrument or studied music is hardly going to be inspired to write a song, are they?

The main point is that disengaging the mind from the task for which inspiration is sought (be it a tricky development problem or writing a new song) will help, and that it's not necessarily a requirement to be away from all electronic devices. For example, you maybe using your smartphone or iPad or whatever to read a technical manual, when an apparently inconsequential piece of information helps everything fall in to place and you are then inspired to fix a previously difficult, unrelated problem.

If we're instead talking about people who only use smart phones and iPads and do so only for light entertainment, and are never bored enough to learn a new skill such as playing guitar, that's another story entirely and I agree it would be a problem - but I don't see that happening any more now than it did in the past. That is a motivational problem, rather than one of "boredom".

Peace,
Andy.

The creative people I speak to (musicians, mostly) say that going for a walk outside is the best source of inspiration, closely followed by listening to songs by other people and I tend to agree with this.

If cooped up indoors, disengaging the mind is helpful but it takes some practice. Meditation works really well, but it can also be done by playing a simple game on a handheld device or mindlessly scrolling through the Facebook timeline.

Peace,
Andy.

It's perfectly possible to be "bored" while using an iPhone or iPad or whatever smart device you prefer.

I think point missed by this type of research is assuming that everyone is actively engaged by the device when idly surfing Facebook or Slashdot. In this situation the user may simply be waiting for inspiration to strike (when that happens is unpredictable, otherwise we'd milk it for all it's worth).

Obviously this doesn't apply to everyone in every situation, but to suggest that having access to smart phones is killing creativity is a bit of a stretch.

Peace,
Andy.

It sounds like the solution is to send out a huge amount of unsolicited email.

Oh, wait ...

One has to wonder if this is caused by negligence, or if it's more a case of "oopsie, we left this door open, oh well" - which would be a great way to set up nodes around the 'net specifically to allow these types of attacks to occur.

Not saying that is right or wrong - asking a genuine question.

Peace,
Andy.

When this system cannot find any more oil or gas ...