If Java is the new COBOL, I highly recommend not telling the millions of Android developers out there, or Google for that matter. I am inclined to agree that the language formerly known as "Java" (Sun's version) may be on its way out. However, the existence of alternate compilers, alternate VMs, and extensions to the language not officially sanctioned by Sun (or Oracle) seem to indicate that Java isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

It seems to me that Microsoft should smile and nod about this, or embrace it. The Kinect is $150 piece of hardware. There are loads of the nearly 20 million Xbox 360 users that will buy one I'm sure. Imagine now if schools and companies and research firms and hobbyists that don't own a 360 could use it for other things (intact and untampered with.) That seems like a means of capturing $150 a pop from people that do not own (or intend to own for that matter) an Xbox 360.

Absolutely not. Never before have I experienced a method of programming that can be more aggressively mismanaged than agile. Many developers think agile is a means to produce better code, faster, and with better specs. Most management sees it as an excuse to provide no specs, to change their minds on what they want every 5 minutes, and call all of that "agile" development. These things ruin the name of agile development and provide such a bad experience for anyone stuck working with it, that it simply can't have managed to do anything but fail utterly to deliver. People have been fired over misinterpretations of what agile is. Others have left because of a misinterpretation that was shoved down their throats by management. And that's just all where I work... Perhaps it's better in other places, but I've never heard a story of it going well.

I thought the same thing. There have been contests held by AMD for 48 core machines as the prize. (And that was about a year ago!) Intel has demonstrated 80 core prototype CPUs. Someday it's not unreasonable to expect everything to run on GPUs with 100s and 100s of effective cores. "Aren't anywhere near 48 cores" my ass.

"spun at up to 30,000 rpm" ?? Am I missing something here? 30,000 rpm is achievable with a common R/C car motor or an aggressive electric toothbrush... I assume that's a typo.

This is the same info that came out ages ago. Even the BBC link happily reports "Last Updated: Monday, 16 February 2004, 15:31 GMT" Why is this appearing on slashdot today?

Right but they also have boobies! Maybe but me, but everything is about risk versus reward. Malware, boobies, malware, boobies... hmmm.... Seems worth it to me.