As an (ex-)AI researcher now into survivalism, the future looks very exciting. I'll just need to start building an underground bunker and my own killer robots and AI companion that helps me "protect" the other humankind from the evil AIs. Mine will be nice, obedient, and good for everyone, of course. I just hope that the lawmakers understand that or me and my AI companion have to find ways to persuade them. Buahhahhahhaa.

Music itself is largely a social parasite that feeds on various cognitive triggers for opportunities or rewards. It is much like a masturbation device used to trigger sexual reward mechanisms. At its best, music relieves frustrations.

I only say largely, as music also has social functions, akin to giving a masturbation device as a gift to others, or using a masturbation device in group sessions to further social cohesion. Only coincidentally, music concerts are more popular than "jackathons".

Going further with the analogy, music industry is not very different from porn industry, neither in how it abuses people's primitive reactions, nor in its ruthlesness. And to say that music industry is just as dependent on musicians, like Albini, as porn industry is on porn stars. They are free to do something else, but they choose not to.

I'm sure you can use various radar-blocking materials to build walls in a garage, not just wood and plastic, but also metal. So what's so special in factory-made ones that they can't be penetrated by this radar? Is it patented? Or a government secret?

You are right, there is usually more chattiness than in apps where more application logic is handled on the client-side. While there's apps where you absolutely want to minimize that, it's not really a problem in many or even most cases, and many apps have bigger considerations. One big problem in pure client-side coding is that you'll expose more application logic to the client-side, where anyone can snoop it, and need to be more careful with security issues.

You can also do client-side coding much to the extent that you need in Vaadin apps, by implementing complex components or entire views in GWT or JavaScript code, and then just syncronizing the changes as you like. That's actually what you need to do if you want to enable offline mode in Vaadin TouchKit apps.

I wouldn't quite say mouse events, as that includes low-level events such as mouse move events. Vaadin usually sends somewhat higher-level events, such as clicks on button components (not all buttons) and selection changes. You can lessen those by setting components as non-immediate. Sure, there's one case in drag-and-drop handling where even mouse move events can be sent.

Instead of writing JS both on client and server, the Node.js approach, you can write Java on both - that's how Vaadin Framework approaches web applications, by using GWT Java-to-JavaScript compiler for the client-side part. And usually you don't need to write ANY client code, and all client-server communications are completely invisible. You're just writing a UI in Java and can forget most of the client-side peculiarities.

Vaadin is also pretty flexible and allows mixing the approaches to a great extent, allowing JavaScript client-side widgets and other JS integration. You're also free to use other languages than Java for many client-server tasks, such as for REST services.

Not to mention that you can just as well use Scala and such for the server-side.

Running and screaming, that's what I'm looking for. So you can bite my shiny metal ass (that I'm gonna build).

Your fellow AI researcher.

"Font" is a typographical concept in printing, it doesn't apply to writing by hand, in which you would call them different "scripts" or styles of writing.
But yeah, the article is rubbish, apparently based on translating tekstaus to "texting".

Ah yes, that too, didn't notice that. So, both the /. article and the referred one ARE completely based on a translation error.

This article could be a complete misconception, based on a translation error. The article says that Finnish children will only be taught "texting". In English, texting usually means writing SMS messages and such. The article refers to a Finnish article, where they talk about "tekstaus". In Finnish, "tekstaus" means writing block letters (or print writing) separate letters by hand. That's different from cursive, where the letters are joined.

According to Wikipedia, in English-speaking countries, children also learn block writing first and MAY learn cursive. It doesn't mention how common it is.

If so, this article is nonsense.

The currently taught Finnish cursive is not very different from "tekstaus" anyhow. I personally nowadays mainly use the older cursive, for the exact reason that it has become rare.

Where's Jed? Why isn't anyone mentioning Jed? It's got Emacs bindings, it's really light-weight, works on command-line, and is available by a simple apt-get.

Perhaps they should study whether the main problem is talking in the phone or simply one ringing. Digging the annoyingly ringing phone out of your pocket could be a bigger risk than talking in it.

How to prevent that? Good question.

Handsfree devices are also rather useless, especially if you are driving with automatic gear, and often result in much more distraction than just holding the phone. Fumbling when you attach the phone in the holder and especially fumbling with an earphone can be really dangerous.

Microsoft is not buying Nokia, only the Devices & Services division of Nokia, which includes its phone business. However, that might not prevent Nokia from setting up a new phones business. Perhaps it doesn't make much sense, as Microsoft does get the right to use Nokia brand for 10 years, so re-entering phone business would be rather confusing for Nokia.

Now, if the Android phone is made by the Devices & Services division, it will be transferred to Microsoft, and the Android products may be terminated at some point. It's hard to say - Microsoft could be trying to confuse the market somehow - with existing pantent licensing by Android phonemakers and the ongoing patent cases, Microsoft may try to shake Android markets with a cheaper device for which it has all the patent rights - it now can use all Nokia's phone patents as well, so making phones is almost patent-free, unlike for other Android phone makers who have to pay licensing fees to Microsoft for certain patents. So, making low-cost Android phones could be much cheaper for Microsoft than for others. And, as it doesn't use Google Play, it would bring no revenue to Google.

I'm one of the guys who got the phone two days ago. You can read my quick review here.

To summarize: the user interface based on swiping works quite nicely, even if a bit confusing at first, and the phone works OK as a minimalistic smartphone. On Day 1, there still are quite many bugs and usability issues that need to be worked out.

Compared to Android or iOS, the visual simplicity of the user interface views is extreme, no buttons or decorations almost anywhere. When you open the phone app, you just see a very plain call log. In the email app, you just get a list of emails, and when you open an email, there's just a title followed by text. On the downside, views are often rather over-simplified, so that things are hidden too well, and workflows to get to what you want are often a bit complex and unintuitive. There's no status row that is always visible, system settings aren't accessible immediately everywhere, but you need to go to the start screen, etc.

Some critical features such as WiFi access point missing (or I just haven't found it after poking around 2 days).

Around 30 native apps; some Android apps work just fine, but many do not, and the selection is in practice very limited.

A pack of hair color costs something like $10 at your local store. One problem solved. (If someone has good tips for coloring beard, I'd like to know.)

My guess is that if you want to apply to an organization that uses formal screening process, you're off worse. Networking is the word of the day and if you have a lot of previous work experience, you might already have a professional network. Use it, and sidestep the screening. If not, build your network. Participate in groups, attend conferences, etc. Be active, social, and ambitious, in the right way. Create your own projects, team up, work hard. Target smaller companies that may be more flexible about their hiring practices.

Previous accomplishments are not necessarily a proof of anything, the problem is that everyone can boast about their accomplishments, so nobody pays attention to them if they don't know you, but school grades are official and considered "objective". So, your accomplishments only matter to people who know about them - mainly your network.

Of course, you must be able to develop yourself to the tip of your field. You need to show that you have experience about the field - perhaps write a professional blog, or something, be social. Younger people often have more ambition than us older guys, and you have to rebuild that ambition in yourself, even though I know it can be hard. Be proactive, smart, and develop something bright.

'nuf of pep talk. More booze, sleep.

Exactly so.

There's a much better alternative - Vaadin. It allows pure server-side Java development of Ajax web applications much the same way as you would develop desktop applications with Swing, etc. Vaadin renders the server-side UI in the browser with widgets and a JavaScript rendering engine. However, you can also develop client-code in Java. The Java code is compiled to JavaScript with the GWT Compiler, which is also included in Vaadin. In Vaadin 7, the Java objects are serialized transparently between the server-side and client-side, so you can essentially work with the same objects on both sides.

So, there is no real reason for node.js, unless you're really good at JavaScript and want to work with it instead of Java, or you have some JS code that you need to run on both sides. If you have already made a client-side JS library, you can integrate it with Vaadin quite easily.