I still find the amount of anti-semitism in today’s world shocking. This is a good read.

Reviewer rejections for papers that are now considered fundamental in CS from people such as Turing, Dijkstra, Shannon, Codd, etc

Funny.

(Via @sixhat via @suneman)

(via Daring Fireball)

Restructuring Liability Theories

The introduction of new technology is always disruptive to old markets, and particularly to those copyright owners whose works are sold through well established distribution mechanisms. Yet, history has shown that time and market forces often provide equilibrium in balancing interests, whether the new technology be a player piano, a copier, a tape recorder, a video recorder, a personal computer, a karaoke machine, or an MP3 player. Thus, it is prudent for courts to exercise caution before restructuring liability theories for the purpose of addressing specific market abuses, despite their apparent present magnitude.

• Ninth Circuit Court, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer v. Grokster, Aug 2004.

Quite relevant in the SOPA and Protect IP debate.

(Source: techlawadvisor.com)

Android users are not Google’s customers and this is a issue where that is made absolutely obvious. An issue which prevents android phones from being decent media players, a core task of a smartphone, goes on unfixed for years while new useless features such as the non-functioning facial recognition of ICS get developer time.

Siegler vs Topolsky: “Horseshit”

parislemon:

Wow. Josh Topolsky is mad. And that by itself is fine — he’s clearly passionate about technology, which is great. What’s not fine is the fact that he’s way off-base in his rant. So far off-base that I need to respond.

First and foremost, Topolsky has decided to turn my thoughts on the Galaxy Nexus into full on class warfare between Android and iOS. That is, he twists my comparison of attention to detail into an argument about rich vs. poor people.

I mean, he actually tries to do this.

One little problem.

The Galaxy Nexus starts at $299. The iPhone 4S starts at $199. (Both with contracts, obviously.) In other words, by Topolsky’s own standards, the Galaxy Nexus is the premium product. It’s the one rich people will buy. It’s the one the 1% should buy. 

Read More

I just made the popcorn. Though this makes me worry about the verge… I like their website. Topolsky decided to jump on the stupid bandwagon for a trip to retardville or maybe he’s taking advantage of fanboys for ad impressions. Either way, it’s not good for the site.

We can’t fly as fast as we used to. Our music sounds worse than it did years ago. On a regular basis, I often can’t understand what people are saying on the telephone, something that never, ever happened when I was a kid.

How did we get from having the best of things to things that work “good enough?”

(via the night owl - seymour templar image factory)

The beginning of the end for netbooks - wonder why it took so long…

My surprise is that someone is actually keeping track of this.

The funniest part: the android zealots in the comments section.

That means that most of the effect of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions has been masked by aerosols, without which we would have seen even greater warming. But those are just the current dynamics; while the residence time of aerosols in the atmosphere is fairly short, CO2 hangs around for a very long time. As the authors write, “The warming induced by CO2 will also persist for at least a thousand years as a result of the slow ocean carbon uptake, far longer than the warming from most other forcing agents.

Dismal.

The lesson of the technology industry in the past five years is that really successful products dare to NOT copy. They’re pure, in that they’re actually designed from first principles - they’re based on the problem and the constraints, without being viewed through the lens of someone’s existing attempt.

(Via Marco.org)

Or a few more reasons why it’s a good thing adobe flash will soon be “discontinued”.

(Via Daring Fireball)