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TWR allows us to burn unenriched or even depleted uranium, which is sitting around in huge stockpiles all over the world. Other people have also mentioned liquid thorium, which is a good idea as well. We should start looking past the most primitive and inefficient way to use our fissile fuels. Plus, enrichment is a proliferation risk, as many have noticed.

1) Yeah, so what I said only applies to grandfathered unlimited data plans.
2) I originally read it at GigaOm. The FCC press release is vague on the matter, but the full order and consent decree makes it more clear:

On June 28, 2012, Verizon Wireless modified its pricing plans to allow customers on usage-based plans to tether their devices without paying an additional fee, while customers on unlimited usage plans must continue to pay an additional fee to tether their devices.

Definitely go with an MVNO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_virtual_network_operator http://gigaom.com/mobile/why-are-mvnos-so-hot-right-now-thank-the-carriers/

I was looking to see if anyone mentioned this. I don't think it's reasonable or anything, but it's not something new and crazy to be outraged about. It's really an opportunity, I think, for one of the majors or a new upstart to come along and offer total-privacy services. For example, a data-only service that allows you to use your choice of IP-based voice communication. Combine that with services like burner, you could have a lot of happy people buying data-only services. If T-Mobile or Sprint were to, say, offer flat-rate data-only services at $10-$20/month less than their voice+data services, I'd bet they'd get a FLOOD of Verizon (and AT&T for that matter) customers.

I have several IOS devices, and the only "password" you can put into it is the simple 4 character unlock code. You should certainly know that all encryption is based on keeping something secret that's very difficult to guess. If the only secret you're keeping is a 4 digit key, you're completely hosed to brute force attacks.

FYI iOS hasn't been limited to a 4-number password and has been able to use a long, variable-length alphanumeric passcode for over 2 years now, with the release of iOS4. If you used an Apple iPhone config utility to set policies (meant for enterprise, but any user could download the tool), you could use alphanumeric passwords 3 years ago under iOS 3.x.

Microsoft has also been shaking down Android vendors:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/oct/04/microsoft-motorola-android-patent-lawsuit
http://mashable.com/2011/03/21/microsoft-sues-barnes-noble/
http://gigaom.com/mobile/htc-licenses-microsoft-patents-for-android/

Fuck Microsoft and Apple.

US foundaton gives Africa countries donations to buy drugs from US pharma companies. They also encouraged South Africa and India to not develop their own generic AIDS drugs, rather buy them at full price from western drug companies. Loans for the payment of such are available at an affordable rate of interest.

Malaria vaccine results face scrutiny.

"New research shows that Intellectual Ventures is tied to at least 1,300 shell companies whose sole purpose is to coerce real companies into buying patent license that they don't want or need. Those who resist the "patent trolls" are dragged into nightmarish lawsuits."

Looks like the closest data center to the coast is in Charlotte, NC. This is (roughly) 150 miles inland. The chance of severe hurricane damage is quite small. Ideally, large, global companies should be duplicating their data across data centers separated by large geographical distances anyway.

The next thing Amazon needs to do is leverage these pickup locations into payment locations. At that point they will be able to do what wal-mart started doing earlier this year and accept cash for online purchases.

It would be nice if they did a better job than wal-mart and instead of requiring photo-id to pick-up a cash purchase, they will just give you a receipt that can be exchanged for the product when it comes in, regardless of who holds the receipt.

I do think the screen on the iPad 3 is very nice. I was even considering buying one, but in use I just find it a pain in the ass: I'm very used to having a convenient "back" button in Android. It even works to go back to the previous application that you were using. For example if you tap on a youtube link in the browser, it takes you to the youtube app - tap "back", and you will be back where you were in the browser.

http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-use-ipad-multitasking-gestures-and-why-you-should/
Specifically #3 on the list.

Also if it is jailbroken (You really should jailbreak it, the configuration options are as plentiful as unix), Activator is pretty much a required tweak.
You can set any of the gestures/buttons/actions to do this or any of a hundred+ other commands.
I also use it on my phone while in the car to control the iPod app in a way that doesn't require looking at or touching the screen at all. On my volume rocker switch, I hit "Up, Down" to go to next track, "Down, Up" to go back a track, and "Up and Down together" to pause/play. Much safer way to use a car mount bracket and bluetooth stereo.

Also a task manager can pretty up the whole operation. Personally I use MultiFl0w (Not free, but I don't remember what I paid for it so long ago), and activator is configured to call it upon a "home button double-tap".
All open app windows show up and you tab on any to bring it forward, and can easily jump between 12 apps with just two actions (or three if you have more apps running than 12)
There are plenty of other task managers to install, and a bunch of free ones too. Pick your stylistic poison.

I also use Backgrounder, to switch between "native" background usage (via the real API) and the standard unix way (app doesn't go away until you close it... But mind your batt life!)

Lastly there is even a tweak in Cydia that adds a function to Activator, to perform the exact "Android back button" behavior that you can bind to the home button. I'm not exactly sure what it was called (And never personally used it) but it had both "Back" and "Android" in the name, for search terms.

Please note all the above suggestions except the very first one require jailbreaking.
Head to pwnmyi.com to get the right app, connect your device by USB, and run it. Use http://pwnmyi.com/gui/ To plug in your device, OS ver, and PC OS info to find the right jailbreak app/version and download links.

The iPhone 4S uses a micro Sim card while the iPad (at least iPad 2) uses a standard one.

iPad's (even the original) always used a micro SIM, they have NEVER used a normal SIM card.

Of course we all have unique names and faces and Google images contains only correctly tagged photos so this won't cause any confusion at all.

I thought Google was running an identity service?

(Sorry to spoil the joke by beating a dead horse, but this deserves it.)
http://gigaom.com/2011/08/29/its-official-google-wants-to-own-your-online-identity/

He (Eric) replied by saying that G+ was build primarily as an identity service, so fundamentally, it depends on people using their real names if they’re going to build future products that leverage that information.

If you think about it, the Internet would be better if we had an accurate notion that you were a real person as opposed to a dog, or a fake person, or a spammer or what have you So if we knew that it was a real person, then we could sort of hold them accountable, we could check them, we could give them things, we could you know bill them, you know we could have credit cards and so forth.

Two cellphone manufacturers enter!

RIM takes one on the chin, and is down for the count!

Google, Samsung, and Android just took a bunch of horrible hits.

The import and sale of the Google flag ship Nexus released Monday has just been banned in the USA by court order obtained by Apple a few hours ago.
http://gigaom.com/apple/apple-gets-another-injunction-this-time-on-samsungs-galaxy-nexus/

Google's strategy of buying Motorola to protect Android using FRAND has been hit hard after six key congressmen visited the FTC Thursday and warned them FRAND ABUSE will not be tolerated in the USA either. Don't you just love an election year?

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/7/3071117/ftc-standards-related-patents-can-cause-substantial-harm-when-used-to

Then Google has been hit hard by Apple dropping Google maps from Apple mobile this fall. Google looses map revenue and market share while Google is forced to dump large sums into new map display technology to try to convince mobile users Google maps are better.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/06/google_maps_can_apple_dominate_mapping_by_kicking_google_off_the_iphone_.html

Is it really true you can loose your voice if you excessively scream in anger and pain?

For those experienced with android it tells you something:

Nexus = owned by google = apple equivalent experience = things will work right.

Buying non-nexus products = responsibilities on the shoulders of either the mfr or the carrier if it's a phone = shoddy experience = things are broken and will not be fixed.

But things went horribly wrong for Google a few hours ago.
The new Google Android flagship Nexus that was just released Monday has been banned in the USA by an emergency court injunction obtained by Apple.

http://gigaom.com/apple/apple-gets-another-injunction-this-time-on-samsungs-galaxy-nexus/

To make matters worse for Google and Motorola six key senators just visited the FTC and warned them they were watching how the FTC dealt with accusations of FRAND abuse (read Google/Motorola vs Apple). Don't you just love an election year?

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/7/3071117/ftc-standards-related-patents-can-cause-substantial-harm-when-used-to

Be careful.
Can anyone really loose their voice by excessive screaming in anger and pain?

My guess is that the problem is on Facebook's end and Michael Stonebreaker was on to something when he critiqued Facebook's database architecture: http://gigaom.com/cloud/facebook-trapped-in-mysql-fate-worse-than-death/

So to compensate for some of those issues, they have to go to a more responsive UI.

That's not what I was talking about from the beginning which was quite clear. You are trying spin it when caught that what you were saying doesn't make sense.

You were talking about a live demo from the beginning, and said it was "no big deal". That is what I keyed in on.

What? The iPhone is not a router. It was not doing anything with "untested volume.". Jobs tried to surf with it. It was not receiving any data. I have no idea what you are imagining.

What any consumer might imagine and the kind of thing that happens all the time: when faced with a stressed environment, the product failed due to a design error. I call you a fanboy because the idea that the product might have been at fault doesn't even enter your mind, whereas the typical consumer sees that Jobs expects everybody to turn off their WiFi for the damn thing to work.

I don't remember any journalists immediately blogging "OMGZ. iPhone wifi doesn't work!". At best, they joked about it the glitch.

"awkward", "embarrassing and rare", "a bit sad"

You're right, in that most just accepted it was an understandable WiFi congestion, but there was at least one person who was uncertain and hinted at a problem with the phone:

"It wasn't clear exactly what the actual Wi-Fi issue was, but it seemed that his demo iPhone may have had trouble staying connected to the Wi-Fi network it was supposed to be attached to given there were so many other options around. (If anyone can better diagnose the problem let me know.)"

Or, you have studies like this.
http://gigaom.com/apple/android-tablets-ipads-still-see-wide-gap-in-mobile-web-use/
Which say the complete opposite thing. Now granted, this study does exclude nook and fire, but apple sold 55 million ipads through 2011, and around 13 million the first quarter, so nearly 70 million total.. I think we'd know if the nook and fire had sold enough to really balance that lead shown in _this_ study out.

GSM cell service is pretty well ubiquitous in developing nations. So much so that minutes have become currency.

Not conspiracy, just stupidity.

Don't you think that state-level governments are just as capable of making incompetent decisions based on marketing bullshit as upper-level managers?

Remember IBM's problems with BYOD? Yeah, none of those are issues with RIM's platforms. BlackBerry Balance keeps personal and business use separate. You can't drop corporate data into the personal side, for example. The user gets to use the device how they see fit, without compromise, and the business gets all the benefits of a locked-down device with best-in-class device management just like before.

Maybe some day other mobile platforms will catch up. As it stands now, there is only one enterprise ready mobile solution.

...they're doing far better than any single competitor in the smartphone arena...

Except Samsung.
http://gigaom.com/apple/samsung-probably-sold-the-most-smartphones-in-2011/
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/samsung-beats-apple-smartphone-sales-20120427-1xq29.html

sales and shares. but wait! there's more: http://gigaom.com/mobile/rim-faces-q1-loss-shares-halted-as-future-is-murky/

http://gigaom.com/2012/05/11/louis-vuitton-asks-for-sopa-like-seizure-of-hundreds-of-websites/ links to
http://www.scribd.com/doc/93228219/Louis-Vuittion-Complaint
At the end of the page 20 some ~380 domains are listed?

It's official: iOS now has more marketshare than Android. Reuters reports that Apple completely erased Android's marketshare lead, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. Over 150 Android smartphones couldn't outcompete the iPhone 4S. With 37 million iPhones sold last quarter, Apple is the largest smartphone marker, and their profits exceed Google’s entire revenue, $13 billion to $10.6 billion. Finally, with 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market.

Remember that Slashdot triumphantly posted in January 2011 about Android surpassing iOS in marketshare. A year later when the opposite happens? Not a peep. Talk about bias.

According to Reuters, Apple surpassed Android in marketshare by the end of 2011, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. 150 Android smartphones couldn't beat the iPhone 4S. With 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market. Apple’s profits ($13 billion) exceeded Google’s entire revenue ($10.6 billion).

Who cares? Well, in January 2011, Slashdot triumphantly reported that Android surpassed iOS in marketshare. All year, Android fans cited Android's marketshare as proof that it was taking over the smartphone industry, that the lack of centralized control was superior to the "walled garden", and that Android was "winning".

So what happened when the opposite occurred and Apple reversed Android's marketshare lead by the end of the year? Despite multiple submissions from several users, and news coverage ranging from Arstechnica to CNN, Slashdot refused to publish the story. All the sudden, it wasn't considered newsworthy despite the publication of the other story a year earlier.

This is a Linux advocacy site whose initial userbase was driven by hatred of Windows marketshare. Marketshare is still highly fetishized around here. Anything negative about the marketshare of Linux, or platforms based on Linux, gets killed. Slashdot is intentionally not providing you full tech news coverage because it caters to a specific demographic of emotionally-invested users who are more likely to generate repeat page views.

It's official: iOS now has more marketshare than Android. Reuters reports that Apple completely erased Android's marketshare lead, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. Over 150 Android smartphones couldn't outcompete the iPhone 4S. With 37 million iPhones sold last quarter, Apple is the largest smartphone marker, and their profits exceed Google’s entire revenue, $13 billion to $10.6 billion. Finally, with 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market.

Remember that Slashdot triumphantly posted in January 2011 about Android surpassing iOS in marketshare. A year later when the opposite happens? Not a peep. Talk about bias.

According to Reuters, Apple surpassed Android in marketshare by the end of 2011, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. 150 Android smartphones couldn't beat the iPhone 4S. With 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market. Apple’s profits ($13 billion) exceeded Google’s entire revenue ($10.6 billion).

Who cares? Well, in January 2011, Slashdot triumphantly reported that Android surpassed iOS in marketshare. All year, Android fans cited Android's marketshare as proof that it was taking over the smartphone industry, that the lack of centralized control was superior to the "walled garden", and that Android was "winning".

So what happened when the opposite occurred and Apple reversed Android's marketshare lead by the end of the year? Despite multiple submissions from several users, and news coverage ranging from Arstechnica to CNN, Slashdot refused to publish the story. All the sudden, it wasn't considered newsworthy despite the publication of the other story a year earlier.

This is a Linux advocacy site whose initial userbase was driven by hatred of Windows marketshare. Marketshare is still highly fetishized around here. Anything negative about the marketshare of Linux, or platforms based on Linux, gets killed. Slashdot is intentionally not providing you full tech news coverage because it caters to a specific demographic of emotionally-invested users who are more likely to generate repeat page views.

It's official: iOS now has more marketshare than Android. Reuters reports that Apple completely erased Android's marketshare lead, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. Over 150 Android smartphones couldn't outcompete the iPhone 4S. With 37 million iPhones sold last quarter, Apple is the largest smartphone marker, and their profits exceed Google’s entire revenue, $13 billion to $10.6 billion. Finally, with 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market.

Remember that Slashdot triumphantly posted in January 2011 about Android surpassing iOS in marketshare. A year later when the opposite happens? Not a peep. Talk about bias.

> "Ripping a DVD is a $20k fine and 5 years in prison."

"(Jul. 26, 2010) The U.S. Copyright Office published six new exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) anti-circumvention clause today which should make it far easier for online filmmakers to legally use commercial DVDs. Up until now, filmmakers were actually breaking the law when ripping DVDs to get footage because the act of ripping entails circumventing copy-protection measures."
...
The new exemptions come only days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a ruling questioning whether the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions can be used at all to restrict use cases that would otherwise be perfectly legal. In its ruling, the court wrote:

“Merely bypassing a technological protection that restricts a user from viewing or using a work is insufficient to trigger the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision. The DMCA prohibits only forms of access that would violate or impinge on the protections that the Copyright Act otherwise affords copyright owners.”

In other words: Ripping a DVD to make a backup copy is perfectly legal, ripping it to sell copies is not — at least based on this decision. Maybe the DMCA is finally catching up with reality, after all.
http://gigaom.com/video/new-dmca-exemptions-ripping-dvds-for-online-video-now-legal/

Dear nontechnical person calling others "nontechical persons",

You clearly don't understand what FRAND means and how stupid "Motorola is in violation of FRAND terms by hiding this patent from the patent pool at the MPEG LA" sounds.

MPEG LA is a private organization that manages patents, not an international standards body. Though they wish and push hard for H.264 to become all-encompassing STANDARD so they can collect royalties - up to threatening other codecs' makers - they are not a standard yet.

Seems like "FRAND" is making its way into the pantheon of most misused/misunderstood terms on /., right near "prior art", "fair use" and "First Amendment".

Yes and no.

By default, you only need to enter your password every 15 minutes in the iTunes app for purchases. This is convenient if you're buying a lot of apps (you don't have to keep entering your password over and over), but if you buy your kid the Smurf's Village app and then immediately hand him or her your phone, that kid has a 10-15 minute window to buy up all the Smurfberries he can click without having to enter in your password! And Smurfberries are surprisingly expensive.

That's YOUR fault for not changing the DEFAULT (which is more like 2 minutes, not 15, anyway).

Yes and no.

By default, you only need to enter your password every 15 minutes in the iTunes app for purchases. This is convenient if you're buying a lot of apps (you don't have to keep entering your password over and over), but if you buy your kid the Smurf's Village app and then immediately hand him or her your phone, that kid has a 10-15 minute window to buy up all the Smurfberries he can click without having to enter in your password! And Smurfberries are surprisingly expensive.

Or buy them on the secondary market. The current price is around $12 per IP.

First, many people can afford a 100% electric vehicle right now and never pay another dime for gas to commute to work. The Zero XU has a removable battery that I can use to charge at work and at home. The range is sufficient for me to get to work on a single charge. It only costs $0.16 per charge and that's 16 cents that I won't even be paying since I'm going to charge it under my desk at work. The total cost for the bike is less than $8K and it is available for purchase right now.

Second, the ARPA-e independently validated Lithium Ion breakthrough is going to be commercialized in a few years and then Electric cars are going to really be into play for all classes of vehicles including trucks.

And finally some, like Skype are simply legacy users that were using this codec before it was open sourced (V7 in this case) and have since actually partially moved away from it (h.264 for HD chat).

Rather than moving away from it, Skype has been adding support for VP8 over the last year:

http://gigaom.com/video/skype-vp8-video-conferencing/
http://blog.webmproject.org/2011/08/one-to-one-vp8-video-calling-now.html

If H.264 Baseline is not offered under a royalty-free licence before the 15th of March 2012, then VP8 will be the required video codec for WebRTC. See the the Video Codec Requirements section of the WebRTC IETF draft: http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-cbran-rtcweb-codec-01. This is why semiconductor companies are keen to promote their WebM support:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/verisilicon-releases-new-generation-of-hantro-video-ip-products-to-promote-webm-and-webrtc-2012-02-22

Of course, it's unlikely that H.264 Baseline will be royalty-free before the 15th so VP8 will likely be the required video codec. Still, it could happen and if it does then everyone can implement support for H.264 Baseline in their browsers without issue.

Well apart from the fact that they're fully at the mercy of Apple's whims and are destroying their own career prospects and the future of user choice by producing apps for a walled garden, they aren't making much money.

Quite unlike those writing for any other platform - oh, wait, they make even less. Unless they get payed by Google to astroturf on Slashdot, isn't that right?

Well apart from the fact that they're fully at the mercy of Apple's whims and are destroying their own career prospects and the future of user choice by producing apps for a walled garden, they aren't making much money.

Transcripts would be nice.

Much easier would be to use WebM. Not only Flash bloated and insecure, it is tied to a binary blob which is available on a decreasing number of important systems. Firefox, Opera, and Chrome all support WebM. There's no excuse to not be using it for the video already and reach a larger public.

It's been hurt by HP's incompetent management, rather than any egregious faults of its own.

Palm had it for a whole year and a half before HP.. they released Palm Pre and Palm Pixi using it -- both phones DOA. The Palm Pre had 0.2% market share after nearly a year on the market (source).

HP didn't do it any favors.. but it's hard to say everyone would have loved WebOS if it wasn't for HP. No one wanted it from the very beginning.

I just found a survey, but it has a tiny sample size.

89% retention rate for Apple
55% for Android.
http://gigaom.com/apple/iphone-owners-very-loyal-blackberry-not-so-much/

So not the best data, but no one else seems to have done any research recently.

According to Reuters, Apple surpassed Android in marketshare by the end of 2011, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. 150 Android smartphones couldn't beat the iPhone 4S. With 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market. Apple’s profits ($13 billion) exceeded Google’s entire revenue ($10.6 billion).

Who cares? Well, in January 2011, Slashdot triumphantly reported that Android surpassed iOS in marketshare. All year, Android fans cited Android's marketshare as proof that it was taking over the smartphone industry, that the lack of centralized control was superior to the "walled garden", and that Android was "winning".

So what happened when the opposite occurred and Apple reversed Android's marketshare lead by the end of the year? Despite multiple submissions from several users, and news coverage ranging from Arstechnica to CNN, Slashdot refused to publish the story. All the sudden, it wasn't considered newsworthy despite the publication of the other story a year earlier.

This is a Linux advocacy site whose initial userbase was driven by hatred of Windows marketshare. Marketshare is still highly fetishized around here. Anything negative about the marketshare of Linux, or platforms based on Linux, gets killed. Slashdot is intentionally not providing you full tech news coverage because it caters to a specific demographic of emotionally-invested users who are more likely to generate repeat page views.

According to Reuters, Apple surpassed Android in marketshare by the end of 2011, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. 150 Android smartphones couldn't beat the iPhone 4S. With 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market. Apple’s profits ($13 billion) exceeded Google’s entire revenue ($10.6 billion).

Who cares? Well, in January 2011, Slashdot triumphantly reported that Android surpassed iOS in marketshare. All year, Android fans cited Android's marketshare as proof that it was taking over the smartphone industry, that the lack of centralized control was superior to the "walled garden", and that Android was "winning".

So what happened when the opposite occurred and Apple reversed Android's marketshare lead by the end of the year? Despite multiple submissions from several users, and news coverage ranging from Arstechnica to CNN, Slashdot refused to publish the story. All the sudden, it wasn't considered newsworthy despite the publication of the other story a year earlier.

This is a Linux advocacy site whose initial userbase was driven by hatred of Windows marketshare. Marketshare is still highly fetishized around here. Anything negative about the marketshare of Linux, or platforms based on Linux, gets killed. Slashdot is intentionally not providing you full tech news coverage because it caters to a specific demographic of emotionally-invested users who are more likely to generate repeat page views.

Very good and detailed by Katie Fehrenbacher coverage here: http://gigaom.com/cleantech/the-details-behind-the-honeywell-nest-lawsuit/ http://gigaom.com/cleantech/how-the-honeywell-nest-lawsuit-could-hamper-innovation/ http://gigaom.com/cleantech/honeywell-hits-nest-with-a-law-suit-over-smart-thermostat/

Very good and detailed by Katie Fehrenbacher coverage here: http://gigaom.com/cleantech/the-details-behind-the-honeywell-nest-lawsuit/ http://gigaom.com/cleantech/how-the-honeywell-nest-lawsuit-could-hamper-innovation/ http://gigaom.com/cleantech/honeywell-hits-nest-with-a-law-suit-over-smart-thermostat/

Very good and detailed by Katie Fehrenbacher coverage here: http://gigaom.com/cleantech/the-details-behind-the-honeywell-nest-lawsuit/ http://gigaom.com/cleantech/how-the-honeywell-nest-lawsuit-could-hamper-innovation/ http://gigaom.com/cleantech/honeywell-hits-nest-with-a-law-suit-over-smart-thermostat/

I've been pushing my department of developers from using the corporate approved modified waterfall method, which has lead to massive budget overruns since corporate pushed it down on us, to an Agile-like process (You do know you are allowed to modify Agile to your environment?). The last two projects we did that way came in under budget and only slipped the original schedule due to client-introduced requirement changes.

One of the things we did was the 2-minute stand-up meeting (there were only 3 people for that project). Kept it focused to: What I did yesterday, what I will do today and what problems I'm having. When we had the weekly meetings, we usually found out about roadblocks a week after they happened. Now, the project manager found out things within 24 hours and could fix them quickly. "Yeah, the users aren't available for testing so they're going to put it off--" "I'll talk to [their manager] and get it fixed."

So when I read all these skeptics and haters, I'm shocked. For those of us who used stand-up meetings, they are so much better than the old sit-down 1-hour meetings. Then I dug into the criticism and I think I know what's the problem: cargo cult management. That's where clueless managers follow the form without understanding the motivation or why it works. So the punishments, like singing and running a lap, makes my skin crawl. The agile manifesto explicitly says People over Process. Just a simple "You're late!" is sufficient. I've read other Agile horror stories on Slashdot over the last two years, and it seems like those shops followed the motions without understanding the why. One guy complained that he saw a bug but wasn't allowed to fix it because of some bullcrap like "You don't have the token to work on that". WTF? That's not Agile! If something's broken, anyone is allowed to jump in and fix it. But that shop seemed more interested in following the liturgy than actually being Agile. Remember the first rule of Agile:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

The Agile horror stories I'm hearing are teams choosing processes and tools over people.

According to Reuters, Apple surpassed Android in marketshare by the end of 2011, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. 150 Android smartphones couldn't beat the iPhone 4S. With 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market. Apple’s profits ($13 billion) exceeded Google’s entire revenue ($10.6 billion).

Who cares? Well, in January 2011, Slashdot triumphantly reported that Android surpassed iOS in marketshare. All year, Android fans cited Android's marketshare as proof that it was taking over the smartphone industry, that the lack of centralized control was superior to the "walled garden", and that Android was "winning".

So what happened when the opposite occurred and Apple reversed Android's marketshare lead by the end of the year? Despite multiple submissions from several users, and news coverage ranging from Arstechnica to CNN, Slashdot refused to publish the story. All the sudden, it wasn't considered newsworthy despite the publication of the other story a year earlier.

This is a Linux advocacy site whose initial userbase was driven by hatred of Windows marketshare. Marketshare is still highly fetishized around here. Anything negative about the marketshare of Linux, or platforms based on Linux, gets killed. Slashdot is intentionally not providing you full tech news coverage because it caters to a specific demographic of emotionally-invested users who are more likely to generate repeat page views.

According to Reuters, Apple surpassed Android in marketshare by the end of 2011, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. 150 Android smartphones couldn't beat the iPhone 4S. With 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market. Apple’s profits ($13 billion) exceeded Google’s entire revenue ($10.6 billion).

Who cares? Well, in January 2011, Slashdot triumphantly reported that Android surpassed iOS in marketshare. All year, Android fans cited Android's marketshare as proof that it was taking over the smartphone industry, that the lack of centralized control was superior to the "walled garden", and that Android was "winning".

So what happened when the opposite occurred and Apple reversed Android's marketshare lead by the end of the year? Despite multiple submissions from several users, and news coverage ranging from Arstechnica to CNN, Slashdot refused to publish the story. All the sudden, it wasn't considered newsworthy despite the publication of the other story a year earlier.

This is a Linux advocacy site whose initial userbase was driven by hatred of Windows marketshare. Marketshare is still highly fetishized around here. Anything negative about the marketshare of Linux, or platforms based on Linux, gets killed. Slashdot is intentionally not providing you full tech news coverage because it caters to a specific demographic of emotionally-invested users who are more likely to generate repeat page views.

The WaPo article is nothing more than sensationalist journalism, designed to foment controversy for the sake of attention and readership.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/11/how-data-heavy-is-siri-on-an-iphone-4s-ars-investigates.ars

http://gigaom.com/2012/01/27/siri-is-not-a-bandwidth-hog-and-users-are-not-the-problem/

http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/27/2753694/siri-isnt-ruining-your-cellphone-service

And from my own personal experience as someone who has used an iPhone since the very first model, I have not found that Siri has noticeably increased my data usage. Other types of data access are far more intensive, such as streaming video and music, as well as sharing images/video taken with the iPhone's camera.

According to Reuters, Apple surpassed Android in marketshare by the end of 2011, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. 150 Android smartphones couldn't beat the iPhone 4S. With 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market. Apple’s profits ($13 billion) exceeded Google’s entire revenue ($10.6 billion).

Who cares? Well, in January 2011, Slashdot triumphantly reported that Android surpassed iOS in marketshare. All year, Android fans cited Android's marketshare as proof that it was taking over the smartphone industry, that the lack of centralized control was superior to the "walled garden", and that Android was "winning".

So what happened when the opposite occurred and Apple reversed Android's marketshare lead by the end of the year? Despite multiple submissions from several users, and news coverage ranging from Arstechnica to CNN, Slashdot refused to publish the story. All the sudden, it wasn't considered newsworthy despite the publication of the other story a year earlier.

This is a Linux advocacy site whose initial userbase was driven by hatred of Windows marketshare. Marketshare is still highly fetishized around here. Anything negative about the marketshare of Linux, or platforms based on Linux, gets killed. Slashdot is intentionally not providing you full tech news coverage because it caters to a specific demographic of emotionally-invested users who are more likely to generate repeat page views.

Slashdot refuses to report a story.

According to Reuters, Apple surpassed Android in marketshare by the end of 2011, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. 150 Android smartphones couldn't beat the iPhone 4S. With 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market. Apple’s profits ($13 billion) exceeded Google’s entire revenue ($10.6 billion).

Who cares? Well, in January 2011, Slashdot triumphantly reported that Android surpassed iOS in marketshare. All year, Android fans cited Android's marketshare as proof that it was taking over the smartphone industry, that the lack of centralized control was superior to the "walled garden", and that Android was "winning".

So what happened when the opposite occurred and Apple reversed Android's marketshare lead by the end of the year? Despite multiple submissions from several users, and news coverage ranging from Arstechnica to CNN, Slashdot refused to publish the story. All the sudden, it wasn't considered newsworthy despite the publication of the other story a year earlier.

This is a Linux advocacy site whose initial userbase was driven by hatred of Windows marketshare. Marketshare is still highly fetishized around here. Anything negative about the marketshare of Linux, or platforms based on Linux, gets killed. Slashdot is intentionally not providing you full tech news coverage because it caters to a specific demographic of emotionally-invested users who are more likely to generate repeat page views.