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Link to article on Hägglund's new tank: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyteknik.se%2Fnyheter%2Ffordon_motor%2Fbilar%2Farticle3246446.ece&act=url Image only: http://www.nyteknik.se/incoming/article3246738.ece/BINARY/original/stridsvagn_468.jpg

Google is your friend.

Around 40% of the corn produced in the US goes to ethanol.

It's obviously not a question of whether we can support 7 billion people, since we basically are, but whether we can support the increasing growth rate. If you look at this graph, you can see the population is projected to level off around 10billion or so. And if you look even closer, you can see it's really a question for India (and to a lesser degree, Africa): can India handle its massive population growth? If so, then the world can handle it, too. If not, then they are going to suffer a lot.

I don't have a problem running games with high settings on a modest PC. AMD quad-3.4Gz CPU, $130, 8GB RAM, $55, AMD 6870 video card, $155. There is the core of a system for $340. Throw in a few bucks for a HD, monitor, power supply if you don't have a closet full of those (what are you doing here without that?).

Granted, I'm not doing multiple monitors all running 1920x1200 like this fellow, but I enjoy myself. And I use OnLive quite a bit too. I recently chronicled a few of my OnLive purchases at a 1Up.com blog. Add in Deus Ex for $25 with a 50% off coupon.

The screenshots are visible here

Anonymous for karma

Related: Forget Rogue, Microsoft handed ability to intercept SSL on windows (Another Wikileaks revelation, translated) to Tunisian dictator Ben Ali, apparently in return for contracts, stifling open source competition etc etc in Tunisia and allowing them to intercept Facebook, Google,... before the Arab spring revolution took place.

Related: Forget Rogue, Microsoft handed ability to intercept SSL on windows (Another Wikileaks revelation, translated) to Tunisian dictator Ben Ali, apparently in return for contracts, stifling open source competition etc etc in Tunisia and allowing them to intercept Facebook, Google,... before the Arab spring revolution took place.

Schmidt is insistent that Google has the right to know who their users are. On the other hand, Google doesn't do proper due diligence on their customers, the ones who buy ads. That just cost them a $500 million fine to the Department of Justice for running phony pharmaceutical ads. (Those supposed "Canadian pharmacies" often aren't real pharmacies at all, and many are not in Canada. DOJ went after Google because an investigation into some Mexican drug dealer was also running an offshore pharmacy.)

Because of Google's "we don't care who you are" policy about advertisers, Google has become the advertising system for a wide range of scams: typosquatting, adware, ads for free stuff that's not free, ads for counterfeit software, and mortgage modification scams. Prof. Benjamin Edelman at the Harvard Business School estimates that Google makes about $25 million a year from ads for spyware and adware, about $6 million a year from ads for "credit repair" scams, and about $100 million a year by allowing competing trademarks as search keywords (that last is being litigated.)

Most of those scams depend on advertiser anonymity. Business aren't entitled to privacy. Even in the European Union, which has privacy rights for individuals, businesses don't get that right. The European Directive on Electronic Commerce is very clear about that. Google has the right to demand proof of business identity from advertisers, and to demand that the advertiser disclose the actual name and address from which the business is conducted on their web site. Google doesn't do this, which makes Google the scammer's friend, and in some cases, as they just discovered expensively, an accomplice to criminal activity.

Google claimed to the DOJ that they cleaned up their act on drug ads. Let's see. Search for "no prescription diet pills". See a Google ad for "Phentremine 37.5 mg HCL - As low as $30. Free Shipping. www.phentreminediet.com No subscriptions, or hidden cost.". There it is, right at the top of the page, in prime position, a drug ad run by Google. This is a fake drug scam site. It's a form of drug typosquatting; the real drug is spelled "phentermine". The site has a Google Checkout seal (which may be fake) and a BBBonline seal (which is fake). Yet Google is running that ad.

Prof. Edelman says it better than I can: "I have long doubted Google's claims of innocence. For one, Google has an obvious incentive to allow deceptive and unlawful ads: each extra ad means extra revenue -- an ad in lieu of white space, or an extra competitor encouraging other advertisers to bid that much higher. Furthermore, unlawful and deceptive ads have been widespread; I found dozens in just a few hours of work. Meanwhile, it's hard to reconcile Google's engineering strength -- capably indexing billions of pages and tabulating billions of links -- with the company's supposed inability to identify new advertisements mentioning or targeting a few dozen terms known to deceive consumers. From these facts, I could only suspect what the DOJ investigation now confirms: Unlawful ads persist at Google not just because advertisers seek to be listed, but also because Google intentionally lets them stay and even offers them special assistance."

But if they want to be the only channel you can use, then they have to accept that they are at least a de facto common carrier

Whoa, who said Google wants to be the only option you can use?

Google's stated philosophy has always been about promoting a competitive marketplace

When it comes to search, competition is always just a click away. We innovate rapidly to make sure people keep choosing Google, and in the end that's great for consumers.

Whether you believe them or not is up to you, but they certainly at least try to make it easy to swtich to a competitor.

that includes allowing people to identify themselves using their chosen expressions of identity...it's consistent with how humans understand communication...And the trend in civil liberties is to place fewer restrictions on expressions of identity, not greater ones

which is why everyone is able to rent a car, fly on a plane, book a hotel, or open a bank account using a fake ID? Don't get me wrong, I don't personally agree with the G+ "Real Names" policy. But there are lots of situations where people (rightly or wrongly) accept identity verification as a cost of doing business.

Apple has no injunction against any Samsung 7" tablet, and hasn't tried to get one

Samsung itself, along with hundreds of news outlets, would no doubt be interested in hearing your theory. Do you have the slightest shred of evidence to back it up?

So it seems from the other replies that "crossing your fingers" in that way is used by at least some English speakers as well. Neat. Didn't know that, primarily because Swedish English education teaches that it is a false friend since "crossing your fingers" is already something else in English.

With this in mind, I'm not surprised that AliasMarlowe is Swedish per the above because I've never heard a native English speaker use it in that context.

Um, not exactly, but Google Translate was helpful. I spent a few months in Sweden back in the 80's, and have made shorter visits since then, but never picked up much of the language. I'm a native English speaker and have spent decades in various places on both sides of the Atlantic, so consider myself fluent in British and American English and familiar with many local variants (Ontario, BC, Alabama, Florida, Maine, Wisconsin, as well as several regions of the British Isles).

On the "fingers crossed" phrase, which seemed to cause unexpected confusion, I had thought the meaning clear from context. If fingers are crossed in plain view, then it has the connotation of hopeful intent. If they are crossed while concealed - such as behind one's back or under a table - then the implication is that one is lying. The assertion that one's fingers were not crossed would be necessary only if one or both hands were not in plain view, so the association would be an untrustworthy denial of lying. Both usages are found on both sides of the Atlantic, in every place I've lived.

The odds of this being true are exceptionally low

Sigh. This was reported a few days after the iCloud apps started appearing in beta. It was reported by various Apple rags. It was later confirmed by several sources. This isn't hard to check. Connect the device to your network, check to see what sites it accesses when storing stuff in the cloud. Given the age of this story, if it wasn't true, any idiot with a router and an iCloud account could have shot it down long ago. It hasn't been, quite the opposite, it has been verified again and again. Something any moron with Google access could have found out. Try: http://www.google.com/ it's a real nice search engine you clearly have never heard about.

The idea that the "odds of this being true are exceptionally low" is so utterly ridiculous only religious /. nutcases could come up with it. Why would Apple not use Azure? What should they use instead? Google? Apple doesn't have the infrastructure in place to build the iCloud (at least not yet), so they have to buy it.

Assuming that a dose of ugly doesn't necessarily break the deal, your best bet will probably be one of the android tablets with USB host support(and a degree of hack support). S/PDIF output in USB audio class devices is substantially cheaper than HDMI ->S/PDIF...

That seems to be the only sensible solution I can think would work. Searching the intrawebs also give few hits on Android developer forums for USB host and audio. But as usually, there is an alarming absence of the hits to Android device manufacturers. Nevertheless, I'm glad that you suggested the USB as an potential solution and in fact I'm not alone who wants to have a decent touchscreen device commanding my stereo.

If Google is all about openness, where's the public repository for the search engine?

It is accessible via web browser at www.google.com

Just sayin'.

Followed that link, http://www.google.com/intl/en/about/products/, first thing listed after Google search is "Google Directory". So, like wow, they still have a directory?

Nope, (paraphrasing) 'service closed use DMOZ'.

They should employ someone to update some of their pages, also flatten this a little, there's plenty of whitespace there to use for a simple 'service closed' symbol.

(OK, actually looking at the patent's pic now, it's not so inevitable. Less massive-looking, for one. But still. :) )

Those who don't want this bullshit can install the lovely Facebook Disconnect extension for Chrome, which removes any and all Facebook tracking from any non-Facebook pages.

Pain in the arse to have to install an extension because of one company's idiocy, but there we go.

Mega Watt here, Mega Watt Hour there... what's the difference between friends?

They should use the traditional ((furlongs^2) * (eV / (c^2)))) / (fortnights^2) (1.36962187 × 10^-50 kilowatt hours) when talking about electrical energy, to avoid confusion.

Having the APK is all well and good, but what about the source? Sadly it's already down from http://code.google.com/p/moonblink/wiki/Tricorder but we need to preserve the source code in case future Android revisions necessitate code changes . . . and this app is on of the few "apps" in the world that actually makes a case for apps existing.

Ahh yes, the ol, brachistochrone railroad technique.

Ain't that cute, someone just learned how to Google for a term. He put two and two together all by himself. Awww, he's like a widdle walking rewerse dictionary. So enthusiastic to share his new discovery!

Ahh yes, the ol, brachistochrone railroad technique.

Tell them, then.

Ok, Mr. Troll. You seem to have some strong feelings about this. But you're wrong about the PSN outage, or you have a strange definition of "hurt". During Q1'11, Sony lost $389 million. (The previous quarter, they had earned $72 million.) Since the beginning of the year, their stock has lost 40% of it's value. Sony's uber-powerful lawyers started this whole mess because they felt it was in their interest to sue a teenager. If they had prevailed, they stood to gain $100 from his sock drawer, but sadly, they did not. You're also wrong about Sony having more money and tech than me. Since 2008 I have earned more than SNE: http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:SNE&fstype=ii -- And I've never been hacked.

Google opened the source of their Windows package manager (under the Apache license) a while back, so presumably you could use it to roll your own Google Pack if you wanted to. No idea how much work that would require, though.

Android for mobiles. How quaint. :)

Uh, good luck there. Start with rooting your phone, or praying that your carrier pushes out an update. While you're at it star this bug.

You forgot the most obvious Apple innovation, which fortunately is protected by a government-supported sole economic profit mandate (aka patent) 'till the tablets come home.

The real pertinent question to ask when trying to separate the chaff from the apples is: "Describe them. Did they have rectangular screens and rounded corners?"

If the answer to that question is "yes" they obviously stole all they ever came up with from Apple. It would not be the first time that happened, after all.

One wonders what Google will kill next. Likely targets are products which lose money, don't provide opportunities for ad insertion, and don't collect monetizable information about users. Take a look at Google's list of products (which, amusingly, doesn't contain "G+"). Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Picnik (Google's photo editor), Google Voice, Google Talk, and SketchUp may be next.

Google Health has already been killed. Google has stopped digitizing old newspapers. Knol (Google's answer to Wikipedia) was never very successful. Those are likely targets, too.

Google is no longer worried about Microsoft, which has failed to compete successfully in online services. Google is worried about Facebook and Apple. So all those Google products which targeted Microsoft's business model, but lost money, can be dumped.

If you need to set up Chrome in a corporate environment, then you can use the .MSI installer for Chrome ("Chrome for Business"), which is available to download here.

Your announcement:

Just to mention i've released the next version of the toolkit with
better documentation and added function support.

Your comment:

I created the toolkit [...] It's never been known as "The Toolkit" I've never called it that

Your documentation:

Most people will be using Node.JS - JST is listed on the NPM registry under 'toolkit'. As it is a generic framework we recommend you use it in all your projects. So install it globally by:

npm install -g toolkit

Then to use it within any of your projects simply put the following at the top of your main js file. Note you don't have to continue requiring it on every module as it only needs to be required once!

require('toolkit');

This comment will probably get modded down but you did in fact call it 'the toolkit' many times and by making its official name in the registry just 'toolkit' you have made it official. Now everyone who 'requires toolkit' in JavaScript is using your library. I don't know why people keep giving their toolkits such generic names, it reminds me of the Web module in Perl 6 and the controversy about its name, but now saying that you didn't call your toolkit the toolkit is a little bit to late. Either way it's just a name. What is more important is the code which I think is pretty good. Keep up the good work.

Yes, I've needed a magnet detector.

never can find one when you need one

For google I believe they have a cookie specifically for opt out http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/ , I agree it would be nice for an opt in but for the real world, at least an opt out option is nice.

Enjoy: http://code.google.com/p/moonblink/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk%2FTricorder

Source code is still available in his google code repository: http://code.google.com/p/moonblink/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk%2FTricorder

1 or 2 years ahead? So then why did they not have copy paste until after android? You are a nut.

First note that for many things you "need" copy'n'paste for, you didn't need it on iPhone from the beginning.

But to answer your question: Maybe because they wanted to get it right - IOW unlike Android.

http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f29/how-do-you-copy-paste-text-from-the-gmail-app-5522/

How do you copy/paste text from the Gmail app?

U can only copy/paste from text fields. I think gmail is like the browser in the sense that it seems to render like a big image hence u can't copy and paste from it. If an email app does not come out with copy and paste then the g1 will never go big with busiiness users.

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3190

Issue 3190: Improve copy-paste in Browser/WebView

The iPhone ad is what prompted me to submit this ticket. I love nothing more than showing off my G1 to shush some over hyping iPhone user. Simple things like "yeah I can send picture messages" or "does your phone have a metal detector too" hahaha. But I can stand having any iphone user best us with their nifty copy paste abilities.

Yes, copy/paste must be at least as functional as iPhone and be available anywhere there is text. Even Windows Mobile 6.1 on my Motorola Q9m was much better.

Do you want me to go on, or would that be nuts too?

Parent is simply lazy. Google it. You too. Go on, use the Intertubes. It's not difficult, and there are PLENTY of examples. I didn't give them because it's trivial. Look here: http://www.google.com/search?q=police+malfeasance

One point two MILLION results. How many of those do you think say "there isn't any"? Wanna go for half? (hah! In your dreams...) That still leaves 600,000 results. And that entirely leaves out any that don't specifically use the word malfeasance.

It's not my argument that's weak here. And I think you know it perfectly well.

and in that 1k people still managed to create code to turn their computers into maze-solving robots, along with the addition of a chassis, motors, wheels, etc: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7744887363033563393

Lego technic would do that yes. Also a water runway, or marble track.

First tell them that the complicated things are basically just a bunch of simpler things. Give some tiny, simple examples. Their imagination will do the rest while you do a simple demonstration:

Have them imagine they have to make a lot of sums:
1 + 2
2 + 3
3 + 1
and such.

Now show them how we can visualize that.
1 dot + 2 dots = 3 dots.

Now show them how we can actually make that happen.
dot = marble.

We input 1 marble, then input 2 marbles. The output, is 3 marbles. Done.

Now remember (!) them that the complicated things are basically just a bunch of simpler things.
This is a such a simple thing. It can do wonders, if you combine them the right way..

See http://www.google.com/search?q=marble+calculator

The actual patent (just four pages, mostly pictures):
http://www.google.com/patents?id=6BsWAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false

"During the talk Eben explains that the $25 price point was decided upon because it is the cost of a textbook so it made sense. Students buy textbooks, so a PC priced the same is a natural fit and hopefully an easy purchase for them, their parents, or their school." [emphasis added]

Students also buy milk but it doesn't mean that therefore computers should cost the same as milk. I don't think that a real computer should be worth the same as one textbook because of the fact that many more than one textbook could be downloaded on it and thus much more money could be saved by children if that is really a fully functional general purpose computer that the story makes us believe it is. It is worth noting that unlike the $100 laptops, this computer is not complete. It doesn't have a keyboard, it doesn't have a display. It has a HDMI port - yes, that will help poor children who can't afford a computer more expensive than $25. Also, are they going to carry a plasma TV around to use it? Quite frankly I think that it would be a much better idea to offer a Fuzebox kit from Adafruit - a do-it-yourself retro video console kit with open source software and open source hardware - or even an Arduino kit with TV output. In this case however all we have seen so far is a promise to deliver a $25 embedded board which is nice but it can hardly be called a computer, and especially not a computer that poor children in developing countries would need the most. We don't even know how much RAM will it have, whether it will run Linux or even if it will be useful for anything more serious than hacking a simple embedded Linux project. Don't get me wrong, I think that embedded projects are a great way for children to learn how computers work. But this is not a substitute for a laptop, notebook or netbook that those children need. Even a tablet would be a better idea but we all know this is not going to happen because apparently taking a keyboard out of a netbook makes it somehow ten times more expensive. We need a cheap laptop, a fully functional, self contained computer that children can use instead of textbooks, not as just one of them.

You might tell them you are going to pretend to be a robot, and tell them to give you instructions to pick up an object (let's say an apple), carry it across the room, and set it down. Write out instruction cards they have to use, cards that say things like "lower hand", "close hand", "raise hand", "walk forward", etc.

The fun will be when they realize that robots don't have common sense, and if they tell you to walk you just walk until you hit something. Or maybe they didn't tell you to line up the hand with the apple, and your hand closes on air.

Perhaps with fourth graders you might just bring a laptop that is set up with Python, and use Python's "turtle graphics" features to draw progressively cooler things.

http://code.google.com/p/python-turtle-demo/

steveha

The interesting thing about this cutting-edge technology is that in many cases it is being tested on people who are not even aware that they are subjects of experimentation. And when they become aware, the subject will often complain and their statements can be matched to mental illness definitions so that psychiatric laws can be used to deprive them of their civil rights, helping to bring them even further under control. If you give a damn, check out http://www.google.com/search?q=%22targeted+individual%22+%22synthetic+telepathy%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

That's be pretty easy considering how close they are:
http://maps.google.com/?ll=42.483666,-71.199292&spn=0.005855,0.009581&t=h&z=17&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=42.48347,-71.19968&panoid=-gZgbFangE_igV6WQLrVuQ&cbp=12,183.42,,0,-5.14
SAP on the left, Oracle on the right.

A Google employee responded to these criticisms: http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine/msg/ee70b44979b63842?hl=en

The mailing list has been awash in outrage and suprise as prices rise much higher than most can support. Although all knew the price increase was coming, the optimization done for the past models don't apply to the new pricing scheme, and the community is not happy about the quick change (2 weeks). http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine/browse_thread/thread/a1b7c68db2243932/043cbc3b7c296d06?hl=en

Not like they'd be the first:

http://www.google.com/jobs/lunar_job.html

Have you watched ST:TNG? Or 2001 Space Odyssey? Of course every company making blatant copies of this 'awesome' Apple patent.

Or when they send Donald Rumsfeld over with the bill of lading to glad hand your dictator. :)

But yeah, generally if you're getting them it's because you're going to use them on people the US wants targeted, or because it's going to destabilize your country so they can put in someone more useful to American interests.

I'm not surprised at this, especially considering that this law was likely pushed by the same people who've managed to give children all over New Zealand a rational, down to earth perspective on piracy and information security.
 
I thought that people were more rational "over the ditch" (esp. given their sane stance on software patents), but it seems that politicians (and/or lobbyists) have triumphed over common sense and proved me wrong. Bravo!

Think back to Steve Bierfeldt of Campaign for Liberty and his been found with "cash" should give you some idea.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3394970594491846292
Add in some "magnetic resonance" medical treatment at the airport before the "diesel therapy" van takes you down town for a long chat with the feds?

If you want to know where the technology is REALLY at, check this out: http://www.google.com/search?q=covert+implantation Warning: If you care about human rights and oppose experimentation on non-consenting subjects, this is disturbing material.