Thanks for the history

There were a few bits in there that I didn't know.

I still think RSX11M was the best of the many operating systems I've developed software for in my life. The latest versions of Windows and Linux could learn a few lessons.

I used VAX/VMS as well, but the added layers of complexity made it less elegant an fun than RSX. Still, it was a viable alternative technology in the operating system world that's in danger of turning into a monoculture. I still remember the day that the DEC sales team came in to pitch their new corporate-mandated Unix message. Having spent years telling everyone that VMS left Unix in the dust, they seemed lost and confused. DEC never recovered from that.

Don't get too excited

In more detailed reports the researchers made it clear that this experimental result does not in any way change the fact that quantum entanglement can not be used to transmit information faster than the speed of light or backwards in time.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving target

Well, I don't want to condone DDoS as a tactic under any circumstances, but....

Spamhaus is famous for their high-handed and arrogant attitude in blocking whole IP address ranges for the most trivial of reasons. If this DDoS attack exposes how many cheapskate hosting services rely blindly on their spam-and-a-lot-of-other-legitmate-traffic filtering services, then it has actually done the internet a service.

Great, maybe we'll finally get a Netflix app for TouchPad

I've had a TouchPad with WebOS for about 18 months, and I quite like it. I use it mainly for simple purposes like portable web browsing, reading pdfs, checking email, checking my calendar, Skype video calls, listening to music on Pandora, occasionally watching video. For those purposes, it works fine. I also have an iPod Touch, and I find WebOS a bit more convenient to use than iOS. But honestly I don't think WebOS will make any difference at all as a TV operating system. It's advantages are all about touch operation and multi-tasking on a phone or tablet. Behind the GUI it's just another form of Linux, which is what all the TV operating systems are. I'm not sure what advantage LG would see in building their custom TV GUI on top of WebOS instead of Linux.

Bill C-30 is dead! Long live Bill C-55.

Don't worry about our Canadian police being hampered in their ability to monitor online activities now that C-30 is dead. Bill C-55 has been quietly introduced to give police the rights they wanted for warrantless online surveillance, as long as they believe it may be related to a serious crime, and they notify the subject afterward - eventually.

Probably U.S. only

Don't worry about it. It's unlikely to be available outside the U.S.

Stumble deserved

Sandisk touts their SSD business? Sure, let's just sweep that debacle with the flagship models that didn't support TRIM under the carpet. While manufacturers like Intel were apologizing to customers and offering to replace drives with defective controllers, Sandisk's management maintained a stony silence for months that alienated a large percentage of their customers waiting for their brand-new SSDs to be fixed. No wonder the business tanked!

Did they actually talk to any users?

E-readers have improved every year in recent memory. I've bought a new one every year for the last 4 years in a row, most recently for the new glow screen. When I look around on the train, there's far more people with e-readers than with tablets, because they all understand that it's hard to hold a heavy tablet and read on the train where the ambient light level is too high. Tablets are e-readers are different devices for different market. E-readers naturally have a more adult demographic because the first thing a kid wants is a nice colourful tablet like all their friends. Only later in life can they afford to by more specialized gadgets for different purposes.

" First they came for the communists,

and I didn't speak out because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,

and I didn't speak out because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me,

and there was no one left to speak for me."

-Martin Niemöller (c.1946)

Kindles already widely available in Canada

I'm not sure why this is fresh news. Kindles have been sold in the ubiquitous Staples office supply store chain in Canada for a couple of years, and Amazon.com ships Kindles to Canada as well. Amazon.ca has been operating a Canadian e-book store for even longer. Perhaps they're just announcing that from now on Kindles will be ordered through and shipped from the .ca site instead of the .com site? (Amazon supports the Kindle whispernet cellular network option in Canada in case you were wondering.)

However, Kobo remains much more popular in Canada than Kindle because their e-readers are offered in many more stores at more competitive prices, and national bookseller Chapters.ca partners with Kobo to offer an e-book store with better selection and often better prices than Amazon.

My personal favourite is the Apple App Store

Almost every time I want to update an app on my iPod Touch, or download a new free app from some 3rd party, Apple pops up a box saying that their Terms & Conditions have changed, and I am required to read and confirm my understanding of a 43-page agreement (yes, 43 pages!) before I can proceed. No clue is offered as to what has changed. Of course I click "I Agree" and proceed with my download, assuming that one of my regular web news feeds will warn me if Apple has done anything too draconian.

My own company sells software and has a EULA. It's 3 paragraphs long, and it basically spells out the terms of licencing in a few brief sentences, states that it's up to you to know what you're doing with the software, and disclaims any responsibility for failure to meet your needs or consequential damages. We do follow legal cases on the enforceability of EULAs, and in some cases judges have decided that if the EULA is too long and cryptic, it is not enforceable. In other cases they have stated that if only a link is given, and not the actual text of the EULA, it is not enforceable. But there is no consistency.

This is hardly the only area in which one must agree to ludicrously extensive legal terms and conditions without reading them. As a small company which bids on government contracts in several countries, we are frequently required to agree to bid and acquisition regulations which run to millions of pages in thousands of separate places, all cross-referencing each other, stating thing such as the minimum size of our bathrooms for disabled women of visible minority race. It all seemed like a good idea to somebody at some time. But today it's beyond impossible to be aware of even a fraction of it, even if you were limiting yourself to contracting in one country. All one can do is keep in touch with your business community and be aware of any issues which have been a problem for others.

Our city and surrounding region has a mandatory vehicle pollution testing program called AirCare. It's a costly program for motorists, and it has largely outlived its usefulness since the "testing" today consists of connecting to the OBD-II data port on the vehicle to make sure that the Check Engine indicator isn't on. At the time this program was originally launched, an alternative proposal was made to use roadside CO2 monitors which would detect polluting vehicles as they pass using an infrared laser beam, and then take a photo of their licence plate just like a speed radar. This latter proposal was much less costly and more effective at targeting polluting vehicles, but needless to say, the government adopted the universal testing program instead.

Once again demonstrating that everything based on the C language is the worst mistake in the history of computer software.

Nationalistic bias

What a shock - U.S. firm with deep political pockets wins a patent judgement against a Korean company in U.S. court. Let's wait and see what the Korean court says.

The answer depends on the question

The TSA is doing a good job... of what exactly? Apparently it's not preventing terrorist attacks, because the majority of people in the survey don't think they're very effective at that. More people should read Daniel Kahneman's excellent book "Thinking Fast and Slow", which tells us that people mentally substitute an easy question when asked a hard one and answer that instead. In this case I think people are answering the question of whether the TSA are doing the best job they can given their mandate. I would probably answer that question the same way. But I also think the TSA are ineffective at stopping terrorist attacks, and their operations come at a truly enormous cost in both money and inconvenience to travelers. The billions of dollars squandered on ineffective security in a vain attempt to prevent a handful of terrorist attacks could be spent saving millions of children from starvation, preventing wars, developing medical breakthroughs, promoting justice and human rights internationally etc.. Everything comes at a cost, and one must always compare the value you are getting when answering questions about whether it's the right thing to do.

WebOS hasn't quite faded

There's still an active development group supporting the million TouchPad users and hundreds of thousands of WebOS phones, and HP is still progressively releasing the components as open source. It may yet have legs.

Open your wallets

We just got these so-called Smart Meters installed in our Canadian province of British Columbia last year. The provincial power company BC Hydro put out some ridiculous publicity claiming that there would be no net cost in the long run because it would "help catch marijuana grow-ops" among other things (how? grow-ops bypass the meter). But subsequent investigations reveal that they hid costs of almost $1 billion, and now they want to raise our power rates by 50%! Somehow I fail to see the benefit to anyone except the company selling the meters and all the insiders they paid off.

Deja vu all over again

This is a perennial story which makes the rounds every time the U.S. government is trying to pressure the Canadian government to adopt the secret ACTA treaty provisions. But it goes all the way back to the late 1800s, when the story of the time was that Canadians were illegally copying U.S. sheet music. We've just had to learn to tune out our neighbours to the south when they show this particular blind spot, complaining about everyone else while being oblivious to their own transgressions.

Hang gliders are not subject to government regulation in Canada, so the operator was not required to meet any standards or conform to any regulations, and probably didn't have any insurance. While individuals who enjoy the sport are probably not keen to invite unwelcome government regulation, it would seem to be a serious oversight to allow the operation of a passenger-carrying business without some minimal regulation.

On the right track

I still browse in bookstores even though I read most books on my e-reader these days, so I think Barnes & Noble is on the right track with their efforts to integrate their bookstore chain with their e-readers. Yes, there are many practical difficulties as others pointed out in their comments, but at least B&N are trying. Unfortunately their real weakness is that they have no international presence or strategy outside the USA, unlike all of their competitors. They're a big fish in a medium-size pond.

More nimble?

Is that the new buzzword for slashing the team in half? Making them more "nimble"? I guess I'd get a little more nimble too if I were trying to avoid an axe that falls repeatedly, but I'm not sure it helps productivity. I have a fire-sale TouchPad. I like it and I've bought more apps for it than for my iPhone. I think HP didn't stick with it long enough, and they're compounding their mistakes.

GoDaddy has no business using my money to advocate a political agenda I don't agree with. I'm moving my 7 domains.

So how many seconds?

So exactly how many seconds of buffering constitutes and illegal copy? According to the court, 30 seconds is too much. Odd decision, almost as if the judge were unaware that most internet video transmission systems buffer 30-60 seconds - or as if his convoluted logic was intended to find any excuse to ban a service that the broadcast networks don't like. But let's take it to a logical conclusion. There are many buffers in a video transmission system from source to eyeballs. How many seconds of buffering is too much? Is it 10? 5? 1? 0.1? I guess the engineers will have to take this question to the courts over and over until they find the answer. Sounds like a lot of employment for lawyers!

Driverless trains can work

The trains in Vancouver (Canada) are all driverless, and they have a good safety record. The trains, tracks, and stations are monitored by CCTV from a central control room, and they have automated safety systems that monitor the tracks and stop the trains in the event of a problem. Plenty of uniformed staff and transit police circulate throughout the system, and there's a good chance of seeing them on any given train or at any given platform.

iPod Touch and bargain HP Touchpad here

and a Kobo Touch for reading. But when my mother wanted a tablet, we got her an iPad. It's all about the right tool for the job. It would be dumb to buy a $500 hammer/screwdriver/wrench/saw too and expect it to be the only tool you need to build a shed and maintain your car. Why do people think one tablet should be "the best" at everything?

Guess what tablet OS is #2?

Maybe the disgruntled Android gang should be paying more attention to the fact that WebOS is now the #2 operating system in tablets, ever since HP sold close to a million Touchpad tablets in their fire sale. And webOS is for sale - cheap!

The hidden financial reason

The loss of local number dialing has already happened in many other places, and an interesting reason turned out to be at the bottom of why the phone company couldn't make it optional to dial the full number with prefix within the same local. Of course modern phone computers could allow that. But as numbers run out, new customers are forced to take numbers in the new area code. Naturally they will perceive those numbers as having lesser value if people have to dial an extra prefix to reach them. In order to mollify them and keep all prices the same, the phone company forces everyone else to dial an unnecessary prefix too. Sort of like the theater making people who came early and got a seat close to the stage watch the play through the wrong end of binoculars so that they will be equal with latecomers sitting too far back

Maybe not Logitech's fault

I find it hard to fault Logitech for attempting to innovate. They have some fine products, and they do try to support them, unlike some other companies. The fault in this case is more Google's - they promised a lot and delivered little. It's the box plus the services that count for set-top boxes - why pay a premium price for a box with sub-par services? Especially when you can get competing boxes for as little as $50.