light3

Its quite funny how the smartphone revolution will finally make VR devices viable.

Ubuntu seems horribly bloated, and the installation takes forever. Try Knoppix livecd, they have a pretty quick program to flash the installation to an external usb. Plus you can get all the latest debian packages.

Well there are similar tablets, I think the one below was around $250: http://tabletrepublic.com/forum/android-tablet-reviews/voyo-...

You would have to find a case + keyboard though.

What are the chances Putin didn't write the article?

Lisp is a language that was ahead of its time, but there are language features now that seem beyond Lisp's grasp.

Interested to hear your views, can you provide some examples?

I agree with you that governments can be very suboptimal, but that doesn't diminish the existence or usefulness research as a public good. Some research can not be readily commercialised, but nevertheless form basic building blocks for other innovation, in such cases government funding is crucial.

I don't think the provision of public goods are a moral choice, if anything it is an economic choice, where its subsidy is justified by two things: the benefit of the public good outweigh its costs, the general public will not sufficiently fund public goods out of their free will. The degree of benefit for the future is sometimes not measurable, however if the past is any indication than it has definitely provided major contributions to innovation.

See definition of public good(economics):

In economics, a public good is a good that is both non-excludable and non-rivalrous in that individuals cannot be effectively excluded from use and where use by one individual does not reduce availability to others.[1] Examples of public goods include fresh air, knowledge, lighthouses, national defense, flood control systems and street lighting. Public goods that are available everywhere are sometimes referred to as global public goods.

why would you give in to your "competition" and make games for their "console"

Because these general purpose "consoles" have grown tremendously in power while decreasing in cost, they have the potential to take market share from Nintendo. Nintendo consoles used to be one of only a few avenues for kids to play games. today there are smartphones, tablets and PCs which all have comparable price to the gaming console.

In what way is homeschooling to suit a parent's utter stupidity not a prison?

Have you considered the case where the parent is not 'stupid'?

Are Ikea desks that can be made at 1/5th the cost but last 1/10th as long representative of the forefront of technology?

I refuted the example of technological progress being use of pneumatic tools, just look at car manufacturing, they're are an essential tool.

Your entire arguments are based on the unstated assumption that electricity and computers are required to make anything that is on the forefront of technology.

No, my basic assumption is that education and freedom of thought are required for progress. The Amish have neither.

The phrase "re-inventing the wheel" comes to mind, the definition of progress is moving forward from the current, not artificially handicapping oneself the past and then working back towards the current. My statement is extremely easy to refute, but I see no examples in the article which show they have advanced the forefront of technology.

There is no doubt that these people are creative and tinker, it just seems to me that their efforts are wasted, or at least extremely sub-optimal.

Pneumatic power tools are nothing new:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tool "Air tools were formerly unpopular in the DIY market, but are becoming increasingly popular, and have always been ubiquitous in industrial and manufacturing settings."

Its sad that my statement is being down-voted without being refuted in any way.

But they are not contributing to technological progress.

try alibaba.com

If you want value go for something more recently released, like the Lenovo A820: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/814529232/2013_Newest_andr...

Its pretty silly how it doesn't boot if the fan fails, I turn the fan off because its making weird noises, but the laptop still runs fine, although I try to keep the temperature below 90 degrees C, I think it automatically declocks at higher temperatures anyway. Also you can buy replacement fans on ebay if you have time to tinker.

There is already a myriad of mini keyboards on ebay, although I haven't used any but some of them look sufficiently good to use along side a smartphone. In the future I think they will improve to the point where people who want a physical keyboard will just buy it separately.

There is a popular TED talk on motivation, he postulates that growth is one contributing component of motivation. This may be his anecdote, but this guy has helped many people get back their motivation. http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

You're example is where a newbie gets matched with 9 other experienced players, this scenario is no fun in ANY 5v5 team game. Now imagine the scenario where the newbie gets to play with other newbies, the game is more fair and fun. The problem you're describing is the problem of matchmaking, and not a problem of game design.

This is really interesting, the case of the girl you described certainly isn't new phenomenon. I lived with my parents in China up until 1993, and back then this was also a common situation, someone would be dying on the street but for hours nobody will help. I distinctly remember arriving in Australia to find people will help out strangers on the street that are in trouble, it was very different to how things are in China.

I'm not sure how far this phenomenon goes back, but the idea behind the thinking is that helping might bring great trouble upon yourself - part superstition and part selfishness. I remember when was around 5 and I saw this other kid who was starving, I had pity on him and wanted to give him some food, but I remember my mother stopping me. There are also many 'pianzi' in China - they trick/lie to you in order to gain something, and people are very weary of this. This is why family/relationships are so much closer in China - people are only willing to help those they know.

I've heard that young people(particularly girls) in China are today more obsessed with money, so there very well may be truth to what you say about people being selfish.

>China is now more individualistic than America because people are forced to be.

I agree with this - competition is so high today compared to when my parents were growing up. The pressure back then was low as opportunities under the communist regime simply didn't exist - only those with great ambition would work hard. Most student/workers played around all day at that time.

I hear that Russia still has the best mathematicians. Culturally Russia was at the forefront of music/opera - just see the famous violinist of the 20th centuary. I read though in Nathan Milstein's biography that he fled the Stalin regime which stifled art in Russia.

I think a big reason is ease of integration/life - many Chinese people find life to be easier when they immigrate to the West. Life can be very very competitive in China - relationships are often necessary, complex and by definition numerous.

I don't understand the last sentence - honesty to self seems to be more an individual virtue as opposed to a cultural virtue.

I don't think this is a problem isolated in China, I grew up in the Australian education system, went to a top 3 public high school, and the situation(at least for math/science) is the same. Subjects are taught by teachers who follow textbooks, where textbooks are full of practice questions to make sure you can give the correct answer. The underlying motivation for the material is missing - very very few teachers know the material or truly want to properly educate students.

The only difference is that the material is comparatively much less/easier than in the Chinese system, and motivation for students to do well is much lower - the exam has much less impact on the students future.

Further, many articles describing financial failures of a similar flavour will blame the "Quants", whereas in reality they have little power and merely provide the means to execute an idea. With nobody willing/able to regulate against such practices, they will continue to remain a valid avenue for value generation.

Some kind of algorithm for speeding up 'boring' segments is of course top of the list of features, perhaps something that allows the users to 'edit' the video. Great work!

'we decided to allow players to select only four units at a time based on the idea that users would be required to pay attention to their tactical deployments rather than simply gathering a mob and sending them into the fray all at once.'

Damnation! Sometimes I would just build huge mobs for the fun of it, but trying to get them to attack at the same time was a pain.

Great game though, artistically I enjoyed it more than Warcraft II.

I assumed "view of modern psychology" as used by parent meaning some generally accepted views of academics backed up by current experimental research results. Which as the parent states is in conflict with current practices of therapists.

You propose the article is wrong in that abstinence should be the best treatment, further you propose that

'What we're missing now are programs that take an addict's natural tendencies and channel them in such a way that it benefits them.'

Which seems to be the million dollar question, since everybody has different personalities and beliefs, is there a common strategy to apply here?