skreech

Why do you approach them in the first place? Are you genuinely curious about them as people, or do you want them to fill some need / ache / void in you?

If you think it may be leaning towards the latter, try to look deep within yourself and understand what it is you need. The next step would be to meet this need by yourself. Trying to use other people seldom works well, in my experience.

On the other hand, if it's the former, does it come across to them that you are genuinely interested? Do you keep eye contact most of the time? Do you pay attention when they are talking, and do you listen to what they are saying without thinking about what you should be saying next? Are you listening more than you are talking?

The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact has a 4.3" screen, seems to be the smallest high-end brand name phone out.

Here is the same principle but using a smartphone for geo-location instead of a car. They claim up to 26% energy savings annually: http://www.tado.com/de-en/#your-day-with-tado

When using a touchscreen on a 13" ultrabook, the Win 8 start menu actually makes a lot of sense.

Brad Pitt eats in lots of movies, maybe a western equivalent?

Disregarding the flamboyant visions of an electrical revolution, just having a flippable physical interface (and hopefully not in three different sizes, two of which always gets mixed up) would be a huge enough leap forward for everyday life.

Here is a user test from an early adopter: http://alfabravo.com/2011/11/hovding/

These seem to be equivalent for the 13-inch: http://www.asus.com/News/HdaKeDLi5GFAIrkE

Didn't mean to sound condescending - it would be very fascinating, especially if we would find evidence of common ancestry and other similarities. Wouldn't exactly be the cantina in Mos Eisley, though.

However, as you point out, we live in the middle of an enormously rich biota need not stare at the stars to find new life forms. That's quite amazing.

Considering how many life forms are on this planet, and how few of them who provide decent conversation, what are the chances of discovering Vulcans or Wookies? Most life we eventually discover might be more exciting to entomologists.

They can't really tell with 100 % accuracy until birth, but by week 18 they can tell with a very high level of accuracy. And Sweden permits abortions until the end of week 18.

To prevent parents from aborting children of the "wrong" gender. It has sadly happened, apparently.

Could be she lost friends (or superficial friends) because they were envious of her trying to build her own company, but on the surface they were saying "that will never work" instead of "I hate you for trying".

There are lots of peer reviewed papers that come to a completely different conclusion than this article (for example, that social skills and verbal skills are critical).

I recommend reading those instead of this article, which seems based on speculation.

If there are two camps, these would rather be 'those who want to build a business' (sending invoices, paying customers, etc) and 'those who want to make a big flip' (with major financial rewards)

Since VCs (and indirectly LPs) are in the business of growing money, they will follow the money.

The title of the article raises a good question, though: what is the rationale for clamping down on this?

Have they had a real problem, or is it merely moralistic?

I offer a hug to anyone who I'm not in a professional relationship with. Most people seem to like this, and if they don't, I switch to a 'bro hug' in mid-motion. Nice and simple.

The Windows 8 UI feels much more snappy (possibly due to less animation for windows etc) and the new start menu is more comprehensive than the old one.

The metro apps, however, feel contrived and out of place, so I don't use those. Still wouldn't go back to Win7.

Yes, and when local governments lack the power, desire and/or resources to protect heritage sites, can the larger world community step in, and how? Perhaps start by buying the land where such sites are located?

Integrating services like Taskrabbit, home delivery etc, at least if some kickback scheme is available. Location-based ads based on "things to buy".

It seems a bit misleading that the article contains no more than two photos of Facebook's offices, considering the title.

Would be decent of Spotify to tell you / ask you nicely. But if you're gaming, why not just quit Spotify and other programs you're not using?

You mean "Yankee Sweden", right? Switzerland is not a Nordic country.

It seems wrong to teach your children that the machine is a person.

Why not tell them "I put a script in the machine that will shut down the screen if you yell too loud"?

Same result, more truthful method.

I think they're stuck in the desktop mindset.

Moving to mobile would require a shift in thinking that might be impossible for such a large and entrenched organization.

The teenagers of today, having grown up with smartphones, will likely exit en masse when a usable alternative emerges.

"Zen" doesn't mean "being in the zone"

Cool feature, though!

There are different kinds of success. Getting cash is one. Maintaining integrity in the face of adversity another.

Also I wonder if the (relatively white) lie was necessary in this case.

Or as a culture. It seems to me that the gap between what language is acceptable in informal vs formal settings is fairly large in the US, while in other countries, using words like 'bullshit' in more formal settings is less taboo.

Wonder if there's any research on this.

Good point, and IANAL etc, but since we as humans can more or less clearly see the difference between patent trolls and such institutions, there has to be a way to encode those nuances in legalese.

But I guess the real problem isn't whether the patents usually involved will hold up in court, but the costs involved in setting up a defense and disproving the accusations.

A more nuanced approach would be to stop software patents and lawsuits brought on by non-practicing entities.

That way you don't have to pull the carpet from under drug companies and suchlike, or 'burn down the entire house'. Just the rotten parts of it.