Evan Parker › Likes

"The operation, as Tom calls it, is not anything special. It is not one of a kind event. It's just a normal practice, and the process is pretty simple: The manager will instruct all employees to stay at their desks, telling them what to do and what to expect at any given time. The Apple Gestapo never handles the communication. They are there, present, supervising the supervisors, making sure everything goes as planned. All cellphones are then taken. Usually, they collect them all at the same time, which means that the process could take a long time. If you need to contact the exterior during the time your cellphone is under examination, you will have to ask for permission, and your call will be monitored. They don't ask for cameras because there are no cameras at Apple: Employees are not allowed to get into the campus with them. If the cellphone is an iPhone, it gets backed up onto a laptop. "In fact, at the beginning they used to say that the iPhones were really their property, since... more... - bob from Bookmarklet

I dunno. Knowing how much pure drivel the tech "media" publish, I have trouble believing this is true. - EricaJoy

"This win means that Californians will be the first in the nation to decide whether they believe marijuana ought be taxed and regulated for all adults over 21, much the same way alcohol is. ... Support for marijuana legalization is at an all-time high, with polls ranging from 44 to 52 percent national support. In California, where marijuana has been legalized for medical use since 1996, 56 percent support legalization." - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

Oh man, I'll finally be able to use my wizard bong on the bus. - Noah Belson

"Too much UV penetrating the skin (too pale-skinned under intense sunlight) increases Vitamin D but reduces folate. Lack of folate causes neural tube defects in the fetus, causing such congenital abnormalities as craniorachischisis, anencephalus, and spina bifida, leading to many miscarriages. On the other hand, too little UV penetrating the skin (too dark-skinned under dim sunlight) increases folate but reduces vitamin D. Lack of vitamin D causes skeletal neonatal abnormalities (skull, chest, and leg malformations), rickets being the best known. Again, this causes miscarriages. And so, humans adapt very quickly to solar UV. Prehistoric groups that migrated towards the equator got darker. Prehistoric groups that migrated away from the equator got lighter. But this explanation fails for Europe. Northern Europeans are lighter than everyone to the south (Mediterraneans), to the east (Mongols and east-Asians), to the west (Native Americans across the Atlantic), and to the North (Inuit,... more... - bob from Bookmarklet

I found this article very interesting, and well written to boot. - Will Higgins™

Heh heh. Smart guy, that Bezos. - Piaw Na

I really want a Kindle or Nook, but am, like so many others, really irritated by the inability to lend books, and the lack of portability of books from one system to the other. I know it's early days, but it's going to be a real loss if they don't find a way to open things up a bit. - Joel Webber

Yay! - DeWitt Clinton

@Glenc +1 - Serkan Unsal

"In a movement that seems ripped from the pages of Comedy Channel writers, John Marcotte wants to put a measure on the ballot next year to ban divorce in California. The effort is meant to be a satirical statement after California voters outlawed gay marriage in 2008, largely on the argument that a ban is needed to protect the sanctity of traditional marriage. If that's the case, then Marcotte reasons voters should have no problem banning divorce." - Shannon Jiménez from Bookmarklet

I like it...from a satirical standpoint... - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

Who wants some Sheep?! *throws Sheep* - Kamilah Gill

I first read this as catatonic marathon. - Mark Krynsky

"Most media companies are trying hard ... to boost the value of their online content until it matches the amount of money it costs to produce. But Rosenblatt thinks they have it exactly backward. Instead of trying to raise the market value of online content to match the cost of producing it — perhaps an impossible proposition — the secret is to cut costs until they match the market value." - j1m

wow, so this is the sort of lolcat that amuses ⓞnor - j1m

kitteh is the only one *not* amused. - 'Like' robot (frɐnc)

"Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."" - Merry Xmas FFeeders - AJ from Bookmarklet

So my dirty mind protects from mental illness? - RAPatton from iPhone

Maybe not that dirty. - John (a.k.a. dendroica)

"By mimicking how a butterfly's wings shimmer, or how a peacock's tail is so iridescent, engineers at Qualcomm came up with mirasol technology. As Qualcomm notes, "Qualcomm's mirasol display technology is based on a reflective technology called IMOD (Interferometric MODulation), with MEMS structures at its core. This MEMS-based innovation is both bistable, meaning it is both extremely low power, and highly reflective, meaning the display itself can be seen even in direct sunlight." Here's a video explaining more and giving a rundown of how it is used in the e-reader. The battery sipping capabilities of the device (the form factor details of which haven't been divulged yet..what you see in the photo above is only a mock up of one design being considered) will exceed that of even the Kindle, which touts a long battery life, thanks to the mirasol technology. Slashdot notes, "As the mirasol team explained... once you start pushing traditional e-ink panel refresh rates, up to the point you... more... - Jason Wehmhoener from Bookmarklet

yep - Jason Wehmhoener

Server-side Javascript framework to build servers. Uses non-blocking calls and lots of callbacks. - Amit Patel

"How would Apple like it if when they discovered a serious bug in OS X, instead of releasing a software update immediately, they had to submit their code to an intermediary who sat on it for a month and then rejected it because it contained an icon they didn't like?" - j1m from Bookmarklet

"Can anything break this cycle? No device I've seen so far could. Palm and RIM haven't a hope. The only credible contender is Android. But Android is an orphan; Google doesn't really care about it, not the way Apple cares about the iPhone. Apple cares about the iPhone the way Google cares about search." - ⓞnor

I also liked his bit about how a machine you could actually develop on would get the all the Apps. Just like Sun. - j1m

Best bug ever/math is fun: http://www.google.com/search... - Mihai Parparita

24.5 days ~= 2^21 seconds - Steve "Daddy do it!" Lacy

Turns out it's actually 2^32 milliseconds, I guess. - Steve "Daddy do it!" Lacy

"I did have another job at one point, as a computer programmer, but I kept up with my other work because it was so much more enjoyable." -- Dr Brooke Magnanti, aka blogger call girl Belle de Jour - Peter Norvig from Bookmarklet

Hmm, I wonder how many people are qualified to answer that question. - Laura Norvig

Wait. WashU? Like St Louis? Go there! And bring everybody with you. ;-) I'm being totally selfish, but seriously, congrats on another acceptance. - Mandi

A funny Youtube comment http://www.youtube.com/watch...: "Damn it, i thought he was gonna say, "And since you probalby wondering about this, yes, i'm a robot" :D - Jérôme Flipo

I already knew that mantis shrimp have the most awesome eyes in the animal kingdom; now it turns out they have additional awesomeness. - Peter Norvig from Bookmarklet

"A copy of Time costs $5 for 58 pages, or 8.6 cents a page. The Economist costs $7 for 86 pages, or 8.1 cents a page. Better journalism is actually slightly cheaper. Almost every form of publishing has been organized as if the medium was what they were selling, and the content was irrelevant. Book publishers, for example, set prices based on the cost of producing and distributing books. They treat the words printed in the book the same way a textile manufacturer treats the patterns printed on its fabrics. Economically, the print media are in the business of marking up paper. We can all imagine an old-style editor getting a scoop and saying "this will sell a lot of papers!" Cross out that final S and you're describing their business model. The reason they make less money now is that people don't need as much paper." - j1m from Bookmarklet

"Now that the medium is evaporating, publishers have nothing left to sell. Some seem to think they're going to sell content—that they were always in the content business, really. But they weren't, and it's unclear whether anyone could be." - j1m

"I'm not claiming that potential will be realized by the existing players. The optimal ways to make money from the written word probably require different words written by different people. " - j1m

Wow, they really love this puppy - j1m from Bookmarklet

Can't wait to see it. Too bad bgr is 503. - Joel Webber

"SuperMemo is based on the insight that there is an ideal moment to practice what you've learned. Practice too soon and you waste your time. Practice too late and you've forgotten the material and have to relearn it. The right time to practice is just at the moment you're about to forget. Unfortunately, this moment is different for every person and each bit of information. Imagine a pile of thousands of flash cards. Somewhere in this pile are the ones you should be practicing right now. Which are they?" - Lasse Johnsen from Bookmarklet

The Pimsleur language series uses an essentially similar methodology, and they worked very well for me in learning French. - Joel Webber