"Too many men, like too much testosterone, is not a good thing."
Men built the entire world we live in today. Women's contribution to this has been negligible and inconsequential.
If every women from the dawn of time to the present day had been solely constrained to their proper duties of child-raising and home-keeping (which for the most part is actually the case), the world we live in today would basically be exactly the same, if not better.
If most men had been prevented from contributing to society and reaching their full potential we would still be living in caves.
I used to spend a lot of time on Reddit, Ars, Vulture Central and others (I abandoned the craptacular /. years ago).
Now I mostly spend time switching between HN/frontpage and HN/new as I find it has all the main stories, plus other interesting stuff that I just would not find anywhere else.
Let's face it people, Google has reached the zenith of it's trajectory, and it is now a fading flower, and it knows it.
Yes, it has had some amazing products and innovations, but everything since Android has smacked of desperation and greed (SPYW anyone?).
And any time Google attempts something Social, I just want to cringe. Why? Because Google just ain't cool. It really ain't. And Social is all about following and being friends with the cool people.
Google is kind of the corporate manifestation of the dorky geek who lives under the delusion that being in the accelerated maths class and attending the school science fair are "cool" activities, mainly because they have been fooled by teachers trying to promote intellectual activities, only to be beaten on at the bus stop after class, and can never work out why.
Google+ was basically Google's last great hope, it has no other major products on the horizon, and is clearly running out of sensible ideas (digital display sunglasses case in point). Coupled with Apple's almost unspeakable, shining success in the mobile/tablet market it is perhaps not surprising that Google has developed a bitter and aggressive attitude (Page's SPYW or fuck off) driven by envy and greed, and has left it's "don't be evil, give away amazing products for free" mantra in the dust for "exploit anything vaguely profitable, kill the rest".
"interesting how the concept of theft seems meaningless when applied to copyrighted material, but meaningful when applied to private data."
Not all that interesting.
Theft of personal data can cause real loss and harm if misused.
"Theft" of songs/movies does not cause any direct loss or harm, as no otherwise confidential information was exposed and the only "loss" is theoretical and hyper-inflated loss-of-potential-sales.
The issue here is one of violation of privacy and of confidentiality (if I was a journalist my contacts may be highly sensitive information), not of theft.
What if I gave someone my silent, protected phone number and that information was stolen by Path like it appears to have done? I may not "own" the information, but I may have rights under law for the information to be protected, and not shared without my permission. Similarly for addresses of people who may be in witness protection programs or escaping violence of some kind. The simple fact is Path stole this information without any kind of consent from the user, information it had no right to access.
What do I use it for? Basically all the stuff I was previously doing on my PC and Phone, because it does it better.
I have a Asus Tranformer Prime (Android). Browsing the web? Check. Playing games? Check. Reading RSS? Check. Browsing YouTube? Check. Listening to podcasts/online radio? Check. Reading movie reviews/watching trailers? Check. Reading an eBook? Check. Email? Check.
Why is it better? Well it is better than the PC, because I can lie down in bed, or on the couch, or on the front porch, or in the back-yard, or anywhere else for that matter, instead of sitting in a computer chair at a desk (I do that all day at work, why would I want to do it at home?). I prefer the touch-screen interface, and I like the fact there are many dedicated apps rather than just using a webpage. For example, I find browsing youtube using the Android app far more enjoyable than browsing it in a webpage. To me, the touchscreen is not just a convenient alternative to the mouse for tablet-style devices, it has ushered in a new paradigm for interacting with applications, it makes the UX that much better.
It is better than a phone, mainly because of screen size. I like holding it in portrait mode and reading RSS feeds. It is also so much faster and smoother than my android phone.
It is my main computing device at home now. I use the PC rarely, and I use the phone only for calls/sms. I still use the phone for apps/browsing when on the move, as I generally don't bring the tablet around everywhere.
I fully understand where Cook is coming from, and as tablets become even more powerful I think it will be inevitable. The only awkward thing I own now is a awkward behemoth of a PC with all its cables and accessories, under an awkward desk, with an awkward pointing device, and with and awkward chair.
What do you currently do on your PC or your phone that you would rather not do on your tablet?
"Just because you have not seen it does not mean it doesn't exist."
And just because you say it is so does not make it so. To say something is "not up for debate" is really just saying you are not willing to hear or consider alternative views or opinions, and is a hallmark of the way feminists approach all kind of discourse and discussion with men. The only thing left to do really is start screeching "misogynist" at everyone who disagrees with you.
Kind-of a long-winded way to point out the (very well known) fact that passing non-terminated strings to functions that expect terminated strings is fraught with danger, isn't it?
Men built the entire world we live in today. Women's contribution to this has been negligible and inconsequential.
If every women from the dawn of time to the present day had been solely constrained to their proper duties of child-raising and home-keeping (which for the most part is actually the case), the world we live in today would basically be exactly the same, if not better.
If most men had been prevented from contributing to society and reaching their full potential we would still be living in caves.