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    1. inspired by
    1. (research.google.com)
      Google Visiting Faculty Program – Google Research

      What are your predictions for the future of computer science?
      HA: Hmm, I don't even know what the recent past of computer science is, much less the future. So if I stand on my soapbox, I must say I believe the future of computer science is information science. Cornell has a nice way of saying it – they talk about computer science inside the box and outside the box. So inside the box is the compiler stuff that makes it work, and the detailed kinds of operating systems, and all of that; and outside the box is the impact that it has on the world. I think that computer science is getting dragged by its ears into understanding that the fundamental problem is the impact that it has on the world. Faculty need to figure out that they're working on the problems of 20 years ago. It’s funny, some people at Google kind of understand this. There are all these people who work on distributed computing, and yet there are these wonderful things you do inside Google. Folks think they understand what scalability means as a problem, and they don't – the issues are different and bigger and you haven't even seen the phenomenon people say they're studying. So to me, the future of computer science really is information.

       

    Is Computer Science the right field to study and understand the impact of information on society?

     
    1. the intutive answer is no, CS folks are systems folks, social study is needed, but that is not enough. CS people start the fires, they must understand their effects.
      2 supporters | posted by seemore
       
       
     

    [collection] What brands were ruined by being purchased?

     
    1. Schwinn Bicycles
      3 supporters | posted by cldaniel
       
       
     

    After the Sidekick fiasco, should we be afraid to store data in the cloud?

     
    1. Don't put all your eggs in one basket
      1 supporter | posted by psoberoi
       
       
    2. Most people are actually probably better off storing their data online.
      3 supporters | posted by monitron
       
       
     

    Did Verizon burn an important bridge by publicly slandering the iPhone?

     
    1. Nope, marketing is not about logic.
      1 supporter | posted by psoberoi
       
       
    2. Verizon screwed themselves out of ever getting the capo-di-tutti-capi of handsets.
      2 supporters | posted by ngiardina
       
       
     
    5. inspired by
    1. (www.windley.com)
      Phil Windley's Technometria | Anemic Applications

      What does Kaye envision? He says: �If business users were less shortsighted� they would seek to create computer models of their companies and constantly simulate potential changes. But the computers most business people use today are not suited for that. The chances that in the last week or year or month you've used the computer to simulate some interesting idea is zero-but that's what it's for.�

       

    Why don't we try to simulate the outcomes of valuable projects?

     
    1. simulations are hard, let's go shopping
      2 supporters | posted by seemore
       
       
     

    What is twitter?

     

    1. I kind of like the idea of sparking people to communicate more as you posit, but does this tool allow people to interact but in more shallow, less meaningful ways- rather then help people develop more...
      1 supporter | posted by Froggy
       
       
    2. Three more things I think Twitter does for you
      2 supporters | posted by monitron
       
       

    3. The genius fo Twitter is the way 140-character limitation, which is all but ridiculous from a technical perspective, changes communication patterns. First, it makes messages easy to ignore. Second, ...
      2 supporters | posted by misha
       
       
    4. it's just a way of sharing short messages with your friends and others
      1 supporter | posted by seemore
       
       
     

    What would make the iPhone great?

     
    1. Fatal flaws iPhone users don't deserve to deal with.
      1 supporter | posted by katia
       
       
     
    8. inspired by
    1. (www.locusmag.com)
      Locus Online Features: Cory Doctorow: Why I Copyfight

      Copyright law valorizes copying as a rare and noteworthy event. On the Internet, copying is automatic, massive, instantaneous, free, and constant. Clip a Dilbert cartoon and stick it on your office door and you're not violating copyright. Take a picture of your office door and put it on your homepage so that the same co-workers can see it, and you've violated copyright law, and since copyright law treats copying as such a rarified activity, it assesses penalties that run to the hundreds of thousands of dollars for each act of infringement.
      There's a word for all the stuff we do with creative works — all the conversing, retelling, singing, acting out, drawing, and thinking: we call it culture.
      Culture's old. It's older than copyright.
      The existence of culture is why copyright is valuable. The fact that we have a bottomless appetite for songs to sing together, for stories to share, for art to see and add to our visual vocabulary is the reason that people will pay money for these things.

       

    Why does all this copyright reform stuff matter, anyway? What's at stake?

     
    1. sadly, it makes us crimimal to break even outmoded laws
      2 supporters | posted by seemore