Not knowing what is text and what is a link just kills me. We went through lots of this in the webs early days. We had icons for navigation and experimental flash navigation. But it made for mystery meat navigation - and in the end we returned to text. Now it's all gone full circle.
It's just insidious though isn't it? There's a scare that we might have internet connected energy meters. You end up with dozens of devices that have connectivity and you don't actually know what they do. I have a satellite box, that I manually connect to the internet every once in a while for on demand services. But I have no idea what information it sends back. Could send back my entire viewing history for all I know. Or rather it might be collecting and storing data to later send.
I noticed my satellite box trying to pull a web page from my computer. Malware is another problem.
It's an odd problem. My partner insists on keeping a shopping list. But mostly I remember what we have in the fridge and store cupboard, as I frequently cook. I don't actually forget that many items when shopping. Toothpaste I don't keep in the fridge. Being able to have a quick glance remotely could help, but I'd probably then abandon trying to remember, and it would probably take me longer. My partner recently tried a little stretch of buying online and collecting from the store. But for me, it took all the fun out of shopping. I actually enjoy strutting the supermarket - and some domestic tasks. My partner likes certainty. I like mixing things up a little.
I don't see why we can't semantically define menus and tasks. And have different interfaces that can just plug into these. So if you don't want titles - fine - use a different window manager or style. I can think of many better ways of doing desktop windowing/application behaviour.
I have two debian installs. One with old and the other with new debian/xfce/gnome. And although I probably prefer the older debian/xfce combo to alternatives - I can't say I'm particularly smitten.
I'm a freelance programmer without much self-worth, and currently no work. Given the right environment, people and projects (for me), I know I'd be happier and wealthier, and may even thrive. Rather than the abandonment that I've felt on many freelance gigs. With age, I find it increasingly difficult to sit in front of a computer for long stretches of time (more than 4 hours). I've been in a rut, where I've barely earned enough to get by for the last 15 years, and have nothing to show for it, other than a bust shoulder. No landmark projects or piles of cash. Cash would help! My other half frequently tries to talk me out of the profession. I work occasionally with impassioned newcomers, who assume with my depth of knowledge and skill-set I'd be earning shed loads and taking the best gigs. But they have the needed drive and zeal that I feel I could do with a shot of. Or rather, I can program, but I'm not a successful programmer/worker. I still like problem solving, but also appreciate some donkey work. I often think what else can I do, but my imagination and confidence fails me. And I'm too shy to ask for help (UK).
Or rather rubbing shoulders is usually used to describe networking, though if you are mingling with the great and the good/important or famous, hobnobbing may have been a better term.
We worked out recently that we spent under £20 pcm on gas and electric over the last year. 2 people, washing machine, fridge, 2 x laptop, LED lights, 1 LED TV, and gas heating. Admittedly we only put on heating in the evening for an hour or so. Southern England (UK). Attribute to it not being cold for the last two winters here. Duvets and hot water bottles are used regularly. Yet to turn on heating this year. Not looking forward to the cold. Water bill however is shocking.
We've been forever waiting for Linux on the desktop! In as much as a very polished desktop distro. Never seems to come along. Even Ubuntu haven't managed it. Given fixed hardware I'm sure it would still be a challenge. Iterations of desktops and window managers pass by, start out glitchy, get polished in time, then are made obsolete. I have seen so many regressions in popular Linux desktops - even core components like panels, and file managers. I'm currently running an older version of Foo, because newer Foo has too many annoying warts. But what I have, just about works. That being said, Windows doesn't seem to progress that much either. Perhaps UI is the hard part. As a dev, I always think that the icing on the cake should be the easy bit. But of course it isn't.
They could be a bit more innovative with infrastructure building, like creating glass from the desert sand using solar:
https://vimeo.com/25401444
Not sure if it would do clear panes but could be used for pipe work and scaffolding perhaps.
Exactly it may take years and lots of heat energy extraction, but the Earth could end up cold. I don't think it's a renewable.
On the flip side you can do this the other way round: trap solar in a heat store below ground, piping the heat down below. It becomes a giant battery. The earth insulates the heat store (providing there is no water run through / water table to wick out the heat). You reverse the process during cold spells into a building.
I read that the mid-west (not sure if that's the correct location) in north America had heavily depleted water tables because of irrigation. When that evaporates off, where does that water go? Is it destined to stay over North America or does it end up in the sea? Or rather does this cause an imbalance? Is it more likely to rain over land?