>"When the public is made aware of the mass surveillance programs, they do say "No thank you""
Actually they say "I've got nothing to hide" or "there is nothing you can do anyway"
"trying to stay awake watching one slide after the other" these I hated the most the PowerPointProfs and in their exams question where like "name 6 things of something" where they wanted to have the things listed from their presentation and only their presentation.
More a proof of concept, bringing 3D into industry automation. Some Scada/Mes Software already have some kind of 3D interaction but these are basically DWG-Viewers. And that's the first point, dwg is the format which you will get most source from machine producers. A standard in software in production is OPC_UA which already offers functional protocols to be used for 3D implementation. So what I want to see is can you get dwg (maybe parsed to another format) together with the functionallity in OPC_UA present it in an engine (PCs in production are build for durability not graphics power) and can you find an interaction system which can actually be used by a machine operator in production.
"I want America like Europe where they'll educate your kid until his head explodes. You want to go to college, go, we need you, we need doctors because people grow up and fall down and go boom, everyone is going to need a doctor, let's have three doctors per floor of every apartment building in this town. How about that as a good idea? Like that is a good idea. Okay, so let's make college tuition either free or really low and if you have a country full of whip-crack smart people you have a country the rest of the world will fear. They will not invade a country of educated people because we are so smart we'll build a laser that will burn you, the enemy, in your sleep before you can even mobilize your air force to kill us. We will kill you so fast because we are so smart and we will have foreign policy that will not piss you off to the point to where you have to attack us." Henry Rollins
"Because size does matter. It seems to me that progressive, reasonable, pacific and prosperous states - like the Nordic countries, or Switzerland or New Zealand - tend to be less than 10 million people."
That is what I often thought regarding the EU. A EU of regions instead of nations. United under a banner for economy, foreign affairs, standards and military and let the regions handle social insurance, police, taxes. Im actually a big fan of the EU but right now it seems to go in some wrong directions and politicans of national governments always using Bruessel as an excuse, while the EU itself is not speaking with one voice in conflicts like in Ukraine.
Propably the shortest story on the list
/Dwan Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.
He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe -- ninety-six billion planets -- into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.
Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then after a moment's silence he said, "Now, Dwar Ev."
Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.
Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."
"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."
He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"
The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay.
"Yes, now there is a God."
Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.
A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut./ (Fredric Brown, "Answer")
"it isn't easy to ignore Lubos, but it is always worth it" if he could just be a little more on the topic, instead of insulting everyone, his legitimate critiscm would a far greater value.
I worked as bartender,eventecnician, MTB Guide, Skiing Instructor and a lot of other part time jpns. Before I started study with 27 and finished something like a year a ago. Working in software industry is a DREAM, you get a safe job, good money and good working time. Yes good working time compared to eventec it is insanly good. I financed my studys also with part time jobs in the beginning and soon (2 semester) could start programming for a local company, I needed to learn C# which just heard of in a GUI course and boy I was working hard, everything I couldn't do in the company I did at home, this brought me in the got position I am in today and that't what I would suggest to students. Learn, work, learn harder, work harder. Learn what 1 dollar or euro is worth. My role model Henry Rollins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbnFJVgBcw0
"Austria is a notoriously conservative and very bureaucratic country, which is deeply reflected by the political landscape" I am from Bavaria and this sentence exactly describes the politics there. Overall there is not much diffrence between Austria and Bavaria even the dialect is pretty much the same. No insults intended I live in Bavaria and work in Austria.
I guess everyone in this industry goes through a company like this.sooner or later. I once had this CEO, who was gifted with speech.Looking back in shame, i cannot believe how trustful I and all the other were, the alarmsigns were there all along still we couldn't or didn't want to see it. Anyway I found some got friends in this time,still doing projects with some of them. I just lost 8 month of my time,so I guess it is ok, since it gave me some experience. Anyway nowadays I check first before jumping in with full force.