raarky

my current "scheme" for creating new passwords is to simply write a long, unique passphrase with the idea that I will only remember it for the short time needed to log in after registration.

If I need to log in sometime in the future, I simply reset the password.

Sabbatical is a great idea.

Try and do it cheaply as well. The places you end up staying as a result puts you on an interesting path where you can meet some very interesting folks.

I try and do a 1-3 month long snowboarding trip each year. Buy a season pass, find a room in a hostel and hang out with the other seasonairres. The total cost is only slightly more than a 1-2 week holiday in a hotel. I've meet some awesome, crazy, fun, random and right-down good folks from all around the world.

The imagination gets fired and after some time, I actually really look forward to coming back home and working on something.

awesome stuff :D Thanks for this. Will definitely look into some of that in more detail.

Another tricky part of skin detection is false positives. ie, what if the actual product is that color?

Some things I've noticed and will be taking into account are: Skin areas tend to clump around the same locations in photos. The product is usually the focus and skin is near the edges. Product types also tend to share similar photo layouts. So with that, skin color in those zones score higher.

As a customer it can definitely be annoying to experience at times. My tolerance seems to vary depending on the wait times and food expectations.

A perceived upshot is that the restaurant must put an emphasis on quality at reasonable prices, otherwise they won't draw those crowds and I'm definitely not going to wait for a crappy meal.

However, the "no reservation" method itself seems to help draw crowds too. Kind of like the lines outside a night club seem to draw people. Throw in a bit of edgy branding with some cool marketing and it pulls well - having an "image" works.

Queuing is a bit of a cultural thing/expectation over here. Having someone cut in line can be a huge no no. If someone bought their way into the queue, I could very well see it causing some highly vocal responses. But I'm sure there are people out there trying it out.

In London, a "no reservations" system seems to be happening more and more with popular trendy/hip establishments.

And it seems to work.

Places like Burger & Lobster or Meat Liquor usually have very long queues at prime times.

Oh wow, I'm actually trying to make that decision right now too. Thanks for posting this.

I've been building something in my spare time and between freelance gigs. It's at a good working prototype stage. I just want to spend a solid month polishing, plugging in minimally required data, release it and see what happens from there.

At the same time, I've just been offered a new contract which will put my project on the slow track for a good half year but it's money coming in.

Being able to focus on something that I'm interested in is amazing. My creativity flows and I see results occur at a pace that keeps motivated even more.

Yet, I don't know what decision to make - Financially sound status quo or happy pipe-dream.

but... I'm reading everyone's comments with great interest.

NZ seems to have a pretty large and active MS developer scene.

Teachers like to use Comic Sans because of the little 'a'. It's the same as the one you learn to write.

All the other fonts use the weird typewriter 'a.

It seems like a smart idea for another player step in and maybe build another NZ-AUS only cable.

I must admit, the pacific was seemed hugely ambitious and I was wondering if something would come in and derail it. I never thought that espionage reasons would be one.