I was an intern at Google when this change was first rolled out internally. Google employees had quite similar reactions.
The change was not implemented because people liked it, or didn't like it -- it was implemented because there was cold, hard data showing that new users utilized the new design more effectively than the old design.
I must admit that this strikes me as rather dull: make the equation complicated enough and you can obtain any shape you'd like. I would far be more impressed by a simple one-line equation that drew this shape.
He is a great lecturer to be sure, but other aspects of the class were not ideal. The course staff was unable to return any assignments promptly, and students were eventually allowed to late drop the class due to the complete lack of feedback on assignments. Although Demaine is brilliant and his lectures were amazing, the class as a whole was a negative experience for many students.
You're right. I was thrown off by the message higher in this thread that called them Torx screws. These are not Torx, they're pentalobes, and yeah, it's a non-standard by any reasonable measure.
That said, I'm still not agreeing with all this carping. You buy a product that's not advertised as having user-serviceable parts inside, then complain it's hard to service. I don't see folks complaining that the inside of their Android phone or Dyson vacuum are hard to hack, and that's what the iMac is equivalent to - it's an appliance. You trade away the flexibility of a desktop form factor for the coolness of the all-in-one.
Recently I was looking for a new laptop. The new MacBook Airs arguably have the best-designed hardware of any laptop on the market, but I object to certain hacker-unfriendly steps Apple has taken: namely, the use of pentalobular and triwing screws to make disassembly difficult. I cannot in good faith buy a computer from a company that so actively dissuades tinkering.
I've decided to go with the ThinkPad X220 instead. Although it's not quite as svelte as the Air, it is designed to be user serviceable. Hell, Lenovo publishes a manual with instructions on how to replace the system board (including details such as the torque each screw should be tightened to). And, although the X220 has a removable battery, its battery life is just as good as (if not better than) that of the Air.
(Oh, and the OS difference does not affect me because I will run Arch Linux either way.)
I made the same choice last week after the aluminum bezel on my out of warranty MBP cracked (Wtf!). Nothing in the current Macbook stable meets my criteria. The Pros are all too heavy and the MBA is currently underpowered. The X220 seemed like a much better fit for me and I have one on order as a result.
The fact that my MBP has been the absolute worst laptop I have ever owned didn't do Apple any favors.
I agree that the cost of a college education is increasing, perhaps disproportionately, because demand is so high. However, I would not call higher education a bubble: as an undergrad, I have found that my education does not lack rigor or intensity. I have learned an incredible amount in a very short time, and for me, the personal value of a college education (disregarding the value perceived by society) far exceeds the cost. (I'm studying at MIT, so perhaps my college experience is different from the norm.)
Many people at MIT drop out to start companies or work at startups. I don't know how common this is at other schools, but at MIT, "so-and-so dropped out to work full-time at his startup" is not an unusual thing to hear. It seems to me that students value their degrees less than society does.
