They probably turned it off for privacy. If you found an old Google profile URL, then you also knew the email address at Gmail, which would render Gmail useless for people who value their privacy.
Ideally, they need to offer the option to have a URL that is different from the Gmail address.
But in terms of code it's very easy to change the system so that it lets users pick their URL - the question is more whether Google will decide to do it, and the fact that they used vanity URLs in the old profiles suggests they may well.
If you look to Europe, we have a sales tax in every country and yet Amazon manages to operate an affiliate service without problem.
If every state harmonised to a similar sales tax range and contributed a certain percentage of the earnings to a central pot (which is shared), then you wouldn't suffer from these problems. I know this is unpopular because people in the US tend to be strongly against tax, but it's a solution.
It's worth highlighting that although broadband over-the-phone is competitive in the UK, the cable internet service (which was built with US money) is a virtual monopoly and there's no sign of its network being unbundled.
The story is a bit too self-involved, there's no need to write about it. They should sort these issues in the background and maintain a professional image.
Most developers I know - in real life - don't program in their spare time, never mind going to conferences or evening meet ups. If you work as a developer and your hobby is developing then there's a good chance that you'll burn out.
That's not to say that it is bad for people who do it, just try to expand your hobbies to something outside of technology.
I've been on guilt trips because of the social aspect I'm missing (dojos, hackatons, weekly meetings in bars), but I've come to terms with it. I have a wife with whom I'd rather be, movies to watch and books to read. It's a tough balance, and ego-wise it can be brutal, but I'm aware now that after my commute home, I want to point my brain at different things.
The way I see it, the ultra-passionate, sleeps-eats-drinks code programmer is usually one who hasn't: a) learned to use his time parsimoniously; b) accepted there's a limit to how much you can do in one day; c) yet built a family. The last one, especially, if approached with gusto, will automatically make you ponder and weigh things -- and will also limit your time, fixing a and b if you don't fight it.
If you work as a developer and your hobby is developing then there's a good chance that you'll burn out.
People are allowed to have more than one hobby. And I'd think that if your paid job is writing and maintaining boring internal enterprise apps, hacking on fun projects could prevent you from getting burned out.
The original article on Hacker News - from The Register - was a bit sensational, that's just their style, a tech tabloid.
To be honest, I don't think sun spots were exclusively to blame for Dickens era of cold weather in Europe. Wasn't there some talk about the Atlantic belt faltering as well? Perhaps the jet stream moved too.
You are right that it is not known for a fact that the Maunder sunspot minimum was responsible for the Little Ice Age recorded in Europe and elsewhere.
It started out as an interesting speculation and has remained there.
This was earlier than Dickens' time -- it was mid 1600s. Galileo and others first saw and drew sunspots in 1610 (due to the invention of the telescope). So their disappearance happened very close in time to their first definitive sighting (they had been seen earlier, but only huge ones, and not clearly, so it was not systematic at all, they were confused with planetary transits).
The original article in the Register was trash, actually. Utter trash.
It does remind of a discussion forum, and one of the problems with forums is display advertisers don't like paying to be on them. Perhaps it is high profile enough to escape this stigma? Such as attracting sponsorship deals for different categories.
Ideally, they need to offer the option to have a URL that is different from the Gmail address.