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How does Free go about breaking this lock-in? I know for me if it wasn't for entertainment software I would be all over GNU. Wine steps in and fills that void somewhat but currently does not have enough compatibility to bring me over to the good side. I like Linux, I want to use it, but my games don't play in it and thats the only thing that keeps a closed OS on my desktop.

You do it by buying a Playstation or Xbox360 or Wii, and play your games there - and watch your movies there. Use your PC for personal computing and skip the "entertainment" stuff.

I'm prefacing this with the fact that I ran Linux as my only OS for a year (SuSE 9) then I switched back to Microsoft. Linux and GNU are a superior development process - inclusive and plural - but Microsoft right now has the superior ecosystem.

And as far as Windows having the "superior ecosystem"? I don't think so. There's lots of stuff broken in Windows and other Microsoft products. OpenOffice.org Ninja often runs benchmarks against Microsoft and Free. Bad Vista has a list of lots of things that are wrong, but as this is from the FSF, the angle is mostly about freedoms. Or check out Linuxinexile for things that just don't work "right" under Windows, compared to Linux:

• Windows boots slower than Linux (although it's better since XP)
• Windows printing stops if you switch to another app
• Windows "favorite links" makes login slow
• Windows can't open multiple files at once (specifically, different extensions)
• (the list goes on) ...

Doesn't sound like a "superior ecosystem" to me. But hey, to each his own, I guess.

How does Free go about breaking this lock-in? I know for me if it wasn't for entertainment software I would be all over GNU. Wine steps in and fills that void somewhat but currently does not have enough compatibility to bring me over to the good side. I like Linux, I want to use it, but my games don't play in it and thats the only thing that keeps a closed OS on my desktop.

You do it by buying a Playstation or Xbox360 or Wii, and play your games there - and watch your movies there. Use your PC for personal computing and skip the "entertainment" stuff.

I'm prefacing this with the fact that I ran Linux as my only OS for a year (SuSE 9) then I switched back to Microsoft. Linux and GNU are a superior development process - inclusive and plural - but Microsoft right now has the superior ecosystem.

And as far as Windows having the "superior ecosystem"? I don't think so. There's lots of stuff broken in Windows and other Microsoft products. OpenOffice.org Ninja often runs benchmarks against Microsoft and Free. Bad Vista has a list of lots of things that are wrong, but as this is from the FSF, the angle is mostly about freedoms. Or check out Linuxinexile for things that just don't work "right" under Windows, compared to Linux:

• Windows boots slower than Linux (although it's better since XP)
• Windows printing stops if you switch to another app
• Windows "favorite links" makes login slow
• Windows can't open multiple files at once (specifically, different extensions)
• (the list goes on) ...

Doesn't sound like a "superior ecosystem" to me. But hey, to each his own, I guess.

How does Free go about breaking this lock-in? I know for me if it wasn't for entertainment software I would be all over GNU. Wine steps in and fills that void somewhat but currently does not have enough compatibility to bring me over to the good side. I like Linux, I want to use it, but my games don't play in it and thats the only thing that keeps a closed OS on my desktop.

You do it by buying a Playstation or Xbox360 or Wii, and play your games there - and watch your movies there. Use your PC for personal computing and skip the "entertainment" stuff.

I'm prefacing this with the fact that I ran Linux as my only OS for a year (SuSE 9) then I switched back to Microsoft. Linux and GNU are a superior development process - inclusive and plural - but Microsoft right now has the superior ecosystem.

And as far as Windows having the "superior ecosystem"? I don't think so. There's lots of stuff broken in Windows and other Microsoft products. OpenOffice.org Ninja often runs benchmarks against Microsoft and Free. Bad Vista has a list of lots of things that are wrong, but as this is from the FSF, the angle is mostly about freedoms. Or check out Linuxinexile for things that just don't work "right" under Windows, compared to Linux:

• Windows boots slower than Linux (although it's better since XP)
• Windows printing stops if you switch to another app
• Windows "favorite links" makes login slow
• Windows can't open multiple files at once (specifically, different extensions)
• (the list goes on) ...

Doesn't sound like a "superior ecosystem" to me. But hey, to each his own, I guess.

How does Free go about breaking this lock-in? I know for me if it wasn't for entertainment software I would be all over GNU. Wine steps in and fills that void somewhat but currently does not have enough compatibility to bring me over to the good side. I like Linux, I want to use it, but my games don't play in it and thats the only thing that keeps a closed OS on my desktop.

You do it by buying a Playstation or Xbox360 or Wii, and play your games there - and watch your movies there. Use your PC for personal computing and skip the "entertainment" stuff.

I'm prefacing this with the fact that I ran Linux as my only OS for a year (SuSE 9) then I switched back to Microsoft. Linux and GNU are a superior development process - inclusive and plural - but Microsoft right now has the superior ecosystem.

And as far as Windows having the "superior ecosystem"? I don't think so. There's lots of stuff broken in Windows and other Microsoft products. OpenOffice.org Ninja often runs benchmarks against Microsoft and Free. Bad Vista has a list of lots of things that are wrong, but as this is from the FSF, the angle is mostly about freedoms. Or check out Linuxinexile for things that just don't work "right" under Windows, compared to Linux:

• Windows boots slower than Linux (although it's better since XP)
• Windows printing stops if you switch to another app
• Windows "favorite links" makes login slow
• Windows can't open multiple files at once (specifically, different extensions)
• (the list goes on) ...

Doesn't sound like a "superior ecosystem" to me. But hey, to each his own, I guess.

How does Free go about breaking this lock-in? I know for me if it wasn't for entertainment software I would be all over GNU. Wine steps in and fills that void somewhat but currently does not have enough compatibility to bring me over to the good side. I like Linux, I want to use it, but my games don't play in it and thats the only thing that keeps a closed OS on my desktop.

You do it by buying a Playstation or Xbox360 or Wii, and play your games there - and watch your movies there. Use your PC for personal computing and skip the "entertainment" stuff.

I'm prefacing this with the fact that I ran Linux as my only OS for a year (SuSE 9) then I switched back to Microsoft. Linux and GNU are a superior development process - inclusive and plural - but Microsoft right now has the superior ecosystem.

And as far as Windows having the "superior ecosystem"? I don't think so. There's lots of stuff broken in Windows and other Microsoft products. OpenOffice.org Ninja often runs benchmarks against Microsoft and Free. Bad Vista has a list of lots of things that are wrong, but as this is from the FSF, the angle is mostly about freedoms. Or check out Linuxinexile for things that just don't work "right" under Windows, compared to Linux:

• Windows boots slower than Linux (although it's better since XP)
• Windows printing stops if you switch to another app
• Windows "favorite links" makes login slow
• Windows can't open multiple files at once (specifically, different extensions)
• (the list goes on) ...

Doesn't sound like a "superior ecosystem" to me. But hey, to each his own, I guess.

Thanks for clarifying that. Turns out I understood a few concepts wrong. When I heard about it, it was over a cancer patient who after paying out of pocket for a drug that was supposedly 3 times as effective, was booted from the system and had to find a way to pay 11000 ero for two or three months treatment before he died.

The worse part about this is that the people paid into the system all of their lives thinking they were getting proper coverage just to find out that someone is making penny pinching decisions concerning their lives and if the patient attempts to make up the difference, they are booted from the system and in one case charged for treatment to date. Cancer survival rates in Europe itself is dismal but it seems that with universal government health care, you a die more often from cancer then a country without it.

Back in the 1970's after President Carter screwed up the US economy with his failed foreign and domestic policies, inflation was rampant and seniors who were living from Social security and pensions were running out of money. It took the US government almost 6 years and Reagan's deficit spending in order to start compensating for the amount of inflation we saw. To the date, the purchasing power of SS retirement payments aren't what they were in 1972 or 1975. Now you have the UK NHS threatening to withhold treatment from people who are over weight, who smoke, or do anything else they don't like in order to pinch more pennies. I just don't see how this is good.

At least with private coverage, I can attempt to find another provider and sue the current one if they pull that crap at the last minute.

Like I said on my blog[1], "Linux developers ARE innovative, just not in the right path".

I'm glad somebody else brought this up.

PS: I use Windows 7 RC now.

[1] http://ljuwaidah.blogspot.com/2009/04/linuxs-desktop-environments-are-failing.html

There is a reason the press is considered the fourth estate . They serve a role in our society that bloggers and news consolidators do not yet fulfill. Think of the various investigative reports and whistleblower services each good local paper provides. These checks on the system only work when the published report is widely read and available (to be picked up by TV and national media), which is not the case for electronic systems. I think no electronic location has mindshare enough, and generates enough cash to support the staff for this function. In my area all the best reporters have been laid off during the recession and are showing up on a good blog MinnPost. But they can't find a business model or audience (although you can donate to them to help as I have done). But very few of the readers of the papers know that MinnPost exists, it took me quite a bit of time myself. My plea is to consider what happens along these lines when the audience is fragmented to many many blogs with a niche perspective or audience. As an example, Michelle Bachman is my congresswoman and without the papers her silliness would go unnoticed - ironically I am going to link a blog so you can see what I mean, but these all came out in the papers for the entire district to see. The press may be the only think keeping her from the deep end.

BTW the largest electronic readership web site is that of the paper, but without the print edition I am not sure the online edition would survive long.

For those unfamiliar, the White House panel (the "Augustine Commission" on human spaceflight plans) was given the following objectives in their charter:

The Committee shall conduct an independent review of ongoing U.S. human space flight plans and programs, as well as alternatives, to ensure the Nation is pursuing the best trajectory for the future of human space flight â" one that is safe, innovative, affordable, and sustainable. The Committee should aim to identify and characterize a range of options that spans the reasonable possibilities for continuation of U.S. human space flight activities beyond retirement of the Space Shuttle. The identification and characterization of these options should address the following objectives:

a) expediting a new U.S. capability to support utilization of the International Space Station (ISS);

b) supporting missions to the Moon and other destinations beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO);

c) stimulating commercial space flight capability; and

d) fitting within the current budget profile for NASA exploration activities.

Unfortunately, as the "Restore the Vision" blog notes, while the presentations by SpaceX and ULA (maker of the EELVs) addressed these issues, NASA's Constellation presentation largely ignoring these objectives:

http://restorethevision.blogspot.com/2009/06/thoughts-on-june-17-human-space-flight.html

On "expediting a new U.S. capability to support utilization of the International Space Station (ISS)", the Constellation presentation was silent. It mentioned having ISS crew transport by 2015, the current goal, and how they'd made changes to improve confidence they'd meet that date (eg: reducing initial crew size to 4 on ISS missions). However, "expedite" doesn't mean "increase confidence you'll make the current late date". It means "accelerate the process or progress of : speed up". The presentation doesn't suggest any ways to have Ares/Orion ready for ISS transport by, say, 2013, nor does it suggest any ways to have any other U.S. system ready by that time.

Even former NASA Administrator Griffin always claimed that Ares/Orion was only meant as a backup for ISS support, and commercial transportation services were the intended route. Thus the natural inclination should be for NASA management to encourage commercial services to take on that role. The Constellation presentation could have suggested a COTS-D or similar competition for human transportation services, or some other means to get commercial vendors working on basic ISS transportation. Then Constellation could concentrate on the Moon and Beyond. Alternately, the presentation could have suggested ways to alter Ares/Orion to be ready by 2013. It did neither.

On "stimulating commercial space flight capability", again the Constellation presentation was silent. It has a line about "promoting international and commercial participation in exploration", but no details on what that participation is. Where is this participation in the plan? The original goal of the Vision for Space Exploration was for launch support to be done commercially, except perhaps for heavy lift, if needed. Where is that in the plan? The presentation didn't suggest that any of the components of the Constellation architecture be implemented commercially. There's a picture on "Future Exploration Capabilities" with an Ares V linked to some "Commercial and Civil LEO" spacecraft, but what commercial activity is going to be launched by Ares V? There's a slide on "Economic Impact: Contractor" and others on billions of dollars of prime contract value (as if high cost is a virtue), but that's not commercial, it's government contracts. If a contractor is going to sell commercial services enabled by its government contracts, I'm willing to call that commercial, but how much of

I had the same reaction. I think the size of the fine is monstrous. But it is all too real. A real court reached that verdict and the fine stands. It should not, but it does. But the RIAA has pyrrhic victory. They have delegitimized themselves in the eyes of the general public. As I have said before, the entertainment industry is going about this all wrong.

Fail.

Return on equity is just _clear_ profit. You're forgetting all other overhead: salary for insurance workers, advertisment, etc.

All this overhead adds up to about 30%. So you immediately slash one third of expenses just by killing insurance companies.

Then you'll need to slash administrative overhead in medical facilities by moving to electronic records. That'll give you another 10%.

See:
http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2006/01/us-health-care-system-administrative.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States#Administrative_costs

Have you tried Kmeleon or Kmeleon CCF ME? Both of those are OSS and from my own experience with older machines both use far less memory than FF3, due to the fact they are coded to run Win32 as opposed to XUL. The Kmeleon CCF ME build uses a little more memory, but that is due to the built in ABP support.

So if you want to get away from IE but need a browser that is light on RAM I would recommend either of the above. The CCF ME build comes in a zip so it is also quite useful as a flash based browser, if you require one. But either works really well if you are low of RAM, and they even have instructions on how to use Kmeleon on OSes as old as Win95. So give them a try, what have you got to lose?

On a related note, earlier today I was wondering if it would be useful if it would be useful to send old digital cameras to places like Iran and other regions where oppression is occurring (perhaps distributed by international media offices?). Just counting myself, I have 3-4 pocket-size digital cameras which are sitting around collecting dust. As a result, many more of the protesters and bystanders would have cameras, and would be able to capture evidence of violence and oppression. Even if they don't have internet proxy access (or a computer), they could give their memory card to someone who does have one. Of course, there's already some videos being leaked out (NOTE: videos are quite graphic) in defiance of the regime, but increasing the number of available photos and videos by an order of magnitude or two would be a game-changer.

Of course, I have no idea how you'd go about starting to organize something like that, but I wanted to seed the idea in case it's worthwhile.

Why did they work long hours? Against whom is the U.S. Army competing? The game, like its previous 2 incarnations, was to be free-as-in-beer.

And why is programmer psychosis so prevalent among game developers? Is it because so many developers (like me) got their start wanting to write games, hence strong competition for jobs as game developers?

Any time long hours are involved, you can be sure it is the result of one or more of at least 3 things:

* market competition forcing businesses to make promises that cannot be kept except by unreasonable behaviors, such as overtime
* lousy project management (is there such thing as competent project management? Even at firms praised by clients for having "great" PMs, I've found PMs to be lousy)
* developers with mental issues of sanity and pushback willpower

Fuck long hours - especially if they are unpaid (as is almost always the case. It is time for developers to fight-back against being taken advantage-of; we need to demonstrate that we are worthy of respect and reasonable lives too!

Yes Linux works IF, and here is the really fucking big IF, you do research on every single fricking purchase from now until the end of the PCs life. That just cut out a good 95% of the population, including all of my customers. I said customers because yes, I build, repair and sell Windows PCs for a living, so yes I have installed more XP copies than you have had hot meals.

As for installing drivers? It takes about 20 minutes. How? by either using the Windows driver from Universal 2K/XP Driver DVD or Driverpacks. I personally prefer the driver pack from driverpacks.net because it is updates a little more often, but the first one has some of the more obscure drivers included, so it is nice to have both. And in case you haven't tried it lately Windows update actually includes most of the drivers for even slightly popular hardware, so often I don't even need the disc. Hoe much easier do you want?

Have you ever tried selling Linux boxes to REAL folks? I mean average Joes, not geeks with IT experience. I have, and I was looking at 600% return rates. I shouldn't have been surprised as MSI was looking at 400%. That kind of return rate will bankrupt me and therefor I won't be selling anymore Linux machines for at least 2 years. And before the Linux fanboys start modding me to hell or saying "get out of 1998 with your FUD" the last time was right after Ubuntu 9.04 came out.

Now lets have some REAL "get the facts" FACT-Support in Linux for consumer level hardware sucks. I'm sorry but it does and there is a REASON for that, and it ain't a MSFT conspiracy. It is because Linux is currently divided into two factions, and has been since Linux and RMS started snarking at each other. On the one hand you have Linus and the useability camp, and on the other RMS and "everything must be free!" hardcore believers that treat Linux as a religion and not just an OS. BTW, if you want to look it up(too fucking tired ATM) RMS uses a Loongson ARM Netbook because he refused to use a PC without even the BIOS being "free"! And unfortunately there are enough "true believers" to make sure you NEVER get even 1/3rd the driver support for Windows.

You see, if I am a hardware manufacturer I can write just 4 Windows drivers and have every consumer OS covered from 1998-2014, with ZERO out of pocket after the drivers have been written: I just have my guys write a Win98/ME, a Win2K/XP32, a WinXP64/Vista 64, and a WinVista32/Win732. Because Win7 can use WinVista drivers I have just covered every Windows users for 14 years with no more out of pocket. I simply can't do that on Linux? Why? Because the RMS believers will NEVER allow you to have a stable ABI in Linux, that's why. Because if there was a stable ABI Linux could actually have working binary drivers from all those companies that now refuse to support Linux, and frankly will continue to refuse to support Linux as long as you demand full hardware specs and code. Sorry, if the choice is opening our hardware and code and risking a patent troll lawsuit or not supporting Linux? Well then Linux don't get supported, just as it isn't now.

Finally for proof why Linux can't be sold to home consumers, I offer the "hairyfeet challenge" where I will prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt that despite its flaws Windows beats Linux for home consumers and non IT types. Ready? From this moment on you are my consumer, who has just bought a Kubuntu box from me. You must NOT do research before you go shopping, because home users don't research anything than is less expensive than a car. Ready? Open three browser tabs. You are now three consumers who just bought Kubuntu. Now go to Walmart.com, Bestbuy.com, and Staples.com. Those are the big three for PC gadgets. Now buy these three items by putting them into your cart, which are the items that are most requested

IBM is the #1 abuser of the patent system and invented the concept of patent trolling. Each year it is awarded thousands of garbage patents that cover nothing more than basic and very old ideas. IBM uses this portfolio of garbage patents to harass smaller companies into paying licensing fees. It costs millions to defend yourself in court against IBM, but IBM is typically willing to "do business" (i.e., not file lawsuits) for only a few hundred thousand dollars up front.

It's too bad to see the slashdot crowd so eager to buy into IBM corporate propaganda. Just this week IBM was awarded a patent on an internet-connected dishwasher. What will IBM do with this patent? Harass dishwasher companies for licensing fees of course.

http://terminal-variant.blogspot.com/2009/05/installing-open-sound-system-oss-in.html
Just installed it as per the instructions on that link, rebooted and ran "mplayer -ao oss movie_filename" to play with good audio. To get vlc and other programs to work I may have to uninstall pulseaudio (annoying thing was making vlc stutter for 10 seconds at the start of every track anyway so I don't think I'll miss pulseaudio).

I'm definitely not an authority on either Linux or Windows audio, but I see something wrong with this statement:

Graphs like these are very misleading. OpenAL, SDL, libao, GStreamer, NAS, Allegro, and more all exist on Windows too. I don't see anyone complaining there.

http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/linuxaudio.png
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vLES3KKBdaM/Sjsptq1kkCI/AAAAAAAAAGU/yITp1qKuHOU/s1600-h/windowsaudio.png

Looking at both graphs, there's a striking difference: I don't see any loops in the Windows one (though, not being complete, there could be some). I don't see any major problems with library diversity, but the fact that there is no apparent hierarchy does confuse me.

The developer of PulseAudio explains some of the rationale in this interview.

This exact comment was posted as-is a few days ago somewhere in here. I also found it (by googling the first sentence) on another blog as well. I find it very strange to have someone copy and paste their thoughts all over the place.

Rant time. From the original post: "I defy you to read and find a single sentence that isn't permeated, suffused, soaked, and encrusted with truth."

Challenge accepted, for example, from the article:

"The area of a triangle is equal to one-half its base times its height." Students are asked tomemorize this formula and then "apply" it over and over in the "exercises." Gone is the thrill, the joy, even the pain and frustration of the creative act. There is not even a problem anymore. The question has been asked and answered at the same time--there is nothing left for the student to do."

Item (1) I have an MA in math and teach at a community college in NYC (previously Boston; algebra, trigonometry, statistics, etc.) (2) As an academic, when you start teaching, you are in for a rude shock. All throughout school, I was engaged, getting "A"'s almost all the time, and considered a "B" to be a signal of failure. The shock is to discover that the majority of people in most classes (including, unknown to you, all of your prior classmates) are unengaged, and are more-or-less comfortable with doing C/D/F work. (3) The problem discussed here (exercising area of a triangle) is, yes, trivial to someone who "gets it". However, it is very difficult to the majority of community college students that I see. For students who fundamentally can't grasp the concept of a variable, repeating algebra for years and years, and who can't "get" the idea of substitution, it's possibly overwhelmingly difficult.

Yes, to you and me, "there is nothing left for the student to do", I agree fully. But what I've learned since starting as a teacher is that the exercises are an ongoing attempt to prove mastery of the "substitution" concept, and it's actually an enormous struggle for most people who aren't posting on Slashdot.

I've learned that I can hand out a complete "practice test" in advance of an exam (passingly similar to this proposed exercise), and give an exact duplicate of that test in the next class, with only the numbers changed, and still have the majority of a class fail the test.

Now, that's not all I do, but I do include examples of this just to check my own sanity all the time. What I also do now is to always include one or two "concept questions" requiring actual analysis of ideas, and the level of frustration and aggravation from the students for those is far, far more enormous. Frequently people just stop trying those by the end of a semester, leaving them blank, and are happy to walk away with a "B" or "C" from the rest of their tests.

In summary: I now consider my #1 job in all my classes to be an effort to make students comfortable with abstraction. Give me or you a formula and then, indeed, "there is nothing left... to do". But for most students, whose brains fundamentally cannot abstract enough to grasp substitution, there is an enormous skyscraper-sized obstacle still standing in front of them. That is in fact the fundamental goal of most math classes for most students, and they certainly can't do creative exploration or problem-solving until they at least "get" that, and are able to express patterns coherently when they see them.

Unlike mathematicians like these, my claim is that mathematics is not art; it is a desperate battle. For your consideration, the AngryMath Manifesto: http://angrymath.blogspot.com/2009/01/angrymath-manifesto.html

Simplicio and Salviati were characters invented by Galileo (based on real people) for his work "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems"> discussing the Ptolemaic earth-centric theory of the universe, and the Copernican helio-centric theory of the universe.

I'm perplexed by the statement about the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court's jurisprudence in the area of knocking down excessive "punitive awards" is well established, and would most assuredly lead to the RIAA's statutory damages theory being crushed. See amicus curiae brief, which summarizes and discusses the applicable authorities.

How Scotus determined it's a Constitutional infraction for a person to receive punitive damages from a company in excess of 10 times actual damages, but thousands of dollars per song is hunky dory?

I don't know where you get that from. The Supreme Court would strike this down in a millisecond. See my brief and cases cited.

Not to needlessly self-promote, but I did a write-up on a point-by-point basis on my blog: http://mdm-adph.blogspot.com/2009/06/even-when-microsoft-gets-it-right-they.html

(One of these things doesn't go with the other. )
We can't even get electronic voting.
We need committees elected by people.

Electronic vote tabulation devices do not allow for public oversight. If you don't have public oversight, you are basically counting votes in secret, which isn't good for a supposedly constitutional republic

Why worry about games when we have
Other crackdowns...

Threats by the Chinese government, if they catch ya posting something they don't like.myspace-cn

If we analyze China, ourtreasury notes, current events, perhaps we should prepare for our future to be similar to Iceland.

Ray,

Weren't we all hoping for the best when her counsel changed and she got a "young bright newcomer"?

Typical article among many:

http://copyrightsandcampaigns.blogspot.com/2009/05/jammie-thomas-gets-new-counsel-kiwi.html?showComment=1242855147496

But given the apparently uneven performance of her counsel, what now?

> The article mentions Baltimore, which makes sense. If you've ever
> visited some of the, shall we say, less popular portions of that city,
> you'll find block after block of boarded-up rowhouses.

I was just down in Richmond VA this past weekend and saw some of the same - albeit on a smaller scale. Really weird to see what should be primo storefronts boarded up. It'd be especially hard to restart those depressed areas given the current commercial real estate problems.

If you want a fast and non bloated Firefox, get Kmeleon. If you are on Windows you have the choice of Kmeleon proper or Kmeleon CCF ME with built in ABP, and if you are Linux here is a tutorial on how to get Kmeleon going under Wine.

Windows Mobile without the Windows Mobile SDK, which works only on the paid-for versions of Visual Studio, not the Express versions.

You can use sharpeDevelop. .NET CF is just .NET with some stuff missing, so I do not see why an application written with this in mind would need any particular .NET IDE.

You can also download the emu for nought.

It had neither a precise D-pad nor a touch screen, so how is the user supposed to control the game?

No touch screen is rare in a Windows Mobile device in my XP. And then only on the low-end shit competing with your just above basic Nokia device.
Every time I hear about the US phone market is seams a little bit more broken.

At the end of the day your target market is all that counts. From the sounds of it your market is US and Windows Mobile does not have much a hold.

Even it wasn't stealing energy from the cars, we are in 'drop in the ocean' territory. Nice analysis here.

And it's even in an effective dosage, at least that's what I got from this blog post http://cmpalmer.blogspot.com/2005/04/zicam-homeopathic-cold-remedies.html That is weird though, it's a fake "fake drug".

I am very sad that I did not take the opportunity to copy Nightjack's blog while it was still available, I assumed it would always stay online; silly of me, considering what has happened to other police bloggers after they are "outed".

However, you can still read the post that won him the prize (it's the yellow text).

I beg to disagree here

1) Amazon owns Mobipocket [1].
2) Over time Mobipocket has developed software readers for 12 devices [2].
3) The AZW book format - including DRM - is identical with Mobipocket save one byte [3].

So if Amazon wanted more software readers one call at Mobipocket and a week later they would have some. Which is probably the way they got the iPhone reader: http://www.teleread.org/2008/12/04/is-amazon-sitting-on-the-mobipocket-iphone-client-after-all/

Martin

[1] http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3833
[2] http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/default.asp
[3] http://igorsk.blogspot.com/2007/12/mobipocket-books-on-kindle.html

Proof:
http://www.chartingstocks.net/2009/06/proof-israeli-effort-to-destabilize-iran-via-twitter/

Anatomy of Iran's Right Wing Coup:
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2009/06/anatomy_of_iran/

Ahmadinijad as counterrevolutionary - There will be Blood:
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2009/06/iran_there_will/

Ahmadinijad is now opposed by all of the significant Mullahs - who led the 79 revolution. Why? because he - and the Revolutionary Guard - are Israeli puppet-creations. They are now ready to do Mossad's dirty work. "Mahmoud" is Jewish. But you can't see FNORDS, can you?

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129649

http://www.rferl.org/content/Were_Ahmadinejads_Ancestors_Jews_/1375318.html

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/01/top-iranian-figure-says-ahmadinejads.html#links

One smoking gun, coming right up.

It would be a terrible step backward if humanity's major development platform [the Web] was controlled by a single vendor the way that previous platforms such as Windows have been,' says HTML 5 co-editor Ian Hickson, a Google employee

Yeah. It would be terrible if a major development platform (HTML5) was effectively controlled by a single person (Ian Hickson).

Oh, wait... it already is .

http://lastweekinhtml5.blogspot.com/

"The information about an individual should be the property of the individual, not the company (or govt. agency) that holds and collects it."

I couldn't agree more. It's not just a fancy idea you propose here, but it is a very fundamental issue for individual freedom. It is a matter of basic human freedom and dignity to be in command of your own representation, be it physical (i.e. dress code), digital or otherwise.

The current way in which organizations are collecting and storing many individuals' descriptions together in an aggregated, centralized database of some sort, is a remnant (unnecessary continuation) of our pre-internet past. Presently, it should not be as difficult or expensive to consult many individually authored, disparately stored representations of the many clients an organization has (like you and me). Each individual should be free (as in freedom) to create his/her own representation, kept at a provider of choice (or DYI), which could then be (partially) exposed (if so desired), to the many organizations that provide their service to you.

This ideal situation would ultimately shift the power from the organizations who now own your data (but don't have any incentives to care about it, as Mr. Schneier recently observed) to you and me, the people being represented. I am, like you, very concerned with the fact that the data which is supposed to represent me, is not under my own control.

  -- aadrink

Wrong. In fact, nurture seems to have more to do with IQ than nature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Project

Understand, this is a change of 2 standard deviations in IQ.

Also,
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2006/07/intelligence-nature-and-nurture.html
Quote:
Contrary to what you might expect, for those children, the I.Q.â(TM)s of identical twins vary just as much as the I.Q.â(TM)s of fraternal twins. The impact of growing up impoverished overwhelms these childrenâ(TM)s genetic capacities. In other words, home life is the critical factor for youngsters at the bottom of the economic barrel.

There's a recent article on newer studies, but I can't seem to locate it.

So, who was it who modded me down "-1 Redundant"?

Mr. Webmaster up there whom I replied to??

OR

Was it some blackhat/botmaster/malware maker type???

(Perhaps it was a javascript coder who cannot handle that his "language" is busted badly in its DOM & causes all kinds of trouble online for others????)

Guess what - I truly have "freedom of speech" in my nation, but also here on this website as well (& nothing can stop me either, because the "A/C" post limits certainly do not & haven't for nearly 5++ yrs. here).

(After all - The types I mention now above, are the ONLY people whom my guide affects "adversely", & especially regarding HOSTS file usage & cutting off javascript usage indiscriminately everywhere, using it ONLY where a site cannot function properly w/out it)...

AND, like my topic of my post stated?????

Too bad for you webmasters!

(Get YOUR act's together BETTER, then, along with those that host your bushwhacking adbanners full of bogus scripts)

Because, once more: It's MY LINETIME, I pay for it, & tough cookies if you do not profit by getting adbanner clicks & such, you're NOT going to profit off of myself AND slow me down @ the same time (no way, & I'll tell everyone & anyone about this much + how to avoid it - @ 300,000++ views across 20++ forums or so this year? Good luck, the wave's started & others ARE "getting wind of it" & liking it, going both FASTER online AND more securely/safely also)...

AND, too bad for you botmasters & malware makers, ESPECIALLY! (be they virus/trojan/spyware/worm etc. et al)

See, I say that, because I KNOW that folks like myself are "getting to your kind" finally, as evidenced by Mr. Dancho Danchev's latest postings where YOU LOSERS IN PARTICULAR are definitely showing you're "taking a beating" by your very reactions of naming some of your bushwhacking site pages per ZDNet's Mr. Dancho Danchev's quote here -> http://ddanchev.blogspot.com/ via Mr. Danchev noting it also, via his statement also on that page of:

----

"You know you have a fan club, as well as positive ROI out of your research, when one of the most active blackhat SEO groups for the time being starts cursing you in its multiple redirectors, in this particular case that's seo.hostia .ru/ddanchev-sock-my-dick.php."

http://ddanchev.blogspot.com/ FROM HIS "From Ukrainian Blackhat SEO Gang With Love" ARTICLE

----

LMAO @ the botmasters, malware makers, & idiots of the same general ilk as well... and, to whomever modded me down - I state that, because it's obvious it's one of "your kind" who did so!

(You're the truly "lowest of the low", malware makers, alongside trolls online & the "wannabe english profs" (minus their PHD in English) that infest many sites technical sections on computing, & are totally off-topic w/ their spelling & grammar checking attempts but no actual proof of expertise in the English language to back it up (not that it'd matter - I've probably been speaking & writing this language longer than most of you & this site section isn't about "perfect grammar &/or spelling, making you fakes way, Way, WAY "Off topic"))

And people wonder WHY I post here as "A/C"?

Hey, imo @ least??

Anyone STUPID enough to register here only sets themselves up for EASY TRACKING by trolls (such as the arstechnica bunch, or the 4chan gang & those like they, who are generally so "technically weak", that's about ALL they have, as far as actual technical expertise in this field which is NOT much & IS "off-topic" - I wonder if the coward who "modded me down" has enough cajones to admit it, & then let me "rip him apart" in response? DOUBTFUL - most of that kind are worse "Anonymous Cowards" than us "A/C" posters are, by far).

And I

So, who was it who modded me down "-1 Redundant"?

Mr. Webmaster up there whom I replied to??

OR

Was it some blackhat/botmaster/malware maker type???

(Perhaps it was a javascript coder who cannot handle that his "language" is busted badly in its DOM & causes all kinds of trouble online for others????)

Guess what - I truly have "freedom of speech" in my nation, but also here on this website as well (& nothing can stop me either, because the "A/C" post limits certainly do not & haven't for nearly 5++ yrs. here).

(After all - The types I mention now above, are the ONLY people whom my guide affects "adversely", & especially regarding HOSTS file usage & cutting off javascript usage indiscriminately everywhere, using it ONLY where a site cannot function properly w/out it)...

AND, like my topic of my post stated?????

Too bad for you webmasters!

(Get YOUR act's together BETTER, then, along with those that host your bushwhacking adbanners full of bogus scripts)

Because, once more: It's MY LINETIME, I pay for it, & tough cookies if you do not profit by getting adbanner clicks & such, you're NOT going to profit off of myself AND slow me down @ the same time (no way, & I'll tell everyone & anyone about this much + how to avoid it - @ 300,000++ views across 20++ forums or so this year? Good luck, the wave's started & others ARE "getting wind of it" & liking it, going both FASTER online AND more securely/safely also)...

AND, too bad for you botmasters & malware makers, ESPECIALLY! (be they virus/trojan/spyware/worm etc. et al)

See, I say that, because I KNOW that folks like myself are "getting to your kind" finally, as evidenced by Mr. Dancho Danchev's latest postings where YOU LOSERS IN PARTICULAR are definitely showing you're "taking a beating" by your very reactions of naming some of your bushwhacking site pages per ZDNet's Mr. Dancho Danchev's quote here -> http://ddanchev.blogspot.com/ via Mr. Danchev noting it also, via his statement also on that page of:

----

"You know you have a fan club, as well as positive ROI out of your research, when one of the most active blackhat SEO groups for the time being starts cursing you in its multiple redirectors, in this particular case that's seo.hostia .ru/ddanchev-sock-my-dick.php."

http://ddanchev.blogspot.com/ FROM HIS "From Ukrainian Blackhat SEO Gang With Love" ARTICLE

----

LMAO @ the botmasters, malware makers, & idiots of the same general ilk as well... and, to whomever modded me down - I state that, because it's obvious it's one of "your kind" who did so!

(You're the truly "lowest of the low", malware makers, alongside trolls online & the "wannabe english profs" (minus their PHD in English) that infest many sites technical sections on computing, & are totally off-topic w/ their spelling & grammar checking attempts but no actual proof of expertise in the English language to back it up (not that it'd matter - I've probably been speaking & writing this language longer than most of you & this site section isn't about "perfect grammar &/or spelling, making you fakes way, Way, WAY "Off topic"))

And people wonder WHY I post here as "A/C"?

Hey, imo @ least??

Anyone STUPID enough to register here only sets themselves up for EASY TRACKING by trolls (such as the arstechnica bunch, or the 4chan gang & those like they, who are generally so "technically weak", that's about ALL they have, as far as actual technical expertise in this field which is NOT much & IS "off-topic" - I wonder if the coward who "modded me down" has enough cajones to admit it, & then let me "rip him apart" in response? DOUBTFUL - most of that kind are worse "Anonymous Cowards" than us "A/C" posters are, by far).

And I

Helium is a rare gas here on earth that we would be wise to conserve rather than waste; it is scarce and it is becoming scarcer because we are squandering it. The only reason why many Americans don't understand the relative scarcity of helium (we are rapidly depleting our current supplies and once it all escapes into space it won't be easy to get more) is because the United States happens to have the worlds largest known reserves of helium produced from radioactive decay in oil wells in parts of the State of Texas combined with the fact that for years oil producers were required to collect the helium and sell it to the government for storage in the Strategic Helium Reserve. I cringe when I see helium wasted on things like blimps for sporting events and party balloons because like many other limited natural resources we will only truly appreciate it when it is too late and the helium on this planet is almost gone.

My company instituted code reviews and I spent some time coming up with why they are useful: http://jasonhasalife.blogspot.com/2008/07/code-reviews-are-your-friend.html I am a huge fan, just for what can be learned. But I agree that often corporate 'code reviews' are nothing more than a boring meeting.

We've seen this with so many things, including solar cells - Constant assurance that they are getting cheaper easier to make, more efficient, etc; people ranting about how it is finally feasible and will be seen in mass quantities soon... yet we still don't.

Maybe you should take a look at these graphs: http://www.frozennorth.org/C197109377/E20080427143258/index.html and http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com/2008/12/387-world-photovoltaic-pv-production.html

Because his instruction was that she'd have broken the law if she was found to be 'making available' copyrighted works, i.e. she was found sharing them, even if no-one had actually downloaded them from her.

He came to that instruction because the major label lawyers argued that that was the case. The judge himself had second thoughts over the correctness of that instruction to the jury, asked for additional briefing on the matter, and then changed his mind as 'making available' isn't in copyright law, and based upon precedent was an incorrect instruction to the jury over what the law was. He thus called the retrial himself.

Now we also get to examine the original evidence properly that she was 'making available', which it wasn't at the original trial.

The ars article talks about MediaSentry needing a Minnesota license, fair use defense, expectation of privacy, and wiretapping laws. This summary talks about rules of evidence; 402 Irrelevance 403 Prejudice, Confusion, Waste of Time 602 Lack of Personal Knowledge 702 "Testimony by experts" (fact testimony or opinion testimony based upon "scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge" must be based on sufficient facts or data, must be product of reliable principles and methods, and principles and methods must have been applied reliably to the facts of the case") 802 Hearsay IANAL, but those seem quite different.

Yes those are quite different. The Ars article refers to this ruling, which deals only with the motion to suppress on the ground of illegality, and has nothing to do with the evidentiary objections that defendant filed.

Ars posted a story days ago with better information than what the summary contains. The judge has already allowed the MediaSentry evidence and isn't buying most of the defense's excuses. I like NYCL a lot, but I am surprised he wasn't aware of that. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/thomas-judge-bars-fair-use-defense-oks-mediasentry-evidence.ars

I was aware of the article and, more importantly, of the ruling to which it refers. That related solely to the motion to suppress on the ground of illegality; it had nothing to do with the Rule 702 objection.

Any chance that at least a transcript or audio recording will become available, eventually?

Undoubtedly a transcript will become available eventually. Here is the transcript of the first trial.

Google is using a code review tool called Mondrian. It was originally written by Guido van Rossum (Python's creator).
He created an open source clone to be used with Subversion, Rietveld:

http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/05/guido-van-rossum-releases-mondrian.html

http://codereview.appspot.com/

These tools are great but they are only as good as the guidelines for the reviews. Some reviewers will always say yes to requests, while others will be too anal. What happens? Most people will avoid strict reviewers and send their code to the easy ones. Doing a good review takes time so there need to be incentives to give good reviews: if you spend 2-3hs doing reviews in a day you just lost 25% productivity on your code, while helping an other developer write better code. Overall it's better for the team and the company but can actually hurt the perceived performance of your better developers while in fact they're pulling everyone else up. Just make sure good reviewers are getting as much recognition as good/productive code writers. Same thing goes with lenient reviewers, they should share the blame when bad code they reviewed brake the build. If you don't understand the new code, then it needs to be re-factored by the submitter to improve readability or you are not the right person to do the review.

Run Firefox in one and Seamonkey in the other. Seamonkey the browser component is nothing but Firefox, and even many Firefox extensions work just fine with Seamonkey. You can choose browser only on install if you don't want/need the email, IRC chat, or HTML editor. Plus it is nice to have a "guest browser" for when you have.....guests.

Or if you are on Windows you also have the choices of Kmeleon or KmeleonCCFME. Both are superfast Win32 native gecko engine builds, but they don't have as many extensions due to not using XUL. Of the two Kmeleon is great if you want it installed, but I prefer KmeleonCCFME because it comes with ABP installed and is already portable. Just unzip to a flash and go.

This IMHO is one of the great things about Open Source software. if you think you have a better idea you are free to fork it your own way. I have found Seamonkey to be a very useful for getting my older clients away from Outlook Express/IE, and Kmeleon/CCFME is simply very fast on Windows.