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Yeah, but we don't hear about those lawsuits as much as about RIAA suits. Do you have any links?

The only MPAA v. End User case I know of that wasn't quickly settled is this one, but for all I know that one's been settled too.

>>>the whitespace devices use only UNUSED spectrum, following methods already shown to be effective.

We must have different definitions of effective: "Yet another Microsoft white space device fails FCC testing" - "white space wireless fails second round of fcc testing" - "white space wireless fails second round of fcc testing" - and on and on.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/30/yet-another-microsoft-white-space-device-fails-fcc-testing/
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/12900.cfm
http://spectrummatters.blogspot.com/2007/08/white-space-prototypes-fail-fcc-test.html
MORE: http://www.google.com/search?q=FCC+whitespace+fails&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

>>>Enough astroturfing

I'm not sure what that means. I'm just a laid-off engineer trying to keep myself busy until the next job arrives. And I'm concerned that my Free TV is going to disappear under a rain of interfering gadgets that will block signals.

Is the 0.0 experiment, travel log of a noob taking off for the wild 0.0 space http://00experiment.blogspot.com/

With Mono you can run C# code (even WinForms) not only on Linux, but also MacOS and it seems also on Solaris (http://codicesoftware.blogspot.com/2008/12/plastic-on-solaris-10.html, http://codicesoftware.blogspot.com/2008/12/opensolaris-and-mwf.html).

The only thing they miss is a decent debugger on all platforms (currently only on Linux).

It's unfortunately not easy to develop on Mono right now, but IMHO only due to the debugger. If they had one, more and more people would be jumping into it. Performance is very, very good, close to C/C++, but coding in C# is easier.

The only thing missing? Oh come on now...

-opengl pipeline
-3d
-Robust/mature opensource application servers
-debugging
-Clustering
-ESBs

Those are some huge shortcomings for rich client and enterprise developers.

With Mono you can run C# code (even WinForms) not only on Linux, but also MacOS and it seems also on Solaris (http://codicesoftware.blogspot.com/2008/12/plastic-on-solaris-10.html, http://codicesoftware.blogspot.com/2008/12/opensolaris-and-mwf.html). The only thing they miss is a decent debugger on all platforms (currently only on Linux). It's unfortunately not easy to develop on Mono right now, but IMHO only due to the debugger. If they had one, more and more people would be jumping into it. Performance is very, very good, close to C/C++, but coding in C# is easier.

He's actually got a blog post on it right here: http://monty-says.blogspot.com/2008/07/what-if.html

I'd love to see some case law involving EULAs. Does anyone know of someone that has be sued because of breaching terms in a EULA?

The Blizz/Glider lawsuit might be an example? I don't know how legally Terms of Service are different than EULAs though...

http://new-pc-games.blogspot.com/2008/07/blizzard-wins-wow-botting-lawsuit.html

Its probably because most people don't want to haul their computer out into the living room to hook it up to the tv.

Blogs report that laptops outsold desktops in 2007 and in 2008. Several companies sell slim desktop PCs that would work well as a second set-top PC for the TV room; I believe this setup is called home theater PC. Why haven't PC game publishers taken advantage of these?

Or that typical interface for almost every PC game is keyboard and mouse.

Why is this the case, and why must it continue to be?

Of course PC gaming has always been a one person to a box thing unlike consoles

This brings me to another question: Say a company wants to develop a fighting game, a party game, or something else where putting all players' characters in one view is desirable. But the company isn't yet big enough to become an authorized developer on PS3 or Wii. What would you recommend?

Exactly! It's in the key words: "cause" is the underlaying geology/structures/faults/etc that made it possible for this chunk to fail, "trigger" is why it happened at this particular time. If a trigger didn't happen (the dam wasn't built), then something else would act as a trigger later. Yes, the exact nature of the outcome would be different due to the intensity & distribution of the triggering event and other complex interactions blah blah blah, but it still would've been an earthquake. One of the big landslide bloggers posted an informal response to the academic article the news stories are based on. I thought his point about an artificially-triggered earthquake having liability consequences was interesting. I don't know the stats on death & damage for this event, but it'd certainly be enough to bankrupt anyone who was found fully or partially responsible for the disasters. I can see the usual suspects of conspiracy-theorists calling foul if the dam-triggering-earthquake theory is rejected by other scientists. After all, it wouldn't have anything to do with evaluating theories based on observations; the scientists would be protecting the geological engineers/regional planners/etc from bankruptcy, right? ;)

So the real question in an immense cluster like this, is whats the MTBF?

Simon claims that the Eniac MTBF was 8 hours, although I've seen all kinds of claims on the web from minutes to days.

http://zzsimonb.blogspot.com/2006/06/mtbf-mean-time-between-failure.html

I would guess this beast will never be 100% operational at any moment of its existence.

I'm guessing the "cool" part of this won't be the bottomless pile of hardware in one room, but how they maintain this beast. Just working around one of the million CPU fans burning out is no big deal, but how do you deal with a higher level problem like one of the hundreds of network switches failing, etc?

'If you believed that your patent had been infringed, wouldn't you be tempted to do the same thing?'

Has the inanity and anti-logic of the patent system finally become so bad that peoples' basic judgement is now impaired. Has the concept of "Intellectual Property" so twisted the fragile mind of the commentators, and public at large, that we now must see it not only as a fundamental right, but as (Paraphrasing DeValera) an institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law and morality.

Personally, no, I don't see that a patent is so important that I should break not only the law, but also the trust and confidence other people have in me, simply to defend my rights to some obvious "invention". I may be a little behind the times here, but I can't say I would be overly tempted, no.

It often produces much smaller compressed files (typically about half the size of a PDF), and there are open source viewers for many platforms.
Refer to original article

It has plenty of support for annotations, OCR, internal links etc just like PDF
Refer to your own comment.

you can extract the parts and structure of a Djvu document in XML with command line tools and modify them easily.
Refer to this page
It's also very easy to cut a Djvu document into individual pages, which lets you publish big documents on websites so that use

Refer to PDF SaM

Last but not least, the Djview viewer renders pages much faster than Acrobat or Xpdf in my experience -
Refer to Foxit PDF for windows or linux (look for the link in a previous post of mine.

Oh, one advantage of PDF is that everyone else is currently using it, therefore you won't annoy people by making them download and install new programs to do something (read) that they can do with the software they have... only because you want to use an obscure format type.

p.s. All my word processing needs are filled with .PW files. Wha'da'ya' think?

Okay, in advocating that there's enough NG to replace coal and nuclear you post a link that says "but LNG will not be a panacea for North American natural gas shortfall" ?

It wasn't meant as a permanent replacement for coal or nuclear, only as a way LNG can be used until there is a better method of generating a baseload of energy.

Second link - aren't we trying to gain energy independence from the middle east?

Both the first link and third list places where LNG come from that are not in the Middle East. The first one lists Trinidad and Tobago which is in the Caribbean. The third lists Barents Sea which is between Greenland and Northern Europe.

Besides - Natural Gas Imported To US For Electricity Generation May Be Environmentally Worse Than Coal.

That's for the link, I didn't see that before. However as you quoted in your post as a baseline capacity it should not matter if LNG plants operate at a low capacity. They are after all only meant to serve for when alternative sources do not provide enough energy.

By the way, that also increases costs for people trying to heat their homes with 97% efficient NG systems.

Properly insulated building reduce if not eliminate the need to heat with LNG. There are other ways to heat as well. Former President Bush used geothermal heating to heat his Crawford, Texas ranch. People in New York City use geothermal heating. People also use solar thermal heating, even in Northern Europe.

We'd need 27 trillion cubic feet per year to replace the coal & nuclear plants.

Only if LNG were to replace coal and nuclear, but not if it is only used as a baseload. That means when alternative energy sources do not provide enough energy. However as I said earlier SciAm has the article "A Solar Grand Plan" that says "solar power plants could supply 69 percent of the U.S.'s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy by 2050." For wind power, the Rocky Mountains alone contain enough potential wind power to supple electricity to the 48 continuous states. On the East Coast Cape Cod, Cape Hatteras, and points in between the Carolinas and Mass are good places for offshore wind farms. On the West Coast, between British Columbia and southern California there are also good sites for wind, and solar power.

People like you are looking for the next big thing in energy when a bunch of different technologies can be used instead. You're focused on one solution when there are many others.

Falcon

Neat! 16 apps! One I've heard of, and there are tons of replacements for it on every platform (utorrent). Looks like a fun project, though!

I dunno, wishful thinking mixed with hubris like this usually leads to a funny rant on Linux Hater's Blog.

If Korea used this opportunity to take some steps toward a truly open Internet where installing a buggy ActiveX control isn't a requirement for everything from banking to shopping to government services, then they'd really be getting somewhere. http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/07/activex-law-in-korea.html

1. Nice guys don't get to the top of the food chain.
2. My species survival is more important to me, than your species survival is to me.
3. In case of conflict, see rules #1 and #2.

Might be better if we don't hear anyone else, given how much noise we are making. Any response could easily be relativistic!

I wonder:

Median annual earnings of correctional officers and jailers were $35,760 in May 2006. The middle 50 percent earned between $28,320 and $46,500. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $23,600, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $58,580. Median annual earnings in the public sector were $47,750 in the Federal Government, $36,140 in State government, and $34,820 in local government. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the starting salary for Federal correctional officers was $28,862 a year in 2007. Occupational Outlook Handbook 2008-2009: Correctional Officers

"They're hiring 18-year-olds two months out of high school. "We've got officers who are 70 years old, senior citizens. That's a security risk." Physical fitness standards have been lowered, with overweight, out-of-shape correctional officers in the system. Many Texans support keeping prisons as inhospitable as possible because they're supposed to be about punishment, but those same poor conditions (think double shifts with no air conditioning in the Texas summer heat) combine with low pay to make it nearly impossible to staff current prisons in their existing, mostly rural locations. Texas prison guard salary ranks 47th among states [Apr 7, 2008]

Trinity Services Group is the second food services company to tell the Department of Corrections it can't afford to keep feeding prisoners. The company said it's losing $100,000 a month on its contract to feed inmates in the north-central part of the state and at three prisons in South Florida. The company, which was paid $21-million last fiscal year, said it's losing money because food and fuel costs are rising at the rate of 9 percent, far in excess of the 2 percent inflation cushion allowed in its state contract. Trinity is paid 88 cents for every meal served. Oldsmar company opts out of prison food service [Sept 19, 2008]

>>>So [corporations over 1 billion dollars in size] the bad guy now. I just need to know before I comment.

There. Fixed that for you. ;-) In my view large corporations are Greed incarnate. They have no soul and therefore no morality. They don't care which bodies they squash, or which wallets they steal money from, and they have no obligation to the voters except to make stock prices rise as quickly as possible. Greed incarnate.

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies...If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the corporations that will grow up around [the banks]... will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. ...The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." - Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Democratic Party, to his Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin.

Off-topic but still worth reading:

Greenspan went on to blame the crisis on "explosive demand by investors around the world" for what were (at one time) very profitable mortgage backed securities. To feed the great demand for these investment vehicles, mortgage lenders started giving mortgages to people who, under normal circumstances, would never have been able to get such loans. As a result, the securities being bought by investors all over the world were tainted with what is now known as "toxic assets."

How could bad investments be rated as good investments? According to Greenspan: "The whole intellectual edifice... collapsed... because the data inputted into the risk management models generally covered only the past two decades, a period of euphoria."

- http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2008/10/thomas-jefferson-vs-paul-krugman-alan.html

Yes It's a good thing.

------------
Pati Motel Hotel for sale

The BBC has lost its objectivity though. http://obotheclown.blogspot.com/2009/01/spot-odd-one-out.html

Why don't you tell Mr. Torvalds yourself.
It almost sounds like he does know, just expects better.
Which leads to another interesting dynamic of OSS, don't piss off you user base if you wish to have a user base.

The quote posted here does not correspond to the linked blog entry anymore, as the blog was updated. Essentially, it now states the list with the error was not provided by StopBadware.org, but created by Google themselves.

The changed part:

We maintain a list of such sites through both manual and automated methods. We work with a non-profit called StopBadware.org to come up with criteria for maintaining this list, and to provide simple processes for webmasters to remove their site from the list.

We periodically update that list and released one such update to the site this morning.

The issue is also explained on StopBadware.org's blog.

Here's the explanation from Google's official blog:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-your-computer-on.html

What happened? Very simply, human error. Google flags search results with the message "This site may harm your computer" if the site is known to install malicious software in the background or otherwise surreptitiously. We do this to protect our users against visiting sites that could harm their computers. We work with a non-profit called StopBadware.org to get our list of URLs. StopBadware carefully researches each consumer complaint to decide fairly whether that URL belongs on the list. Since each case needs to be individually researched, this list is maintained by humans, not algorithms.

We periodically receive updates to that list and received one such update to release on the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs. Fortunately, our on-call site reliability team found the problem quickly and reverted the file. Since we push these updates in a staggered and rolling fashion, the errors began appearing between 6:27 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. and began disappearing between 7:10 and 7:25 a.m., so the duration of the problem for any particular user was approximately 40 minutes.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-your-computer-on.html... We periodically receive updates to that list and received one such update to release on the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs. ...
http://blog.stopbadware.org/2009/01/31/google-glitch-causes-confusion... Google generates its own list of badware URLs, and no data that we generate is supposed to affect the warnings in Google's search listings. ...

Google have explained the problem: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-your-computer-on.html

Google and Stopbadware.org have both posted blog entries on this:


http://blog.stopbadware.org/2009/01/31/google-glitch-causes-confusion

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-your-computer-on.html

Apparently, someone checked-in a catch-all pattern '/' to their blacklist file.

There's been a speculation on the Mini-Microsoft blog about layoffs hitting the Windows team after 7 ships. This could partly explain why only 1400 of the 5000 announced layoffs were said to have been notified immediately.

Someone posted a comment to the effect that, being self-interested, people the Windows dev team should react by dragging out the process as long as possible, hopefully not shipping until the economy starts recovering.

I thought you guys were all laid off.

There is a high quality neutron source existing. The fusion reactor that was push by Dr. Bussard a few year ago. For those that don't remember it was a reactor called a polywell.

Dr.Bussard was believing that it could break even and the remaining question was one of scaling and engineering not physics.

Depending on the fuel and the scaling you could have your combined fusion-fission reactor probably under a decade if you want to burn fission material. For net power the time frame was somewhat similar for commercial power plant that wouldn't produce neutron.

There was news of a review of a new set of experiment and the result where interesting enough that the navy is still interested in funding it.

If you want more info here a few links :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell
http://talk-polywell.org/bb/index.php
http://iecfusiontech.blogspot.com/

Look, if I am going to do scientific computation, I'd rather the source code to look like this:

http://sigfpe.blogspot.com/2007/03/shor-quantum-error-correcting-code-and.html
(yes, that blog post compiles)

than like FireFox, which now approaches 35 MB.

2) Has anyone demonstrated and had repeated a fusion reactor that is net energy positive?

3) 99% reduction of waste still leaves the 1% of waste that lasts 10k to 1m years. You minimize the problem, but still don't reduce it to a human scale.

4) Transport. How do you get the waste from 10-15 LWR to one of these? Oh thats right you have to transport it by train and truck. Just dandy! That's not an accident waiting to happen at all!

5) How is this better than Thorium cycle based reactors? Liquid Thorium reactors apparently don't require mixing fission and fusion (KISS), produce waste that last 300 years not 1m, burn thorium for which we have supplies for ages and even mine from other planets, and can be started and stopped safely reacting to peak demand, and were safely demonstrated in the 60s.

I'll take a flyer, but I'm not going to tho

The Karen incident has been taken completely out of context. I recall reading about the Karen incident when it it occurred. As I remember it: Apparently some kids were being disruptive during class, one showing something to another, which we now know to be a linux distro. The teacher confiscated the disc without knowing what was _really_ on the disc, only that her students were misbehaving. The disc was returned at the end of school. A misunderstanding turned into an anti-linux story. It was also later uncovered, when there was an offer to teach the school district about the benefits of linux, that the school does use linux and Open Source at multiple levels. Now, I'm writing this based on what I remember, but I do feel that the Karen incident should be re-examined closer as it was misunderstood by many before comments are made. TFA appears to be based on the perceived situation and not the actual one when it comes to that point.

I just looked up the apology post. From HeliOS's blog:

"The student did get his Linux disks back after the class. The lad was being disruptive, but that wasn't mentioned. Neither was the obvious fact that when she saw a gaggle of giggling 8th grade boys gathered around a laptop, the last thing she expected to see on that screen was a spinning cube.

"She didn't know what was on those disks he was handing out. It could have been porn, viral .exe's...any number of things for all she knew. When she heard that an adult had given him some of the disks to hand out, her spidey-senses started tingling. Coupled with the fact that she truly was ignorant of honest-to-goodness Free Software, and you have some fairly impressive conclusion-jumping.

"In a couple of ways, I am guilty of it too.

"Karen seems to be a good teacher, and as she stated to me today, she has learned more about the tech world in a few days than she's learned in five years."

Please don't advocate destroying her life because of a misunderstanding. She DID do her job properly. The misunderstanding itself was between her and the blogger. They both display ignorance (yes, the blogger too) and they both learned from the experience. It would have been a problem only if either had refused to learn from the incident. There are many out there that refuse to learn, but that is not true in this particular case.

My two cents.
--Dave Romig, Jr.

Like there was any alternative. Whatever Hitler does, it won't be as scary as the Jewish Communists who eat bread baked from blood of Aryan children

Oh and

http://phylogenomics.blogspot.com/2006/07/john-mccain-on-evolution.html

"I think Americans should be exposed to every point of view," he said. "I happen to believe in evolution. ... I respect those who think the world was created in seven days. Should it be taught as a science class? Probably not."

Have one version with all the usual guff cut out (no "security", no browser, no apps, utilities or themes.) Make this the "Basic version" and let the user choose what browser to use, what security to install, what apps to run. Effectively this "lite" version is the gateway to the net and our chosen apps, where most PC time is spent.


Think of it as going to Subways - choose the boring brown roll of an OS, then add all your own yummy meats, juicy salads, hot peppers and sauces.


Sell it cheap and you kill Linux and stop the Mac horde in its tracks, problem solved - longer version - http://goffee-freelance.blogspot.com/

The plugin architecture is based on an "gcc exception" that
in my humble opinion, and I am not a lawyer, is very shaky.

See my article on this :
http://rdfintrospector2.blogspot.com/2009/01/gnu-gcc-compiler-introspector-reloaded.html

mike

I tried to submit this here, but it's still pending after a week.

Cox has an auto blocking mechanism for P2P.

http://videotechnology.blogspot.com/2009/01/cox-blocked.html

I have some experience with this from developing countries. Sometimes it's nice to have licensed software, such as when you're an international organisation, a government body, a joint venture, or when your country sometimes does care about licensing issues. So people buy the cheap version to prove that they have licensed software. Then they buy a copy of the full version for $2 on the street corner.

Hate to break the news, but if the law enforcement agency is knocking on your door because they think you broke the law they are going to check and make sure that your paid-for version matches your computer version. It really doesn't take that much time, all of 3-5 minutes. The first part of your message is correct, the last part is dillusional.

BTW our country happens to produce some pretty dumb people (out of HS). So we really shouldn't rag on emerging markets that much
http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2007/08/education-united-states-compared-to.html
http://kapio.kcc.hawaii.edu/upload/fullnews.php?id=52

To me, at least, Windows has just become a front end. Windows - The welcome mat to the Internet, endless web services and a few essential applications. Frankly Windows deserves to be about 100Mb big and start in 0.33 seconds. If there are a few versions of Windows 7, perhaps not as many as the silly number of Vistas available, but enough to cause concern, at least make a good one. See, I'd be happy with the Windows 7 (insert real name here) Ultra-skinny-super-deluxe-lite version please. Price it around £30 ($42 - at this precise moment), please add your own browser, security and web apps. Think of it as going to Subways, choose the boring brown roll of an OS, then add all your own funky, juicy, meats, salads, peppers and sauces. Full rant here

That _does_ leave the question of what you _should_ name the versions leading up to your x.0 release. Clearly, they aren't (x - 1).y when they're based on a whole new platform. But you do need to name them something, especially when development on them is going to take a long time. Suggestions?

Hmm. Google and KDE together screwed up alpha, beta, release candidate minor versioning - so that's out. However, how about doing away with the minor version numbering/lettering all together and label them something meaningful? Like so...

KDE - eat your children release

KDE - may turn off your cooling fan release

KDE - discover bizarre screen artifacts release

KDE - one size fits all release

KDE - half functionality of previous major version release

KDE - 4.0 (stable and more or less feature-complete)

Sure the KDE folks wouldn't have got so many takers for the first few, but people ought to be warned if it may eat your children (as thoughtfully mentioned in this thread first by the GP).

IPKat has a very nice analysis, as usual, here:

http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2009/01/breaking-news-wto-panel-report-on-us.html.

However, IPKat concludes that it's more of a score-draw than a loss by the US.

I'm not sure how you claim it is revisionist.

While reading this article, it is important to keep in mind that KDE 4 is still largely incomplete. Many of the details provided in this article reflect the fact that the 4.0 release is not a finished product. The KDE development team controversially decided to release 4.0 in a premature state in order to stimulate user interest and promote accelerated development. The result is that KDE 4.0 is, in many ways, like a preview for developers and technical enthusiasts rather than a release for enterprise desktops and production environments. My extensive testing shows that KDE 4.0 can be used on a day-to-day basis, but there are many inconveniences posed by the software's current limitations.

http://arstechnica.com/software/reviews/2008/01/kde-40-review.ars

KDE users who require mission-critical robustness and the full feature set of the KDE 3.5.x series should probably wait until KDE 4.1 before making the transition, but application developers and Linux enthusiasts who are eager to experiment with the new features will be able to make the transition now without too much trouble.

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2008/01/kde-4-0-rough-but-ready-for-action.ars

And since you seem to be too lazy to read the one link I included, I've cut and pasted it for you here:

To bring it into high-relief: KDE3 is our current product line for production, and KDE4 is our mid-term production line. For there to be any KDE worthy of succeeding KDE 3.5, we needed a mid-term project. No short-term project would cut it. We're at the beginning of where we can bring KDE4 into "current produce line" condition, which is to say that KDE4 is that transition period from mid-term to short-term project. That's exciting, and one more reason 4.0 rocks.

http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/01/talking-bluntly.html

You see the part that says "KDE3 is our current product line for production"? Gee, I wonder what that means in your world.

Is that the best you can do? References from IPCC that are over 7 years old? Pathetic.

The very first reference you gave (7), was written in 2001 and bases its support of the subject on an earlier IPCC Third Assessment Report! Jesus Christ! Not only the third but now even the 4th have been discredited. They mis-reported the science, and in some cases the "science" in them was actual fraud!

The second reference (8) also bases its position on the 2001 IPCC TAR, and other related United Nations activities, which again have been discredited.

The third reference above (10), ALSO uses as a basis the IPCC FAR (4th Assessment Report). Do I have to state yet again that this has been discredited?

The fourth reference you cite (11), (which, incidentally, is the third many-years-old citation from the Royal Academy), ALSO cites as the basis for its support, the IPCC TAR of 2001.

And the fifth reference you cite (12) is the laughable, discredited "study" by Naomi Oreskes. (Hint: I asked for something other than that, thank you very much.) Is that the best you can do? References from IPCC that are over 7 years old? Pathetic.

The very first reference you gave (7), was written in 2001 and bases its support of the subject on an earlier IPCC Assessment Report! Jesus Christ! Even the report before last was discredited, unreliable, and largely retracted!

The second reference (8) also bases its position on the 2001 IPCC TAR, and other related United Nations activities, which again have been discredited.

The third reference above (10), ALSO uses as a basis the IPCC FAR (4th Assessment Report). Do I have to state yet again that this has been discredited?

The fourth reference you cite (11), (which, incidentally, is the third years-old citation from the Royal Academy), ALSO cites as the basis for its support, the IPCC TAR of 2001.

In short, 4 of the 5 references you cite above are solely based on the flawed Assessment Reports from the IPCC, and the fifth (12) is the laughable, discredited "study" by Naomi Oreskes. (Hint: If you go back and look, you will see that I specifically asked you for something other than that because it is known to be flawed, thank you very much.)

Sorry, guy, but you should know better than to use Wikipedia as your source on such matters. I can do better than that with one cerebral hemisphere tied behind my back.

Here is the public letter from Chris Landsea, explaining why he had his name removed from participation in the IPCC studies: http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/archives/science_policy_general/000318chris_landsea_leaves.html

Here are a bunch more links. No, they are not all peer-reviewed scientific papers, but they sure do refer to a bunch of them. Follow the link chain as deeply as you care to, but they pretty much all contradict your position:

International Conference on Integrity in Science http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/002299.html [jennifermarohasy.com]

Economic Formulas in IPCC Report Criticized for Overstating Emissions http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=22786 [heartland.org]

Here's a DIFFERENT former IPCC participant: Former IPCC Member Slams UN Scientists' Lack of Geologic Knowledge http://newsbusters.org/node/13971 [newsbusters.org]

Yet another official IPCC reviewer criticizes the reports: http://oldsarges.blogspot.com/2008/03/paul-reiter-takes-on-ipcc.html [blogspot.com]

Global Warming: Science versus Fraud http://www.forces.

Your arguments have been answered in many places. Here's one http://pbjots.blogspot.com/2008/07/electric-vs-combustion-engine.html As far as pollution goes, power plants are kept under tighter controls and better maintenance than your average automobile engine - comparing barrel of oil to power plant generation versus barrel of oil to refinement to automobile engine.

"The aim of the KDE project for the 4.0 release is to put the foundations in place for future innovations on the Free Desktop. The many newly introduced technologies incorporated in the KDE libraries will make it easier for developers to add rich functionality to their applications, combining and connecting different components in any way they want."

From the 4.0 beta 4 release notes. Apparently someone forgot that paragraph in the final notes, but it still stands.
Anyone who actually cared at the time, and was looking over things, playing with pre-release versions, looking over blogs, actually listening to what people were saying, it was said countless times. One KDE developer joked it was the 'eat your children' release.

Even in the KDE keynote address (at the launch event, available online), they talked about how it was more of a foundational release.

Several months later, they officially countered many of the points being put forth about KDE 4.0 and 4.1.

People are happy enough to complain, but people, including KDE developers, were talking about this for months in advance of KDE 4.0's release, and after. It's been widely expected that KDE 4.2 would be the 'proper' release for a long while.

It's not that KDE fanboys, or developers (I'm neither) have revisionist history, it's that some people who'd prefer to argue or complain after the fact, weren't paying attention or conveniently develop amnesia.

Who was expecting the KDE folks to pull a magical perfect fully functional release, all of a sudden out of their collective arses, concurrently with KDevelop, KOffice, Amarok, and other software versions, when they had to rewrite major portions to take full advantage of Qt 4.4? KDE 4.0 was internally in development for over two years. It took them a scant year to circle the wagons after a "we're eating children and releasing early to sync up with third parties and make it possible to develop against more conveniently" release to make a stable user-oriented version. Big deal. According to other posts and snarky comments on Slashdot, it's taking Windows 7 3 years (with no development libraries or early previews to target as an average developer, until Beta 1 SDK released, concurrently with Beta 1 itself) to release an annoying graphical update to Windows Vista. People tend to be 'slightly' overreacting and skewing for their own fan base there as well.

KDE 3.5.10 was released just this last August (2008). I'm not saying that 4.0 or 4.1 was a great idea, just that it was sensible from their point of view, and warned about in a copious manner. It's fairly unbelievable that people would freak out -that- badly if they weren't interested enough about the software or desktop environment to read anything surrounding the event, including previews, beta notes, statements from individual developers, color commentary from the peanut gallery, or much of anything else.

When KDE 3.0 was released, did every possible feature and customization for 2.x somehow survive immediately? People used to be more on the fence until a few releases in.

I bet that by the time KDE 4.3 is released (currently scheduled for July), it won't even matter that everyone was so eager to complain about the developer versions when the stable version (3.5) was still available, worked, was maintained, and could easily be installed side-by-side.

Even if, somehow, you were confused about the nature of KDE 4.0 or 4.1, no one was holding a gun to your head to force

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE_4

Read the section labeled "Stable releases" and notes 24 through 27.

Here, I'll help you out, the link for note 24 is: http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/01/talking-bluntly.html

I've been tracking the 4.2 betas on Kubuntu's repositories, and the final release is working very nicely. KDE 4.2 is finally at a stage where the 4 series can replace the 3.5 series for the large majority of users, and I've been using KDE since 2.0 came out.

Now I know there are going to be a ton of complaints about how "broken" KDE 4 is... but I have my own response to the critics. Is KDE 4.2 perfect? No, but I challenge you to show me a desktop that is "perfect". KDE 4 has finally gained critical mass, and even more great stuff is in store.

Thanks again to all the KDE 4 developers and bug testers who kept working even when it wasn't easy or popular! Your perseverance has paid off.

http://ifglobalwarmingisrealthenwhyisitcold.blogspot.com/

ARGHHH

Please stop making this ridiculous argument. Beer is easy to make at home, but is legal and taxed. Food is easy to grow at home, but is legal and taxed in some (many?) states. Clothes are easy to make at home, but are legal and taxed in some (many) states.

The evidence flies in the face of this absolutely retarded claim.

No it isn't. I'm going to assume that the blogger who posted this is actually relying on the authority of the US Gov't for the info. Here are a few relevant exerpts from the US Legal Code.

Sec. 25.205 Production of Beer (a) Any adult may produce beer, without payment of tax, for personal or family use and not for sale. An adult is any individual who is 18 years of age or older. If the locality in which the household is located requires a greater minimum age for the sale of beer to individuals, the adult shall be that age before commencing the production of beer. This exemption does not authorize the production of beer for use contrary to State or local law. (b) The production of beer per household, without payment of tax, for personal or family use may not exceed: (1) 200 gallons per calendar year if there are two or more adults residing in the household, or (2) 100 gallons per calendar year if there is only one adult residing in the household. (c) Partnerships except as provided in Sec. 25.207, corporations or associations may not produce beer, without payment of tax, for personal or family use. (Sec. 201, Pub. L. 85-859, 72 Stat. 1334, as amended (26 U.S.C. 5053))

Sec. 25.206 Removal of beer Beer made under Sec. 25.205 may be removed from the premises where made for personal or family use including use at organized affairs, exhibitions or competitions such as homemaker's contests, tastings or judging. Beer removed under this section may not be sold or offered for sale. (Sec. 201, Pub. L. 85-859, 72 Stat. 1334, as amended (26 U.S.C. 5053))

Sec. 25.207 Removal from brewery for personal or family use. Any adult, as defined in Sec. 25.205, who operates a brewery under this part as an individual owner or in partnership with others, may remove beer from the brewery without payment of tax for personal or family use. The amount of beer removed for each household, without payment of tax, per calendar year may not exceed 100 gallons if there is one adult residing in the household or 200 gallons if there are two or more adults residing in the household. Beer removed in excess of the above limitations will be reported as a taxable removal. (Sec. 201, Pub. L. 85-859, 72 Stat. 1334, as amended (26 U.S.C. 5053))

KDE 4.2 is no trainwreck. Here's my take on KDE 4.2. My personal verdict is that KDE 4 has surpassed KDE 3.5 for daily use and is ready for primetime.

Previously I'd tested current and nightly versions of Safari/Webkit, FireFox, Opera and IE. I tested IE8 RC1 on the same machine under the same conditions. Results here. Short story is that RC1 significantly outperforms Beta2, but still falls short of the competition. It also seems to have added some regexp code that lets it perform freakishly well on Dromaeo's "regular expressions" suite.