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The first link in the summary to the post on recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com is wonky. Actual permalink is:
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html#6982228835079988736

What did you really expect from a country whose #1 anti-social behavior concern is the carrying of hand tools that have been in common use for tens of thousands of years (knives), to the extent that public possession of a tiny lock-blade toenail trimmer is considered a felony? These people are absolutely nutters! But then think on the fact that the English at least are being culturally displaced, such that they no longer live in London. Their own capital city has become a hostile Islamicist enclave (see Edgeware Road, aka Little Arabia). Maybe selective enforcement of rules in a police state is their only option for national survival?

Yeah, because you really need 16 exabytes to watch Youtube videos.

I'm not sure this is up there yet.

They are definitely working on it. Read the deposition NYCL gave their "Expert" witness. http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/03/deposition-of-riaas-expert-available.html

It's long, but it's awesome. I'm a programmer, not a lawyer, but after reading that deposition and all the stuff about "MediaDefender" I wonder why the RIAA has gotten as far as it has. If I were a judge my reaction to an RIAA lawsuit landing in my court would be more along the lines of uncontrolled laughter than anything else. I suppose that's why I'm a programmer, not a lawyer.

Their methods are unsound and sooner or later those RIAA lawyers are going to get Jack Thompsoned.

Check out this website which has links to the White House reporting of Bush's talking about the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac problems. The website is conservative but the link is to the official White House website. http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/09/bush-called-for-reform-of-fannie-mae.html As to the Glass-Steagal repeal, you might have a point there but again the major problem was the CRA loans and the push to force the banks to loan money to people who clearly could not repay the loan or else face problems with the law. That was strictly the Democratic congress of 1994 under Clinton that passed that and the major people pushing for it were Barney Frank, Chris Dodd. You have to also remember that at the time Barney Frank was involved in a relationship with one of the heads of Fannie Mae who would get the major benefit of this act. You also have to look at the revision of the accounting during the last phase of the Clinton administration which resulted in Raines, Johnson, Gorelick and Murray getting huge payoffs based on the same false accounting practices as Enron used - and at about the same time. You also might check into who was pushing Enron globally to get them more business, even to the extent of sending his Commerce Department personnel along with the Enron salesmen to our allies to push for business - hint: it was not Bush - Bush is the one who prosecuted Enron. There is some blame to spread all around but the media has done a lousy job of reporting the president's initiatives in this matter and also done a lousy job of reporting what was really going on. In fact, the media has done a good job of only one thing - reporting the Democratic party bullet points in this matter. It is not the invisible hand of the free market that punches workers. It is the invisible hand of the liberals trying to micromanage the free market that results in the workers getting punched in the nuts.

Too bad that idea ends up taking the economy completely out.

I don't believe you.

I'm a subscriber to the DownsizeDC.org mailing list. Here's a link to the dispatch that they sent me today. A large chunk of the text follows. I am not an economist, but the data looks pretty straightforward to me. It's not going to be a good year no matter how you slice it, but none of the actions taken will do anything except further distort the markets and exacerbate the problem. The US government is broke, and if they continue to print money for stuff like this, they will eventually break the dollar and then we may indeed be eating dog food (or just dogs) in the streets.

There's a lot of evidence that we've been scammed. Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke told us they needed to spend $700 billion of your money to buy supposedly toxic assets that were crippling major firms and for which there was no immediate market. This was a lie even when they said it, because . . .

Merrill Lynch was able to sell it's most troubled assets back in July.

If Merrill could do it, other firms could do it too. They might not have liked the price they got, but it could have been done. The Big Bailout was purposely designed to give favored firms a better deal than they could have gotten in the market.

We've also been told, constantly, that credit markets are frozen. We're still being told that today, constantly, around the clock, on the cable business channels. It wasn't true before, and it isn't true now. We could point you to many places for the evidence, but here's one great graph from the blog Carpe Diem to give you the evidence in one pretty picture.

The hysteria mongers would tell you that even if consumer credit is okay (and you would have to hammer them with the evidence to get them to admit it), commercial credit is still in big trouble. But that isn't true either. Here's a good summary from the great scholar Robert Higgs, at the Independent Institute . . .

"Looking at the data for the first four business days of the past week, I find that firms sold from $179 billion to $205 billion of commercial paper per day; the number of separate issuances per day ranged from 6,761 to 7,298. Both the total amount borrowed and the number of issuances per day increased steadily throughout the week (data for Friday have not yet been reported)."

Higgs goes on to compare the current numbers with past periods and finds NO CREDIT FREEZE!

But what about the stock market? Doesn't its fall tell us there's a crisis? Perhaps, until you consider what's causing stocks to fall.

The really big drops began when Paulson and Bernanke began peddling their fear to Congress. And since then, nearly every time some government official has opened his or her mouth, with some new claim or some new plan, the stock market has taken another nose dive. A good chunk of the decline appears to be driven by fear mongering.

a *hot* topic, Google raises a cool argument." But, because you remind us of the Arctic option, i'll have to say YOU raise a cool argument/reminder.

But, is there a feasible way for various sloped shafts to be cored (or existing ones, such as the former Super Conducting Semi Collider (or is it Semi Conducting Super Collider?, etc...used) such that filtered draft air (sounds like beer, huh?) is blown past the chassis?

And, isn't there a way to decouple the processors from such numerically high boards? Can't these processors be (to bring up images of the Star Trek USS Enterprise (NCC-1701 D) central computer core, or even the main warp core, with vertical shafting, but horizontal/azimuthal projections) attached to shafts, and the ancillary wiring be attached down/up stream? Then, the cooling air could be better directed, controlled and overall flow demands reduced, to in essence, cut the high energy costs.

For visuals, see:

http://startrekspace.blogspot.com/2007/01/geordi-la-forge-and-his-warp-core.html

http://www.loony-archivist.com/lowerdecks/life.html

http://www.ussenterprise.co.uk/enterprise/entd/

I would envision that at the very least, Google can -- or already has underway -- plans to exploit polar or Canadian, or cold North Dakota type environs in which to shaft-locate their computers.

Japan owns 600 billion of US Treasury Securities, and China owns 500 billion.

Why? Japan wants to export it's deflation problem via the carry trade which is when Japanese Yen savings are used to buy Dollars which are then used to buy US Treasury Securities which yield higher interest than Japanese banks must pay to Japanese savers.

The US loves this because buying dollars with yen supports the US dollar keeping inflation down, while the Fed 'stimulates the economy' with loose monetary policy. Meanwhile Japanese exports are helped by devaluing the Yen. Japan must devalue the Yen for it's exports to be competitive with China.

China devalues the Renminbi ( Yuan ) by more complicated means, but like Japan, the result is accumulated Foreign Currency Reserves, including US Treasury Securities. Devaluing the Renminbi ( Yuan ) makes Chinese exports more competitive. Also, the restrictions on foreign investment necessary for China to control the value of the Renminbi ( Yuan ) allow some measure of central government control in how the Chinese economy develops.

Moreover, devaluing the Renminbi ( Yuan ) allows China to accumulate huge foreign currency reserves ( 2 trillion dollars worth so far ) that it can use for checkbook diplomacy, such as loaning to the third world or deals with Hugo Chavez or the Iranians.

It is worth noting that the Foreign Currency Reserves are aquired by the Chinese Government at the expense of the average Chinese citizen. The buying power of the Renminbi ( Yuan ) that the average Chinese worker is paid in has been appropriated by their government by their artificial devaluation of the Chinese Currency.

Not that there is any moral difference between that and a tax.

Anyway, if one of Japan or China started selling US Treasury securities they would shoot themselves in the foot. It would likely trigger a fire sale that would wreck the dollar and hurt the US, China, and Japan severely.

However, there has to be balanced trade sometime. Pressure will build and build until it inexorably happens somehow.

Here is a link you might find interesting

Some times normal cable actuated controls fail in strange ways too.

URGENT DANGER! PLEASE PROPAGATE! Legislation in the U.S. is Meaningless- We are exposing their crimes-they are trying to MURDER MY MOTHER AND I IN CANADA for our efforts. Look to RNC and removal of 4th/ 1st Amendments. Laws are meant for the government to impose tyranny not for them to follow. Legislation is illusion and fallacy. My mother and I know- there have been 15 attempts on our lives. OUR WEBSITE AARONJAMESSORY.COM JUST REMOVED BY GOVERNMENT TO OCCLUDE KIDNAPPING/MURDER ATTEMPTS UPON US IN CANADA FOLLOWING U.S. AIRLINE PROFILING ATTACK ***ALL IMPORTANT LINKS MP3â(TM)S AND MEDIA REPORT LINKS and CORROBOATIVE REFRENCES/CONTACTS GIVEN AT BOTTOM AND THROUGH THE TEXT *** recent abduction attempt VIDEO WITNESSED here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sfObgs3GGg . Government Downs our Website And then ATTACKS http://sitedowngovernmentattacksinstealth.blogspot.com/ KBOO RADIO REPORTS ON MY WEBSITE GOING DOWN AND KIDNAPPING CRISIS SITUATION: http://kboo.fm/audio/by/title/the_aaron_james_story_website_goes_down Summary::U.S. Northwest Airlines Attack upon my mother and I and extensive extrajudicial persecution (framed, covert tribunal, threats , stalking, sabotaged mail etc) prompts us to expose their crimes on line. This spawned repeated attempts at kidnapping or murder by *criminally charged local Winnipeg police (acting covertly without warrant or charges) on behalf of U.S. judicial and corporate factions including FBI CIA and NSA, in attempt to silence us. Winnipeg police remain motivated by a close affiliation with Minneapolis Police: Winnipeg Police Chief Keith Mc Caskill is president of North West Chapter of Associates FBI with Minneapolis Police affiliation and was referenced by police upon the first kidnapping/murder attempt. Family Friends Associates threatened, terrorized now 3 years ongoing as police use many covert tactics in order to effect attempts at kidnapping, havening necessitated my going into hiding in remote locations for extended periods of time. Family and I have been traumatized, I with 12 trips to hospital with Heart Attack symptoms via combination of the effects of the tasing attack and ongoing persecution and my 64 year old motherâ(TM)s health rapidly deteriorating. Canadian and U.S. government attempting to conceal culpability have not only been negligent in refusing assistance, but complicit in cross border collusion towards this effect. As example, Foreign affairs representative Estelle Battahdier stated "Let us know if they torture you or ask you to commit indecent acts-but still, we will not intervene-this is a U.S. affair." Provisions for just such assistance from Foreign affairs were found online by journalist Lesley Hughes, at Foreign affairs, Canadian Human Rights Amnesty International, Manitoba Human Rights, the House of Commons (approached by local MP Steven Fletcher) MP's Annita Neville,Penny Priddy(approached on our behalf by Roche Tasse President of International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group Ottawa) Globe and Mail May 10 2007 clearly reads "Ottawa sacrificed Arar to save face with Syria and the United States". Canada's complicity is clear. Media, once slandering online on television newspaper and radio, now censor in order to assist government ploys therein. Threats received by covert U.S. agency including FBI indicate severe harm and possible death resultant as consequence if they are successful. Local Winnipeg Police Chief in Canada is FBI asset, graduate of Northwest Chapter of Associates FBI with MN affiliation. Winnipeg Police now remain in violation of court order to return property thieved upon original kidnapping attempt and stall court proceedings to hide complicity in cross border collusion with the U.S. from the court, motivated further towards collusion and our harm, in that among the officers involved, two are now charged amogst 4 Winn

I made a post about how to use REAL cookies in flash.

Shared objects are still great for somethings, like UI preferences, game saves but real cookies should be used, it makes live easier with PHP too...

to start chanting "Ray Beckerman for Copyright Czar!"?

What does that make win2k? Win4.5?

As for Se7en, maybe ms will (at least in Korea, and in Los Angeles) contract him to open windoze 7 in the US? (probably a far cry better than "Start Me Up", especially since Se7en is much younger, and ms probably needs a serious face lift...

http://aznconcerts.blogspot.com/2008/04/se7en-who-is-scheduled-to-release-his.html

I don't know about that...

What should I have done, other than vote for other candidates and encourage friends and family members to do the same?

Well, would you like a list?

I guarantee you the right-wing evangelical churches and wingnut homes are going to pour voluntters into their local GOP headquarters across this nation in the last week of the campaign, giving everything they have into the republican get-out-the-vote efforts. They will work with the dedication of the True Believers. Quite a few more will go into places where the uneducated or powerless hang out and try to trick or intimidate them into not voting.

If your only counter to that is to sit on your butt until election day, then go cast your one vote and hope magic happens, then you deserve to lose.

Their blog has a few of the test pictures received (of of Exp. 17 Commander) Sergei Volkov. These were received in Portugal and the US. Other images will doubtless show on their blogspot site one Garriot gets involted.

My goal is to put Java and PDF's out of business and we are pretty darned close baby! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/

BuildBot: Chromium
Chromium issue tracker
Google Chrome Release History

I'm a grad student in the natural sciences. Some other friends of mine and I started Labmeeting.com because we are so eager to help change the way science gets published.

The current system of peer review is inefficient, arbitrary, and hidden from public view. We definitely need something new, but, as we said in our talk at BioBarCamp a while back, change needs to be gradual enough to preserve consensus.

That's why we're starting by just trying to make research tools that are useful to scientists in their everyday professional lives.

http://www.429truth.com/2008/09/01/john-mccain-is-a-cylon/
http://cmpalmer.blogspot.com/2008/03/john-mccain-is-he-cylon.html http://www.adampieniazek.com/politics/battlestar-politica/

Or watch their election video http://tighroslin2008.com/

There's nothing wrong with somebody wanting an extra room or two to start a family, a home business or private study.

The other question is: Was there an option to buying a McMansion? Are there enough smaller affordable homes in non-shitty school districts to house the working class? No, but no builders wanted to build the affordable homes because they weren't as profitable as McMansions and the banks were willing to make the loans, so they were able to have potential customers for the oversized houses. The median price of any housing with under an hour commute time to NYC is $450K. The median income in NYC is about $48K, so that's ten years wages before tax for just somewhere to raise your family. Yet every new construction project I see is luxury apartments. Back in 2000 the median price was just $148K and the median income was about $40k. So housing was about 3.7 time annual income just eight years ago, and now it is 10 times annual income. The banks offered people the possibility to be in unimaginable debt, and people need somewhere to live, so they got in over their heads, because the only other option was to up root their young family and hope that life was affordable somewhere else. That's not always an option personally speaking, NYC is far and away the best paying play for the career my collage degree is in. I'm 33 and I make over twice the median annual income, yet the only housing I can afford to buy would be a 600 sq ft studio apt. A $300k studio costs $1750 a month mortgage plus a $650 maintaince fee, and would only be getting one room. Two bedroom apts start at about $500K, so now that's $2917 a month mortgage and an $800 maintaince fee, for 1100 sq ft that's a 45 min subway commute to midtown. So when people purchase homes that are more than they can afford, the question of why they did that isn't as simple as "greed" there is a large mount of "need" int there as well.

50% of all subprime loans were made by companies who were not banks and therefore not forced to do anything by the CRA. They made subprime loans because subprime loans were good money.

Furthermore, Fannie Mae estimated in 2007 that "up to half" of the subprime loans it had bought from brokers could have been qualified for "better terms" than they received. Brokers made these people subprime loans because subprime loans were good money and the lenders didn't bother to shop around for a broker that wouldn't rip them off.

Did the Democrats set up the failure? Sure, then we had the "Republican Revolution" and they didn't do a thing to stop it, because big business was making big money and didn't want to stop, even after Bush undid Clinton's CRA regulations.

http://hydraraptor.blogspot.com/

Everybody needs to be able to draw good curves! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/

A quote in the WSJ article says the hackers are performing at a level of sophistication that rivals foreign intelligence services. The implication: Payment card data security requires much, much more than just forcing merchants to lock down data and comply with the PCI (payment card industry data security standard). Card data security is a national security issue. It requires wholesale rethinking of the credit card system. The Federal Trade Commission misunderstands the magnitude of the problem. The FTC is locked in an old-fashioned belief that data in-security is due to stupid merchants (like TJX) treating consumers (and their privacy) "unfairly" by failing to secure their systems. We need fresh thinking and better leadership on this issue from the FTC. --Ben

I've never heard of a Google IMAP client but you can deselect folders in your email client (I use Opera and do have the All Mail group disabled). And they also have added IMAP controls: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-in-labs-advanced-imap-controls.html "You can choose which labels to sync in IMAP -- useful if you find your mail client choking on a big [Gmail]/All Mail folder."

I would recommend dividing the class into computer basics, using the web, and then hit programming.

The basics I would make VERY basic - talk about what an OS is, hard drives vs. USB drives, how computers process and store data, how computers are networked - all from a very high level. Make sure they understand how to save files, and where they go when they are saved.

For web, specifically "web 2.0", take a look at http://plcmcl2-about.blogspot.com/ . Whether it makes sense to just do the "23 things" from that site, or pick and choose (perhaps even have students pick and choose different projects, and then show & tell would showcase the widest variety of stuff on the web).

Programming should start very basic, maybe with an interpreted language like Perl or Python, and then maybe discuss compiled languages such as java or C/C++ or even C#. Once you get beyond "Hello World", I'd highly recommend pointing to some of the design patterns that are out there - show them how to find good examples on their own.

I've seen basically two types of courses - one follows a book (SAMS, for a bad example) that walks you by the nose step-by-step, and at the end, you can repeat the steps (maybe), but have no idea what you've really done. The better course says "this is one way to do it, here's another way, and if that's not enough, here's where to look for more". The second way is a lot more involvement between student and teacher, but I think it helps the student with problem solving and analysis down the road (where the first method teaches them to grab the first easy answer they find).

From the Wikipedia page on EMP (which quotes a Federation of American Scientists article):

"The pulse can easily span continent-sized areas, and this radiation can affect systems on land, sea, and air. The first recorded EMP incident accompanied a high-altitude nuclear test over the South Pacific and resulted in power system failures as far away as Hawaii. A large device detonated at 400â"500 km (250 to 312 miles) over Kansas would affect all of the continental U.S. The signal from such an event extends to the visual horizon as seen from the burst point."

The test mentioned is the Starfish 1.4 megaton high altitude test. That link has many more details.

EMP affects all sorts of electrical devices. Car computers would likely be more seriously affected than vintage, non-computer cars unless they have been EMP shielded as most military equipment is. Most regular cars have no such protection.

Even unshielded, it can be.

Yes, it can be...but because it is unshielded, it creates RF Interference with radios (mostly HAM bands). It is my understanding that if they weren't causing interference, Broadband Over Power lines would be just about ready to roll.

Don't think a lot of money is being put into this?

-=-=-=-=

http://broadbandoverpowerlines.blogspot.com/2006/05/google-gs-sensustxu-ge-earthlink-put.html

Google, GS, SENSUS,TXU, GE, EarthLink put $230M in Current Communications ~ 10 Mbps Symmetrical speed Broadband over Power Lines Internet service !!!

-=-=-=-

No telling what they could do without the interference issues.

Transporter_ii

Oh Really? Apparently google was anticipating your post,

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-in-labs-advanced-imap-controls.html

"when you are victimized it will be preserved for posterity!"

The police might say the cameras weren't working or the tapes were blank:

http://anothersecretpoliceman.blogspot.com/2006/01/jean-charles-de-menezes.html

That is one depressing city! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/

SL has built in voice chat....and people actually use it. Also people are relatively more open about their RL in SL than gamers are in traditional MMORPG's, in part because you do more communication than "incoming mob add, somebody root/slow/stop it." There's a bit of an SL truism: SL is a "women's world". One of the things guys in SL always complain about is the lack of avatar customization options for men. There's a bajillion sellers of great female "skin", but far far fewer of male skin.

Oh I have an idea! visit the SL oriented blogs and listen to the voices on those "leave a voice message widgets" like mychingo. Here's one:
http://roslinpetion.blogspot.com/ That's the blog of my favorite skin maker. Or listen to SL podcasts. You'll see.

Imagine all the time businesses would spend if they read (and took the effort to digest) all the legal terms and conditions written on routine documents, like invoices, purchase orders, and bills of lading, from trading partners. Under a legal phenomenon called the "battle of the forms," businesses learned that the best approach was not to read all the terms communicated to them. Instead, they learned to transmit their own terms to their trading partners, using their own documents. By so doing, they sorta blunted or neutralized or adjusted the blizzard of terms coming from trading partners. (The process was never perfect, but if done intelligently it had an effect.) I argue the same phenomenon can occur in the privacy space. I argue people can publish their own terms of privacy. (It's a complex topic, and I'm not giving anyone legal advice here. Topic for more discussion.) --Ben http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2008/05/google-privacy-policy-terms-of-service.html

Imagine all the time businesses would spend if they read (and took the effort to digest) all the legal terms and conditions written on routine documents, like invoices, purchase orders, and bills of lading, from trading partners. Under a legal phenomenon called the "battle of the forms," businesses learned that the best approach was not to read all the terms communicated to them. Instead, they learned to transmit their own terms to their trading partners, using their own documents. By so doing, they sorta blunted or neutralized or adjusted the blizzard of terms coming from trading partners. (The process was never perfect, but if done intelligently it had an effect.) I argue the same phenomenon can occur in the privacy space. I argue people can publish their own terms of privacy. (It's a complex topic, and I'm not giving anyone legal advice here. Topic for more discussion.) --Ben http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2008/05/google-privacy-policy-terms-of-service.html

The problem is not that we have too much capitalism, but that we don't have enough. http://www.service11.blogspot.com/ ( www.service11.blogspot.com )

Yeah. British citizens have great gov controls on the mortgage market don't they.

Oh and the Spanish are genius at financial matters aren't they?

Don't underestimate upcoming transactional engines, specifically Jim Starkey's Falcon (which is nearing readiness), PBXT and future versions of Maria.

Plus the mature InnoDB engine is not going away any time soon.

Don't underestimate upcoming transactional engines, specifically Jim Starkey's Falcon (which is nearing readiness), PBXT and future versions of Maria.

Plus the mature InnoDB engine is not going away any time soon.

right, i'm sure Tim Berners-Lee, and Vint Cert are just clueless "idealogs" who have no idea how the internet works.

keep living in your telecom/ISP-create fantasy land there, buddy.

anyone who's actually been following the net neutrality debate and looked at who's publicly against or in favor of net neutrality can see that, aside from ISPs/Telecom corporations with clear vested interests in creating a tiered internet, it's only old, completely out of touch conservative politicians who are opposing net neutrality--it's no coincidence that these are generally the same kind of people who think the internet is made of "tubes."

if anything your comment demonstrates your own ignorance about how the internet works if you actually think that a tiered internet is necessary or beneficial. naturally, instead of providing a logical, factually supported argument, you resort to non-sequiturs and immature ad hominem attacks.

Sorry, I'm taking over this thread.

News flash, the bird is NOT the word.

http://fulldecent.blogspot.com/2008/10/bird-is-not-word.html

Why can't end user license agreements be turned to advantage? To deter employers (and bill collectors) from viewing social networking pages, employees (or debtors) might post terms of service under which employers (or collectors) agree to scram. This idea should not be taken as legal advice, just something to think about. --Ben http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2007/11/privacy-advocates-such-as-nyu-professor.html

Why can't end user license agreements be turned to advantage? To deter employers (and bill collectors) from viewing social networking pages, employees (or debtors) might post terms of service under which employers (or collectors) agree to scram. This idea should not be taken as legal advice, just something to think about. --Ben http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2007/11/privacy-advocates-such-as-nyu-professor.html

I know what you mean. I struggled with this social networking share everything attitude that has become so prevalent in the prosumer generation. That is, until I read this NY Times article on it. Then it made sense.

He's a Google employee..

(Standard 20% time disclaimer etc)

Bob Blakley wrote a great piece on the no fly list. His solution - put everyone on the no fly list. That's about as effective as the current solution. http://notabob.blogspot.com/2008/07/round-up-usual-suspects.html

trying to codesign large Windows executables. At the time their Authenticode tool was better than Microsoft's own.

Maybe because Linux makes life so incredibly hard for developers?

http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com/2008/10/pulse-my-audio.html
http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com/2008/09/mini-rant.html

And that's just what you have to go through to get something running in a _current_ distro on the current kernel. Because of the absolute lack of a stable API / ABI in the Linux kernel, you cannot expect anything to still work in the next kernel release.

So really, why bother? Why go through all of the grief that porting to Linux involves for the very little amount of money you'd make? Stick with vendors who will guarantee the API and ABI and you will know that you can still sell copies of this game next year and keep making money off of it.

Maybe because Linux makes life so incredibly hard for developers?

http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com/2008/10/pulse-my-audio.html
http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com/2008/09/mini-rant.html

And that's just what you have to go through to get something running in a _current_ distro on the current kernel. Because of the absolute lack of a stable API / ABI in the Linux kernel, you cannot expect anything to still work in the next kernel release.

So really, why bother? Why go through all of the grief that porting to Linux involves for the very little amount of money you'd make? Stick with vendors who will guarantee the API and ABI and you will know that you can still sell copies of this game next year and keep making money off of it.

One of my non-geek friends got an Aspire One. It hasn't exactly been plain sailing.

The Aspire One runs Linpus Linux, it's a Fedora variant but they've modified lots of packages, and there's no online repository for their custom RPMs, and the changes weren't fed upstream. There are some major problems: "yum update" (either global, or anything that touches the modified packages) will replace the custom packages and break stuff, mplayer has very few codecs (no xvid), installing vlc requires manually linking directories, the menu system is non-standard so installed software isn't in the menu (in fact, the custom openoffice packages do set up menu entries, but if you update them to the fedora packages they break), and you can't update to firefox 3 without major hassles.

A hacked up Chinese Fedora clone isn't exactly a great example of a fluid Linux experience - stock Ubuntu would have been far preferable, and saved me from all those "this is Linux? I thought you said it was better than Windows. This would've been far easier in Windows." comments.