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Yes it does. It forces me to license my code under GPL. Yes, I agree that I am not forced to make use of any GPL code, but that does not change the immorality of the action. I don't have to go wandering in a bad neighborhood in the middle of the night, and by not doing it I can avoid getting robbed. But is the robbery any more virtuous because I voluntarily placed myself in an environment where I was certain to be robbed?

By using the GPL, I force nothing on you. You've already admitted to that. However, I have not declared that you can use my code. Instead, I've declared the terms on which you may use my code---much like you would for your wordprocessor. But even beyond that, I've defined my terms in a clear, standard manner, and you know two things. One, what exactly the conditions for using my code are, and two, that I'm not likely to budge. Compared to the conditions set out in most closed source EULA's, I think by using the GPL I'm being much more fair. If you're a programmer, you've gotten a much larger advantage---the code itself. It is just defining terms. It's legal and just as moral as closed source---if not more so. Because remember, I'm not saying everyone has the rights to my code (that would be public domain or a BSD like license), I'm saying on what terms you can use my code. The price may not be money, but it's still there---much like in closed source. Quit whining that you can't play the game and make up your own rules.

Exactly my point. And what it means is that no one wishing to make money from his code will ever touch GPL code.

They'll just write their own. It's not that hard. Hello 12 different libpng versions! Hello 24 variants of mozilla! Hello "out of memory" and "insufficient disk space"! Hello "incompatible library version detected"! And how did you say this benefit free software?

Play the game, or don't. There isn't a middle ground, and I see no reason for one.

Linus, in a recent interview, says:

I really want a license to do just two things: make the code available to others, and make sure that improvements stay that way. That's really it. Nothing more, nothing less. Everything else is fluff.

...

And the thing is, in my fuzzy "cannot plan his way out of a cardboard box" world, I don't worry too much about the next version of the GPL. I'm not a lawyer, I don't worry about the exact wording. In many ways, my only gripe with the GPL has been how many words it seems to need to say something very simple. That seems to be a common theme in any legal situation.

What else is there to say?

There's competition, albiet not much, out there, not to mention the 512 to 1 gig players out there. Most people have no need for 40 gigs in their pocket or they don't want to drop 249 or 299 for an iPod, which wont record line in nor do FM/AM.

I have about eight separate issues with each one of your statements here. I will cover only the most pertinent in the interests of readability.

First of all, nobody needs any mp3 player. I mean let's get a sense of perspective here - every single one of these things, from the lowest of the low-end 128MB flash player to the 60GB iPod, is a complete luxury item. 10 years ago, we all got by just fine with our portable CD players. 10 years before that, we got along fine with our cassette walkmen. 10 years before that, we got along fine with nothing. (Maybe a nice transistor radio or something, but that's about it.)

So the argument that people will or will not buy one of these players based on "need" is meaningless. People buy these players because they want them, and that's one thing Apple understands that their competitors don't. Apple makes people want a product that they have absolutely no need for, whereas their competitors are busy building the products they think their customers need.

(It reminds me of an old saying about art, and I'm not sure I've got it exactly right, but it goes something like, "True art isn't about giving people what they want; true art is about giving people something that they didn't know they wanted.")

And what's this about recording AM/FM radio?? Honestly, who buys an mp3 player for this? This is akin to photocopying your favorite novels at the local library so you can enjoy them later, in all their degraded, barely-readable glory. I mean Jesus Christ, just buy the stupid thing. Listening to the radio is one thing, and I can see that being somewhat useful... but when you're talking 40GB worth of music at your fingertips, in as good quality as you chose to make it in the first place, I don't think listening to the radio is really a product seller in this category. (Yeah yeah, people want to time-shift their talk shows or whatever... all six of you out there.)

I see a lot of 128-512 meg players out there and people don't at all seem to mind not having their entire collection on them at all times.

Apple's on track to sell four million iPods in one quarter. I actually doubt there have been four million flash-based players sold in total, throughout the history of flash-based players, by every single manufacturer combined.

Now, to add my $0.03 (my opinion's worth one cent more than most!) about this iRiver player, I mean, I have nothing against it, competition is good, etc. etc. But it's not gonna make a dent in iPod sales. Because for one, even the iPod Mini is a shadow of its big brother in terms of sales (read the article I linked earlier), so it's not even Apple's biggest market. But it's still a market they dominate. They dominate that market through a combination of things that add up to a total user experience - and a couple of extra features on a competing model is not going to do anything to change that. Because it's frankly just not about features.

I'm no big fan of Apple but I acknowledge that they have a certain understanding about basic human nature that very few other companies do. Their product design teams are not run by a bunch of MBA's and they do not design by committee. They actively looked for a new market segment with the iPod, they found it, and they defined it. Nobody's going to catch up to them by just dumping a few extra features or a couple more hours of battery life into their player. I mean that's the reality. This is Apple's market.

But, I have a feeling the first step is going to put this flat on it's face.

Mr. Owens say he has addressed this by making sure the lower half weighs far more than the upper half, and some other design modifications. The whole thing (pic) weighs a ton and a half, though.

I'd love to see a project like this tackled on "Junkyard Mega-Wars". Dueling Exoskeletons!

I was pictured topless in the game here:
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2004/reviews/ 919657_20040901_thumb008.jpg

(Remove stupid spacing)

No, the Darpa project is completely seperate. Darpa is sponsoring a Berkeley project which already has working legs and can carry oversized packs. For an image of the Darpa-funded, Berkeley project go to here

They've also sued three ADC members who were distributing developer builds of Mac OS X Tiger via BitTorrent.
Details here and here.

Nothing spectacular here, since besides the obvious copyright infringement, the developer builds are released under NDA.

Are you suggesting that MS include a better graphics program with the OS? MS Paint might not be the best end-all graphics program, but as soon as MS incorporates Paint.NET (or similarly full-featured product) with the OS, they'll be sued to unbundle it (and rightly so).

Isn't it better that the MS included programs have minimal features at best? It is great to be able to read MS Word docs on the OS without having to buy / download anything, but I don't want someone to choose which programs I use.

The more that's bundled in the OS, the more people will use what they are given (just look at IE) instead of finding a better alternative.

I am not trying to flame you but - you are a complete idiot when it comes to economics or a troll. I have seen other somewhat intelligent posts from you, but this one actually puts the rest into context. You must be too young to remember the issues that MS has faced already.

Microsoft IS a monopoly. If you don't beleive me, look at the USDOJ findings of fact (specifically Section III, article 33) US vs. Microsoft of maybe this one, or for a slightly slanted, but nonetheless relevant take. I could add other links, but I will stop there for now. It doesn't matter if they have "active and serious competitors" (which would be Apple on a completely different platform, and Linux on x86), they have a large percentage of the marketplace which puts them into a monopoly position, ergo, they have to play by certain rules which are afforded to those in that position.

I have stated this before, Microsoft, regrdless of the fact there may be other Media Players - is using it's position in the marketplace, using it's existing monopoly to leverage it's weight into the new "Media Player" market. That market not only entails the software on the Windows box - and subsequently keeps other operating systems out of the game by tying their media player, drm and codecs to their WIndows operating system. It now also allows them to leverage the umbiquity into other spinoff markets such as hardware media players (dvd players, etc), and distribution of digital media (theatres, etc).

Once they use this position of dominance to weasel their way into these other emerging markets, which is an obvious "next step" which thay have already started, they do nothing other than solidify their Windows buisness. It's using one's dominant position in the market to break into other markets which is what the EU is trying to stop and I commend them for that.

The US tried to do it in regards to the internet browser and did, then the decision was struck down by a certain newly elected government at the time. I am glad that politics aren't getting in the way this time and someone is putting their foot down.

So does that make Yahoo the world's largest personal homepage?

Yahoo switches to PHP.

Apologies, browser put in an extra space:

Alternative link

Net worm uses Apache, PHP Firefox and Google to spread

Quick - somebody think of a way to blame this on Microsoft!. And whatever you do, DONT post this on Slashdot!!

http://www.tophorsepower.com.com/ Free auto classifieds, auto part classifieds, auto/racing forums, tips, tricks, tool,s info, file hosting, email, etc ALL FREE!!!

http://news.com.com/Google+Weve+fixed+desktop+sear ch+tool+flaw/2100-1002_3-5497885.html?tag=nefd.top

The problem is that the way every other company out there would is just buying competency.
Oracle vs People Soft
You can read about how bad it's this would hurt competition at Miscrosoft-CNet. and this guys at Microsoft know about they are talking.

Microsoft will earn $38 bn in 2005.

IBM received $23.2 bn in 2004.

CAN-SPAM [iirc] defines spam as [other than unsolicited] email with fake headers. If you don't misrepresent yourself in email it's not technically spam as far as CAN-SPAM is concerned.

You don't remember correctly. According to an article at News.com:

The Federal Trade Commission issued on Thursday its final regulations as to what the government will consider commercial bulk e-mail, or spam, which is subject to restrictions under the federal Can-Spam Act.

According to the FTC, bulk e-mail is commercial if it includes advertising and promotion or if the subject line or beginning of the message would be reasonably considered to be advertising or promotion.

" It has never really been about music being freely traded. These attacks on p2p is purely a way to stop minor labels from growing and up and coming musicians from doing it on their own."

I think that's too much of a generalization. I've met owners of indie labels who are anti-piracy. If a major loses 10% of their business to piracy, it's just a few layoffs or salary freezes here and there. If you run an indie label, you're paying yourself $20,000 a year, and your income drops 10% due to piracy, it might mean firing one of the six people who work for you, somebody whom you know very well. And from what I've read on the web sites of the various indie record label trade groups, their goal is to have better representation on iTunes, not Kazaa.

Either way, there are tons of outlets on the web for unsigned bands and small labels to get the their stuff out. The traffic of pirated MP3s on the P2P networks tends to mirror the sales in stores. Most people who use Kazaa are there for the latest Eminem or Usher, not some unsigned garage deathcore band from Wisconsin.

"If the cost of production approachs zero, then musicians will not need labels. As it is, the major labels are making as much money as ever before."

Slashdotters have been saying, in effect, "the big labels are history once all the bands discover that the mighty power of the Internet is all they need" for five years now. Meanwhile, companies like Magnatune (which many Slashdotters see as the right way to sell music online) are struggling, while iTunes just hit its 200 millionth download, Universal has launched a digital only label, and Apple and the record companies are having the last laugh. Slashdotters often claim that the record companies just don't get this whole Internet thing, but it seems to me that they get it just fine. Perhaps all it will take is another five years for the Internet to put the record labels out of business, but before that will happen, somebody will need to tell the record labels to stop using the Internet to their advantage.

While many bands who can't get, or don't want a recording contract have used the Internet as a promotional and distribution vehicle, finding success is much, much more than getting the cost of production to zero. The Internet and the P2P will not:

• pay for your studio time, or pay for the gear for you to build your own studio
• pay for an engineer who can make you sound good
• pay for session musicians
• pay for the cost of encoding your music and going through the hurdles of getting it onto iTMS
• send a copy of your song to every radio station in the country, and follow up with phone calls to pester them to play your track
• make the phone calls and pay the costs necessary for your tour
• pay to get you featured on the home page of Amazon.com and the download sites

Meanwhile, a record label will.

The Internet is great, but it's not the universal panacea.

In Canada, the rules allow downloading music from a p2p network without permission. Copying a borrowed CD is also permitted. Distributing copies to others is not necessarily permitted. These rules do not necessarily apply to other copyrighted works. Therefore, there might be something to be said for levies on blank media and certain devices used primarily for copying music. Of course, nothing is perfect. Consider someone downloading a song via p2p without permission and burning it onto a CD. On the other hand, consider someone purchasing a CD and making a copy on a CD-R for their convenience. The first situation justifies levies but not necessarily the second situation. It is hard to know what a buyer will use blank media for. There is also the issue of knowing who the levies should go to i.e. what songs get downloaded via p2p most often.

In the USA, downloading music via p2p without permission is not legally allowed. Even so, levies are charged on certain blank media used to record music. Unauthorized distribution of music is much more likely to involve CD-Rs than portable music players. Even so, someone might use a CD-R strictly to copy a CD they purchased. It was ruled that computer equipment and portable music players were not subject to the rules about levies. If someone purchases a CD and copies it to a portable music player, they are not likely to be hurting anyone.

You've clearly misunderstood the meaning of this said "levy". It's to compensate the industry for the losses incurred by existing piratism. It will in no way entitle you to further infringe on producers' copyright.

Of course, you could try your luck in the court but you would lose like people before you.

Or, for those too lazy to click:

Canada deems P2P downloading legal
Published: December 12, 2003, 2:20 PM PST
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

update Downloading copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks is legal in Canada, although uploading files is not, Canadian copyright regulators said in a ruling released Friday.

In the same decision, the Copyright Board of Canada imposed a government fee of as much as $25 on iPod-like MP3 players, putting the devices in the same category as audio tapes and blank CDs. The money collected from levies on "recording mediums" goes into a fund to pay musicians and songwriters for revenues lost from consumers' personal copying. Manufacturers are responsible for paying the fees and often pass the cost on to consumers.

Or maybe you just don't like the way how the truth sounds.

As usual you skew the truth to fit your ends.

"update Downloading copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks is legal in Canada, although uploading files is not, Canadian copyright regulators said in a ruling released Friday."

HP grew to the point where it was the #2 company in practically every tech category - servers, pcs, everything. Once that happened, these nutcase board members decided it'd probably be c00l PR on wall street if they were #1 for a quarter - so they merged with Compaq -- but had ZERO plans for "long term" planning (like 2-quarters out).
But long term be damned, they were going to be #1 for a quarter.

Too bad wall street saw through the bullshit, and noone cared. Then it was a disfunctional organization where HP Cupertino and HP texas each had redundant groups and neither one knew which would be releaseing a product.

One quarter later, they decide "gee, running two companies is expensive", so they flip-flop about axing all those product lines - causing custoemrs to all flee to Sun and IBM - and slipping back to #2 to Dell or IBM in all the categories within half a year.

In the mean time, this one-quarter-vision strategy requires that they abandon everything tech related ; and try to become a low-cost manufacturer like Legend or Samsung to compete with Dell -- but without the manufacturing centers in the right parts of the world to play that game. So what did HP become? A high-price reseller of Windows and re-branded whiteboxes it has other companies make for it.

No. Carly didn't lay me off - but HP and Compaq were two of my biggest customers pre-merger (and I guess they still are - just less so) - but it is sad to see how far the once great company has fallen. I can't really blame Carly, though... I think the problem goes one level higher in the management chain. Hewlett was right.

According to this article at cnet, IBM has already been making some of nvidia's chips since 2003...

And of course both nvidia and ati have been shipping boards to apple running PPC since knives and bear skins....

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+buy+comes+with+strin gs+attached/2100-7350_3-5495994.html

What next?

"Microsoft to buy Large antivirus firm."

So as it turns out, DJB actually had some sympathy for us, and decided to base our grades on how much we actually learned from the course. C|net writes that "At the end of the course, [DJB] decided to throw that scale away and think about how much the students had learned." This was also reflected in our final grades for the course. Whew.

• Font: Univers Bold Condensed
• Size/Line-height: 4.5pt/4.6
• Tracking: -23

While not directly relevant to your points, you might be interested in this:

http://news.com.com/Oracle+uses+Apple+storage+gear /2100-1015_3-5480045.html

Oracle has decided to host 50-100 TeraBytes of data on Xserve Raids.

Believe it or not, there is (or maybe was) a company planning to do this with piloted jets flying around 60,000 feet, instead of higher-altitude unmanned airships. Angel Technologies site doesn't appear to have been updated lately, but says Scaled Composites was manufacturing special planes for them. A fleet of three jets per city would fly in shifts to provide 24-hr service. Can you imagine making a profit on this while fueling and maintaining 3 jets around the clock, in addition to paying the pilots?

Who gets their news from a mickey mouse outfit like ABC anyway? If you're going to post some clueless banter about attempted credit card fraud, at least link to an article (or thread) with some relevant information about the case instead of an uninformed soundbite. You could start with one of the following:

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/AnchorDesk/4520-7297_ 16-5511088.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/11/22/michigan_w ifi_hackers_try/

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7438

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/8835

http://www.netstumbler.org/showthread.php?t=11115

Some of the more interesting quotes for those too lazy to click on the links:

"In 2000, as a juvenile, Salcedo was one of the first to be charged under Michigan's state computer crime law, for allegedly hacking a local ISP."

"It was six months later - Botbyl allegedly admitted to agents - that Botbyl and his friend Salcedo hatched a plan to use the network to steal credit card numbers from the hardware chain"

"At some point in their wardriving experience, Timmins and Botbyl came upon a Lowe's hardware store with an open wireless network. Timmins later admitted to Kevin Poulsen of Security Focus that what he did next was technically illegal: he used the Lowe's network to check his e-mail. When he realized it was Lowe's private network, however, he says, he disconnected."

"That in itself might have been the end of the story. However, Lowe's became aware of the breach and contacted the FBI, who, after its investigation, charged Timmins with one count of unauthorized computer access. And that by itself would have been a significant story: Timmins's plea has been reported as the first instance of a wardriving conviction. I think the claim is an exaggeration, however. The charge would have been the same had he used a wired connection."

"But here's where the story gets interesting. Several months later, Botbyl returned to the Southfield, Michigan, Lowe's with a new friend, Brian Salcedo, now 21. Salcedo, it turned out, was in the final weeks of a three-year probation for an earlier computer crime."

"According to the indictment, the hackers used the wireless network to route through Lowe's corporate data center in North Carolina and connect to the local networks at stores around the country. At two of the stores - in Long Beach, California and Gainseville, Florida - they modified a proprietary piece of software called "tcpcredit" that Lowe's uses to process credit card transactions, building in a virtual wiretap that would store customer's credit card numbers where the hackers could retrieve them later."

"Brian Salcedo, 21, faces an a unusually harsh 12 to 15 year prison term under federal sentencing guidelines, based largely on a stipulation that the potential losses in the scheme exceeded $2.5 million."

"As for how it was computed here's one probable way: Maximum number of cards in the system at the time they could have captured, multiplied times the maximum credit limit on each. (So say Lowe's does an average of 2500 credit cards transactions nationally in a night, and each has a $1000 Credit Limit. That is $2,500,000 right there.)"

"They were not able to access nationwide credit card files or get into corporate systems," says Lowe's spokesperson Gina Balaya. "They did access six credit card transactions from one store."

"My initial reaction when I heard the charges was one of skepticism," says Karl Mozurkewich, founder of the Michigan software company Utropicmedia, and a member of the group. "Eighty percent of the people in the 2600 group in Michigan are more the c

What the fuck? How is this a Troll? I found it quite Interesting. Some guy is going to be getting massive hits because he took advantage of this with his Google ad. His web page even says,

Google's Pet Geico

A judge has rejected Geico's trademark suit against Google.

That's good news for Google. Important news for the future of ad words. And it's turning out to mean a lot of traffic for me.

This could be my most expensive joke ever.

Hm, you're right. What I said about Overture's editorial policy vs. Google's is still true, though...came straight from Search Engine Strategies (conference that covers search engines, advertising, etc.).

"These people are parasites, leeching off the creative activity of others," said John Malcolm, the MPAA's director of worldwide antipiracy operations.

... about Real reverse engineering FairPlay (more power to them)

I feel compelled to correct that: as was probably pointed out in the previous Slashdot coverage, it wasn't Real who do did the difficult reverse-engineering, it was "dvd Jon" Lech Johansen (for the open-source media player VLC -- I assume so that he could listen to iTunes-purchased music on his Linux PC, kinda like DeCSS). From a post his blog:

Q: Has the Harmony project met your expectations?
A: No, it has blown them away. We took the decision at the beginning of the year to implement Harmony. It really went back to some things we were working on before, where we've had good experience with creating technology with interoperability in the past.

scares the living HELL out of me!

picture o' doom

He looks all tweaked out OR has a computer chip installed in his brain!

Vendors shipped 165 million cell phones worldwide in the third quarter of 2004. In-start/MDR predicts 653 million units to be shipped this year. So, even by 2004 numbers, Zigbee will be in less than 1% of new cell phones shipped next year if they hit their target. Bluetooth, on the other hand, ships two million units per week in various devices. Perhaps it "will be big", but you need far stronger numbers to back up your prediction.

Heile says it'll be "on target for 5 million units"? Your own article reports that he also said "analysts are predicting between 5 million and 50 million Zigbee devices in the first year", which means Zigbee might make the low end of predictions.

Also, $5 per unit is a huge cost for cell phone vendors. Nokia, for instance, would have to pay over $1 billion a year (~200 million units, excluding engineering costs) to support this in all their phones. To put that number in perspective, that's about a good quarter's worth of net profit for Nokia.

In other words, like any new technology, it will become much cheaper with wide adoption, but it will not be widely adopted unless it's cheap. Its future may be interesting, but is by no means assured. I simply don't see the evidence for your optimism.

Back in Augest, I believe, RealNetworks created a software program called "Harmony" which let users put music from RealNetworks' online music store on their Apple iPod. Well an article over at News.com says that a recent update to the iPods firmware released by Apple brakes compatibiltiy of the Harmony software. Here's the kicker: Apple did not mention anything about Harmony in the release notes for the firmware, imagine all the people who used their iPods' with RealNetworks' online music store and now it just stopped working?

Yep. Life is fair.

Apple outsourced most of the hardware and firmware design, (aside from the iTunes components) and they don't even manufacture them.
see here
and here.

It wasn't even Apple's idea to unify the player and the store.
As time progresses, Apple will become more of a software company and a brand. That may not be a bad thing, but credit where credit is due: Apple knows how to _identify_ a good product.

Apparently you haven't seen their latest vaio products yet.

http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5209917.html?tag=c d.hed

I recently had the chance to try one out...I'm sold. The vaio pocket:

1) Supports most major media formats
2) Touch pad (navigation) feels great.
3) Great sounding bass
4) 20 hour battery life
5) Remote control on the headphones
6) Nice screen
7) Aluminum casing

The NW-HD3 really does look like a joke, but the vaio pocket is just plain cool.

Also, IBM is awesome.

<sarcasm>
Yes, who wouldn't love a company that was actively helping the Nazi's in WWII?
</sarcasm>

Is avaible from http://www.theregister.com/2004/12/13/ibm_strained _silicon/ and http://news.com.com/IBM%2C+AMD+claim+a+better+way+ to+strain+silicon/2100-1006_3-5487544.html?part=rs s&tag=5487544&subj=news.1006.5

Cisco bought them for pennies on the dollar. I heard from insiders that they immediately sent people into the office and plant and put all of the hardware into crushers. Every box.

That's one way of dealing with competition.

CNET

The cnet article mentions the seven year IE deal, but it doesn't make it clear that AOL is being forced to use that as its only browser (although it IS pretty late and maybe I'm just too braindead to glean the information). Anybody else have a better link or just a better interpretation of my link? All I came up with was this and a cnn article (which was much less informative than cnet's).

• "I found the tapes frustrating at times," Terri Uttermohlen said. "The sound quality isn't consistent. And I also found myself getting all excited at the end of side four but forgetting where I set down the box containing side five."
• From the article.

Is Ridge Racer like Gran Turismo? Because Ridge Racer DS has been announced.

No, not at all. This is Ridge Racer DS. *This* is Gran Turismo.

Notice the enormous difference in image quality? The point is, the PSP may have lower battery life when playing graphically complex games, but the DS can't play such games anyway, so it's not a fair comparison. The games on the PSP that have the same level of quality as DS games won't tax the hardware as much, and should result in much better battery life.

While the PSP game roster is sure to grow--with dozens of titles in the works by Sony and third-party publishers--promised music and video support is less clear. As of yet, no music or movie studios, including the major ones owned by Sony, have announced plans to release content on the new Universal Media Disc (UMD) optical media format the PSP will use.

IBM's not too worried about staying in the black.

Funny, I had an argument with a friend last night about whether IBM was "in trouble" or not. I find it very strange that a company could post $89.1 Billion in revenue for 2003, and people would think the sky was falling. Compare that with MSFT's $32 Billion.

I live in the home of the free...

This was decided a long time ago in Canada.

To summarize (and over-simplify) It's no different then a Library having a photocopier in a room full of copyrighted books. What people use it for is up to them.

Google appears to have pulled an MSN Spaces--they appear to have excised a number of 'questionable' terms from the suggestion list. There's little reason behind their approach. For example, the app won't suggest 'lesbian' or 'homosexual', but it will suggest 'dyke' or 'lesbian'. Anything related to 'anal' or 'oral' is out, but 'wanker' and 'golden shower' are in. 'Asshole' is out, but 'assholic' and 'asstastic' are in.

I've created a decent-sized list of what Google approves and disapproves.

Obviously, you can search for any term--Google just won't predict the first list for you. In a typically American approach to censorship, there are not restrictions on racist or violent terminology. 'KKK', 'snuff', 'torture' and 'bum fights' are all in (as they should be). But we can't be predicting terms like 'oral exam' or 'sex education', can we?

I checked the Advanced settings for Google Suggest, and my SafeSearch was turned off (set to 'no filtering'). Either it's a bug, and Google Suggest isn't reading this setting, or Google Suggest won't suggest these terms, regardless of setting.