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So what then can be done. . ?

Government waste is the price we pay for the common good.

Look, I agree that they waste much of our money, that they spend it on pet projects and line their own pockets, and that they are often unconcerned with our wishes. All that said, no one has figured out a better way to get roads and cops and a military and all the various infrastructure and services that are needed. Most often, when I hear someone complain about taxes it's just thinly veiled selfishness ("I don't wanna give away my money, so I'll complain that it's for the best that none of us do").

I appreciate the desire to keep your hard earned cash. Hell, my Inner Ferengi is constantly whining about the outflow of latinum as well, BUT my inner Altruist gently reminds me that the goods and services that the government provides---with the piece of the tax pie that isn't wasted---are invaluable to people. The government does a pretty good job (jokes about the current administration aside) of protecting the little guy in most cases. It makes sure my roads are in working condition, makes sure someone answers when I call 911, makes sure my kid is educated in a variety of subjects from geometry to literature to chemistry to drama to history---only some of which I could do without their help.

"Use Taxes" don't work because they don't shield minority needs from the callousness of the majority. "No Taxes" don't work becuase their simply are too many progrmas that MUST be funded for our country to operate efficiently. I'd love to keep all my cash as well. Offer me an alternative that doesn't run the country's infrastructure and services into nonexistence and I'll listen.

Til then, all we can do is vote people into office that we trust to do the right thing with our cash. If that proves impossible, then perhaps the problem isn't with the tax collector but with the vote collector. Think about it.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Maurene O'Gara is evil. She lies constantly. I've never seen anyone who is as sick and twisted as she is. I despise her.

I have nothing to add. I just laughed at this paragraph so much, I wanted to see it on the screen twice. Hatred this pure should be rewarded with repetition. :)

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

There are a lot of complaints about Vonage in the comments right now, and I am sure that most complainers are being serious and truthful in their own experience with Vonage, but...

What about the hordes of people with o real problems? I've had Vonage for a while now, I know several others who've had it for differing lengths of time. Each of those experiences has been overwhelmingly positive.

1) The service is cheaper.

2) The service "just works" in my experience and the experience of everyone I personally know. Plug it in and if you have a broadband connection, you get a dial tone. No complicated set up[1].

3) The voice quality is good enough. Is it as good as Verizon's dedicated POTS line? Nope. Is it good enough for talking? Yes, and more. For less than half the price, I get about 90% of the service quality. That is a good deal by most estimations.

4) As a company, I've had no troubles with Vonage at all. Not one.

Now, this is not to refute the complaints posted here so much as to counterbalance them. Too often, we only comment when we have a complaint. The complaints you read are probably legit, but so is my good experience. Your experience will vary, but for the chance to cut your phone bill in half, it behooves you to try it out.

I'd venture to guess that the bulk of their customers are pleased with the service, so roll the dice. your chances are good that you'll be in the majority, but yes it is possible that you aren't and you have some of the problems listed here.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

[1] Set up is easy as pie if you have a hub and just want to plug one phone into it. If, however, you want to "take over" your home phone wiring so you can plug a phone into any jack in the house and get a dial tone, there is more work. I did it in about half an hour, but it's more than just "plug into router and plug into phone". It was easy, but not /that/ easy.

there really isn't a real "Right to Privacy" in the Constitution.

Well, actually, in 1965 the Constitutional basis for a right to privacy was recognized explicitly by the Supreme Court. It began with the case of Griswold v. Connecticut (381 U.S. 479). In short, they explained that the Constitution has what are called "penumbral rights"---rights that are inferrable by virtue of being necessary precursors to the rights more explicitly spelled out.

From Griswold v. Connecticut:
"The Fourth and Fifth Amendments were described in Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 630, as protection against all governmental invasions 'of the sanctity of a man's home and the privacies of life.' We recently referred in Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 656, to the Fourth Amendment as creating a 'right to privacy, no less important than any other right carefully and particularly reserved to the people.' See Beaney, The Constitutional Right to Privacy, 1962 Sup. Ct. Rev. 212; Griswold, The Right to be Let Alone, 55 Nw. U. L. Rev. 216 (1960) ... The present case, then, concerns a relationship lying within the zone of privacy created by several fundamental constitutional guarantees."

The explicit rights that grant a right to privacy as a precursor are the 4th, 5th, and the 9th, though the Justices said (and have upheld numerous times since, fyi) that the right to privacy may be inferred from other amendments as well, it's just that the 4th, 5th, and the 9th are particularly obvious in their inference.

So, yes, since 1965, U.S. Law has upheld EXPLICITLY that we have a Contitutional right to privacy.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

TiVo is still a company that matters becuase they innovated. They were (one of?) the first companies to really get timeshifting right. They made it work well and made it cheap enough that people could afford it. They did this when there were no real competitors out there. Yes, I know ReplayTV was there, but at first Replay had some real problems that made TiVo look good by comparison...those problems were short-lived, but they gave TiVo the head start it needed to be the marketshare winner.

What TiVo needs to do is innovate some more. Bring us something that consumers want but can't get elswhere. Do something like Kaleidescape (but WAY cheaper!), add good TV time/place shifting, stream videos from Netflix, just BE the the entertainment hub in every way possible. Hell, partner with Nintendo to get some Wii hardware under the hood and integrated. Do...something! Because just adding more drive space and HDTV is not going to keep the lead.

Start with decoupling the server from the client. They've started that with the sharing idea, but go all the way. There is NO reason that I should need a recorder in every room. I only need one recorder (as long as it has multiple tuners), but I need many players. And if the players are cheaper and smaller, then you have a new product to market.

Most of this isn't hard. MythTV does much of it already, but Myth just doesn't yet do all this in a consumer friendly off-the-shelf hardware package. TiVo can bring this to reality. They have the street cred with retailers to get a revolutionary new device on Best Buy's shelves.

Hell, just partner with MythTV and offer GOOD prepackaged Myth boxes for all I care, but do something besides offering my yet larger HDDs in lieu of real innovation. 60 hours of TV is plenty. Give me a reason to sit down and watch it.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Still ridiculous, of coarse, after all anyone with a computer or a cassette deck can accomplish the same thing.

And you pay a royalty to the RIAA for every blank tape sold in the US.

And you pay a royalty to the RIAA for every blank CD for your computer that claims to be a "Music" CD Blank.

Not so ridiculous now, huh? The RIAA has always wanted to collect a royalty on all things that can copy, in any way whatsoever, their "product". They are evil and greedy. There is one way to stop them. Stop listening (note I did not say BUYING, I said LISTENING) to their music. There's other---better--music out there.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

General Public License

Seriously, there's a reason it's so popular. It ensures that noone can hijack the project and the source code will be legitimately free. You will make the most people happy with your decision if you go that route. Anything else will be seen as hedging your bets.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

When are they gonna announce a technology-sharing partnership with Real Doll. That's when I'll really take notice!

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

1) The Tivo will download "recommendations" (which I have yet to ever use). Advantage: Tivo (I guess)

And offers more recording options in general. Advatage: Very much TiVo.

2) The DVR has a way better guide that has a nice preview screen (Advantage: DVR)

OK. Valid point. Advatage DVR.

3) The DVR has two-channel capability (watch one show while the other records). Advantage: DVR

TiVo has tons of multi-tuner models already in use for DirectTV, for instance. Advantage No one.

4) The Tivo has to use the serial input, which makes channel changing slow, versus the DVR which is integrated with the cable box. Advantage: DVR

They don't make OEM deals to send you an off-the-shelf TiVo unit. TiVo helps them integrate their software into a new box that does it all. See Satellite units for examples of this. Advantage: No one.

5) The DVR can do HDTV. Advantage: DVR (those I suppose these new Tivos might do it)

Not just newer ones. Satellite TiVo's have been doing HDTV for a while. Advantage: No one.

6) The user interface on the Tivo is way simpler. Advantage: Tivo.

Agreed.

So on the whole, you gain two things frmo your list (ease-of-use and better recording options) and lose one (you like the channel guide better). Given how much more TiVo brings to the table, I'd say the winner is TiVo.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Law enforcement can already tap land lines, and that is a priviledge they should have. Despite claims to the contrary, tapping lines (after the appropriate warrant has been secured) is a valuable law enforcement tool. All the FCC is saying is that VOIP lines are not somehow exempt from the same actions.

Keep the fight where it belongs: Warrantless tapping. The issue is law enforcement tapping lines without judicual oversight, not extending their tapping powers to VOIP.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Do you think this will have an effect on the OEM parts market?

Was this question for real? Everything WalMart does affects the the markets it touches.

WalMart selling a product in your industry is like Microsoft deciding to bundle the functionality of your software in their OS. It may be good (they buy your company and you retire to Tahiti, the land of booze and titties) or it may be bad (they take what they want and let you spend your grandma's pension fund fighting them in court for 2069 and a half years) but either way dude, YES, YOUR MARKET WAS AFFECTED!

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

...in all your life's failures is you.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

They all fail at what they are supposed to do, first and foremost. ... The continual lack of support ... makes designing pages ... a frickin' pain in the arse. ... All I want ... is a browser that follows the standards

Then write one.

Seriously, you got the Firefox code. Go in and write the browser you want. If you are right that the silent public is clamoring for your vision of a simple---but completely standards-compliant---browser, then I'm sure your project will take off like crazycakes. I wish you all the luck.

But in the interim, quit bitching about the work people are volunteering to do for free just becuase they love what they do. Offer constructive criticism, offer praise, offer help, but bitching in at least two forums (according to you) about how they have failed and are a pain in the ass to use isn't constructive or helpful. It's just annoying and whiny.

There's an old adage about beggars and choosers you should look into.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/linux.html

P.S. Equally annoying: Seeing a message like this modded up on /. I guess the balance of moderator power on /. has shifted from those that understand the volunteer-nature of Free software to those that don't. Therefore, I suppose I'll be dropping some karma over this post.

...I wonder if they'll get an orchestra to play the theme to the Empirial March or just pop the sound track in the nearest car stereo?

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/politics.html

P.S. Attended a military funeral a couple of years ago. They played taps on a tape player. This device is a step UP not down from that experience. :-\

Maybe we should just let congress tag our ears like roaming herd and get this whole thing over with. I mean, that's where they wanna go with this anyway, right?

As long as they let us choose our own colors for the tags, I think we'd agree as a society to go along with it.

"Oh you chose red? You know the the fashion conscious monitoring target nowadays goes for more of an earth tone, maybe forest green or tope."

Yeah, that would work. :-\

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/politics.html

Seriously? This article has been tagged "Evil"?

OK, is it because it's Microsoft? I have a deep loathing of all things MS just like any other self respecting slashdotter, but evil is a bit strong.

Or is it becuase of the mention of China? If so, then that's a bit hypocritical. Should I start talking about all the messed up stuff our own government has done? China may be worse---I'm not denying that---but to call them evil and completely ignore all we've done over here that is nearly as bad is either seriously short sighted or betrays a real lack of perspective.

Spend less time judging the others and worry about fixing things in your own home.

And that advice goes for we Americans just as well as it goes for we Linux folk.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Disclaimer: I am an American, but I have no small connection to China.

Seriously? This article has been tagged "Evil"?

OK, is it because it's Microsoft? I have a deep loathing of all things MS just like any other self respecting slashdotter, but evil is a bit strong.

Or is it becuase of the mention of China? If so, then that's a bit hypocritical. Should I start talking about all the messed up stuff our own government has done? China may be worse---I'm not denying that---but to call them evil and completely ignore all we've done over here that is nearly as bad is either seriously short sighted or betrays a real lack of perspective.

Spend less time judging the others and worry about fixing things in your own home.

And that advice goes for we Americans just as well as it goes for we Linux folk.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Disclaimer: I am an American, but I have no small connection to China.

Seriously? This article has been tagged "Evil"?

OK, is it because it's Microsoft? I have a deep loathing of all things MS just like any other self respecting slashdotter, but evil is a bit strong.

Or is it becuase of the mention of China? If so, then that's a bit hypocritical. Should I start talking about all the messed up stuff our own government has done? China may be worse---I'm not denying that---but to call them evil and completely ignore all we've done over here that is nearly as bad is either seriously short sighted or betrays a real lack of perspective.

Spend less time judging the others and worry about fixing things in your own home.

And that advice goes for we Americans just as well as it goes for we Linux folk.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Disclaimer: I am an American, but I have no small connection to China.

Seriously? This article has been tagged "Evil"?

OK, is it because it's Microsoft? I have a deep loathing of all things MS just like any other self respecting slashdotter, but evil is a bit strong.

Or is it becuase of the mention of China? If so, then that's a bit hypocritical. Should I start talking about all the messed up stuff our own government has done? China may be worse---I'm not denying that---but to call them evil and completely ignore all we've done over here that is nearly as bad is either seriously short sighted or betrays a real lack of perspective.

Spend less time judging the others and worry about fixing things in your own home.

And that advice goes for we Americans just as well as it goes for we Linux folk.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Disclaimer: I am an American, but I have no small connection to China.

Seriously? This article has been tagged "Evil"?

OK, is it because it's Microsoft? I have a deep loathing of all things MS just like any other self respecting slashdotter, but evil is a bit strong.

Or is it becuase of the mention of China? If so, then that's a bit hypocritical. Should I start talking about all the messed up stuff our own government has done? China may be worse---I'm not denying that---but to call them evil and completely ignore all we've done over here that is nearly as bad is either seriously short sighted or betrays a real lack of perspective.

Spend less time judging the others and worry about fixing things in your own home.

And that advice goes for we Americans just as well as it goes for we Linux folk.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Disclaimer: I am an American, but I have no small connection to China.

Tortured acronyms designed to appear clever...TADTAC for short.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

It's not like we have no precedent for expanding our R&D with immigrant scientists. Some of "our" greats were immigrants of other countries.

The real question is not "How will we compete?" but rather "Are we willing to court immigrants as we used to to compete?"

Don't answer quick, becuase it's not an easy question to answer. There are serious ramifications.

Not to mention that I've said before that the media is overstating (greatly!) the direness of our science and technology situation in the U.S.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

It's not like we have no precedent for expanding our R&D with immigrant scientists. Some of "our" greats were immigrants of other countries.

The real question is not "How will we compete?" but rather "Are we willing to court immigrants as we used to to compete?"

Don't answer quick, becuase it's not an easy question to answer. There are serious ramifications.

Not to mention that I've said before that the media is overstating (greatly!) the direness of our science and technology situation in the U.S.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

They put Peptide in quotes like they didn't trust it.

"Yes sir. We are still looking into the claims of this so-called 'peptide' molecule."

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Wow! I didn't know that bolding your text could get you modded up even when what you say is completely obvious to the audience you are addressing.

( ;) It's a joke. Laugh now. )

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Reading some of the /. comments on this story, I have to say that it's always interesting to see religious men trying too hard to associate Man with the divine as though we stand above and seperate from the natural world, but equally it's interesting to watch atheists try to find mankind wholly within nature as well. For as much as we want to call Man an animal (subject to an animal's exigencies and vicissitudes) we must admit that he is a curious sort of animal able to escape those forms of nature and create new configurations of need and choice.

I don't really have a point. I just find the whole matter of human will and spirit interesting.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

...is what happens with al the people who actually need static content to particpate in this supposedly improved New Web Order.

Think about it from the perspective of a blind man. His screen reader presents the content to him. He makes a choice or otherwise interacts with it. AJAX jumps in and dynamically changes a bit in the middle of the page. Now...how does he know it was changed? Answer? He doesn't. He's excluded by default from this whole "Web 2.0" thing.

I'm not interested in bringing everyone's experience down to the lowest common denominator, but it's getting kinda bad for people who need 508 compliance just to be a part of this great new medium.

If it were some remote corner of the web, I'd keep my mouth shut, but as more sites move to AJAX content, they cease being 508 compliant. And this is a very recent phenomena. Until AJAX (for the most part), the web was essentially static. Changes to a page initiated a postback event and the screen reader was thus informed that a change had occured. Not so anymore.

This was sort brought to my attention recently as I am redoing a .com (they want it all ASP.NET 2.0-ified) for a fairly large corp and 508 compliance is a pretty big deal...and truthfully it should be. We talk about wheelchair ramps and other physical accomodations, and even computer accessibility, but AJAX is circumventing our current accessibility model.

We need to either drastically improve the screen reader technology or make ourselves more aware of the poeple we exclude with these "advances".

Disclaimer: Yes, I know that "Web 2.0" is not directly about AJAX but rather about collaboration, but AJAX is the preferred technology used to implement said collaboration.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

OK, maybe not first, but it would be funny if my prediction about Linux Desktop market share this year came true. Man, I would so have to lord it over my friends! ;-)

I could happen. My second prediction has already come true (but that kinda sucks, really).

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/linux.html

OK, maybe not first, but it would be funny if my prediction about Linux Desktop market share this year came true. Man, I would so have to lord it over my friends! ;-)

I could happen. My second prediction has already come true (but that kinda sucks, really).

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/linux.html

...of /. right now.

Reading all the messages about how stupid the population is for not being interesting in intellectual pursuits, I'm downright disheartened.

Remember that 50% of the population is of below average intelligence. Of those 50%, the bulk of them cannot follow a serious intellectual discussion---AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.

Different people. Different gifts. Why must you assume that your gifts (being in the upper 50% intellectually) are somehow superior to theirs? It's no different than the jocks who picked on you for not being athletic or the cool kids who picked on you for being less attractive. Why would you continue that cycle?

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Are they going in alphabetical order? [...] they had Hoary Hedgehog, but then they went Breezy Badger, Dapper Drake, and Edgy Eft

I'm no alphabetologist, but I'd say you answered your own question. ;-)

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/linux.html

You make some interesting comments, some which I agree with, some which I don't, and some which you obviously didn't do your homework on.

Not every state works as GA and TN. In VA, the laws are not so harsh. I can give specific examples as needed.

And personally, if you are going to attack the teenage drivers, please include the other group that causes accidents: elderly people.

I agree totally.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Oh.. and drunk driving penalties are already severe enough thank you (a year incarceration, license suspension, insurance rates higher than your mortgage for many years, etc etc).

This differs by state, so experiences will vary, but I know 4 people personally who have been busted for drunk driving. Not one of them spent a day in jail...not a day. One of them spent a few hours in jail, but that was becuase he cussed out the cops and they "slowed" his paperwork.

Each of them, friends though they may be, deserved jailtime and a FAR heftier fine than any of them got.

FYI, one of them got busted for it twice. Still no jailtime. Granted, all of them had license issues, but not major ones.

Truth is, I don't know many people who would fear a drunk driving 1st offense, and I don't blame them. The laws in states like mine (VA) are too lax. The most recent, by the way, was 2 months ago and his court date was 2 weeks ago, in case you thought the laws may have changed. :(

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Hate to burst your bubble, but several states already do this or are considering it.

That is just what I want to see! Doesn't burst any of my bubbles.

The real opposition is the suburban parents who don't want to drive their kids everywhere

Bad parenting is a likely cause of MANY of our social ills. I'm not shocked that they are here as well.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Based solely on this statistic, I can equally argue that inexperience is the cause of these accidents, and consequently your plan is going to do absolutely nothing.

Well, this was a /. rtant not a plan, though I appreciate the confidence. ;-)

Actually, though, I advocate an extended learning period as I described in my original post. Give them more time on a restricted license to learn the rules and skills needed to be better drivers, but don't give a 17 yr old the freedom to take a care out alone after getting drunk behind the gym after a dance. Kids make stupid decisions (put differently, there is a provable /causal/ relationship between youth and poor impulse control). Don't let them make them behind a wheel.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

...all the other reasons these careless drivers cause road problems. Seriously, Cell phones are a good start, but how about addressing the hypocrisy of SUVs. A vehicle with a Gross Weight of over 3 tons gets special tax incentive for work use, so they all get claimed, but vehicles over 3 tons also get regularly banned from certain roads for being over weight limit, which these same owners pretend doesn't apply to them. Not to mention that they should require a trucker license to pilot such a beast, which they would need if the federal regulations weren't rewritten specifically to get these things into the hands of Soccor Moms everywhere.

But that's not politically safe to talk about.

How about minimum driving ages being changed? It shouldn' surprise anyone that kids under the age of 18 account for a HUGELY disporportionate piece of the accident pie. How about something like a learners permit (requiring a licensed driver in the car until 17 instead of 16. How about a restricted license (to work and back, etc...) until 18. Give these kids a chance to learn how to drive before we shove them off on their own. Seriously, now we give them a permit at 15.5 yrs and by 16 we shove em out of the driving nest to fly on their own. Them we get outraged at the damage they cause.

But that's not politically safe to talk about either.

How about some real draconian legislation to end drunk driving. If you are drinking and driving in this day and age, you, sir, are a fucktard. Seriously, have NEVER seen an afterschool special? Is your head planted so firmly in your own buttocks that you failed to hear the upteen warning shouted from every media outlet we can bring to bear on the topic? Of course not. That's why if you drink and drive, giving you any "1st offense" effect is a waste. You knew. You did it anyway. Manditory jailtime. Manditory removal of license...not restricted license, REMOVED license. It's a priviledge and you just lost it. STFU and pick up a bus schedule on the way home from the jail when you get out.

But that also is not politically safe to talk about.

How about serious legislation to curb car use in general. Something to give commuters and travellers a real alternative. People will bitch, though, because God forbid (no, literally God forbid---I mean car use is a right spelled out in the King James Bible, right?) anyone points out just how many lives are lost every year because the bar is so low on who we are willing to let careen through our neighborhoods behind the joystick of a 2+ ton screaming fast hunk of metal.

But that's DEFINATELY not politically safe to talk about.

Americans need to end their love affair with their cars.

But I guess cell phones are a good start. :-\

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Slashdot linking to porn on the front page without a warning. Nice going.

From the /. blurb:

With the exception of the last domain name, which is currently used for erotic video chat,

It sounded like a warning to me. Perhaps they should use the blink tag next time? ;-)

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/linux.html

I know there will be the inevitable "DRM is teh suX0rs" and "Sun is teh eVi1 for making it", but the Sun model is different enough to warrant a second look:

http://www.sun.com/2005-1025/feature/

I'm NOT a fan of DRM---including Sun's---but as DRM goes, Sun's is less honerous than most. Read the details before commenting, as they may surprise you. They address some of the more common complaints about DRM. Again, I'm still against it, but there's somethig to be said about being against it for the right reasons.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/technology.html

It looks like Zotob made it in to the supposedly protected network.

I'm supposed to be surprised that the department that is there to "protect" us from attack fell to an easily preventable virus?

Not when that same agency appoints Gator (now Claria) executive, D. Reed Freeman, to their Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee or when that very same agency hired its own Chief Privacy Officer from Doubleclick.

No, I couldn't muster less shock at the irony if my nutsack depended on it.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/politics.html

It looks like Zotob made it in to the supposedly protected network.

I'm supposed to be surprised that the department that is there to "protect" us from attack fell to an easily preventable virus?

Not when that same agency appoints Gator (now Claria) executive, D. Reed Freeman, to their Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee or when that very same agency hired its own Chief Privacy Officer from Doubleclick.

No, I couldn't muster less shock at the irony if my nutsack depended on it.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/politics.html

If you come here and found my multibillion dollar company that skyrockets me into uber fame on your coattails, I promise you...75W adapters...all you could ever want!

Think about it. It's a good offer.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/gnome.html

P.S. Act now, and I'll even wear those gay turtleneck sweater thingies you seem to like your partners to wear. I'm bending over backwards here, dude!

We use Open standards very much in our everyday life dont we? HTML, TCP/IP, GSM, PCI , XMPP ( jabber, google talk ).. etc. etc.

Not as much as we should:

MS Office (DOC, XLS, PPT, MDB), MS Outlook (PST), File Systems and Sharing(FAT, SMB), Non-ANSI SQL (T-SQL, PL-SQL), etc....

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/patents.html

Good point, I posted too quickly. :) All I really meant by that was that using the same basic techniques demonstrated there, you can move it to an F/OSS like PostgreSQL or MySQL.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/programming.html

I'm still awaiting an Access port

You wanna read MS Access files in linux? Done: http://mdbtools.sourceforge.net/

You wanna port that data to an F/OSS db? Done: http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/gagn e_access.html

You want an MS Access equivolent for linux? Done: http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/04/20/18 23249.shtml?tid=150&tid=72&tid=82

Yeah, it was a joke, I know, but beleive it or not, there are those for whom MS Access is a working requirement who might be interested in these links.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/programming.html

It locked up so that I had to reboot and then went into a kernel panic.

I'll accept at face value that you may have legitimately tried it and found it lacking, but it's worth noting that you say you were new to Linux, probably a bit pissed that it didn't work as expected, and that impression has carried with you, whether it is justified or not.

I had no trouble with apt on Linspire. I know others who had no trouble as well. More to your point, here's the ExtremeTech review of Linspire where they cracked it open and installed Gimp using apt right away, no muss-no fuss:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1151523 ,00.asp

I'm willing to admit I may have been wrong about your previous post. Sounds like you did try it. I jumped the gun on that. Sorry. But rememeber that at the time you were new to linux and probably glossed over bits you shouldn't have glossed over or something like that. It's a great case-in-point for just what we are talking about. If you wanted to use Linux without all that trouble, Linspire offers a for-pay alternative. Note that Click-n-Run isn't based on apt anymore (I believe it was way back) so they could quite easily and legally remove those utilites. They didn't. That tells me they aren't trying to lock you into their service plan, but rather trusting that you might just like it if you try it. I still don't see that as shady.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/linux.html

Linspire's business plan has alwasy been based on charging users for installing sofware, something that is free everywhere else in the Linux world.

Linspire charges to make it easy for people who don't know linux to install software. In the business world this is called "Value Adding". They sell ease-of-use and they've never hidden that. They do not prevent you from eskewing their Click-n-Run server for apt-get, which works perfectly fine by all accounts.

In short, either you've never really used Linspire (because then you'd know that apt-get works just fine) or you have used it and have an unstated purpose behind your comment that drives you to misinform the reader. Either way, the comment you made is disingenious (a nicer word for "sleazy").

I sound harsh, but honestly, I'm tired of ill-informed, gut reactions polluting the commentary. It just gets old. Whatever happened to good old fashioned "knowing what the hell you're talking about or shutting the hell up"? I miss that.

I personally prefer Ubuntu over Linspire, but that reflects my preference for Gnome and for community-based distros, not my dislike for Linspire or anything they do. Linspire's target audience is not me, becuase I'm too damn cheap to pay for a monthly/yearly service (I don't even have cable!), which again says nothing about Linspire but plenty about me.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/linux.html

Roses are
Red.
Telephones
Are plastic.
Disco is
dead.
But this poem is
Fantastic!

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/poetry.html

ID was created to destroy the "heretical" teaching of evolution

It's worth pointing out that Intelligent Design as a term has been used in a variety of ways by a variety of people and only a subset of them use it in the way you describe. It's a common misunderstanding that ID was designed to combat Evolution, but the truth is that it was really designed to draw a clear line between the beliefs of the Judeo-Islamic-Christian groups and those of many other faiths and to a lesser extent atheists. Whiule we bleieve that the universe is the byproduct of an Intelligence or directed Will, many other faiths see it as something more impersonal. This, as the original poster said, is not fundamentally in disagreement with Evolution.

However, just as with the Dixie flag, the German cross, and the phrase "Who ya gonna call?" it has been ruined by prominent subsequent use such that it can no longer serve its original purpose.

As a degreed theologian, that pisses me the hell off because it used to be quite an elegant answer to the question of the one of the larger differences in faith; now it is useless to me.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/religion.html

...I'm still on the wrong side of that evolutionary transition, you insensitive clod!

/me flops back into the deep sea out of shame for posting this joke

-Tom Caudron
  http://tom.digitalelite.com/science.html

People prefer working in a comfortable environment. Working with things you know well is confortable. Learning a complex collab product that tries to encapsulate workflow and propriatary business logic is not and---dare I say it---cannot be made easy to learn or use. Email is as easy as writing a letter, something we've been doing since shortly after the first human crawled out ot the womb of some random, doomed neanderthal.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/