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• We have 1000s of nukes, but you can't develop them
• Global War on Terror - except you've forgotten the Taliban, Contra, IRA, et al
• OMG the planet's going to be under water - but we reserve the right to buy the biggest most energy inefficient TVs and cars money can buy
• People should not be oppressed by the govt. - but the DHS, TSA, CIA, NSA, FBI can monitor, arrest and hold without charge, censor, and "disappear" at will.
• Torture is illegal - except when it suits us.
• Aggressive acts by foreign powers are not to be tolerated - but we can get involved in Vietnam, Korea, Africa, Iraq
• You should have the right to use a piece of equipment you own in any way you choose - DMCA
• You stand for Free Trade and capitalism - except when it doesn't suit you, and conflicts with your business ideals
• ETC.

This photo sums up my opinion of Americas influence in the world. That's right, you're a bunch of overbearing clowns. You're so xenophobic that the only way you can deal with a different culture is to mold it into a slightly poorer version of your own, so that you can pretend you're better off than them. Where of course "better off" is a purely financial metric. As a culture you are best defined by the words greed, image and ignorance.

When you have the perfect society, please feel free to comment again.

Excuses, excuses. At the moment the US has poor rural broadband development. But the cities have no excuse whatsoever. There is no reason why the developed areas can't be brought up to a decent speed and then do the rural areas later.
Here's a scale map of Japan and the East coast of the USA. If Japan can get 100Mbps connectivity over most of that largely mountainous terrain, what's the excuse for New York, or Washington DC ? Procrastination, that's what.

Well let me say that I applaud this act, and hope that they get Leela to follow suit. I may be an old prevert but Marge has a nice set of tits. The subtle hints of nipple and suggestive leaning over always do it for me. After all, the story is always more colourful in the minds eye. Here's my favourite Leela clip. COITUS INTERRUPTUS !

I think you need to stop loving it quite so much. Freeview varies in quality depending on the channel, but it's transmitted at 720x576 or less, and with 2-3Mbit average bandwidth.

Oh really ?

• bbc 1 - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• bbc 2 - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• itv 1 - 15 Mbps 764x576
• itv 2 - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• itv 3 - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• itv 4 - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• Ch 4 - 10 Mbps 1024x576
• more 4 - 10 Mbps 1024x576
• film 4 - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• E4 - 10 Mbps 1024x576
• Five - 15 Mbps 764x576
• FiveUSA - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• Fiver - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• Sky 3 - 9 Mbps 1024x576
• Dave - 9 Mbps 1024x576
• Yesterday - 15 Mbps 764x576
• Virgin 1 - 15 Mbps 764x576

The only reason some of those are lower resolution is because the program they are showing is lower resolution. 50s cowboy movies, Trek, and old episodes of soaps. I misremembered the vertical resolution in my previous post but the horizontal is right. By my calculations the average bitrate is 13.4 Mbps.

I think you need to stop loving it quite so much. Freeview varies in quality depending on the channel, but it's transmitted at 720x576 or less, and with 2-3Mbit average bandwidth.

Oh really ?

• bbc 1 - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• bbc 2 - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• itv 1 - 15 Mbps 764x576
• itv 2 - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• itv 3 - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• itv 4 - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• Ch 4 - 10 Mbps 1024x576
• more 4 - 10 Mbps 1024x576
• film 4 - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• E4 - 10 Mbps 1024x576
• Five - 15 Mbps 764x576
• FiveUSA - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• Fiver - 15 Mbps 1024x576
• Sky 3 - 9 Mbps 1024x576
• Dave - 9 Mbps 1024x576
• Yesterday - 15 Mbps 764x576
• Virgin 1 - 15 Mbps 764x576

The only reason some of those are lower resolution is because the program they are showing is lower resolution. 50s cowboy movies, Trek, and old episodes of soaps. I misremembered the vertical resolution in my previous post but the horizontal is right. By my calculations the average bitrate is 13.4 Mbps.

I have ebuyer in my hosts file to redirect me to a warning on my system.

I mean bitching at MS about IE and WMP is all well and good, but when the basic standard for proving you can operate a computer - the European Computer Driving Licence - is nothing more than a short training course in Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, it makes you wonder whose side they're on. At least call it Office skills or something. Why are we entrenching a foreign corporation on one hand and complaining about it on the other ? It qualifies you to operate a computer in the same way operating a washing machine qualifies you as an electrical engineer. You even get points for putting your name in the right place FFS.

(The tests in that zip are last years version - the new ones mean you have to use vista and Office 2007. They also dropped the Access section completely. Those files have not touched a Windows computer since I got them from the British Computer Societys web site.)

Some jokers are charging £500 for that shit (training and test). I'd get into it myself, except I would never ever feel clean again.

Well...

I visited Rottnest Island, just off the coast of Perth WA, and was happily wandering about when I saw what looked like a spiders web. It was pretty big, maybe 10 feet across, stretched between 2 bushes. So I went over to have a closer look. Imagine my surprise when I found the resident.
This bugger was about 18 inches across (leg span) and pretty mean looking. I would have put my hand in the photo for scale, but, well you know ...

So 6 cm (< 2.5 inches) is not a big spider.

I visited Rottnest Island, just off the coast of Perth WA, and was happily wandering about when I saw what looked like a spiders web. It was pretty big, maybe 10 feet across, stretched between 2 bushes. So I went over to have a closer look. Imagine my surprise when I found the resident.
This bugger was about 18 inches across (leg span) and pretty mean looking. I would have put my hand in the photo for scale, but, well you know ...

So 6 cm (< 2.5 inches) is not a big spider.

I already mirror a linux distro. If anybody needs space/bandwidth, you should know how to reach me.

O RLY?BTW that includes PHP and Perl and tomcat and various other bits and pieces to link dbases etc. And is pictured on Fedora Core 4 ... which was released quite some time ago now.

Not true at all. Your computer never "broadcasts" anything. All content is requested by a third party. No files are pushed to random unknown users. And to be honest, I've never used a file sharing program that has a "shared folder". Either I publish a torrent and seed it or I don't. There are no files left open for others to browse. If I want to share files at the users whim, I put them on an FTP/http server.

NO2ID got the attention of the Lords quite successfully. They are mentioned in the recently released report on surveillance in society. (p 18,27,78,101,114,)

One issue that bothers me is the ignorance of your average person when dealing with their own information.
A recent problem that has occurred to me is car insurance. I for one am heartily sick of the adverts on tv, but it suddenly struck me what's happening. In the "old days" you did business with an insurance company, maybe through an agent. All your records were on paper, and reasonably secure. These days, you do business online with an entity who is quite often an agent 3 or 4 times removed from the insurance company. So now there are 4 times as many people with access to critical personal data in this sector alone, and they are all online. Should we have to trust all of them ? Is the lure of "truly cheaper car insurance" worth spreading your personal data far and wide, to be picked over and mined by who knows who ?
If you answered yes to the last question, you deserve everything you get.

At any rate automobiles are DC powered. Check one with a multimetre if you don't believe me. Thus they are not going to be pulsing their lights.

Oh really ?

Those tail lights were not flickering to the naked eye, it was not a police vehicle - it only showed up through the video camera. And BTW, I can see flicker too, not the extent revealed by the video, but almost imperceptibly. I know it exists. Whether it's a DC circuit or not is irrelevant, as the flickering is to do with duty cycle not frequency.

While your words are correct, the definitions have changed.
I realise this refers to DVB-T but the principle remains -
These are the frequencies in use.
These are the "channels" per mux.
Each geographical region has its own range of frequencies to provide the muxes. ie I am in the Band iv channel (21 to 38), while my parents 20 miles away are in the Band V channel (39 to 68). I have reason to believe that different areas use different parts of their respective "channels", ie Band V but only 52 to 68.
It's a bit like satellite in that the same program channel appears on many different frequencies. You'll notice how many places are as yet unoccupied. (ok some are radio but still ...)
Here's an old image from last year for bitrate and resolution, while this is from right now for frequency - different channel though. (You'll notice my graphics card is dying). There is a lot of capacity in digital transmission.

While your words are correct, the definitions have changed.
I realise this refers to DVB-T but the principle remains -
These are the frequencies in use.
These are the "channels" per mux.
Each geographical region has its own range of frequencies to provide the muxes. ie I am in the Band iv channel (21 to 38), while my parents 20 miles away are in the Band V channel (39 to 68). I have reason to believe that different areas use different parts of their respective "channels", ie Band V but only 52 to 68.
It's a bit like satellite in that the same program channel appears on many different frequencies. You'll notice how many places are as yet unoccupied. (ok some are radio but still ...)
Here's an old image from last year for bitrate and resolution, while this is from right now for frequency - different channel though. (You'll notice my graphics card is dying). There is a lot of capacity in digital transmission.

• EastEnders
• Rogue Restaurants
• Traffic Cops
• BBC News
• Spotlight(news); Weather
• BBC Weather
• On a Clear Day (film 2004)

BBC2

• Would Like to Meet Again
• Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young
• Mock the Week
• Lab Rats
• Never Mind the Buzzcocks
• Newsnight
• The Edinburgh Festival Show

BBC3

• The Real Hustle Las Vegas
• The Real Hustle Las Vegas
• Britain's Really Disgusting Foods
• EastEnders
• Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor
• Family Guy
• Family Guy
• Britain's Really Disgusting Foods

BBC4

• Proms on Four 2008: Barenboim and West-Eastern Divan
• Maestro
• BBC Four Sessions: John Cale

Pretty much all of those apart from the news, the Proms and the Edinburgh Festival show, were crap or repeats of crap.
Not to say the independent channels were much better, but at least there were things like House, Numb3rs, Without a trace, The Unit, My Name Is Earl, Top Gear, Futurama, and The Daily Show.
While the BBC occasionally has some good programming, it is mostly shite. I find myself relying on my media server more and more these days, to watch old episodes of Horizon, Earth Story, Planet Earth, Star Trek TNG, Spooks and The Blue Planet.
I also have an issue with the BBCs news web site, in that whenever they display a video larger than 240 pixels wide in line with text, the video jumps down and covers the text. It doesn't happen with the smaller videos. I did contact them about it and they replied that it was probably my fault. Yeah right. Why is it only the larger videos that do it then ?
Tossers.

Examples here
Bad
Good

(Not to mention that as a linux user, I have no access to iPlayer AT ALL ! I pay the licence fee, why should I have to give £100 to MS as well ?

• EastEnders
• Rogue Restaurants
• Traffic Cops
• BBC News
• Spotlight(news); Weather
• BBC Weather
• On a Clear Day (film 2004)

BBC2

• Would Like to Meet Again
• Dr Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young
• Mock the Week
• Lab Rats
• Never Mind the Buzzcocks
• Newsnight
• The Edinburgh Festival Show

BBC3

• The Real Hustle Las Vegas
• The Real Hustle Las Vegas
• Britain's Really Disgusting Foods
• EastEnders
• Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor
• Family Guy
• Family Guy
• Britain's Really Disgusting Foods

BBC4

• Proms on Four 2008: Barenboim and West-Eastern Divan
• Maestro
• BBC Four Sessions: John Cale

Pretty much all of those apart from the news, the Proms and the Edinburgh Festival show, were crap or repeats of crap.
Not to say the independent channels were much better, but at least there were things like House, Numb3rs, Without a trace, The Unit, My Name Is Earl, Top Gear, Futurama, and The Daily Show.
While the BBC occasionally has some good programming, it is mostly shite. I find myself relying on my media server more and more these days, to watch old episodes of Horizon, Earth Story, Planet Earth, Star Trek TNG, Spooks and The Blue Planet.
I also have an issue with the BBCs news web site, in that whenever they display a video larger than 240 pixels wide in line with text, the video jumps down and covers the text. It doesn't happen with the smaller videos. I did contact them about it and they replied that it was probably my fault. Yeah right. Why is it only the larger videos that do it then ?
Tossers.

Examples here
Bad
Good

(Not to mention that as a linux user, I have no access to iPlayer AT ALL ! I pay the licence fee, why should I have to give £100 to MS as well ?

Well xvid streams fine in an avi container. Drag this link to your media player. Works fine using xine on FC4 and vlc on xp.

You do realise that you're talking rubbish ?
I have posted on this before but for the record - I drive a truck, 18 wheeler, hgv, whatever you like to call it where-ever you are. I regularly collect shipping containers from major ports around the UK (which is part of the EU). I have been pulled to one side while leaving the port before (last year sometime) because I had set off the *radiation detectors*. The stated contents of the container were toilets shipped from China. The officials used a higher spec machine to check the load, and found it to be what it purported to be. I was allowed to continue on my way.
EVERY truck leaving the major UK ports is scanned automatically, and if it can pick up the residual radiation given off by porcelain, then I'm pretty sure it would pick up weapons grade nuclear material.
Felixstowe
One of my trucks.

You can. If you are that desperate for clickable areas, but it does make things cluttered.
I'm pretty sure you can do the same thing with KDE and even Windows to be honest (er no, scrub that last one), I'm actually using Xoblite as my shell in XP, which is Blackbox based.

You can. If you are that desperate for clickable areas, but it does make things cluttered.
I'm pretty sure you can do the same thing with KDE and even Windows to be honest (er no, scrub that last one), I'm actually using Xoblite as my shell in XP, which is Blackbox based.

Heck, we have container ships full of every product imaginable unloading left and right, and the government doesn't have a clue what is in those things.

I don't use IE, just firefox, and I have the same version of firefox on WinXP as I do on Fedora 4 / Gnome. I have been used to the default fonts on both systems, but the winXP always looked terrible. So I just checked the windows setup and it was using Times New Roman - Uuurgh.
So, I changed it to reflect what the Fedora system is using - Bitstream Vera Sans, which I am very happy with ( I don't "do" the net on WinXP usually, so this was just for a test.) Result, crappy rendering on WinXP. So expecting to have some idea of what a site will look like on another system is IMHO a bit hopeful.
Have a look yourself, open each of these links in a separate tab and contrast and compare.
Windows
Fedora
The layout may differ slightly, as I don't have the browser maximised in either screen shot, but you can see the difference in the appearance of the font. (And yes, I do have mod points left)

I don't use IE, just firefox, and I have the same version of firefox on WinXP as I do on Fedora 4 / Gnome. I have been used to the default fonts on both systems, but the winXP always looked terrible. So I just checked the windows setup and it was using Times New Roman - Uuurgh.
So, I changed it to reflect what the Fedora system is using - Bitstream Vera Sans, which I am very happy with ( I don't "do" the net on WinXP usually, so this was just for a test.) Result, crappy rendering on WinXP. So expecting to have some idea of what a site will look like on another system is IMHO a bit hopeful.
Have a look yourself, open each of these links in a separate tab and contrast and compare.
Windows
Fedora
The layout may differ slightly, as I don't have the browser maximised in either screen shot, but you can see the difference in the appearance of the font. (And yes, I do have mod points left)

But Standard-Definition Digital TV isn't better than analog - it degrades differently with noise, but its primary advantage is that it's easier to put more channels on the cable using digital. The channels you get don't look better than the ones you get on analog, but the channels you didn't get on analog might look better in digital.

No problem here.
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20070725 Firefox/2.0.0.6

Or there is a crappy flash version here.

Slightly OT, but there is a good advert running in the UK at the moment -
Have a look .... (10MB xvid)

And in FC4 it's under Desktop>Preferences>Screen Resolution
That's at least 2 years old and IIRC it was like that in FC3 and FC2.
Don't let me stop the trolling though.

Have a look a their MRTG traffic graph for that week ;-)

(I knew I kept this for a reason)

Here is the first page customers get when using Paypal as a payment gateway.
Is it so hard to find the non paypal account option ?
Also, notice the writing at the bottom of the page - Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom as an electronic money institution.
Just for completeness, here is the second page you get to if you choose non paypal. Oh, seems like that's pretty straightforward too. Maybe you're just a troll.

Here is the first page customers get when using Paypal as a payment gateway.
Is it so hard to find the non paypal account option ?
Also, notice the writing at the bottom of the page - Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom as an electronic money institution.
Just for completeness, here is the second page you get to if you choose non paypal. Oh, seems like that's pretty straightforward too. Maybe you're just a troll.

I run my screen at 1280x1028 and don't run my browser maximised. Consequently, your layout gets screwed up. The images behind your navigation links are hidden behind the background of the text, and so is the small text on your logo.

Example 1
Example 2

I run my screen at 1280x1028 and don't run my browser maximised. Consequently, your layout gets screwed up. The images behind your navigation links are hidden behind the background of the text, and so is the small text on your logo.

Example 1
Example 2

~ 140MB

Yeah, yeah, I know, but it was kind of an impulse thing while food shopping. Anyway, the title in question was Mission Impossible 3. Action, suspense, all the usual crap.

Well, when I got it home and opened the case, I got a surprise. There was a little note inside, thanking me for not being a pirate (yaaar !).
Ok, I thought, that's fair enough, but as I bought the damn thing what was the point ? Are the pirates now sticking little notes inside cases saying "Fuck you film producers" or "Yay, stick it to the man" ? Is this a battle of mindshare, in which case it shows the studios are *really* scared ?

So, anyway, I turned the note over and found to my astonishment, that by buying this DVD I am helping to stop violent crime ! Apparently in a raid on market traders, one of the traders vehicles contained an "open bladed kitchen knife" and a "stun gun". Apparently he was later arrested. What he was arrested for they don't go on to elaborate. Quite how possession of these items constitutes violent crime I don't know either.

I guess I'm just pissed off with the FUD they're spreading. And "thousands of pounds worth of pirate film and music products" constitutes a couple of hundred DVDs/CDs at the most, given that they are probably using studio figures. Hardly worth the expensive manpower for a "major surveillance exercise".

Yeah, yeah, I know, but it was kind of an impulse thing while food shopping. Anyway, the title in question was Mission Impossible 3. Action, suspense, all the usual crap.

Well, when I got it home and opened the case, I got a surprise. There was a little note inside, thanking me for not being a pirate (yaaar !).
Ok, I thought, that's fair enough, but as I bought the damn thing what was the point ? Are the pirates now sticking little notes inside cases saying "Fuck you film producers" or "Yay, stick it to the man" ? Is this a battle of mindshare, in which case it shows the studios are *really* scared ?

So, anyway, I turned the note over and found to my astonishment, that by buying this DVD I am helping to stop violent crime ! Apparently in a raid on market traders, one of the traders vehicles contained an "open bladed kitchen knife" and a "stun gun". Apparently he was later arrested. What he was arrested for they don't go on to elaborate. Quite how possession of these items constitutes violent crime I don't know either.

I guess I'm just pissed off with the FUD they're spreading. And "thousands of pounds worth of pirate film and music products" constitutes a couple of hundred DVDs/CDs at the most, given that they are probably using studio figures. Hardly worth the expensive manpower for a "major surveillance exercise".

The screen in action 31MB file but you can stream it in VLC or Xine.

Clockwise from top left = DVB broadcast tv, VLC player streaming the X Files from my media server, WinDVD playing chronicles of Riddick, and RealPlayer streaming NasaTV live. The resolution looks crap, but bear in mind that it is only 800x600 and the video has been run through DrDivx ! Also it's hard to focus the camera on a live screen. The monitor is a 19" CRT at 1600x1200.

I have several Sony products here which work perfectly well, and always have. One is a VAIO PCG-FXA36 laptop with a 1 GHZ AMD cpu, firewire, 15" screen, tv out, dvd/cdrewriter, and floppy drive, which I bought in december 2001. Another is a DCR-PC9 miniDV cam with nightshot, steadyshot, firewire, usb, memory stick, tv-out, 10x optical zoom, 120x digital zoom. bought at roughly the same time.

Both these items were taken on a long trip to various places, like across the US 3 times by car, around Australia, by car, plane, and train, to Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, where they were subjected to extremes of temperature, humidity, vibration stresses, and rain. They both operated flawlessly throughout that trip (duration 9 months) and I used the camera to capture video which was then transferred to the laptop, edited, and uploaded to my website as a kind of travel "blog" (the word didn't exist back then).

Since then they have continued to work flawlessly, and I have added a bullet cam and a LANC to the DV-cam so I can take video via a remote control whilst driving. Also, I have a Garmin sat nav which when connected to the laptop and running Infomap navigator I can plot and navigate routes full screen when driving. I am working on combining the two inputs (video and gps) to create a dbase that allows you to select a route and see the actual road that route consists of. Google Maps would be a nice interface.

The laptop has only one flaw now, and that is because while I was pissed I dropped it, and it landed on the wireless pcmcia card, breaking the connector right off the motherboard. I removed the broken bits to stop them rattling and possibly causing shorts and the laptop continues to run as well as it ever did.

So you may be correct when you diss Sony for their quality these days, but my Sony gear, which is coming up on 5 years old, is perfectly functioning. Of course the items mentioned weren't cheap to buy ($1600 laptop, $1400 DV-cam) but maybe if you pay for the higher spec, you actually get a higher spec of components, not just capability, and also better reliability. Which leads me to think that maybe Sony these days is trying to compete on price, which leads to lower spec equipment. I can't say for sure because I don't need to replace the items I have, they still work !

... but this dupe is showing in the RSS feed as well. The worst part is, that it can't be unintentional, because the headline is different !
Have a gander.

OpenOffice.org 2.0
Setting a font colour from OOo Writer
Setting a style colour (F11, right click a style, click modify)

OpenOffice.org 2.0
Setting a font colour from OOo Writer
Setting a style colour (F11, right click a style, click modify)

Have a gander. [xvid 250MB]

I didn't over charge it, it wasn't damaged, I just stopped using the phone. I had removed the battery to get at the sim card (for transfer to a new phone) and left it on a shelf. It wasn't in direct sunlight, and the temperature never gets above 25/30 degrees in the room. Yet after 6 months of inactivity, it looks like this.

The photos don't do the distortion justice, it has ballooned by roughly 50% of its thickness. I'm a little unsure of how to dispose of this thing safely :-/

I bet it was really cool and trendy, and worked way better than what Bill Gates had for breakfast.

(laugh, it's funny)

And the answer is...

Windows is for people who value their time and Linux isn't.

No fighting with virus infections, no Genuine Advantage hassle with a genuine registered version of XP, no spyware/malware/direct_to_the_stored_creditcard_ba ckdoors.

Plus I get to set it up how I want it, I can script repetitive tasks, there is a meaningful command line environment, it updates itself regularly in the background without needing a reboot etc etc.

Linux is fully network aware, and designed that way, so I can perform the same tasks over SSH as I do locally. Multiple desktops, slews of free software, interested users, true multi-user environment ....

I have 2 old windows machines. Win98SE, relegated to providing dvb tv, and encoding xvid etc. Also a Win XP laptop, which has all my email backed up on it, plus various tools for accessing my servers. This is designed for emergency use, ie. if there is a fire, I can grab it and run without losing all the important stuff. It could run linux permanently (in fact it does via knoppix et al) but there is some handy (windows only)software for video capture living on it.

Sorry for the rant, but as far as I'm concerned, windows is for the proles(1), macs are for posers(2) and the rest (ie. *nix) are for the real power users / hackers / whatever(3).

(1)Don't know, don't care - just do it !
(2)Oooh, look at me !
(3)Now, I wonder if I can make it do this ?

Small example, when I have the tv prog running on the win98 box, I output to a projector, and continue working (heh) on the linux box via the monitor (they are both using the same monitor through a KVM). However, as I don't have remote for the tv card, to change channel I have to stop what I'm doing and switch the KVM over to the windows box, come out of full screen, find the channel, click it or type the number then go fullscreen and switch back again. At least I used to have to do that. Now I have VNC running on the windows box, and I just switch desktops ( ctrl+alt+arrow ) on the linux box to enter a channel number in a terminal window. Ok, you could do that windows to windows easily too. What wouldn't be so easy would be writing a small shell script that takes your simplified input and converts that to the correct channel numbers before sending. So instead of the history channel being 128 (it's not btw, but eg) it is now just 8. And so on for the rest of the unmemorable channel numbers. Ok, it took maybe an hour to set up and test, but it has saved that time over and over ever since. Plus I don't have vnc running on the linux box all the time (which would still entail memorising the correct channel numbers), I just use this.

I equate the "My time is more valuable" attitude to "I don't need to know simple car mechanics, if it breaks down I'll get someone else to fix it". Then they spend 3 hours by the side of the road waiting for a mechanic because a plug lead has come loose !

Todays mood == troll ;-)

However, I use rss all the time. For example, I have around 300 xvid files that I like to access quickly, so I wrote a perl script to create an rss feed so that each title links to (and plays via file type association) the relevant file. No internet even needed there, although I do run Apache so that my windows box can run the same files over the LAN and display them through my projector :->
It's useful for me....

Another useful aspect (in Firefox anyway) is the live bookmark. I have live bookmarks for manybooks.net (shows me recent additions to the download list) and Redhat (shows me the latest articles in the RH magazine).

Also, as I run linux, I have access to something called gDesklets, this being a desktop applet system for Gnome. One of the applets is a News/RSS Grabber. I have 2 of these running on the desktop, one gets its feed from /. the other from BBC News. Have a look. (The clock is an applet too)

I don't think it needs to be part of the OS, but that doesn't mean it's not useful.