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here's a short coffee table i converted to a stand-up desk about a century ago,
before i had disposable income.

. If you took an iPhone 4S and had a perfectly silent room with a trained speaker, and an 802.11n connection to a local server to do the decoding and searching, you could get the same results

That's speculation at best. My experience with Siri is that its not that good. Ever. The results would only match the demonstration if siri was simply scripted to give those answers to those questions. (which is something siri is known to do -- give scripted answers to particular questions).

Plus apple has been known to just outright fake things too:

http://i.imgur.com/huWri.jpg

(sorry about the goofy link, but its worth checking out.)

"It's an inanimate carbon rod!!" http://i.imgur.com/ijjIh.png

I realize you are sort of a MS shill, and I get where you're coming from.

Sorry, not even close. It's a shame the climate on slashdot is as such that I have to actually type this out to justify my point of view without being labeled a shill. What you're implying is that I post opinions here I don't actually hold outside of monetary compensation from Microsoft. This is not true at all. I bought all the aforementioned products (except Windows 8, which I have through Dreamspark Premium) after comparing them with the competition and choosing which is best for me, given my requirements. I'm probably the opposite of many Slashdotters in that I use Linux daily for work and use Windows at home by my own choice. My profession is roboticist, and I'm a published researcher in the field. I contribute regularly to the largest open source robotics project, ROS. I have no connections with Microsoft, live on the east coast, and no one in my family or friend group works for or is associated with Microsoft (except my girlfriend's cousin was Bill Gate's personal assistant for many years. Never met her.). I hold a positive view of Windows 8, Windows Phone, and Microsoft Office including the Ribbon and Metro interface, and use each by my own choice regardless of any outside influences. I also own an iMac, an iPad, various cheap Android tablets for hacking, and I have positive views of those pieces of hardware as well.

Windows 8 is terrible, so no one is going to use it. So that's not helping. It doesn't matter what you *can* do with it, it won't be done because no one sane wants to use Windows 8.

Windows 8 is an excellent OS for almost all objective measures of OS quality. It's stable, secure, compatible with a vast array of hardware, it maintains compatibility with old software, it is easy to configure, easy to maintain, and the resource footprint is very low. More importantly, on all of these points it exceeds its predecessor. That is, it is more stable, secure, etc. than Windows 7 for a variety of reasons I can list if you really want me to. Please note that in all discussions held here on Slashdot, these points have not been in question. No one is talking about how buggy and bloated and unstable Windows 8 is (because it isnt't; there's nothing to complain about in that regard). All discussions revolve around the most subjective and personal aspect of the OS (and also the most customizable): the UI.

What I think you mean when you say Windows 8 is terrible, and correct me if I'm wrong and you really mean the other aspects I mentioned of the OS are in question, is that you hate the UI (and therefore most everyone else will hate it). I think for a great many users, Metro offers benefits that perhaps aren't realized by most people on slashdot, as they are more computer literate. These include consistency in the UI, as search and settings is in the same spot for every app; predictability across the OS, as pressing the right mouse button, pressing the windows key, swiping in from edges or mousing to corners does the same thing no matter where you are in the OS; easy to manage controls, as most user centric settings have been distilled into a simplified settings screen; easy ways find, update, and uninstall apps, as there's a centralized repository to manage this, and uninstalling them is as simple as right clicking instead of delving into the control panel. Most of these benefits are not realized for people like you or me, but, as evidenced by the success of the iPad, simple interfaces like this can be very effective for novice users (which is most everyone).

That might leave you to say MS has abandoned the power user in Windows 8, but I find it's customizable enough to fit my needs. Here's my current start screen on one of my test machines I'm experimenting with. The transparent background is a little buggy with animations, but it's coming along. I like this much better than the start m

Yes, KNetworkManager has connected to wireless networks without root privileges since forever.

GUI - "some kind of sense" is subjective and vague. Here's a current screenshot from YaST 2.21.24 in openSUSE 12.1: http://i.imgur.com/06QLC.png Point out what you don't like or what you think needs to be improved.

The HPS was there for two reasons - IR, and green. Green has higher quantum yield over 4-500 umol. The red and blue are there to serve as main power for the plant.

Done raw - http://i.imgur.com/XGYDS.jpg - they still work just fine.

why are you pirating bluray rips, when obviously they are available for purchase. I'm sure you might have a reason other than because it's cheaper, but you didn't give it.

One very good reason in my opinion is this this

I've grown EVERYTHING under LED. Cannabis grows and produces just fine.

http://imgur.com/A55Ib,UzbUL,8JyQz,og8sk,t0ona - there's some proof.

Lumens is fallacy and you should feel bad for using an architectural lighting standard in the place of a horticultural standard. Photon flux density is what matters, not lumens, which is stuck as GREEN LIGHT.

LED experts will tell you lumens don't matter because lumens is BULLSHIT when it comes to plant cultivation.

Quit reading words from idiots on cannabis forums.

"That isn't to say that you can't grow with led just that 1000w HPS will grow stronger and healthier plants than 1000w LED,"

That's an outright lie.

A. You're rating LED efficiency by lumens - WRONG. Photon flux density. Remember, lumens are for humans.

B. "Now LED's are at about 100 lumens per watt" - WRONG AGAIN. We have 5500K white LEDs with 150+ lumens per watt, and Cree has already broken 220+ lux/w - LAST YEAR.

C. "So you need about 1,300 watts to light up one square meter to the same intensity as sunlight. Very roughly." Sure, but you're implying most of our food crops even need that sort of intensity - they don't.

D. "Solar cells and inverters and wiring have an end-to-end efficiency of around 10%" Yea, if you use cheapo garbage. The stuff powering my research facility, end-to-end, pushes roughly 22%.

E. "So we need about 13 meter-square panels at right-angles all the time to the Sun to get 13,000 watts during sunny days on the Moon." I see you totally ignore the fact that our moon has no atmosphere worth mentioning, so that photon flux density is actually much higher versus on earth, you also forget that the moon is closer to the sun then we are roughly half of the time, so again, the photon flux is even greater.

F. "So we're back up to about 20 meter-square panels to light up one meter. To light up 50 square meters, one person's worth, that's ONE THOUSAND SQUARE METER STEERABLE PANELS." Except again, you're implying that plants need such intense light to grow. That's wrong. Totally wrong.

G. "And oh, where are you going to get the water for 50 square meters of whatnot growing?" Plenty of hydrogen and oxygen on the moon, plus we've found water there. We can make fake snow by just expelling compressed hydrogen and oxygen in a shared jet nozzle (it's how we make snow during the summer on mountain ski resorts) so I bet making water from scratch components would not be that difficult. On top of that, we've got hydroponics systems that can drop water requirements as much as 99% for many crops.

Your numbers fail to take into account how plants grow and just how much space is needed.

And as an aside - I do this professionally. I'm going to have to say your words are sorely lacking in knowledge on the relevant subjects.

A. You're rating LED efficiency by lumens - WRONG. Photon flux density. Remember, lumens are for humans.

B. "Now LED's are at about 100 lumens per watt" - WRONG AGAIN. We have 5500K white LEDs with 150+ lumens per watt, and Cree has already broken 220+ lux/w - LAST YEAR.

C. "So you need about 1,300 watts to light up one square meter to the same intensity as sunlight. Very roughly." Sure, but you're implying most of our food crops even need that sort of intensity - they don't.

D. "Solar cells and inverters and wiring have an end-to-end efficiency of around 10%" Yea, if you use cheapo garbage. The stuff powering my research facility, end-to-end, pushes roughly 22%.

E. "So we need about 13 meter-square panels at right-angles all the time to the Sun to get 13,000 watts during sunny days on the Moon." I see you totally ignore the fact that our moon has no atmosphere worth mentioning, so that photon flux density is actually much higher versus on earth, you also forget that the moon is closer to the sun then we are roughly half of the time, so again, the photon flux is even greater.

F. "So we're back up to about 20 meter-square panels to light up one meter. To light up 50 square meters, one person's worth, that's ONE THOUSAND SQUARE METER STEERABLE PANELS." Except again, you're implying that plants need such intense light to grow. That's wrong. Totally wrong.

G. "And oh, where are you going to get the water for 50 square meters of whatnot growing?" Plenty of hydrogen and oxygen on the moon, plus we've found water there. We can make fake snow by just expelling compressed hydrogen and oxygen in a shared jet nozzle (it's how we make snow during the summer on mountain ski resorts) so I bet making water from scratch components would not be that difficult. On top of that, we've got hydroponics systems that can drop water requirements as much as 99% for many crops.

Your numbers fail to take into account how plants grow and just how much space is needed.

And as an aside - I do this professionally. I'm going to have to say your words are sorely lacking in knowledge on the relevant subjects.

Would just like to point out iOS does in fact give user control over Privacy:

https://p.twimg.com/Avd_bj2CEAAokCD.jpg

The same pop-up occurs when an application wants to access your photo's, location, etc.

And you can also set up Provacy controls for apps in Settings:

http://i.imgur.com/LvImi.jpg

This is Bullshit.

That this made CNN is nothing more than Apple buying headlines. Bullshit product placement in the News.

I mean, they've been at it for a while now; trying to associate Apple with Cool Stuff. Anybody who can't see through this is just being made a victim of the Public Relations Mafia.

Check this one out:

http://i.imgur.com/u7a9u.jpg

It's a bloody embarrassment. I wish Apple would just go away and die already. This mind-control crap makes me sick.

Actually, I think i'd rather have my chance with the creepers.

There's been a new comedic meme emerging, "Anything you do might get you sued by Apple." and people are starting to run with it. Maybe the 1 Billion dollar verdict sounds ridiculous to people who's assets are measured in thousands?

Non-technophile and iphone owning friends of mine are posting memegenerator images or making silly comments about the lawsuit on Facebook. I'm seeing the same stuff from random people on sites like imgur and tumblr. Samsung also just unveiled a new Galaxy mirrorless interchangeable lens (AKA 4/3s AKA 3rd gen) android powered digital camera that some people are excited about.

Personally, I'm not sure on what the reason is but I am surprised at how many people aren't cheering for Apple in this one.

Since young'ns don't know what a floppy disk is, the 'Save' icon is lost on them.

Indeed.

I'm going to make you feel old.

http://i.imgur.com/Ml8hc.jpg

--
BMO

Yes it can be turned off.

those "Before iPhone, after iPhone" and "Before iPad, after iPad" images Apple fans constantly post

Yes, they are a silly. This timeline clearly shows that after the miserable failure of Apple's first phone, Apple took a couple of years off to copy HTC and LG before releasing its second phone, the iPhone, directly copying their design.

The Mitsubishi Trium Mondo released in 2001 was a PDA-style cellular telephone clearly in the slate form factor now effectively claimed by Apple.

That made me think of this, heh heh!

Many years ago, I spent a lot of time teaching Iranian women English. There was a volunteer English teaching group in my city, and one day I was assigned an Iranian woman to teach. Soon another Iranian woman joined her, so I taught 2 Iranian women, and then met others.

It was an extremely unusual social situation. Normally, Iranian women will not allow a man to be alone with Iranian women unless he is the "head" of the family, and then only in a limited way. But these women had been assigned by their families to marry Iranian men who were U.S. citizens. The Iranian men had gone back to Iran, married, and were allowed to re-enter the U.S. with their wives, as is normal for U.S. citizens.

The wives needed to learn English. That's how they came to the volunteer English teaching group. One of the reasons they allowed me to be alone with them is that I was seen as someone at the bottom of Iranian society, like someone who mows lawns. I was seen as someone of no importance, a servant.

Every Iranian woman I met said Iranian WOMEN control Iranian society, and, after spending two years with Iranian-Americans in my U.S. city who were U.S. citizens, during the time I was teaching, I agree with the women. It's not healthy control, but it is control of men by women.

Iran is a modern country in many ways. See, for example these photos of the biggest city, Tehran:
Tehran from the air
Tehran city highway

Basically, I learned this: There are many, many women who live outside the cities, and many inside the cities, who are poorly educated. The poorly educated women have methods of countrol that, effectively, require women to be poorly educated. They don't want change, and they are powerful. With mostly hidden, manipulative ways, they are often able to arrange to get what they want.

(However, I've never been to Iran and don't speak Farsi, the Iranian Arabic language, so what I say is just the opinion of someone with limited experience.)

One of the problems some Iranian women have with education is that, with education, people are expected to have responsibility. Education interferes with the traditional cultural ways. Education interferes with the control over men that most Iranian women want.

Also, Iranian men have various ineffective ways of trying to get control, and, in some ways, have limited control.

If you are in the U.S., there are several problems with trying to get an understanding of Iran:

1) Nuclear power companies in the U.S. want control over nuclear power. They pay to influence the U.S. government against "proliferation" of nuclear power. They pay to control, to some extent, what is written by the media.

2) Those who make easy money from war want war. They pay to influence the U.S. government against methods of peaceful co-existence. Obviously, those who make money from killing other people don't have any moral issues with lying, or any moral issues at all. They want war any way they can get it, as long as they are physically safe, and no one they know is involved with actually fighting a war.

Two examples of those who have investments in war are former U.S. president George W. Bush and his family, and former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney.

Those in the U.S. who profit from killing other people have long interfered with Iranian affairs. From the Wikipedia article about Ms. Shirin Ebadi, the subject of this Slashdot story: She " remembers the CIA's 1953 overthrow of prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq with rage."

3) Educated Iranian women often very much dislike some parts of the common traditional Iranian culture, as you might expect. They either don't understand the currents in their own culture, or know that speaking against the wishes of other Iranian women would n

Many years ago, I spent a lot of time teaching Iranian women English. There was a volunteer English teaching group in my city, and one day I was assigned an Iranian woman to teach. Soon another Iranian woman joined her, so I taught 2 Iranian women, and then met others.

It was an extremely unusual social situation. Normally, Iranian women will not allow a man to be alone with Iranian women unless he is the "head" of the family, and then only in a limited way. But these women had been assigned by their families to marry Iranian men who were U.S. citizens. The Iranian men had gone back to Iran, married, and were allowed to re-enter the U.S. with their wives, as is normal for U.S. citizens.

The wives needed to learn English. That's how they came to the volunteer English teaching group. One of the reasons they allowed me to be alone with them is that I was seen as someone at the bottom of Iranian society, like someone who mows lawns. I was seen as someone of no importance, a servant.

Every Iranian woman I met said Iranian WOMEN control Iranian society, and, after spending two years with Iranian-Americans in my U.S. city who were U.S. citizens, during the time I was teaching, I agree with the women. It's not healthy control, but it is control of men by women.

Iran is a modern country in many ways. See, for example these photos of the biggest city, Tehran:
Tehran from the air
Tehran city highway

Basically, I learned this: There are many, many women who live outside the cities, and many inside the cities, who are poorly educated. The poorly educated women have methods of countrol that, effectively, require women to be poorly educated. They don't want change, and they are powerful. With mostly hidden, manipulative ways, they are often able to arrange to get what they want.

(However, I've never been to Iran and don't speak Farsi, the Iranian Arabic language, so what I say is just the opinion of someone with limited experience.)

One of the problems some Iranian women have with education is that, with education, people are expected to have responsibility. Education interferes with the traditional cultural ways. Education interferes with the control over men that most Iranian women want.

Also, Iranian men have various ineffective ways of trying to get control, and, in some ways, have limited control.

If you are in the U.S., there are several problems with trying to get an understanding of Iran:

1) Nuclear power companies in the U.S. want control over nuclear power. They pay to influence the U.S. government against "proliferation" of nuclear power. They pay to control, to some extent, what is written by the media.

2) Those who make easy money from war want war. They pay to influence the U.S. government against methods of peaceful co-existence. Obviously, those who make money from killing other people don't have any moral issues with lying, or any moral issues at all. They want war any way they can get it, as long as they are physically safe, and no one they know is involved with actually fighting a war.

Two examples of those who have investments in war are former U.S. president George W. Bush and his family, and former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney.

Those in the U.S. who profit from killing other people have long interfered with Iranian affairs. From the Wikipedia article about Ms. Shirin Ebadi, the subject of this Slashdot story: She " remembers the CIA's 1953 overthrow of prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq with rage."

3) Educated Iranian women often very much dislike some parts of the common traditional Iranian culture, as you might expect. They either don't understand the currents in their own culture, or know that speaking against the wishes of other Iranian women would n

I used to think he was clean then you see graphics like this, http://i.imgur.com/i3mwd.jpg, that show the number of doped world class riders he bet and I know that his performances are too good to be clean.

I bought two Raspberry Pi(es) to use as audio servers and have been disappointed by the sound quality. The on-board audio out's DSP has limited bandwidth so sound is down-sampled to 11 bits. Scratchy. It's not advertised so that was a let-down.

Using a USB AUDIO dongle is no-go either, because of the crappy USB drivers. Stutters non-stop. Here are oscilloscope grabs of two music samples and a 1Khz tone: http://imgur.com/a/rVR99 The flat parts shouldn't be there. The only way to get good sound now is to use rather expensive USB soundboards or the HDMI output, but extracting line-level audio signals from that isn't a simple or cheap proposition.

The power design should be re-thought. If you power your Pi with exactly 5 volts, the voltage drop in the polyfuses causes early failures if you connect peripherals that have medium current demands. If you're lucky your power adapter might supply a bit more than 5 volts (5.25 is nice) and you might not experience too many problems. Me, I've soldered supply wires to test points T1(vcc) and T2(gnd) and bypassed the fuses completely.

I hope they come up with another revision, add a Low-drop-out regulator (+$2) and figure out the USB naggies.

Until then, caveat emptor.

You mean the OS that, by default, blocks you from running content that isn't blessed by Apple? Yes, you can download apps from sources that aren't the App Store - but they still have to be signed, otherwise, it either will refuse to run or lie to you and say that the app is "damaged" and you should "drag it to the trash."

This is complete bullshit. At no point does this ever, ever happen.

And if you try and disable this "feature" then it yells at you, warning you of dire consequences if you try and allow non-Apple-blessed apps to run.

This, too, is so far from true, and said with such force as to considered a lie. Let's take a look, shall we?

GateKeeper fully enabled, Disabling GateKeeper, GateKeeper disabled

Wow, that wasn't so hard, now was it? And the "yelling"? The "dire consequences"? Let's quote: "Choosing 'Anywhere' makes your Mac less secure." That's it. The entire message. But... in your world this is yelling about dire consequences.

Unless the joke was that Mac OS X is a downgrade from Windows 8, which is true, but it sounds like you're saying Mountain Lion is a way to opt out of being spied on by a giant corporation, and it isn't.

Really? So if you don't buy anything from the App Store, and turn off GateKeeper, what information about downloaded files is communicated to Apple?

Are you an astroturfer or something? I find it hard to believe anyone can be this dense unless they're getting paid to do so.

You mean the OS that, by default, blocks you from running content that isn't blessed by Apple? Yes, you can download apps from sources that aren't the App Store - but they still have to be signed, otherwise, it either will refuse to run or lie to you and say that the app is "damaged" and you should "drag it to the trash."

This is complete bullshit. At no point does this ever, ever happen.

And if you try and disable this "feature" then it yells at you, warning you of dire consequences if you try and allow non-Apple-blessed apps to run.

This, too, is so far from true, and said with such force as to considered a lie. Let's take a look, shall we?

GateKeeper fully enabled, Disabling GateKeeper, GateKeeper disabled

Wow, that wasn't so hard, now was it? And the "yelling"? The "dire consequences"? Let's quote: "Choosing 'Anywhere' makes your Mac less secure." That's it. The entire message. But... in your world this is yelling about dire consequences.

Unless the joke was that Mac OS X is a downgrade from Windows 8, which is true, but it sounds like you're saying Mountain Lion is a way to opt out of being spied on by a giant corporation, and it isn't.

Really? So if you don't buy anything from the App Store, and turn off GateKeeper, what information about downloaded files is communicated to Apple?

Are you an astroturfer or something? I find it hard to believe anyone can be this dense unless they're getting paid to do so.

You mean the OS that, by default, blocks you from running content that isn't blessed by Apple? Yes, you can download apps from sources that aren't the App Store - but they still have to be signed, otherwise, it either will refuse to run or lie to you and say that the app is "damaged" and you should "drag it to the trash."

This is complete bullshit. At no point does this ever, ever happen.

And if you try and disable this "feature" then it yells at you, warning you of dire consequences if you try and allow non-Apple-blessed apps to run.

This, too, is so far from true, and said with such force as to considered a lie. Let's take a look, shall we?

GateKeeper fully enabled, Disabling GateKeeper, GateKeeper disabled

Wow, that wasn't so hard, now was it? And the "yelling"? The "dire consequences"? Let's quote: "Choosing 'Anywhere' makes your Mac less secure." That's it. The entire message. But... in your world this is yelling about dire consequences.

Unless the joke was that Mac OS X is a downgrade from Windows 8, which is true, but it sounds like you're saying Mountain Lion is a way to opt out of being spied on by a giant corporation, and it isn't.

Really? So if you don't buy anything from the App Store, and turn off GateKeeper, what information about downloaded files is communicated to Apple?

Are you an astroturfer or something? I find it hard to believe anyone can be this dense unless they're getting paid to do so.

no, I was serious. They're already doing this.

http://imgur.com/gallery/jTtev

Nice cover story... what are you really looking to do with that other hand while coding?

Maybe he's using functors in Haskell.

But Steam's DRM doesn't suck, is the thing.

Yeah, until they change the terms on you:
http://i.imgur.com/YM7Hq.png

I'd take this with a grain of salt. This might be nothing but an idea and a photoshopped image.

I think this sums it up nicely

http://i.imgur.com/QsCHN.jpg

I dropped Cable this year, and NBC broadcast is the only network I can't get with antenna. Even with a nice HTPC TV setup, I didn't watch any Olympics as the only time I tried, the content was crap. It streamed OK for the 15 minutes I looked at it though. Adblock took care of the ads, so all I saw during commercials was this. http://i.imgur.com/n9o95.jpg

There are drawbacks...

http://i.imgur.com/ITcYcl.jpg

" wiping gold plated contact design" Say what? It is crosspoint contact switches with gold plated half cylinders. Like so: http://i.imgur.com/0s3sb.jpg Versus ALPS. Your typical domed contact points. http://i.imgur.com/d3A80.jpg

" wiping gold plated contact design" Say what? It is crosspoint contact switches with gold plated half cylinders. Like so: http://i.imgur.com/0s3sb.jpg Versus ALPS. Your typical domed contact points. http://i.imgur.com/d3A80.jpg

So...don't use iCloud, set a non simple password & set it to wipe (overwrite encryption key) after 10 wrong attempts, and check one box in iTunes to encrypt your local backup. AES-256 isn't going to be cracked anytime soon.

It's not hard. You can do every step listed above in like one minute.

http://i.imgur.com/E17cF.jpg

You mean something like this: http://i.imgur.com/u53R8.jpg

(I'm afraid I only had one tape drive there)

Then they should have come up with something original on their own.

Like Apple did?

You can't really see the MMRTG in this photo, for those interested: http://imgur.com/XE244

Researchers asked true-or-false questions to a group of test subjects about whether a minor celebrity was still alive. When they provided a picture of the celebrity, more people evaluated the statement as 'true' than when no picture was provided. The researchers then switched the question, asking whether it was true or false that the celebrity was dead.

And the picture of this guy: http://i.imgur.com/C4j2T.jpg made everyone say "yeah, he's dead."

--
BMO

The reason for Computer Modern's ugliness isn't apparent until you know what it's imitating. This is a comparison of CM and Bodoni 12, a font from the early 19th century. So-called "Modern" typefaces were frequently used for setting professional and mathematical treatises (and Slashdot's had an article in the past about how being difficult to read slows down the reader and gives them time to absorb the material.)

Essentially, the problem with CM is that it has straight flat parts on the sides of curves (e.g. the bowls of d and b), which make the font feel synthetic, like Chicago. The rigidity of the figures makes the letters feel as though they were assembled out of parts (which they were), rather than organically drawn.

This function seems to be working just fine and dandy. You can make an argument about features, but in reality as Google and Apple release updates each is getting more and more sophisticated. In this iOS 6 beta on my iPad Apple has added a ton of useful Siri functions, and it's never had any real problems understanding me. But to each their own.

Accurate dictation:

http://imgur.com/RH3tD

New Siri features in iOS 6:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-I69vumnG0

http://www.linuxjournal.com/ufiles/debian_netinstall.png
If you do a netinstall, there comes a point when you are asked if you want to install a "Standard system" and there is a choice for "Desktop environment" without any futher choice. In Debian, this meant gnome. If you do the same with ubuntu (minimal iso=netinstall), it shows a longer list with choices including lxde, xfce, kde an others.
http://i.imgur.com/DTFyq.png

Debian does have better tasksel choices, but they are not exposed by the installer. Sure, any pro user can stick to Standard system and after finishing, complete the install from the command line (either by running tasksel and or apt-get/aptitude, etc.

But the point is, if you do pick "Standard" and "Desktop" in the installer, it would install a gnome desktop.

Yeah, because this:

http://imgur.com/a/vK6tr

Looks and functions so much worse than Google Maps. Oh wait, it's better.

Yeah, but Google has already previewed their much improved Maps for iOS 6 so that's the one the Apple app will be competing with. I don't know how far Google is willing to go to put a great Maps experience on a competitor's platform but if they are committed, just like with the Google Now vs. Siri thing, Google can almost certainly make a better Maps app than Apple since they have the experience and the data that Apple can't match. Personally I use Android and iOS devices and I love it when apps are decoupled from the underlying platform. Maps, Youtube, etc. should be a separate download so they can be updated without having to wait for a whole new version of the OS to come out. Most of the original Google Apps for Android including, incidentally Youtube and Maps in addition to GMail, Chrome Browser and probably some others I'm forgetting are now a download from Google Play and are updateable that way. Yes, your phone will still come with that stuff but the apps aren't in lockstep anymore. This is a good thing and should be celebrated for what it is.

Really? Because a quick peek at the AppStore on my iPad seems to show Google has no issues putting apps up:

http://i.imgur.com/8TOIL.jpg

But keep wearing that tinfoil hat brother!

Yeah, because this:

http://imgur.com/a/vK6tr

Looks and functions so much worse than Google Maps. Oh wait, it's better. As far as YouTube, that's Google, not Apple. Apple's license with Google expired, and Google is making an AppStore replacment that will undoubtedly be available by the time iOS 6 launches to the public.

Well, it's barely better than the ASCII Art, but feel free to use this if you want: http://i.imgur.com/U8fjM.png

Also, I like the fact you're trying to address the bag of spilling (package managers) without adding more spill (yet another package manager).

I've tested your alpha - it's unpolished but it works. I wish the best luck.

Did you mean this? If so, you're completely incorrect.

* Give me back my menu bar
* Give me back my status bar
* Stop dicking around with fancy visual effects in the browser window that cause bugs like this: http://i.stack.imgur.com/WPXGe.png
* Switch to a multi-process model so flash and browser bugs don't take down everything in a crash
* Build a proper download feature with the ability to do such basic things as resume http downloads (this should be a core feature, not a plugin)

This is my face when sites insist on using a hash instead of AES-256 or better for encrypting/securing passwords.

My face, look at it.