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Isn't most important astronomy these days done by space-based telescopes?

I'm not exactly an astronomer, more of an enthusiast, but I'd love to be able to buy a good telescope and use it to see brilliant galaxy and nebula images. I can't see shit in the sky around here in Northeast Ohio--and I about shat myself when I saw this image, taken with just a plain camera, with no fucking telescope:

http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/details/2376/the_milky_way_galaxy.html

It really pisses me off that I can't see this kind of clarity, far past Earth's atmosphere and into outer space. I'm lucky that I can see the very "brightest" stars in the sky and maybe a few of the bigger and brighter planets, like Jupiter and Saturn. It fucking sucks. I always thought it was "just that way" until I learned more about light pollution, and some of the from-ground images I've seen on the Internet (including the above) really made me aware of what I've been missing since... well, since I first time I ever looked at the sky.

Yeah, like this one. *ducks*

but that iDeneb project is way cheaper as it does not require a dongle.

Others have found a way to hack their BIOS to use the Apple OEM ID and do their own EFI to run Mac OSX to fool OSX to think it is running on a real Apple Macintosh. The nice thing about EEPROMS is that you can flash update them easily, and anyone who knows machine language can hack their own BIOS file into one that can easily pass for an Apple Macintosh BIOS.

As for people like me, we don't even need a dongle to make our Intel PC turn into an Amiga that is even cooler than an Apple Macintosh running OSX, and has a much lower memory footprint so it runs faster than OSX, and has an interface and look and feel like OSX or Vista, but is 100% free, 100% open source, and 100% legal.

For those who want to pirate OSX, get real, get AROS instead and support AROS developers to develop more AROS drivers and software. Why settle for a monopoly from Microsoft or Apple, when you can be free and use a non-monopoly OS that will run on almost any PC, Mac, Amiga, MIPS, PowerPC, etc system on the market?

You want an alternative to Windows? Wait until ReactOS is done. It will run Windows applications. If you want an alternative to Windows that does not run Windows programs get HaikuOS when it is ready as it is a free and open source BeOS operating system. Once OSFree is finished it will be a free OS/2 open source OS, but I heard they will make it run under Linux to run OS/2 applications. Support your favorite free open source operating system instead of pirating OSX. Who cares enough about bloatware to pirate OSX or Vista, they are both bloated and buggy! If you want a free OS, get a free open source OS as I listed above when they are finished and out of beta testing. If you can't wait join in their beta program and give them feedback on how to fix it, or join the developers to help them get done faster.

Boycott Vista and OSX, and get Linux instead and install a Macintosh skin on Linux instead of pirating OSX.

http://interfacelift.com/themes-mac/

Now before you (or anyone else) point out the obvious that this is a third party solution, I would just like to let it be known that with my XP box I get the choice of Blue or Olive.

I have heard this "windows is more configurable than OS X" mantra far too many times and I think it is missing any merit.

Try this with a Windows app: Right click on the executable, Show Package Contents, navigate to the interface .nib file, open it in Project Builder, modify it, save it, and relaunch the application with your hacked interface.

If you don't like how OS X looks, there are plenty of ways to change it. But people who don't even give Macs a chance from the get-go don't look very hard.

You miss your Internet Exploiter hacks and think Safari must be accepted as-is? Again, you aren't looking very hard.

At least the OS X network preferences/settings are all in one place, as opposed to Windows.

Even the OS X Terminal is way more powerful than Windows' built-in command line! (MS Command Shell notwithstanding, since it's a beta). The irony must be lost on some.

Windows is not lookin' so much more "configurable" now, is it? ;) I admit it's neat that you can interact with any windows app or dll via COM (as long as it's registered correctly! yay registry! not!)- Applescript serves that purpose on Macs but it's a little different.

those tiny icons used all over moden operating systems

This is a defect in your operating system's desktop environment for supporting non-scalable icons. Mac OS X uses 128x128 pixel icons that are scaled as needed, and many Free desktop environments can use scaled-down or even SVG icons.

Oh, and i upped the DPI, which makes a bunch of programs misbehave and look all gross because they expect a certain standard DPI.

If programs require 96dpi, then that's a defect. Don't use those programs, and make sure to report the defect to the publisher.

GUI screenshots.
http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/interface s

Englebart's famous 1968 demo.
http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html

Acorn Archimedes GUI
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~lrtc/computers/acorn_ro/ acorn/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A225785

Knowledge Navigator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_navigator

Apple II GS
http://applemuseum.bott.org/sections/computers/IIg s.html

BeBox
http://www.bebox.nu/history.php

8-1/2: The Plan 9 Window system
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/8%BD/8%BD.pdf

Genera
http://www.geocities.com/mparker762/toys.html

Video Interviews of Early Pioneers
http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/

GUI News
http://interfacelift.com/news/

ZUI's
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/piccolo/applications/in dex.shtml

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Try InterfaceLIFT's stock icon section. they have several sets, all cheaper than stockicons.com. http://interfacelift.com/icons-stock/