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To put it simply, Europe has reduced the reward for developing new prescription drugs, but hasn't reduced the risk, so of course there's more research in the US in prescription drugs. Capitalism is an assertion of individual freedom, while socialism is a sacrificing of individual freedom to satisfy the needs of the collective.

Here's an interesting article that adds support to your argument.

Man...you must be smoking pretty strong stuff to believe that. First off...BONG HITS ARE NOT ILLEGAL! What could be illegal is what's in the bowl. But the actual device itself isn't. At least in some part of the US and most of Canada. There were some strange incidents, like the owner of Chills Cigarette Papers being arrested for "manufacturing drug paraphernalia." And then there was the arrest of Tommy Chong. Christ...who couldn't see THAT one coming. But still, is it necessary? No...pipes and papers could be used for many other things...

The other thing is, and I know this from great experience, you don't need a bong to smoke. Or at least a store-bought bong. Bongs can be made out of a great number of things, all of which look inconspicuous. Besides that, you can use papers to roll a joint; use a regular tobacco pipe; set it on fire and put a bottle with the bottom cut off over it; create a lung with a pop bottle, some tape, an empty bread bag, and a piece of tin foil; you could make a gravity bong with a pop bottle, a bucket, and a piece of tin foil...I could go on, but you get the point. There are a great number of ways to smoke pot. And many don't even require walking into a store...

Look here.

Did the FreeBSIE project give Bill Gates one? :)

Turtles and crocodiles seem to have survived the mass extinction(s) of the dinosaur age quite well. Both are ectotherms, neither migrates especially far. The general "coldbloodedness = vulnerability to the extinction" correlation just plain isn't there. The major case we're talking about, the dinos, is an open question to start with -- cold-blooded? Endotherms? Somewhere in between? Varying by species?

Something on the scale of the impact we're talking about would have all sorts of indirect effects. Mass extinctions, too, are going to be complex events, which is one big reason to be skeptical of any single-impact idea. For my money, what we have is a correlation -- not a causal link we can describe in concrete ways.

The model I always think of is Krakatoa's eruption in 535 AD. Global climate change kicked in just after that -- years without any harvest in Europe, extreme volatility. There are people who think that eruption changed human history: ushered in the "dark ages," partly caused or influenced the rise of Islam, destabilized governments, and so on. Maybe so -- but this is an event well within recorded human history, and it's still pretty doubtful trying to connect all the causes with their effects. That's if we accept the volcano -> weather changes link to start with.

Simple biological example: take ammonites and nautiloids. Similar chambered-shell mollusc floaters, right? Why did ammonites die out after the crateceous event, while at least a few nautiloids didn't? Ammonites were by far the more dominant critters before the extinction. Were there differences in their reproductive strategies, so that Nautiloids could "wait out" a bad phase better? What? It just ain't that simple.

(As far as mammals eating sleeping dinos at night, there were early mammals for a long time during the age of the dinosaurs. The jurassic, at least.)

Our concept of liberty is a somewhat subtle and contradictary thing. It involves tolerance of low-level civil disobediance, basic distrust of all forms of government and law enforcement, and most of all, the understanding that the only true guarantee to liberty is in the Bill of Rights and it's fair interpretation by the courts.

No.

The only true guarantee of liberty is for people -- every one of us, or enough of us to outvote the sniveling scum who bend over for tyranny -- to stand up for it. If you don't vote, you cannot expect the courts to be any good, since elected officials appoint the judges. If you squirm your way out of jury duty, you give up your most potent right of review over the acts of law enforcement and other arms of the government, in exchange for temporary convenience.

Freedom is no more a gift from judges and lawyers than it is a privilege handed out by kings. Freedom is ours by our nature, as long as we care to defend it.

There are four boxes to be used in defense of freedom: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. No, make that: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Use in that order.

Well, the moral of the story, boys and girls, is that you shouldn't trust information you find on-line if you can't verify the source as someone you trust. Simple as that, really...

Online or offline. This isn't anything new here kids. If you put your trust in information whose source or quality can't be confirmed - you are an idiot.

Let me put this into terms that even a slashdot geek could understand:

Would you buy a dual Opteron workstation from some mysterious Romanian in a dark alley? Of course not, because its probably full of potatos. Would you buy a dual Opteron workstation from here or from here? Of course, because these are trusted sources.

Get it now??

Slightly off topic, but somewhat relevant nonetheless.

As many may know, PIT's layout is interesting in that the terminals are separated from the main building (where you check in and stuff) by a subway-like transport. PIT also has a fine foodcourt and many stores like you would find in a mall. Living about a half-hour from the airport, I would occasionally venture down just to get lunch, check out the stores, maybe trade in my money for some Yen and watch planes take off.

Now, that is nearly impossible, considering the security checkpoint is located prior the the transport thingy. This means if you want to eat, check out the stores and watch planes take off, you need to have a boarding pass! I talked to many airport staff over this matter, and they said it is simply too expensive to have it nearer to the terminals, as they would need multiple checkpoints (since the foodcourt-mall thing is in the middle, and terminals are on the sides). Apparently businesses are quite upset as they signed long-term leases for thier stores, as this area used to be accessable to anyone who wanted to spend a day at the airport (and yes, many people used to go to the airport just for shopping and lunch and whatnot). Read some more here.

I guess my point is that free WiFi is dandy and all, but this airport needs more that if they want to stay cutting edge. Letting me eat lunch and shop there would help, but what they really need is THIS!

Examples include the Lockheed Martin IMAX theater and the General Motors Hall of Transportation, $10 million each, and the Fujifilm Giant Panda Conservation Habitat at the National Zoo. ....

In January, a coalition of scholars sent a letter to Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the Smithsonian's chancellor, to protest the way the institution "has allowed its name to be used for donors' commercial purposes, and let donors influence both the nature and content of exhibits. The result is an erosion of the Smithsonian's integrity and of the public's trust."

Another mention of this in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03278/228349.stm
About 3/4 of the way down:

"But at least one potential spammer managed to crack the CAPTCHA test. Someone designed a software robot that would fill out a registration form and, when confronted with a CAPTCHA test, would post it on a free porn site. Visitors to the porn site would be asked to complete the test before they could view more pornography, and the software robot would use their answer to complete the e-mail registration.

It's not a practice that rapidly or easily overcame the CAPTCHA test, but the tactic of getting humans to unwittingly do cognitive work for a computer program inspired ..... "

This is ancient news, it has been mentioned by me on the ASRG list in November and on my blog. The original new article was published by the Post Gazette, and found by Matt McCay in his blog. Liudvikas Bukys mentioned it in his blog also. You might also want to take a look at the W3C draft on why these visual tests do not work for disabled people. And to end this off, the basic premise of C/R is that the return address is valid. Even if spammers break these visual tests, in order to do that, they must have a valid return address - ergo, making them traceable.

From What's an aerogel?:

Lee's Marlborough, Mass., firm specializes in silica aerogels -- "puffed up sand," as he calls it. He calls aerogels the original nanotechnology because the hair-like structures are only a nanometer -- a billionth of a meter -- in diameter and separated by only 20 nanometers.

The spacing is so tight, Lee said, that air molecules don't have much room to vibrate. And if an air molecule can't vibrate, it has trouble exciting other air molecules. And that means, he concluded, that heat and sound are not transmitted readily through an aerogel.

I was curious about the prices, too.

At What's an aerogel?, there is this:

Normally, the blankets are a pricey $45 per square foot.

... The price should drop to about $3 per square foot when a larger production plant is opened. The blankets already are being used in some high-end winter clothing and, if the price comes down, could find their way into hundreds of products, including building insulation, he added.

News Flash: most of our space science comes from unmanned machines such as the Space Telescope, the Mars Spirit Rover, the Stardust comet explorer, and others. Did I mention the Mars Global Explorer, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe satellite, GALEX, the Cassini mission to Saturn, Genesis solar wind sampler, the New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission (planned for 2006), etc, etc. Voyagers 1 and 2 have been operating since 1977 (are they older than you?) and are approaching the heliopause. Now that's what I call space exploration. The truth is, in space, robots rule!

Folks, I'm sorry to inform you; but unless there's serious funding, this is at best a publicity stunt, and at worst a president micro-managing NASA in a way that will get rid of the few remaining actual science programs.

Perhaps the poles were still cold, but the Earth was once hot enough that there were palm trees in Alaska. This was "only" 55 million years ago, much later than Laurasia/Gondwanaland.

Your last big about certain parties and uneducated stupid masses isn't really that specific. On the one hand, we have the Democratic Party and on the other hand, we have President Bush making speeches about his vision for democracy in the middle east, or better yet a speech given to the National Endowment for Democracy. His first words are: The roots of our democracy. I see you don't post much, so I won't call your effort to educate us about the nature of the country flamebait, but the rest of it is partisan bullshit. Which party i'm not sure, but bullshit nonetheless.

Only link I could find

Burnt Umber has apparently been discontinued.

I'm more worried that election officials will throw out my absentee ballot when it is challenged (not to mention, if I'm around my polling place on the day of the election, I CANNOT vote with an absentee ballot.

See http://www.post-gazette.com/election/20031115elect ion1115p1.asp for an example. While there may have been a legal basis for throwing out these votes, I've seen it happen for less savory reasons.

But if you build it in the middle of the desert, you have the exact same problem you have with building other power plants in the middle of nowhere.... transmission lines losses are not trivial. Sure, you can admit losses, but why? Its better to have a distributed generation system, or in this case, a distributed network of receiver dishes. The more dishes, the less of an impact from clouds/fog, less intense beams to carry the power, and no single point of failure like you have with a single large-scale plant. A device like this is *best* in residential area, because it's close to the demand loading, has no visual profile, and emits zero chemical wastes. Not to mention a 100x100 sq ft dish would fit in half an acre of property... compare that to 40 acres for a windfarm.

In support of this, I thought that this article was rather enlightening, with a russian spacecraft expert saying that he did initially rule out the possibility of Kosmos 96, but that after further research determined that the Canadian impact could have been the booster, and this the actual satelite.

"A famous UFO case may actually involve a real U.S. government cover-up, but UFO buffs are on the wrong side. Instead of exposing the truth, they may be unwitting pawns in deception."

No wonder america is so screwed up, we got the govt controlling booze in 18 states. How bass-ackwards are you people to let the govt control something it has no business doing. Do all cigarrette packs go through govt warehouses to get taxed and resold? Do all cars? Why is alcohol so special?

it gets even worse. the president of the store manager union in PA went on record as being opposed to a plan to open up (oh my god!) state stores in grocery stores. basically, they would operate as their own entities, and you'd pay for the alcohol separately.

the moron started clamoring about underage drinking and even said the state wanted to sell "more of the drug alcohol".

That would be Article III??

You mean like Canada?

We haven't gone over to full-blown socialism, but we have taken a number of valuable steps in that direction. For example, we have our (not perfect, but really quite good) free health care--which people are unafraid to call 'socialized medicine'. In general, Canada takes a more liberal stance on issues than the United States while having an equally diverse (geographically and ethnically) population.

Regrettably I must leave for work, but an amusing take on your Commie neighbours to the North can be found here.

Thank you for this long, elaborate answer. Top that up with Wind power, Tidal power, Hydro-electric, then make sure houses use energy saving lightbulbs, are well insulated, etc, and you can have a national energy system wihich needs little or no coal/oil/nuclear.

Actually, hydro-electricity is used as much as it can now. Every new dam implementation is an environmentally dangerous project, especially in Europe.

As for alternate source of productions, let's see. France generated 517 TWh in 2000, 76% of this nuclear. I don't have more recent figure. For the UK, the figure is probably similar since the UK has a larger GNP than France. The country has an area of 500,000 km^2. That's 517*10^12/365/(500000*10^6) = 2.84 W/m2. Now, if you factor by the usual availablity factor (70% efficiency, 8h/day, 120 day/year), you find that a solar generation density would have to be an average of 37W/m^2. How much solar panels would that mean? Well, the best solar panels out there generate about 200W/m^2. Some say 400 W/m^2 is reachable in the desert, provided you use arsenide panels, but these panels release arsenic. Let's retain 300 W/m^2. 37/300 is 12%. So you'd have to cover 12% of the territory with the best available solar panels in the world to reach that kind of power generation.

It is theoretically feasible, but the inhabitant of this one eight of the land would be pretty pissed off. The cost would be staggering. To give you an idea, the total area of all semiconductors manufactured in the world in 2000 is a couple of square kilometers (look up silicon wafer production stats).

Solar energy production is only viable in space. Once we have cheap access to space, it becomes feasable to deploy very large solar arrays in space that can operate 24 hr/day and beam their current production as microwave to receivers on Earth. That's the cleanest energy. But that's still far away, alas.

Regarding MOX: The technique you describe sounds good in theory, but in practice reprocessing still generates unacceptable levels radioactive pollution and waste that is still very difficult to deal in practice

Yet something has to be done to consume the stockpile of plutonium. Even if tomorrow, little green men pop up and give us a solar energy-generating space station, we'll still have the plutonium stockpile problem. Now some people say we have to bury it. This is a cop-out. Who knows where it will leak? Moreover, future scientific breakthroughs might find a solution that elude us today to turn plutonium into something less toxic -- provided their crazy ancestors didn't dump it in a geological fault. Right now, MOX is the only existing process to reduce the plutonium stockpile. A sad and imperfect reality, as often.

And the point is - why bother with nuclear, why take the risk?

Because I prefer to be downwind of a nuclear power plant than from a coal power plant. Or a heavy fuel power plant. Both pollute enormously, directly or indirectly. See the Prestige tanker still barfing heavy fuel pellets on French beaches? It was loaded with heavy fuel for a power plant. As for coal, by burning millions of tons of it, we release more naturally-occuring uranium every year than Chernobyl ever spilled, as you probably know. And look at the pollution by coal mine fires.

It's an imperfect world. Until we have clean power, we have to find a way to generate it. Nuclear is the less polluting alternative. Yeah, I know, Chernobyl yada yada, but in July, 58 people died in China in a coal mine accident, as an example off the top of my head. Civil nuclear energy still has to kill as many people as the oil and coal power plants do.

Ok, I will get off by soap box now.. :-)

I appreciate that you took the time to present your arguments. Thank you.

-- SysKoll

• Article 1
• Article 2
• Article 3
• Article 4
• Google news search

I'll see your lame link and raise you the truth.

Truth? The link you provided doesn't include any more truth than the Wired story, just that he plead guilty, instead of continuing to be held indefinitely against his will.

You're aware that a confession doesn't necessarily mean that the person is guilty, right? (And don't think that this doesn't happen in the US.

"limited" access is not the same as "no access,"

So, it's OK to violate someone's constitutional rights, as long as it's only a little bit, right?

Here's an actual link to get around slashdot's moronic submitter:

Slashdot user "wik" has a five digit user ID and can't make a damn hyperlink.

Gwendolyn Schmidt is arrested yesterday after about 200 anti-war protesters marched without a permit from Pittsburgh into Swissvale. Police used pepper spray against the marchers and arrested three of them. (Tony Tye, Post-Gazette)

Alas, china has a long history of coverups - the Great Firewall of China being the most spectular. Last year they China invited the U.N. to investigate allegations of human rights abuse. Alas, with this so called 'war on Terror' the outcome has been forgotten.

Btw, The US also has censorship problems. Just look at how american news sources acted over Iraq - did a single mainsteam journalist criticize the government's plan?

i have the urge to start planting high risk caches, like hidden in the park ranger's car or inside a police station bathroom maybe. how about daredevil caches, atop suspension bridges or skyrises, inside the house of a really pissed off rottweiler, or at the far end of a shooting range?

remember mook?

then people would start dying trying to do geocaches, that'll have some serious effect on geocachers. imagine the community it would create though, imagine elite geocachers who have planted and tackled the most insane caches. geocaching bragging rights baby!

time to go buy some tupperware and a gps unit!

Never did I say there was no such thing as a "vodka martini." I only stated that a martini -- a true martini -- is made with gin, not vodka. As another poster noted, vodka martinis were popularized by the James Bond movies. However a martini is gin, vermouth, and a garnish (usually an olive).

this article sheds some light on the subject

so does this one

Finally, I quote from GrumbleMagazine.com:


1. Don't try to be James Bond. Sean Connery is the only one in the world who can say the words "shaken, not stirred" without looking like an idiot. Watch Roger Moore try it. You'll laugh yourself silly. Just imagine what your date must think of you when you try it. Just order a Martini. If your bartender says "want that shaken?" only then may you say "that's fine." Notice that the proper answer is not "yes, please." That is because Martinis are supposed to be stirred. Shaking introduces tiny air bubbles, which can make the deliciously clear beverage cloudy for a while. But it won't taste any different; shaking does not "bruise" the gin. How can you bruise gin, anyway? It's liquor, not fruit.
2. You've noticed I mentioned gin, but not vodka. That is because vodka Martinis are silly (yes, James Bond drank them. See #1 above). Good vodka has no flavor; its main purpose is to give screwdrivers their drive. Bad vodka has a flavor, of sorts, but why would you want to drink bad vodka? Similarly, why would you want to drink a Martini that tasted just like vermouth? If you like the taste of vermouth so much, just drink it straight. And when ordering a Martini, do yourself a favor and ask for a call brand. Well gin tastes like turpentine.
3. Martinis come with olives (there should be three of them, but if your friendly neighborhood bartender gives you only one, don't argue; you want him or her to be your friend). If you don't want the olives, don't eat them. But don't say, "hold the olives." It makes you look like a child. Similarly, if you want a Martini with pearl onions instead of olives, ask for a Gibson. That's what it's called.
4. Apart from Gibsons, there are exactly two other acceptable alternatives. The Cosmopolitan is a delicious, if overly trendy, drink made with vodka (acceptable in this case, but only because of all the fruit flavors), cranberry juice, lime juice and sugar. Using lemon flavored vodka works well. Do not call it a Cosmopolitan Martini, and never call it "that Martini drink with cranberry and stuff in it." The other alternative is the Manhattan. A Manhattan is made with whiskey (again, ask for a call brand) and sweet vermouth. It is Dr. Wombat's personal favorite. Especially because Dr. Wombat's fiancée enjoys its garnish, a thoroughly whiskey-soaked cherry*. Do not call it a Whiskey Martini. You'll look silly, which runs contrary to the whole purpose of having these drinks.
5. There is no such thing as a Chocolate Martini. I don't care if your girlfriends all drink it. It doesn't exist.

Wow, that's a really bad example. Fallingwater is having serious structural issues...sorta just like all those non-FLW engineers thought it would.

Link.

Sorry, I haven't seen it (the story of my life since the twins were born :-) so I can't comment directly. However, I did do some searching and found some pages (here and here) that praised it for not having any foul language at all but I did find one that said it had two "profanities" in it but that it was "an excellent pick for families". Sounds like the G-rating is working.

I know the rating system isn't perfect but I believe that since Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" the MPAA has been pretty strict about G ratings.

You are, of course, absolutely correct. Which is why President Boy George *HAS* to destroy the economy enough to get a million more Americans unemployed by the middle of next year. Only poor people (for the most part) will take the risks necessary to be soldiers. Or as the famous sign goes that got a man jailed at a pro-Bush rally for the crime of sedition, "The Bushes must truly love the poor -- they've made so many of us."

If you give a man the choice between his family starving to death, and joining the Army, he will be happy to join the Army, and will do what it takes to stay in the Army, including killing plenty of Jews^h^h^h^hMuslims (whoops, sorry, got caught in a 70 year old time warp). The same deal is why Reagan torpedoed the economy in the early 80's when he needed to build up the U.S. military to the point where it would be capable of taking on the Soviet menace (as defined by the CIA's ridiculous exaggerated Soviet military strength figures, which had the Soviets aiming close to a million tanks at Western Europe). What, you don't remember Reagan torpedoing the economy in the early 80's? Tsk tsk. What a short memory you have...

I'd've voted for the guy if he were even slightly not a Republican.

Actually there's a whole set of rules in admiralty for salvage rights over wrecks. This has come up more and more often as folks like Ballard locate old wrecks like Spanish galleons loaded with gold more easily. The disputes can get a little complicated.

Think of the ship at the bottom as not lost but in long-term storage. Just because someone can get to it before you can doesn't make it theirs. Access is not ownership. But if someone finds the wreck, they should be able to sell that information to the owner.

No, I can't justify these ancient rules. Changes may be in the wind.

a responsible, efficient agricultural conglomerate like Archer-Daniels-Midland
You are kidding, right?
Are we talking about the same ADM that had multiple senior executives convicted of fraud and price fixing? You know, the one case where their behavior was so bad that they're serving jail time. The same one that is considered a willful and determined sabotager of the family farm? The company that pushed for and got mandatory government support of gasahol based on their crops that cost two to three times the cost of petroleum?
No, maybe you're talking about the ADM that has used massive political contributions to cripple the production, pricing and availability of sugar in the United States, thereby not only leavng us with food products made with high fructose corn syrup (purchased from them, of course) that makes our food taste worse here and sell worse overseas, but also provides a major source of income for hard-core right-wing Cuban emigres for them to use to fund Iran-Contra and Latin American death squads.
No, perhaps you were thinking about their key role in funding Bob Dole's crushing of John McCain's push for campaign finance reform.
Impossible. You were probably thinking of this ADM, the one that has spread consistent misinformation about genetically modified crops, thereby making it much harder for those who are honestly trying to use genetic engineering to help their fellows.
Unless, of course, you're talking about the company whose role in the use of bovine growth hormone puts them on the top of the list for reasons that many American teenagers are now on a constant course of drugs just from the stuff they absorb from eating at places like McDonald's.
Sure, perhaps the worst company in America this side of Waste Management and Microsoft for ubiquitious and culturally supported corruption. A place that considers undermining of efficient government and an honest media right up there with price fixing and destructive competition as daily goals. Definitely the people *I* want running a crucial new social function.

Better go back and take some of those M.B.A. classes again. Sounds like you missed a few bits here and there.
Rustin

Of course I've visited their site. And I've talked to engineers who work in the field. The point isn't whether they can do neat stuff, but the bang for the buck. If we'd put the energy into automation that we have manned spaceflight, I bet we'd be doing far more with robots or remote control. Hey, we recently achieved the first long-distance surgery!

I was pretty surprised that the Russians used unmanned ships to resupply Mir, I don't recall the US having that capability. (Yes, there was that one that rammed Mir.) I bet they did it to save money.

ISS is a cool program, but a lot of good science is being sidelined.

The secret behind the technology is the speed at which the successive impulses are sent -- up to 1,000 Hertz," UCL said in a statement.

Here's one story

Plenty of other schools [Bucknell, Penn State, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, U of Florida, ...] have had this stuff for a long time now.

Yes, the article's interesting if you're into networking and/or wireless data transmission, but their explicit focus on Dartmouth makes it seem as though they're unique and trendsetting. It's quite the contrary, however, as Dartmouth was in no way one of the first handful of schools to deploy 802.11b.

Kudos to Wired! for running a contemporary article that talks a lot about the current state of wireless/laptop/learning at top colleges, but I feel that could have at least given credit to other schools that were at least equally as deserving.

Thanks for listening.

lots

Screw robots, what about the saga of lobsterboy? Can you believe this is a respected CS school? My parents called, they want their $120,000 back.

Intrigue

Drunken Misadventure

Vow of silence broken

a new beginning

To counteract some of the (apparently uninformed) negative comments I've seen, check out this article on the same subject from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Let's see, reasonable prices... $299 for XP Pro Vs. $129 for Mac OS X.

Stability? Ha ha ha ha ha! Yeah, ok.

Multimedia Answers: Macintosh poses fewer problems than Windows

"If you are looking for a new computer and are open to a superior ownership and computing experience, look at an Apple before you buy," states Don Lindich of the Post-Gazette. The "Switch" campaign struck a chord because "with a Mac, programs and peripherals install without fuss, and there are no more missing .dll files, hardware or software conflicts, system slowdowns or surprise crashes. The last time I was forced to reboot my Macintosh was eight months ago, and it was my fault that it crashed."

"When I use a Windows machine, I have to reboot two or three times a day. Though Macs are the computer of choice of most creative professionals in the art, advertising, music, movie and publishing worlds, it seems to me that home users need them the most."

"Not only do Macs really work, they are effortlessly intuitive and fun to use. Switching to Macintosh, I traded Windows' 'Blue Screen of Death' for the Mac OS X (OS 10) 'Blue Screen of Life,' as I like to call it."

Why don't you just come out and say there's more software for you to pirate! Be honest now.

I'd agree with you more if people like my favorite CMU professor didn't do things like this.

The news is not that terrabit densities have been achieved
Yeah; that's not news. Terrabit=piece of Earth. Not that dense at all, cosmically speaking.
No, I'm not blaming you. I'm not even blaming He Who Posted the Story. I figure it's a new US law, or something. Like the one that requires every american to spell 'lose' with two Os.

Suppose I'd better say something partially constructive. Here's the story from about six months ago.

Interesting story about BOB. You every wonder where you got that paperclip in Word? BOB. Ever wonder who the project lead for BOB was? Bill Gates' wife was responsible for the paper clip. Really, it's true.

Melinda French Gates was a project lead on MS Bob (you have to remember MicroSoft Bob -- it was that cartoony software that slowed your machine to a crawl and insulted you while balancing your checkbook or reading email). When Bob was revealed to be the complete and utter turkey that it was always destined to be, guess what got some of the "usability and human interface" stuff? Office. Guess who happened to also be, ah, "seeing" The Boss? Melinda. Why wasn't Bob just canned, like any other project that wastes millions and failed completely? You have to wonder if Bill G wasn't getting pillow-talked into something. In fact, MS Bob was the first consumer product Bill Gates released personally. People do the strangest things for love.

Anyway, a lot of what Bob had to offer didn't get canned (as it should have). It got repuposed and wound up in other MS products. Take a look at the screenshot on this page. See that dog in the lower corner? That was Bob's dog Rex. (I wish they had a picture of the dragon named "Java"; I wonder if McNealy every knew about that?) Looks like that paper clip, eh? Bob's ghost is in other stuff, too. MS Agent had a re-incarnation.

Well this is all way OT. But I think the Bob fiasco sheds some light on what goes on at MS. There's really no reason to wonder about the pape clip. I'm sure Melinda will insist on touchy-feely stuff being included in every MS product. I love it when someone thinks for me...

-B

Counterpoint. I was CEO, later CTO, of a startup. I missed my paycheck from time to time, though my employees never did for more than a few days.

The result? We were eventually bought by Red Hat ( Pgh Post Gazzette article ) and the employees with stock benefitted.

The moral? Every situation is different. Duh.

Hey, it's just a link. Not my opinion.