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If there were Americans to fill these spots, I wouldn't doubt that they'd be filled by Americans.

If we can't fill our jobs with our own people, then there is something seriously wrong with our education system that needs to be addressed immediately. Basic economics indicates that opening the job market up to competition would be the fastest and most effective way to make this happen.

Yes, I think you are lying. I think you couldn't cut it at a community college.

Please quote one of my posts where I said one without a degree could not be successful. Or, better yet, quote where I said that success was only measured through money. I never made either of those points.

Statistically speaking, I am right. Look it up.

You are beneath me in any measure of quality.

If the US Federal government wants to get serious about cyber-security, they should refrain from firing competent staff such as Shawn Carpenter for doing their job. Current US law hinders counter-intelligence operators from gathering information and countering these attacks, since it is illegal to gain unauthorized access to the perpetrators' machines!

This means that security personnel who are doing their job to combat these attacks risk losing their job and even criminal prosecution.

Although Shawn Carpenter lost his job at the Sandia National Laboratory, he was eventually awarded $4 million for his termination which was found to be"malicious, willful, reckless, wanton, fraudulent or in bad faith."

The US intelligence community and Federal beaurocracy needs to wise up. National secrets are leaking like a sieve while the shortage of qualified operators continues to increase, and the beaurocrats are too busy covering their asses and fighting turf wars to do anything about it.

I repeat: go to any cell phone store and ask to see a smartphone; they won't just point you to the $20 phone with a built-in calendar.

Of course not, but I ask you again -- what core functionality does a Blackberry or Treo have that an iPhone does not? Other than the ability to install 3rd party software or to interface with specific software (i.e. Exchange servers) there's nothing.

As for the RAZR: running third party software isn't the only requirement of a smartphone, it's just one of them.

Well, then give me a definition of smartphone that includes a Treo and a Blackberry but not an iPhone or a RAZR that doesn't rely on whatever a salesperson steers you towards. Salespeople are not usually considered the rod to measure a standard by. Furthermore, it's going to be very hard to find a salesperson that going to have the option of steering you towards an iPhone on display for several months, now isn't it?

None of these definitions seem to exclude the iPhone. This definition doesn't seem to conflict. Neither does this one. Nor this one. Not this one either.

In fact, I'd say that if none of the definitions on the first page of a Google search for "smartphone definition" manages to turn up a definition that matches your concept, then I'd say that the common definitions of a smartphone include the iPhone. Admit it; you just have a feature wishlist that the iPhone doesn't meet. That in no way means that it isn't a high-end model that provides more than enough functionality to be considered a smartphone.

Following the Code Red and Nimda attacks of 2001, Gates launched Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative with a well-documented January 2002 memo urging Microsoft employees to refocus on ensuring security across the software giant's product line.

"The worms in 2003 showed there's a long way to go before Windows is secure, and [they] prompted Microsoft to refocus on improving security," Gartner analyst John Pescatore said in his report. "By 2005, Microsoft's server software products will be at or above the industry security average."

Sorry to ruin your joke, but that would work if you used Unipolar Baseband Signaling (send 1 volt for a "1" bit, 0 volts for a "0" bit).

You could also use a light on dark color scheme instead of dark on light (i.e., the white background & black text most websites use) if your monitor uses less energy for darker pixels (which I believe some types actually do).

Try this.

I sort of doubt that any more than a handful of small companies do that but irregardless, I *believe* (though IANAL or an MS licensing expert) that you would still need CAL's for those people. I don't think it would be any different than if you had people running Thunderbird connecting to Exchange via IMAP, or people that just used OWA (which is sort of what Evo. does). Those people are still accessing Exchange, and they still need licenses to access Exchange. However, from a quick google, I think that in versions of Exchange prior to 2007 (ie 2003 and earlier), the Exchange CAL included a license for Outlook. Here's a page with more details: http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483, sid43_gci1099509,00.html?bucket=ETA&topic=300583

how many Libraries of Congress you can fit into an elephant with this technology.

Well, this page estimates LoC at 10 terabytes, which works out to 81920 gigabits. According to the article, a bit density of 100 gigabits per square inch means that you'd need 819.20 square inches to store the Library of Congress.

According to this page, an elephant can reach 11 feet tall, or 132 inches, and 30 feet long, or 360 inches. According to this page, an elephant can reach 6'4" wide, or 76 inches. That's a dimension of 132 x 360 x 76 inches, or 3,611,520 square inches — assuming cubic elephants (there's a phrase you don't hear every day!).

Given these figures, a reasonable first guess would be that you could fit approximately 4,400 Libraries of Congress into an elephantine memory circuit. Or, if you prefer to work with more manageable quantities, 4.4 megalocs per kilophant.

How long before Google add LoCs to their calculator?

>>Length and weight are easy

I take it you mean lengh and mass.

>>Tell me, what's the metric unit for time?

It's the second. If you have ever taken a look at the MKS system (Meters, Killograms, Seconds), it makes physics so much easyer. All units can be expressed in MKS units.

1 Joule is the amount of energy required to raise 1kg to a height of 1m.

1 Newton is the unit of force required to produce an acceleration of 1 meter per socond on a mass of one killogram.

It's not an "idiot use". It's a valid use.

http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalCon tent/0,289142,sid39_gci1157697,00.html Sorry, NASA used Linux.

Correction, it should be "GMPLS/Lambda".

It seems unfortunate that The Tech Report is the one that has to step up and measure energy efficiency. OK, so AMD is more efficient at idle and Xeon is more efficient at 100%. Who ever really runs at either of those levels? What about 10%, 20%, 30%, etc. Those are real-life utilization rates. SPEC is looking into doing something. So is the EPA. Maybe they can get together and figure it out.

Isn't this the same as Linux virtual address randomization that works without BIOS?

EnterpriseDB goes mission critical at Sony Online Entertainment
By Jack Loftus, News Writer

Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), the online games giant responsible for popular games like Everquest 2 and Star Wars Galaxies, will migrate to open source EnterpriseDB Advanced Server 8.1.

[...] "There is certainly demand picking up for open source databases, and we are going to be seeing more and more of these larger companies adopting an open source database strategy," Yuhanna said. "With Sony -- it was dealing with lots of data -- online gaming data -- and paying $40,000 a processor to a company like Oracle, and that certainly was adding up."

http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalCon tent/0,289142,sid39_gci1174189,00.html

Someone has NO CLUE how coders think. And this made it to the front page of slashdot how, exactly?

Heh, you demonstrate you're on the list too. Listing a few disadvantages of starting a business doesn't give the whole story. For example, look at the founders of Google. They got a number of things from starting Google. First, they get a big share of the value that Google provides. Being an owner does pay better than being an employee. They get to shape Google culture and create the wonder that you work in. They get first dibs on all the ideas you come up with. How many tens of thousands of PCs does Google use? How much of an impact does googling have on society? That's a whole new level of awesome. The business challenges that Google faces, while different from coding puzzles, can still be engaging for some programmers.

My take is that Google is fundamentally limited as it currently is structured. It sells ads tied to search results (to my knowledge). Nor do I see significant spinoffs (ie, new businesses) from Google (from my limited viewpoint, side products either looks to be synergistic with Google's core business such as Google Mail or mostly unsupported hobby-like projects such as Google Maps or the API stuff).

Some of this stuff could be spun off as a stand-alone business mostly owned by Google and the employees. So there's an outlet for risk-takers at Google and it gives Google a limited risk environment to try out interesting concepts that would otherwise distract from its core business. If the business does well, the Google has a number of options for what to do with it. Eg, truly spin it off by selling their share to someone or on some market, fold it back into the company (eg, buy out the other owners of the company), or keep things as they are.

OTOH, the only experience I have of this kind was a failed unit in Hewlett Packard, E-Speak Operations which attempted to create an open source framework for business level communications over the internet, originally the communication protocol was original though in the last part of its life, they switched to an XML-based protocol. It failed IMHO because it didn't fill a current need of customers (much of the development had been done in something of a vacuum), but the idea was that it would be a "start-up" with the resources of Hewlett-Packard behind it. There's a good chance someone from that group is in Google. I have a crude idea of what Google hires and I think around 30 people from that group would have been interesting to Google, maybe more, and at least half left HP sometime after the merger with Compaq. Fair odds then given that the overall population would be rather small. Some other companies probably had the same idea during the dotcom bubble.

The article confuses many terms and standards. The following is my amateur understanding, based on substantial research a few years ago:

Almost all digital audio you hear, including on CDs, is recorded using Pulse Code Modulation (PCM).

Audio on CDs (CD-DA or "Compact Disc Digital Audio") is stored using the Red Book Audio standard.

A WAV file does not reproduce the bits on the CD; it reproduces the bits output by the CD reader. The Red Book standard uses out-of-order and redundant bits to preserve integrity; the reader interprets the Red Book data into a simpler stream of bits, like WAV.

By the way, if you want to get a perfect rip of a CD, try Exact Audio Copy (EAC).

3. Buy a Windows machine, and put it behind a $20 router with a built-in firewall.

I wouldn't put so much faith in those $20 routers. They too are vulnerable to exploits, but routers will never get patched. IIRC, Linksys manuals even tell the user to never do a firmware upgrade since it might brick the device.

Maybe the router itself isn't powerful enough of a platform to be a spam relay or help in a DDoS, but once it's compromised it can give an attacker unhindered local access to your network. Reinstalling your desktop OS won't fix this problem.

Hmmmmm

To the best of my knowledge storing data as spin, therefore creating transistors the size of atoms* will, at the very least, bypass the limitations of the current transistors measured in nanometers. A Nanometer is 10 to the -9th power of a meter**. An atom is approximately 10 to the -11th power of a meter***. Therefore this technology, when fully functional would theoretically allow two orders of magnitude greater number of transistors per area of measurement.
So if a Pentium IV has approximately 42million transistors**** it could (in theory) contain 42,000,000 to the 2nd power more transistors.
Accept the increase is far greater than this because the P IV die process is 0.18 microns which is 180 nanometers (if I'm correct). So the actual increase in available transistors per area of measurement would be more on the order of 42,000,000 to the 5th power: 5,489,031,744,000,000 transistors (well atoms).

Now add to that the current problems with heat. I would expect (although I most definitely do not remember/know the laws of thermodynamics well enough to do more than vague speculation) that the amount of heat created by such a quantum system would be impressively small compared to the current system... although I would conjecture there are limitations to speed when measuring and changing spin... this would hugely increase the ability to clock the processor higher (an over abundance of heat is the primary limiting factor in clocking the processor system higher).

Wow, so now I am looking forward to having my conjecture ripped to pieces by those who actually know :D.

I hope that's at least a little helpful

*(although I think of spin being associated with quarks, a much smaller, sub-atomic particle... obviously a hole in my knowledge)

**Nanometer: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gc i514407,00.html

***Atom, Size of: http://trshare.triumf.ca/~safety/EHS/rpt/rpt_1/nod e7.html

**** http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:foWPHOKFqoMJ:w ww.soc.staffs.ac.uk/mss1/hsn/hsn-lect9.ppt+transis tors+in+a+Pentium+IV&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2&clie nt=firefox-a

Well, I'm not a Symantec salesperson, but apparently, such a feature is on the way.

And to be fair to the other vendors, companies such as McAfee are also addressing this issue.

1. The solution generally assumes that everyone opts-in. This is impossible. Not everyone is going to buy a new device to assist in traffic tracking. If an existing device, not everyone is going to have that device.

2. The tracking accuracy of the device or measurement system is poor. Look at this article. 330 feet? In places where traffic is congested, 330 feet can cover 6 streets.

3. Who is going to pay for this? Fine, you could technically get some traffic statistics if your device magically worked and everyone participated. Is it actually a sustainable business? Doubt it.

4. How much is it going to cost? We are talking a lot of bandwidth here to be getting enough data (and through low/expensive bandwidth mediums like cell networks, et cetera), and a lot of processing of that data against geographic databases to be able to do any meaningful data analysis.

5. So let's say you took care of the technical hurdles and had a lot of data and processed it and you had a great map of traffic in the local metro region. You are now parked on your ass in the operation center viewing your beautiful map, which is great and all, except you aren't driving and everyone who is driving has no idea how beautiful your map is. How are you going to get this information to people who are actually, you know, in traffic?

6. As a follow up of (5), let's say that you had a little printer in everyone's car and printed out your beautiful map right to their passenger seat. They pick it up, and while they are googling at its beauty and trying to locate where they are on the map, they plow right into the back of oil truck, explode, and die. Thanks, you just caused a huge backup, asshat. Assuming you get the information to the drivers, how are they going to be able to interpret the data with minimal attention while they are, you know, driving?

Reverse the charges on your credit card asap. Then, let your domain expire and snipe your own domain back with another registrar.

http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinitio n/0,,sid26_gci810538,00.html

There is a probability that it won't work, but there's not much else to do without a team of lawyers.

Good luck.

-m

Take a look at this for an allegedly unbiased opinion (but who knows what is shilling and what is real these days?!).

J.

like it's time to go with open source routing!

In fact, this has been done before.

Even if usually, those Antivirus-Cards were simple cards with BIOS updates protecting the boot sector, and sometimes boot code to perform some scans before the OS kicks in. No CPU to take the load.

But this idea is also implement in real hardware in some dedicated firewalls (that can unload the SPAM and Virus filtering job from the main mail server).

Maybe this kind of job can be done with a special upgrade for the 'firewall/router-on-a-card' type of NICs like the EtherKiller. Someone want to port clamscan to EK's embeded linux ?

That's old news
Adam Stubblefield, a Johns Hopkins University doctoral student, along with Yosh Kohno from the University of California, San Diego, last year produced a report detailing the security problems with Diebold Election Systems' source code after it was left on an open FTP server and eventually leaked to the Internet.

Here's another one:
Gary McGraw, CTO of Cigital Inc., cited the formerly proprietary code that runs Diebold Election Systems' AccuVote-TX electronic voting machines as an example. A voting activist was able to download the source code from a Diebold FTP site, which led to the exposure of a number of security flaws in the software and widespread questions about the accuracy of the machines and the integrity of votes cast with them.

That's old news
Adam Stubblefield, a Johns Hopkins University doctoral student, along with Yosh Kohno from the University of California, San Diego, last year produced a report detailing the security problems with Diebold Election Systems' source code after it was left on an open FTP server and eventually leaked to the Internet.

Here's another one:
Gary McGraw, CTO of Cigital Inc., cited the formerly proprietary code that runs Diebold Election Systems' AccuVote-TX electronic voting machines as an example. A voting activist was able to download the source code from a Diebold FTP site, which led to the exposure of a number of security flaws in the software and widespread questions about the accuracy of the machines and the integrity of votes cast with them.

"No firewall can keep all hackers out." With these words, security consultant Bob Toxen began his sermon, or workshop, on the "seven deadly sins" of Linux security. Any IT manager who commits one of these sins will "get nailed sooner or later,"

"Let me introduce you to the six dumbest ideas in computer security. What are they? They're the anti-good ideas. They're the braindamage that makes your $100,000 ASIC-based turbo-stateful packet-mulching firewall transparent to hackers"

'"Enumerating Badness" is the idea behind a huge number of security products and systems, from anti-virus to intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, application security, and "deep packet inspection" firewalls'

The link is old:

The Windows XP Product Activation Code is based on a combination of 10 system hardware settings, including CPU, NIC card, RAM, Video card, sound card, etc., If your machine has a PCMCIA slot (most laptops), you can change 9 of the 10 items before you need to reactivate XP. For most desktop systems, you can change up to six items, however changing the same component repeatedly counts only as one change. Also, adding additional components doesn't count as a change. If you purchased a new PC with Windows XP preloaded from the manufacturer, the product ID is linked to the BIOS, so you can technically change as many hardware components as you wish, as long as you don't change the system BIOS. Windows XP FAQ

I believe that if your XP hardware configuaration remains reasonably stable for four to six months any changes will be grandfathered in.

And it has a Linux 2.4.20 kernel on it, or at least the one I have has.

A Motorola page about it, which may not even be the most complete or detailed page:

http://direct.motorola.com/ENG/Web_full_specs.asp? Country=GBR&language=ENG&productid=29784&strPrimar yOption=FS&lSecondaryOption=-1

One that isn't true anymore on that page is that the flashcard maxes out at 512MB, because I have a 1GB micro-SD card and it works fine (it is sort of slow to index it when filled up, but it works).

And in 2005 it even got the Silver Medal for Products of the Year 2005, PDAs and smartphones:

http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/produc tsOfTheYearCategory/0,294802,sid40_tax302454_ayr20 05,00.html

I am very happy with it because it is so full of functionality, but I only wish that Motorola would continue developing and fixing the software, because it has some annoying things to it when using it a lot, eg. the calendar and phonebook should be more flexible in configuartion, and they should equip it with more RAM so it could run the USB connection and/or GPS functions at the same time as other applications.

All in all it is a great piece, but I only wish Motorola would finish it, as it so far SW wise only seems 95% complete. It is the only mobile phone with Bluetooth that I know of, that will connect to any other mobile I have tested it against, whereas other Motorola/Nokia/SonyEricsson seems to get into trouble some time or another.

The only thing it misses to be real modern even today (except for a little more RAM) is A2DP (Hi-Fi Stereo Bluetooth), and if that could be put into it, it would really kick ass, and I wouldn't be so worried about missing WiFi, or about Nokias N95 with its 5mpix autofocus camera (A780 only has 1.3mpix fixed focus), because the A780 has a real PC/PDA feel to it whereas N95 with its Symbion60 probably is more like a regular mobile. And then I would choose the A780's Linux/Qt UI anyday!

Where's the study/chart contrasting VMWare with Xen virtualization?

Probably in the section that's prominently labelled "RELATED CONTENT" that directly follows the article? A virtual representation of the relevant link:

How does Xen stack up against Virtual Server, VMware?

Shame they require registration.

At any rate, I'm sure everyone would agree that the vwmare Wikipedia Article is probably the most comprehensive source for information. Comparisons with other technologies are included.

Support contracts can be bought - that seems to be the point of Vyatta:
http://www.vyatta.com/products/plans.php And, according to the original article (which you obviously did not read) the support is pretty good so far:
http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalCon tent/0,289142,sid39_gci1218088,00.html

Read the content instead of just pushing flamebait y0u n00b :)

It sure looks like Vyatta offers support products for the OSS router:
http://www.vyatta.com/products/

That seems to separate them from other OSS projects that don't have commercial support options. And, the source article seems to state the support (so far) is pretty good:
http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalCon tent/0,289142,sid39_gci1218088,00.html

The source is http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/ I bet it's a completly impartial article. Yeah!

I have direct evidence that some parts of the DOD engine is paying for products with open source compenents. Unfortunately, I can't go into details (yet).

Here is a link to an article about the Pentagon (DoD) using a solution from Arbor Networks products to deal with the Welchia worm. Arbor Networks supplies two product lines, both of which are built on open source platforms according to the info on the public Website. In particular, the one they are using is built on a hardened Linux distribution with quite a few open source and closed source packages installed. (Disclaimer, I'm posting AC because I work at Arbor Networks.) I can't imagine we're the only company that sells them open source based tools.

Read these:
DirecWay info - http://www.fchorizon.com/direcway.html
STARBand info - http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinitio n/0,,sid26_gci560980,00.html
Why communications birds use Geostationary orbits - http://celestrak.com/columns/v04n07/

IIS is only more vulnerable because lots of people like to mouth off about MS being vulnerable. In reality 'the platforms are almost equally vulnerable to attacks' http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483, sid14_gci1114647,00.html

If you google it youll come up with more. ISS and Apache are very much on equal footing.

Any ERP worth its salt has a Unix port and Linux is easy to port from Unix, so this shouldn't be a problem. Since 2000, most ERPs have moved towards web based solutions, so this should be even less of a problem on the client side. WINE is just a wrong-headed approach. It's nothing more than a stop-gap for a reverse engineered moving target that changes at Microsoft's whims and for Microsoft's convenience. Win32 is also becoming less and less relevant in the MS world as .NET starts exerting its influence. I'd have a hard time justifying Linux for enterprise-wide deployment if I had to rely on WINE as an argument. If your ERP is deep in bed with Microsoft and you don't plan on changing, there it's likely that your vendor is also deeply int .NET. If that's the case, then its your job to petition that your vendor to fully support Mono 1.x or Mono 2.x on a non-Microsoft platform. It's not perfect, but it will buy you freedom and security. If they don't do that, then I strongly suggest on finding a vendor that isn't so shortsighed and ignores its customers and migrate towards that vendor. Ultimately, you'd be better off.

> often NONE of them support Linux.

Really. How about the following list: IBM, SAP, Oracle Corp. PeopleSoft ERP , and Lotus?
(see http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1730276,00.as p , http://searchdomino.techtarget.com/originalContent /0,289142,sid4_gci817266,00.html )

Actually, this is one of the principles of modern manufacturing: Toyota lean production methods, just-in-time manufacturing, etc.

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid 19_gci810519,00.html

I'm not saying that I think this is what's going on with Sony, but going away from massive warehousing has been a "revelation" in modern mass production .

Warehousing is *bad*, you're paying for storage for stuff to just sit there, and when you're talking about millions of units the amount of money wasted can be huge. Of course, what you want to do is to have the manufacturing set up to meet demand with the minimum amount of storage possible. The concern isn't theft (maybe it's then 100th concern), but cost.

Here's a summary (copied from the above link) that summarizes Toyota Production Methods (now, of course, widely emulated with varying degrees of success by other companies, industries, around the world):

1. Eliminate waste
2. Minimize inventory
3. Maximize flow
4. Pull production from customer demand
5. Meet customer requirements
6. Do it right the first time
7. Empower workers
8. Design for rapid changeover
9. Partner with suppliers
10. Create a culture of continuous improvement

Vast warehousing is so 1980s! (and a sign of inneficient manufacturing).

This article mentions something called the Security Clearance Catch-22.

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalConte nt/0,289142,sid14_gci1047365,00.html

"To make big bucks working for a DoD contractor, you will need to have DoD security clearance. And the only way to get DoD security clearance is to already have it [a status called active clearance] or to have had clearance within the past two years [called current clearance]. Almost invariably, that means you either recently completed military service, or recently held a job at a defense contractor."

If you never had a clearance, sometimes defense contractors might sponsor you for a clearance. Your employer will ask you to fill out an government application that is close to 50 pages long. After you send in the application, in a week or two you get an interim clearance that allows you to keep working. There are different levels of clearance from Secret to Top Secret. You're more likely to get sponsored for a secret clearance, and you cannot apply for a clearance on your own as a individual.

According to this site, A4 envelopes are either C4 (folded in half) or DL (folded in thirds).

To print to an envelope, method 1:

1. Open a new Writer document
2. Format->Page
3. Click on the "Page" tab
4. Change the "Format" to "C4" or "DL" (if you want A4; #10 if you want US letter folded in thirds; there are other paper/envelope sizes available
5. You probably also want to set the page to "Landscape" mode
6. Click the "OK" button
7. Your envelope is now ready; type on it as you wish.

To print to an envelope, method 2 (or attach one to a document):

1. Open a new Writer document
2. Insert->Envelope
3. Click on the "Format" tab
4. As before, set the "Format" ("Size" sub-category) to the envelope type desired.
5. Click on the "Printer" tab and verify how your printer will be printing on the envelope
6. If desired, you can click on the "Envelope" tab to set sender/receiver addresse and you can even use the "Database" "Table" and "Field" lists to configure a list of addresses to print envelopes for. More information is available here and here (the second and first major results for a Google search for "a4 envelope openoffice" by the way)>
7. Click "New Doc" to create a new document consisting of your envelope, or "Insert" to insert it into an existing document
8. Enjoy!

(I understand that you're a troll and can't help but spread misinformation, but this is for those with an open mind who found your post "insightful".)

While there are many "techie" people like greatcelerystalk who know what they want, we have to keep in mind that Amazon is selling to the entire spectrum. My mom, new to computers this year, finds comfort in the Amazon experience. It's an entire shopping mall--just what women love (yes, I am generalizing). So shoppers who know what they are looking for, or are simply buying on price, may not use the recommendations, I would suspect that a significant, if not majority of the population may be enticed to buy something. I admit to having purchased several books that were recommended to me.

Now, the more significant issue revolves around the depth of the information Amazon is amassing on you and me. Sure, you can learn just as much about me from my blog or slashdot journal, but that's my choice. I recognize that Amazon has stated "opt-in" information. But when was the last time you read a EULA or the Privacy Policy page for NewEgg? You can be opted-in to just about anything. Then, personal private data is stored, waiting to be hacked into or. Or better yet, published in the name of research!

Ultimately, this trend will not stop. Twenty years ago, had people known the level of personal information that we would be storing today, they would have had the same reactionary quivering that we feel today. It's simply the unstoppable progression of technology integration into human life.

the Do-Not-Call list is an opt-in system
No, you've got that backwards. It is an opt-out system. It is annoying to have to opt-out, but better than all the telemarketing calls.

An amendment to the Constitution would likely be required.
I doubt that, but I'd welcome an amendment to the Constitution that would help protect my privacy. I note that, despite First Amendment concerns, I'm not allowed to use a megaphone to express my political views while walking down the street.

Because I don't personally advertise my cell phone number to Slashdot... ...my arguments lack merit.

No, but it does make a point and labels you as a hypocrite. Somehow it is a problem if I call you, but not a problem if you call me. Think of Democracy!

I'd sooner talk on the phone with the registered Constitution party than I would talk with some guy who called me a political hack on the Internet.
So can you not answer, screen my call, use voice mail, hang up or wrap your phone in aluminum foil. I see you get to choose which political parties are acceptable to call you, but I have no control over my phone. You don't get it because (so far) political calls aren't making it to your cell phone. Since that isn't in the Constitution either, it is only a matter of time until you get flooded with calls and you'll still be happy right?

i run about 40-50 xen clients on a handful of moderate server hosts.

perfect for dev work. i mean PERFECT

quickly reproducible, adjustable resourcing, and lets me give devs root acces on their own clients.

i presume the redhat dude meant was 'redhat isnt ready to commercially support xen'

That it worked in your configuration doesn't means it lacks serious issues. Xen is still a relatively immature product in the virtualization market and probably has a was to go before it's bulletproof enought to compete with VMware.

This article explains it a little better.
"
The big-name vendors may do well to follow Scott's methodical approach to Xen as well, according to Haff. "Look how long it took [VMware] to evolve into a production role; how long it took IBM to develop virtualization on Power. My belief is that Novell is doing Xen a disservice by taking an enterprise-class distribution and including what amounts to an experimental early-stage product. What if someone tries it and their reaction is VMware is so much better than this?

"They could end up giving Xen a black eye," Haff said. "

Compare Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise? Ubuntu appears to be more responsive to security problems according to this SearchOpenSource article.

Saying Packman is "64% violet" is like saying the meaning of life is "42".

In 2005, Microsoft spent about $7 billion on research and development (R&D). By 2008, the R&D budget will grow to $8 billion. If my memory serves, no American company spends more money on R&D than Microsoft.

The research division at Microsoft is the #1 industrial laboratory in the United States. To understand the magnitude of the largesse, note that Microsoft succeeded in convincing several tenured/tenure-tracked professors at top-notch private universities (e.g. Stanford University) to quit the university and to join Microsoft.

Like the pre-breakup AT&T, Microsoft is funneling its monopolistic profits into a massive R&D budget. Microsoft laboratory has become the "Bell Labs" of the 21st century.