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Welcome to Mad Max very soon.

Oh no not Mad Mel! I couldn't stand it and I'm not even jewish.

Hate to rain on everyone's parade, but a "Perfect Storm" of Mac sales isn't likley to happen anytime soon, if that means widespread purchases & use of Macs. The iPod "halo effect" is there, but it's weak, and we're already seeing it in the current sales numbers FWIW. Corporate IT people still scoff at the Mac - maybe not as loudly as before, but they would never bet their jobs on any kind of a switch (and betting their jobs they would be if they migrated their departments). I certainly haven't heard of any big companies adopting Macs en masse recently. Mac sales will probably continue to increase a bit on home sales, but even an incredibly optimistic near-50% growth per year still gives Apple only single digit market shares as 2010 closes in. And growth like that is not likely to happen. To put things in perspective, last year's total PC market was estimated by IDC at about $218B, and Apple accounted for just over $8B of that from Mac sales. Apple has a long way to go before Macs stop being a rarity.

In the 90's there were so many preposterous predictions of a 'beleaguered' Apple's demise that MacObserver started the Apple Death Knell Counter. With Apple's (deserved) good fortunes now and the irrational exuberance shown by many of the same pundits maybe someone should start an Apple World Domination Counter instead.

Welcome to Slashdot, where electrical engineers, or people who think of it as a hobby, will swear backwards and forwards that they know and understand every effect of radiation.

Errr right, maybe I just listen to the expert's opinion.

I would suggest that regardless of any link between mobile phone towers and cancer, a far more likely cause is toxic contamination of the building.

Anybody who has taken a good look inside the RMIT building in question should be able to plainly that the building is unsafe in many ways.

People may remember the floods and resultant evacuations that occurred at a city RMIT campus last year. Two floods, one cold water, another of near boiling water months later. This is the same building.

The safety (or lack thereof) of the wiring and electrics in the same building is also very disturbing.

Any student need only look beneath the desks in the computer rooms to get an idea.

I think RMIT must investigate ALL possible causes of these brain tumors.

It seems very controvertial as to whether mobile phone towers could cause any health-risks, and whilst I agree that it is impossible to say that these towers are safe, surely this building at RMIT with a mere two low power phone towers wouldn't be the first detected incidence of this in the melbourne CBD.

However, it is well known that there are toxins which are highly carcinogenic. It would be prudent to do a broad panel of tests for mutagenic & teratogenic toxins in this building as part of the investigation.

Medical experts contacted by The Age Newspaper said no definitive link had been proved between mobile phone tower radiation and cancer.

Software industry group Open Source Victoria has teamed up with NSW technology company Phase N to develop a plug-in for Microsoft Office users to view documents in the Open Document Format. From here: http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking/opendoc-plu gin-for-ms-office-users/2005/10/20/1129775888552.h tml So it is being worked on, just give it time since MS isn't helping at all.

...there is empirical evidence that more highly educated people use more complex syntax than less educated people, consistent with the idea that greater exposure to literacy correlates with greater *use* of complex syntax...

The early beliefs about the education level of the Unabomber were that he was probably a relatively uneducated laborer. Yet the notes and letters he sent in connection with his mail bombs, as well his following Manifesto, gave strong indication that he was a more highly educated person.

As in previous studies of the exceptionally gifted, the kids in Gross's cohort tended to be the firstborn of small families. The parents were older than average, having delayed having babies until they had completed tertiary studies or achieved financial security. They and the children's grandparents were more highly educated than most people of their generation and more likely to be employed in professional or managerial positions. Children whose parents were born in Asia were significantly over-represented in the group.

There are theories that Shakespeare's plays were actually written by someone else, perhaps someone more highly educated. Names suggested include the statesman and philosopher Sir Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, the Earl of Southampton (Shakespeare's patron), Edward de Vere, the seventeenth Earl of Oxford and even Queen Elizabeth.

Students believed that this is mostly because employers and supervisors in Dominica do not appreciate the talent of the more highly educated and self-motivated employees. Instead, those persons are perceived to be threats to the career mobility of their associates.

Well these use your existing legs and then enhance them. The robitic legs in the article carry your in a seated position. Completly different idea. And yes I agree that the leg enchacements are much more practicle for most uses, though they may not be usable in the the instance of someone whos legs are cut off at the hip. I do wonder how the robit suit for the quadriplegic http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking/robot-suit- will-help-quadriplegic-scale-the-heights/2006/04/0 4/1143916503382.html
maintains balance though, as the quadriplegic won't be able to exert his own muscle movement in order to do so.

Ok, before anyone berates me, I read the article but didn't look at the pic.

The one in the pic is rediculous in the light of many of the ones already developed that have FAR more potential.

Like these, or these

Perhaps not the ones in the article, but there are many better variations.

Like these, or these

Especially if you're planning on also carrying a small Japanese woman. (Which I might also reccommend.)

This is typical of the current government's attitude to privacy and telecommunications. The Telecommunications Act already allows for seizure of computers and other equipment when it is 'connected with' offences under the Spam Act, for example. There is also evidence that the government has been confiscating and destroying personal computers without a warrant when they contain 'sensitive' information.

All of this is part of a broader lack of accountability, due process and transparency that is becoming part of the culture of Australian lawmaking. There is a good article on the subject here.

For those from more sensible countries, supposedly democratic Australia currently has the following features:

1. One party entirely in control of both houses of parliament
2. No bill of rights, either legislative or constitutional
3. Legislation allowing for the arrest, detention, and interrogation without charge of persons not suspected of any offence if they may have information that is somehow relevant to a suspected terrorist offence; the onus of proof is reversed so that the person being interrogated must prove that they do NOT have any such information.
4. One of the highest rates of phone tapping in the world
5. Unelected bureacrats empowered to spy on Australians with no parliamentary oversight to speak of
6. Several semi-secret US intelligence bases operating on our soil
7. New crimes of sedition for exercising free speech in a manner that encourages the overthrow of the government
8. Troops in Iraq despite over 80% of the population opposing our involvement before the war
At the moment we also have an extremely disturbing rise in racial and religious intolerance, which in my opinion is in no small part attributable to the federal government's policies and fearmongering on those issues. But of course, this doesn't stop us selling weapons-grade uranium to China because they weeeeally promise to use it for civilian purposes only.

means commercial electronic messages that:
          (a) are unsolicited within the meaning of section 16
                  of the Act; or
          (b) do not include accurate sender information as
                  required by section 17 of the Act; or
          (c) do not contain a functional unsubscribe facility
                  as required by section 18 of the Act.'

Colour me unimpressed - the Prime Minister of this country (John Howard) phone spammed the continent prior to the last election, then paid his smug looking son to spam the nation.

Anyway, back on topic, here's an article from a local paper - it contains a link to the actual code of practice (pdf warning)

Colour me unimpressed - the Prime Minister of this country (John Howard) phone spammed the continent prior to the last election, then paid his smug looking son to spam the nation.

Anyway, back on topic, here's an article from a local paper - it contains a link to the actual code of practice (pdf warning)

Seperated at birth?

http://www.tuttle-ok.gov/vertical/Sites/%7B136BBA6 C-3318-4D9B-8370-02514EF0639E%7D/uploads/%7BE02F1A 6C-28FD-4324-BA50-3D1ECC42E2FB%7D.JPG
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/06/09/wbyel low_narrowweb__200x270.jpg

It's in Perth (or at least it was. It tends to get around.)

What! Are you implying that the Circular Transportation Device is not a novel invention! (in Australia at least): http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/30/10725 46531129.html

They seem to be popping up in Australia all the time. Maybe they are too sophisticated for the American market?

First hover car seen in Perth, Australia

Second hover car spotted in Perth Australia"

True, as in this article "Crashing down to earth near us, the future of jet travel" it's run by the University of Queensland, with funding from US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and Australia's Defence, Science and Technology Organisation.

True, as in this article "Crashing down to earth near us, the future of jet travel" it's run by the University of Queensland, with funding from US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and Australia's Defence, Science and Technology Organisation.

Insightful? Off-topic! and incorrect.

We don't have a Social Security crisis. It's all crap propaganda. It definitely needs to be tweaked, but the politicians are just trying to rile people up and divert attention from real issues. And they're succeeding.

We have a surplus of SS money for at least until 2040. The projections go out for 75 years and sometime before then, we start having a debt regarding SS taxes coming in and money going out. Congressional Budge Office (CBO) studies show that if we don't extend Bush's tax cuts after 2009, we'll have SS surplus until 2050. So at worst, we'd have to reduce SSI handout out if we don't increase the retirement age or increase the budget towards SS. But a temporary debt is okay because population levels fluctuates. After the baby boomers die, our SS situation will be fine again.

Including health care costs for wounded soldiers, Iraq war and occupation could top $2 trilion. How about those tax cuts? I saw a NY Times article stating CBO projections estimated a difference in revenues of $1.7 trillion over the 10 years. A San Francisco Chronicle article mentions a difference of $737 billion. The difference could be due to when the projections started and ended. This doesn't include reports of the economy improving slower then from any previous recession and being short on the administration's projections of jobs by millions (just think of the revenue difference there).

If even a portion of those funds went to social security, we would have not debt for social security for 75 years! The fact remains, the US government takes out enough money from taxpayers to pay for Social Security for the forseeable future.

The problem isn't the social security system. It's the men and women of the Executive and Legislative branch that balloon the deficit with pork barrel spending. Even if we remove the SS blanket, there's no gaurantee that these people wouldn't spend the money elsewhere. Before we talk about changing social security, we need to have people that would be fiscally responsible.

In fact, Melbourne IT's procedures are so slack that they infamously transferred the panix.com domain to a third party without authorisation last year.

Not just that. They've also been accused of facilitating 419 fraud.

So, don't just blame the "Australian government" for this, as it's unclear who exactly intervened.

Better: Blame the "Australian government" for this, along with Melbourne IT. John Howard has lied to the Australian Public again and again.

He's currently under investigation for his role in collusion with Saddam's regime under sections.

I was at the Intel Viiv launch yesterday. It was a reasonably interesting launch although I will forever have the jargon "the new normal" burned in to me brain.

Whilst the talk of making "content easier to buy than it is to pirate" is nice, you have to remember that Intel is only providing the platform to access the content and not the content itself. This is clearly different from Apple's iTunes/iPod/Frontrow strategy of controlling the software and hardware platform(s) for viewing content *and* being the distributor/supplier of content. Hence Intel itself doesn't have much to say on the crucial issue of the cost of content (in fact, to the best of my knowledge, cost -- in comparison to existing distribution points/media types -- was not mentioned once during the presentation). Its all very well to make content easy to access, but it also has to be priced correctly. Intel is obviously hoping the market and competition (between content suppliers) will take care of pricing. I guess time will tell, but its a far cry from the simple easy-to-remember 99c-a-song (in the US, $1.29 here) model of the iTMS.

Whilst its nice that Viiv won't apply DRM restrictions to content that enters into the system without DRM, that doesn't mean that the content provided through the Viiv platform won't be ladden with DRM. Again, as Intel doesn't control the supply of content supply the best they can 'promise'(as per the Cnet article) is to "[encourage] Viiv content providers to allow users to pass their media to other devices". Personally I would prefer a stated policy rather than some airy-fairy promise about encouraging fair(er) use for consumers.

On a related issue, Dan Warne of APC raised an interesting point during the panel discussion regarding billing. Unlike Apple's system (where, obviously, they are the only supply point through iTunes), because there will be multiple content providers and there is no centralised billing system its likely you will have to provide your credit card details to each content provider seperately (at least for the time being, although MacDonald made some soothing noises about investigating a more centralised model... grain of salt, etc). Ironically, despite making much of the fact that you won't need a keyboard with Viiv for complex tasks (such as networking, etc), some on the panel noted it would be cumbersome to have to enter your credit card details through the Viiv interface with the remote and suggest hooking up a keyboard or visiting the content providers website on another computer.

In case you hadn't guessed, whilst I think Viiv has some interesting uses, I remain very sceptical that this is anything more than a flash in the pan despite Intel's claims of this being the (wait for it) "new normal" and hoping in 50 years time it will be remembered like the introduction of television. It may have more impact in other markets, but given the lack of interest in such basic technologies as Standard Definition Digital TV, trying to get consumers to spend thousands on a PC for the living room (without the buzz of the iPod/iTunes duo) seems like a hard sell to me.

linky

With respect to Saudi Arabia as it is today, you are correct. Their history is quite different, as the al-Saud royal family allied themselves with Wahibist extremist clerics. See Saudi holds cards to Islam's future for a brief history.

With respect to Al-Andalus, which is what the Moors called the Iberian pennensula under their rule, I would suggest you read The Islamic world of Al-Andalus, the Andalusian Umayyad dynasty and its golden age and A Brief History of Al-Andalus.

I suppose I could drone on about various other readings, mostly published books covering the rise of the Moorish state in Iberia as well as the formation and history of Saudi Arabia under Abdul Aziz Ibn Al-Saud but there is ample opportunity for you to discover these yourself if you are truly interested.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/rock-rat-back- from-extinction/2006/03/11/1141701733549.html

If they are trying to ban things that cause violence then they should start with toilet paper. Check this out - a murder and an assult - both in the US and over toilet paper within a month of each other.

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/03/09 /toilet_paper_dispute_overflows_into_fight/

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Man-charged-in -killing-over-toilet-paper/2006/02/23/114056388866 5.html

You make it sound like pedestrians and cyclists are doing it more than drivers, this is patently false. Talking on your mobile whilst driving is banned where I am, I see it being done all the time. I have *never* seen a cyclist using a mobile, and yet:

"Police last month conducted a week-long blitz in the city, Carlton and along St Kilda Road to nab motorists using a hand held mobile phone while driving. Eighty-three motorists were caught."[1]

I would further add, that quite asides from legality (and a car swerving to miss them and hitting someone else) a cyclist or pedestrian is only really risking their own lives, whereas a car driver is most certainly risking the lives of others while talking on their mobile phone because they are in charge of a what amounts to a deadly weapon when not paying attention. So not only are they more dangerous, but they do it FAR more than cyclists and motorcyclists with whom they share the road. Both of whom use both hands with their vehicle, and wear helmets, making phone use impractical. Your proposition they use it more is preposterous. Pedestrians are on the sidewalk, and don't share the road with drivers, using mobiles is no a major problem. I do agree however, that cyclists shouldn't use headphones, but again I have only seen this a handful of times and it's not illegal where I am.

The bottom line is nobody should be doing it, but implying that cyclists do it more, or are being more rash is simply just anti-bike propaganda. Maybe you feel a little guilty because cars also kill us non-car drivers with your pollution [2] [3]. Yes, the air is a commons, I don't pollute it, and you do, and there is no compensation for the material and proven health effects it has on the non-driving population. Or maybe it's because you are ruining the environment and a cyclist represents someone who is willing to make sacrifices for the betterment of all people on earth [4].

[1]http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/10/10 81326981747.html
[2]http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/Air/health.asp
[3]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/369169.stm
[4]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4761804.stm

I see what you are saying but there is a bigger picture than privacy. The laws are obstensibly about how to deal with those who incite violence, that problem is as old as the human race itself. History has shown time and again that the answer is not to silence them but to educate ourselves to recognise those who manipulate our fears into vengence.

Here's one that was spotted in Sydney the week before the Alan Jones riots that caught the attention of international media late last year. The fact that our top politicians have (for years) regularly appeared on his show and have often invited him to wine and dine in the halls of power,,,,makes me want to puke!

If politicians were interested in the public well being they would refuse to dignify/support ANYONE who preaches hate and violence from their mass media soap box, instead they wait a few months before pandering to the mob mentality

Note to AC's and right wing nut-jobs: The fact that, if I lived in Iran I could not make similar critisims about politicians, does not detract from their validity.

This article reports him the president of "AdsCPM Network." http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/the-ski-dream- funded-by-a-spam-fortune/2006/02/13/1139679533728. html Which is mysteriously under construction right now. Handy archive.org has a copy from last month: http://web.archive.org/web/20050125100919/http://a dscpm.com/

Wasn't that to stop "chroming"? Kids getting high on the fumes? I seem to recall Extra did a nice big story on it, and then a short while later they put the restrictions in place.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/23/10345 61498638.html
http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/qld/content/2005/s 1504831.htm

Using proprietary technology doesn't help with indemnification... have you ever read any EULAs?

SCO may have worried some IT managers, but Timeline succesfully sued some of Microsoft's SQL server customers for 1.75 million.

What I could actually see happening is someone suing all MS-Office customers... would Microsoft pay 20 billion to idemnify customers? I'm sure some old fart has a great spreadsheet or word proccessing patent worth litterally Billions.

Read the article, also extra information here
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/02/06/11390 74113688.html?from=top5

It appears the BMW site was also referencing 'used cars' as well as new cars, and redirecting to their own site.

Sounds dodgy to me.

Well, to be fair, there haven't been any convictions yet, but the circumstancial evidence is pretty convincing to the extent that they would have tried something if they had had the capability.

Here is your hovering car right here:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/01/30/11384 69638185.html

My wife and I put our son into daycare at 3 months. After maybe two months, we changed his formula intake..."

bottle-feeding linked to obesity in adults

Soldiers do not cause wars, simarly, teenage gangs don't cause race riots. The thugs and wannabe nazi's throwing rocks and attacking families was the riot not it's cause. Overt racists do exist in this country but from where I stand they are in the minority, my guess would be 5-15%, so you have to ask, why did an everyday assult end up as semi-coordinated racial riots involving thousands.

The "trigger" happened a week before the actual violence with some middle eastern thugs assulting some white lifesaver's, ie: mindless teenage gangster stuff. Alan Jones spent the next week telling people to "take back the beach", the prick was proud of himself, probably still is.

IANAL but I think if the new terroists laws were applied to Jones he would be found guilty of incitement, sedition or both. I doubt that will happen though, for years politicains (including the current PM) have payed homage to his breakfast show.

There is a vast difference between justice for the lifesavers and zenophobic revenge on innocent citizens. Alan Jones and his ilk disgust me and his political clout scares me far more than the ignorant morons that do his bidding. If our politicians had any guts or integrity they would prosecute him as a terrorist leader.

OTOH: These are the same politicians that were recently locking up children in the desert or on some remote island jail for years at a time simply because they don't know what forms to ask for.

We like the US have our own detention centers, but we lock up people up for years because they risked life and limb to land on our shores without the right paperwork. Oddly, few of these people are white or literate. Whatever colour, if you have the right papers and are literate you can fly in, overstay your visa and backpack around for years. When they catch you, they immediately fly you back to where you came from.

Recently the govt was shamed into releasing women and children into society while the years of paperwork gets sorted out. Many of the men and male youths are not released and eventually end up insane before we bribe some country to take them off our hands.

Huh, just occured to me it's Australia day today, no wonder I'm so cynical after all that flag waving and self praise on the TV today.

"In the case of the US I'm sure they have the space but it's a long way from where the power is needed and therefore transmission losses are going to be huge." One word: superconductors. It has huge capacity, can be laid underground, and would allow power generation in the most remote areas that won't be an eyesore or danger to the major population centers. I will be the first to admit it would be neither cheap nor easy to build the infrastructure, but once in place the energy savings would be huge with the added benefit of being able to reroute large amounts of power on demand anywhere in the nation. Also, with some of the most recent advances in superconductors it's getting cheaper by the day. Also we have another advantage in already having the Interstate highway system here in the US, it's alot of empty space (grassy areas) that can be utilized for biofuel. (additional info) The US has the technology, we can make it better, stronger, and faster. Why we're spending billions, perhaps trillions!, in an area of the world that has nothing but disaffected and occationally fanatical peoples, few natural resources other than oil, and large areas of near-uselessness is both telling and disturbing. I think that the time has come for nations to move back to a policy of non-interventionism. This was favored by most of the early presidents of the US, advising that we be friendly and helpful but keep our noses where they belong, on our faces. Nowhere does this feel more appropriate than in the area of energy production. Having the energy to run the nation is of critical importance to both national security and civil wellbeing. If we continue to rely on a source of energy that is increasingly controlled by fewer and fewer hands in areas of the world that are antagonistic to the rest, and frequently hostile, we will only set ourselves up for conflict and eventual failure. To not recognize that a large majority of human woes and shortcomings stem directly from a need to have energy to do productive work is foolish at worst, naive at best. Why are people poor? Because they don't have access to cheap energy. Cheap energy to build inexpensive infrastructure. Cheap energy to transport durable, inexpensive goods. Cheap energy to extract and process raw materials efficiently. Cheap energy to do work easier, faster, and better. The technological world society we've built was made possible due to ever cheaper forms of energy. First wood, then coal, now oil. Each of these in turn had both benefits and shortcomings for the time period(the social), the need(the logistical), and the location of these resources(the geopolitical). Each in turn has been, or will be, passed over for the next good source. Oil's run is nearing its last leg, who takes the baton next?

The average movie costs $64 million to make and $39 million to market, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. Movies with budgets over $100 million commonly just break even at the box office.

"In the last five years maybe six pictures out of 1000 recouped their cost in the theatrical marketplace," says Nick Counter, president of the studio alliance. "Today the hits have to make up for all the losses."

Hubris and arrogance are diminishing Australia and our reputation around the world, writes Richard Woolcott.

Richard Woolcott AC is a former senior Australian diplomat, ambassador to the United Nations and secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Australia today is not the country I represented with pride for some 40 years. This country of such great potential risks becoming a land of fading promise.

Australians can be proud of the generous and compassionate response last year to the disastrous tsunami and the Indonesian and Pakistani earthquakes. The economy finished 2005 on a strong note. Importantly, we secured attendance at the first East Asian summit in Kuala Lumpur after signing, belatedly and somewhat ungraciously, the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Co-operation. Unlike the United States and Britain, our armed forces have avoided serious casualties in Iraq. But none of this should permit complacency as this new year unfolds.

We have seen Australian democracy diminished by government hubris and arrogance, opposition weakness and a curious public detachment and apathy. Our national self-respect has also been eroded by our excessively deferential attitude to the Bush Administration's foreign and security policy, especially in Iraq. The revelations about the Australian Wheat Board's dealings with Iraq under Saddam and the Government's links with the Board, make its proper opposition to corruption and its demands for good governance, especially in the South Pacific, look hollow. Moreover, truth in Government has yet to be restored.

"Our nation's standing abroad has never been higher," John Howard said in his New Year message. Australia is quite widely regarded overseas as a tolerant, generous and egalitarian society. The strength of our economy lends some credibility to Howard's boast. It is also true of the attitudes of the Bush Administration and the Blair and Koizumi governments but those three leaders will soon pass into history.

If, however, we are so well respected in the wider international community, how is it that we have been unable to gain election to the UN Security Council for more than 20 years now? I suspect it is because there is a darker underside to our image.

I travelled extensively in 2005 and I observed how our standing has been undermined in much of the international community and some important countries in our own region. Our standing is suffering because of a recrudescence of those atavistic currents of racism and intolerance that we have inherited from our past. Given the history of the White Australia policy and the colonial dispossession of the Aboriginal population, opposition to racism and intolerance requires strong and continuous political leadership, rather than any hint of opportunistic, politically motivated tolerance of such prejudices. Multiculturalism, which is irreversible, should be promoted by the Coalition Government; not simply tolerated.

The Iraq war that, leaving aside human casualties, is now anticipated to cost as much as an obscene $US2 trillion ($A2.6 trillion), remains an albatross around the necks of the invaders. The rationalisation for invading Iraq, which changed from removing weapons of mass destruction that Iraq did not possess, to liberating the people from Saddam's dictatorship and now to "stay the course", has some ethical force but it is not justification for such a destructive and costly conflict.

Even a benign outcome in Iraq - in the event it can be achieved - will still need to be set by future historians against the catastrophic consequences of the war for Iraq's civilian population, its devastated infrastructure, the marked increase in global terrorist activities and the increased opposition it has generated globally towards our alliance partner. With our participation

George Takei is amazing. Now he's on Stern, where he came out of the closet.

Stern asked him what positions he likes, and Takei went into it. Here's some proof: http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/stern-age-begi ns/2006/01/13/1137118970418.html

Really funny. Takei sounds like a very earnest guy though -- it is great he gets to work on this stuff.

Taken from http://www.theage.com.au/news/Business/UK-Tesco-to -take-stake-in-Freshtel/2005/12/29/1135732686987.h tml "Freshtel will provide the network, infrastructure and billing information for the retailer. It will earn per user licence fees and margins on all calls to a landline or mobile. Tesco will also pay maintenance fees and Freshtel will earn additional royalties on all hardware purchased by Tesco from Freshtel's manufacturing partners."

Apple is about to release a new generation of iBooks and/or Powerbooks, most likely including Intel iBooks at least. This month. So hold your horses.

Hmmmmmn,

Not so sure I'd be going for a first generation Apple product if I were looking for reliability....

Its also worth nothing that Apple are under investigation in Australia for ignoring local warranty rules.

Not too sure what I'd reccommend for a reliable laptop these days - certainly not Apple, Toshiba, HP/Compaq, Acer/Asus (shudder). A few years ago, it would have been a Thinkpad, but since the Leveno takeover, I really have no idea.

He will have to do 100 hours of community service, and apologize for the blog posts.

Here in Oz you have to prove you're a lowlife scum to get 100 hours community service.

That's also the same sentence given to the Author of the Sasser/Netsky worm.

So given this blogger got the same penalty - MAYBE THEY SHOULD HAVE LOCKED THE SCUMBAG UP! (</sarcasm>)

Ah, 'harmonization'. The word striking the most fear into independent and unamerican countries across the world.
The fact is that in EVERYWHERE in the world where you are likely to be reading this IP laws have been harmonized to the point where the basics are the same. - and the reason why? Pressure from one of the most powerful economies in the world. Can you honestly suggest that countries have spontaneously passed US type copyright legislation? Bullshit.
The original poster's point, that one of the RIAA's precepts is that 'The US's laws apply to everyone in the world, and are superior to every other law' is accurate. As long as the RIAA is able to buy law in the US, it will exert all possible pressure to ensure that the US's laws are exported to the rest of the world.

The Japanese have a reputation for being prejudiced.

I think this is want the last comment is referring too, Japans xenophobia.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/11/10449 27598800.html
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/feb2003/schi-f13 .shtml (granted not the most objective news site)
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/09/10890 00352020.html
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s113 6609.htm

There would be, rightly, a furore if Australian politicians started making trips to the US, holding conferences and denouncing domestic politics.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/11/10449 27598800.html
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/feb2003/schi-f13 .shtml (granted not the most objective news site)
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/09/10890 00352020.html
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s113 6609.htm

There would be, rightly, a furore if Australian politicians started making trips to the US, holding conferences and denouncing domestic politics.

"Lemme see, the Iranian President has claimed that the Holocaust never happened. It was entirely made up by the media to gain support the Jews. He also states that Israel should be wiped off the map and moved to Europe or Alaska. In short, the guy is nuts [payvand.com]."

David Irving, bestselling author of Hitler's War and 30 other books, and the worlds most knowledgabe historian on WW2 has irrefutably proven the Auswitz gas chambers were a hoax. He is the only man on this planet that has interviewed every surving member of Hitler's SS. He was recently arrested for 'thought crimes' and is now facing 20 years imprisonment.
Who am I going to believe? David Irving, the worlds greatest expert on WW2, ...or The American Government http://theage.com.au/news/world/cias-europe-operat ions-exposed/2005/12/14/1134500896433.html/, our public school system, and a few random lemmings on /.?
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is no doubt a maniac, but he still commands more credit than you.