Here's a hint to the idiot who posted this: DON'T INSTALL THEIR SOFTWARE. YOU DON'T NEED IT. Plug your router/linux box into the cable modem, DHCP, viola, internet connection. Easy as that.
Although my initial setups with Comcast have always gone smoothly -- I ran Linux but the installer only cared that I could pull up a webpage. However, this doesn't help if there is something dreadfully wrong on their side and you need them to diagnose it. For instance, I've seen cable installations (not Comcast) where the modem had it have its frequencies adjusted. Often, too, the installer will need, or want to check the system's MAC address, and they're only trained to be able to check this under Windows. Believe it or not, many installers don't trust the DHCP implementations of anything but Windows -- "you're not getting served an IP because this Linux thing". Sadly, whatever the case, I still know that if I ever want internet configured at home, that I must have VMWare running with Windows in it.
The saddest thing is really for those that aren't so computer savy, or aren't comfortable with lying. I've become familiar with having to lie about everything related to my computer. Its sad because it makes it impossible for my mother to run Linux without my help. She still doesn't understand why, when she gets a PDA or printer that she doesn't need the CDROM that came in the box. She doesn't understand that you cannot tell Comcast or Verizon that you're running Linux. She doesn't understand that when she calls HP because her printer caught fire, that she cannot tell them she runs Linux -- because, as far as HP is concerned, Linux causes printers to catch fire.
So it's worth to avoid Xen now because it probably will be abandoned too.
It is true that this development rings badly for Xen, even taking out the involvement of Mosche Bar. Both were derived from university projects, involve the need of skilled developers, etc. Luckily, however, Xen is more general purpose and has a lower barrier of entry - although it is not quite suitable for home users - it can be found useful by businesses of all sizes. That was not true of OpenMosix, which was really only useful to large corporations and research facilities for special-needs projects.
Furthermore, the truth is that they are right - dual-core computing, increased cpu power, and low pricing have probably eradicated the need for OpenMosix. OpenMosix, I suspect, was a neat toy for hobbiests who are currently satisfied with a dual or even quad-core machines. The slightly larger shops might be looking torwards cell processors and whatever comes of Intel's 80 core chip. For really serious users, the OpenMosix software was inferer to many (if not all) of the commercial alternatives -- and there were apparently few enough serious users to even have the software ported to Linux 2.6 -- 2.6 was released 4-5 years ago!
I do have my concerns about XenSource, where it will be in 5 years - will it still be around and contributing to development? Luckily, as a more general-purpose product, and with many companies behind it (including my own), I suspect there will be developers handy when XenSource fails.
Perhaps I'm alone in this, but I think the most basic reason is a lack of interest.
If I go to the local newstand, I'll see about 10 magazines containing PC-related drivel, 1 magazine containing MacOS related items, and about 4-5 Linux-related publications. Now, I'm a Linux and perhaps even to a degree, a MacOS user, so the PC-related magazines hold no interest, but I doubt I would like them anyway (they're the thickest but also the most content-sparse). None of the magazines except Linux Journal holds anything of interest for me, and even then -- its hardly interesting anymore. The content is simply obsolete by the time it hits print. I hardly ever see anything new, surprising, or otherwise containing value. Perhaps I'd like to review the IEEE journals again, I haven't seen them since my university years.
When I go to the newstand, I now pickup The Economist and, for lighter reading pleasures, Newsweek. Perhaps to people more closely following such events these too are obsolete, but they are a great suppliment to my daily reading of the BBC's RSS feed.
For technical knowledge, I've begun to simply glance over slashdot's rss feed, dive deeper into the subjects I'm already familiar with, and look for feedback from my users. The users tend to keep up on their own interests, and I get reports from them on whats the popular thing today. If my users mention something of particular interest, I'll research it or (if its of questionable interest) get someone to research it for me.
Then again, I might be in a minority -- perhaps there really is a strong market for these more trivial publications. Other than those I already own, I can rarely find technical books for sale at local outlets for which I hold an interest. For technical books, I've instead moved to looking at Amazon, pre-owned, and university bookstores where I can more easily find materials for my research (such as books on lambda calculus, set theory, writing compilers, x86 assembler, etc)
Other reasons for using LISP in a reactor: 1. Nuclear reactors in the US were built in the 60's and 70's. 2. LISP was the language of choice for artifical intelligence. It would make sense at the time to hire the best and brightest AI researchers to build the software for the nuclear reactors. 3. LISP relates very closely to lambda calculus, which would likely have been vastly familiar to those involved in the design of a nuclear reactor. It is likely that mathematicians and scientists were involved in the development process, and their formulas were easily translated to LISP.
As for modern reactors, I wouldn't doubt if LISP was used as a matter of maintaining a standard -- plus, the reasons above are still perfectly valid.
When I was in school they told us we should study history so that we don't have to repeat it. Looks like a few people in our government were asleep when they covered the part about Nazi Germany in the 30's and 40'.
You, of course, assume that they still teach about Nazi Germany in public schools. Unfortately, that isn't politically correct -- you know, you might offend those descended from German emigrants!
Personally, I graduated high school in 2000 from a relatively decent, middle-class suburban town. Although the school system received few much criticism it wasn't bottom of the barrel either. I clearly remember having an interest in this part of history, because I believe the same as you, "history repeats itself". Unfortunately, in my school, they jumped from the first World War to the Civil Rights movement. I don't believe they mentioned much about Watergate either.
I only imagine things are becoming worse. To what details are teachers now allowed to explain or describe violence, hatred, political abuses, and racism? School administrators are afraid that teaching students of these things, that at worst they will instigate these things, and at best they might draw lawsuits. Imagine the terror inflicted upon the school board upon the following:
What if the school was teaching about WWII when a student decided to bring a gun to school and shoot a jewish student? Surely, the school would be in hot water -- best to just not teach about WWII, that will at least cover the school board's ass.
I applaud all school teachers and their administrators that still care more about teaching our youth than they do about covering their asses.
Yes, because metals and microwaves mix so formidably, right?
Not to mention the fact that when the plastic turns to oil... well, oil and fire, thats just dandy.
However, it should be noted that this isn't your every-day home microwave oven. It is very much a different thing altogether.. the concept may be similar, but the frequencies are different. IANAS (I am not a scientist) so I cannot say *what* would happen if there was metal in their "microwave oven" but I wouldn't use the jump to conclusions mat just yet.
Police search the CRX and find that the front passenger seat has recently been removed. The floor is soaked, as if it had been washed. There are heavy-duty garbage bags, cloth towels, masking tape, and two books: Masterpieces of Murder and Homicide. Police also find another drop of blood and match it to Nina.
This part is the most damning evidence. However, having these items in ones car isn't that unusual either. What was in the car that wasn't mentioned? Was he simply cleaning the car to sell it? (if so where is that seat?) Did he simply spill a bottle of water in his car and place the towels there to clean up? (I've had this happen to me)
Frankly, I don't think that having masking tape and trash bags in one's car to be that strange or unusual. Heck, I probably have those items in the back of my car right now... right next to the shovel. That doesn't mean I've killed anyone.
When they served the search warrant on him he was carrying about 9 grand in cash and his passport. You don't think he may be a flight risk?
There could be good reasons for having these things on him, other than flight risk. If he was expecting arrest, having the $9k in cash on him would keep that money locked away as "personal effects" until his release. That would be a place, I suspect, legally protected in some ways that a bank might not protect him -- such as protection from creditors. (and he did have major financial issues, so that would be a very likely reason) Of course, there is now the potential for thievery by prison employees.
As for having a passport, there might be similar reasons. If you might go to jail for even a year, for purposes of trial, you might not want to leave your most important documents lying around for your family to scour through, burn, or box up. I personally know that my mother would throw everything into a box in her wet basement, to be subsequently damaged come the first rain. Suspicious? Perhaps. Beyond a reasonable doubt? No.
Buying books? If you thought that you were being suspected of a murder, would you buy such books? Its a tough call. The smart thing to do is to research, the dumb thing to do is cast suspicion. Unfortunately, these things can conflict quite severely. Regardless, there is reasonable doubt here.
Blood? Thats more serious, but also not that unusual. Some people have history of undiagnosed chronic nosebleeds, women have periods, and heck, its not that hard to cut yourself. Blood doesn't mean murder, it can mean an (honest-to-goodness) non-fatal accident, non-fatal domestic abuse, even a paper cut. Personally, I think that unless there is a significant amount of blood found, there isn't much to go on, and even then, it isn't conclusive. The important thing here is quantity (5 pints would be a problem!) and age. For instance, if there are 5 pints of blood but there is a severe difference in the *age* of the blood that could indicate storage -- what if someone drew a pint of blood every 3 months for the last year? That would be enough blood to make it look like they died.
Washing the car? Some people find washing their car a great way to relieve stress, which I'm sure he was having plenty of -- with a missing wife. This is really inconclusive.
The point is, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence, that without a body, makes it hard to prove that there was any crime at all. No single thing here can prove that Hans murdered Nina. Yeah, you've got some dots, and you can connect them to make Hans look guilty, but you can also connect them to make him look innocent. Of course, thats what lawyers are for.
If that holds true, wouldn't the same priciple be applied to the reverse scenario? E.g. an U.S. based radio station setting up mirrors in another country whould not have to pay?
They would still have to pay the fees that the other country imposes, but they might be significantly less. There would also be the potential for a US-based law preventing its citizens from doing such a thing. (for instance, there are tax laws that say you must pay taxes in the USA, even if you're making foreign income and living in a foreign country - but again, I don't know the details of that as, again, IANAL)
I assume that a server in the US still needs to abide by US law, even if the parent company doesn't have to.
IANAL, but I would say most definately... if last.fm has US servers, then those US-based servers must abide by US licensing.
Having US-based mirrors would mean that last.fm would have to pay US-based royalties for songs played from them. (as opposed to UK-based royalties for their UK mirrors)
My question is, what will happen to the small stations where their small audience would have generated fewer fees than they have paid for the per-song rate? Will they get refunds? Of course, these are in the minority, but still...
Without knowing the actual details of the rate changes, it is hard to say for certain.. but this sounds like it could actually be a good thing for the smaller broadcasters. Unfortunately, the fact it is retroactive is repulsive.
Last.fm is, at least historically, a UK company. Since their servers (and the music) is broadcast from the UK, I'm not sure this will affect them. The problem now, of course, is that they're now owned by CBS. Still, with Lastfm being a UK branch/division, they should be safe.
I still feel that pages should target an 800px wide display, if they're going to target any pixel width at all. I have 1280x1024 resolution monitors and I browse at approximately 800x800. The "maximize" button is an oddity of MS Windows, not a Best Practice.
Ideally, with scalable graphics, lower resolution and smaller-format displays will be more easily supported. Just use percentages with everything. Of course, as you noted, tables would still be an issue; however, tables are perfect candidates for "overflow: scroll" -- I mean, after all, they're just static spreadsheets and we accept scrollbars with those. (if they're not used for layout -- which they shouldn't be)
I hope smaller cars become the norm in the US over time, especially as fuels become expensive. For the immediate future, the large SUVs that dominate many US roads would make quick work of the wimpy smartcar.
You're right that in the US, such a sized car will seem misplaced. Although here in Poland, the Smart car is not all that small after all. True, it *is* a small car, but we have millions of Maluchs (Fiat 126p's) on the road, a car much smaller than the Smart car. In fact, we call the shoulder, "the maluch lane" as the cars are so small that they often drive on the shoulder while we pass them. But thats not the only small car, most cars here are small. Our imported Nissian Ultima is the largest car that we've seen here, and we hardly ever see an SUV. Then again, small cars are more economical, especially where it is about $10 per gallon.
I suspect with rising gas prices, in the states, the SUVs will "phase out" and small cars will "be in". My biggest concern is if the market for SUVs crash, only the poor will be purchasing these large gas guzzlers. That could be a disaster for cities with limited public transportation.
And referring to Windows as ugly while implying Linux isn't? At worst, XP was plain. Vista is quite nice looking. One of the big drawbacks of Linux is the frequently bulky/ugly interface. A lot of that is personal preference, but I daresay far more people would agree with me than with you.
The things that people will complain about! Be luckly that you're not still working with 16bit Windows applications, cooperative multitasking, or Xaw widgets. Sheesh, kids these days!
If that one of the biggest drawbacks of the Linux desktop, then I think "our" job is done. Besides, its personal preference, which interestingly enough, is provided to you in Linux. You have an almost limitless ability to customize your widgets and window borders, it can look like XP or Vista if you want it to. Personally, I use the Human theme from Ubuntu with Beryl.
Really, Linux won the "pretty graphical interface" award before Y2K, when GTK1 came around to replace Xaw/Athena. Even as ugly as GTK1 was, it was still well beyond Microsoft's toolkit, graphically. The Linux desktop, graphically, was second place only to OSX until Compiz came around... and with that, Linux still beat Microsoft to the table.
No rusting of the springs when put in the dishwasher? I agree that the model m is easy enough to take apart and clean with the proper amount of patience, shouldn't be any need to throw it in the dishwasher.
Do they have the exclusive rights to this kind of factual information once it is posted on the internet?
This area of law can get really complicated... Is it legal for FatWallet to republish BestBuy's prices online? Is it legal to republish facts taken from the Guiness Book of World records? The scores from a football game? The statistics of a baseball player? Its just data, just facts.. but so is a number (like the AACS one)
The question is, where are the limits of fair-use, if these things can really be copyrighted at all?
Considering most people will admit to being an "idiot" when it comes to computers, his opinions might have some merit.
The problem is, if you're a new user to the Mac, and you rely on friends, or even forums to find good Mac applications, you will probably be referred to many inexpensive small utility applications. MacOS has a very strong culture of single-task shareware utilities. This is a carry-over from the days of Classic. Ultimately, the cost of all these applications can quickly accumulate.
However, that culture appears to be changing with an increasing number of Open Source applications being made available for OSX. Most of them aren't even ports, but honest-to-goodness real OSX applications developed specifically for the platform.
Personally, my Macs are run fine without any commercial payware, single-use utilities. I've found that free software can almost completely fulfill my needs without compromise. The only places where free software fails on the Mac are where inexpensive payware applications also fail. That said, Linux does provide a more complete free-software solution than OSX, and I will even argue that with Ubuntu Feisty, has surpassed OSX Tiger with features and usability. Though, with Leopard on the prowl later this year, Ubuntu has some tough competition.
To clarify, the "20th time" my wife dropped it was what ultimately killed the laptop. The fact remains, the malfunctioning fan had nothing to do with the laptop's demise.
Slashdot Mirror
I was intentionally thinking of the "printer on fire" messages when I wrote my post. I figured someone would catch it.
Although my initial setups with Comcast have always gone smoothly -- I ran Linux but the installer only cared that I could pull up a webpage. However, this doesn't help if there is something dreadfully wrong on their side and you need them to diagnose it. For instance, I've seen cable installations (not Comcast) where the modem had it have its frequencies adjusted. Often, too, the installer will need, or want to check the system's MAC address, and they're only trained to be able to check this under Windows. Believe it or not, many installers don't trust the DHCP implementations of anything but Windows -- "you're not getting served an IP because this Linux thing". Sadly, whatever the case, I still know that if I ever want internet configured at home, that I must have VMWare running with Windows in it.
The saddest thing is really for those that aren't so computer savy, or aren't comfortable with lying. I've become familiar with having to lie about everything related to my computer. Its sad because it makes it impossible for my mother to run Linux without my help. She still doesn't understand why, when she gets a PDA or printer that she doesn't need the CDROM that came in the box. She doesn't understand that you cannot tell Comcast or Verizon that you're running Linux. She doesn't understand that when she calls HP because her printer caught fire, that she cannot tell them she runs Linux -- because, as far as HP is concerned, Linux causes printers to catch fire.
It is true that this development rings badly for Xen, even taking out the involvement of Mosche Bar. Both were derived from university projects, involve the need of skilled developers, etc. Luckily, however, Xen is more general purpose and has a lower barrier of entry - although it is not quite suitable for home users - it can be found useful by businesses of all sizes. That was not true of OpenMosix, which was really only useful to large corporations and research facilities for special-needs projects.
Furthermore, the truth is that they are right - dual-core computing, increased cpu power, and low pricing have probably eradicated the need for OpenMosix. OpenMosix, I suspect, was a neat toy for hobbiests who are currently satisfied with a dual or even quad-core machines. The slightly larger shops might be looking torwards cell processors and whatever comes of Intel's 80 core chip. For really serious users, the OpenMosix software was inferer to many (if not all) of the commercial alternatives -- and there were apparently few enough serious users to even have the software ported to Linux 2.6 -- 2.6 was released 4-5 years ago!
I do have my concerns about XenSource, where it will be in 5 years - will it still be around and contributing to development? Luckily, as a more general-purpose product, and with many companies behind it (including my own), I suspect there will be developers handy when XenSource fails.
Perhaps I'm alone in this, but I think the most basic reason is a lack of interest.
If I go to the local newstand, I'll see about 10 magazines containing PC-related drivel, 1 magazine containing MacOS related items, and about 4-5 Linux-related publications. Now, I'm a Linux and perhaps even to a degree, a MacOS user, so the PC-related magazines hold no interest, but I doubt I would like them anyway (they're the thickest but also the most content-sparse). None of the magazines except Linux Journal holds anything of interest for me, and even then -- its hardly interesting anymore. The content is simply obsolete by the time it hits print. I hardly ever see anything new, surprising, or otherwise containing value. Perhaps I'd like to review the IEEE journals again, I haven't seen them since my university years.
When I go to the newstand, I now pickup The Economist and, for lighter reading pleasures, Newsweek. Perhaps to people more closely following such events these too are obsolete, but they are a great suppliment to my daily reading of the BBC's RSS feed.
For technical knowledge, I've begun to simply glance over slashdot's rss feed, dive deeper into the subjects I'm already familiar with, and look for feedback from my users. The users tend to keep up on their own interests, and I get reports from them on whats the popular thing today. If my users mention something of particular interest, I'll research it or (if its of questionable interest) get someone to research it for me.
Then again, I might be in a minority -- perhaps there really is a strong market for these more trivial publications. Other than those I already own, I can rarely find technical books for sale at local outlets for which I hold an interest. For technical books, I've instead moved to looking at Amazon, pre-owned, and university bookstores where I can more easily find materials for my research (such as books on lambda calculus, set theory, writing compilers, x86 assembler, etc)
Other reasons for using LISP in a reactor:
1. Nuclear reactors in the US were built in the 60's and 70's.
2. LISP was the language of choice for artifical intelligence. It would make sense at the time to hire the best and brightest AI researchers to build the software for the nuclear reactors.
3. LISP relates very closely to lambda calculus, which would likely have been vastly familiar to those involved in the design of a nuclear reactor. It is likely that mathematicians and scientists were involved in the development process, and their formulas were easily translated to LISP.
As for modern reactors, I wouldn't doubt if LISP was used as a matter of maintaining a standard -- plus, the reasons above are still perfectly valid.
You, of course, assume that they still teach about Nazi Germany in public schools. Unfortately, that isn't politically correct -- you know, you might offend those descended from German emigrants!
Personally, I graduated high school in 2000 from a relatively decent, middle-class suburban town. Although the school system received few much criticism it wasn't bottom of the barrel either. I clearly remember having an interest in this part of history, because I believe the same as you, "history repeats itself". Unfortunately, in my school, they jumped from the first World War to the Civil Rights movement. I don't believe they mentioned much about Watergate either.
I only imagine things are becoming worse. To what details are teachers now allowed to explain or describe violence, hatred, political abuses, and racism? School administrators are afraid that teaching students of these things, that at worst they will instigate these things, and at best they might draw lawsuits. Imagine the terror inflicted upon the school board upon the following:
What if the school was teaching about WWII when a student decided to bring a gun to school and shoot a jewish student? Surely, the school would be in hot water -- best to just not teach about WWII, that will at least cover the school board's ass.
I applaud all school teachers and their administrators that still care more about teaching our youth than they do about covering their asses.
Don't you know by now? We've gotta wait until King George III comes around before we do anything about it!
One of the local coffee shops here have a BlendTec. I always imagine putting some cans of coke, lightbulbs, cell phones, etc.. in there.
Not to mention the fact that when the plastic turns to oil... well, oil and fire, thats just dandy.
However, it should be noted that this isn't your every-day home microwave oven. It is very much a different thing altogether.. the concept may be similar, but the frequencies are different. IANAS (I am not a scientist) so I cannot say *what* would happen if there was metal in their "microwave oven" but I wouldn't use the jump to conclusions mat just yet.
Or how about XMPP in general? Thats IM for nerds, IM that matters.
This part is the most damning evidence. However, having these items in ones car isn't that unusual either. What was in the car that wasn't mentioned? Was he simply cleaning the car to sell it? (if so where is that seat?) Did he simply spill a bottle of water in his car and place the towels there to clean up? (I've had this happen to me)
Frankly, I don't think that having masking tape and trash bags in one's car to be that strange or unusual. Heck, I probably have those items in the back of my car right now... right next to the shovel. That doesn't mean I've killed anyone.
There could be good reasons for having these things on him, other than flight risk. If he was expecting arrest, having the $9k in cash on him would keep that money locked away as "personal effects" until his release. That would be a place, I suspect, legally protected in some ways that a bank might not protect him -- such as protection from creditors. (and he did have major financial issues, so that would be a very likely reason) Of course, there is now the potential for thievery by prison employees.
As for having a passport, there might be similar reasons. If you might go to jail for even a year, for purposes of trial, you might not want to leave your most important documents lying around for your family to scour through, burn, or box up. I personally know that my mother would throw everything into a box in her wet basement, to be subsequently damaged come the first rain. Suspicious? Perhaps. Beyond a reasonable doubt? No.
Buying books? If you thought that you were being suspected of a murder, would you buy such books? Its a tough call. The smart thing to do is to research, the dumb thing to do is cast suspicion. Unfortunately, these things can conflict quite severely. Regardless, there is reasonable doubt here.
Blood? Thats more serious, but also not that unusual. Some people have history of undiagnosed chronic nosebleeds, women have periods, and heck, its not that hard to cut yourself. Blood doesn't mean murder, it can mean an (honest-to-goodness) non-fatal accident, non-fatal domestic abuse, even a paper cut. Personally, I think that unless there is a significant amount of blood found, there isn't much to go on, and even then, it isn't conclusive. The important thing here is quantity (5 pints would be a problem!) and age. For instance, if there are 5 pints of blood but there is a severe difference in the *age* of the blood that could indicate storage -- what if someone drew a pint of blood every 3 months for the last year? That would be enough blood to make it look like they died.
Washing the car? Some people find washing their car a great way to relieve stress, which I'm sure he was having plenty of -- with a missing wife. This is really inconclusive.
The point is, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence, that without a body, makes it hard to prove that there was any crime at all. No single thing here can prove that Hans murdered Nina. Yeah, you've got some dots, and you can connect them to make Hans look guilty, but you can also connect them to make him look innocent. Of course, thats what lawyers are for.
They would still have to pay the fees that the other country imposes, but they might be significantly less. There would also be the potential for a US-based law preventing its citizens from doing such a thing. (for instance, there are tax laws that say you must pay taxes in the USA, even if you're making foreign income and living in a foreign country - but again, I don't know the details of that as, again, IANAL)
IANAL, but I would say most definately... if last.fm has US servers, then those US-based servers must abide by US licensing.
Having US-based mirrors would mean that last.fm would have to pay US-based royalties for songs played from them. (as opposed to UK-based royalties for their UK mirrors)
My question is, what will happen to the small stations where their small audience would have generated fewer fees than they have paid for the per-song rate? Will they get refunds? Of course, these are in the minority, but still...
Without knowing the actual details of the rate changes, it is hard to say for certain.. but this sounds like it could actually be a good thing for the smaller broadcasters. Unfortunately, the fact it is retroactive is repulsive.
Last.fm is, at least historically, a UK company. Since their servers (and the music) is broadcast from the UK, I'm not sure this will affect them. The problem now, of course, is that they're now owned by CBS. Still, with Lastfm being a UK branch/division, they should be safe.
But of course, IANAL.
I still feel that pages should target an 800px wide display, if they're going to target any pixel width at all. I have 1280x1024 resolution monitors and I browse at approximately 800x800. The "maximize" button is an oddity of MS Windows, not a Best Practice.
Ideally, with scalable graphics, lower resolution and smaller-format displays will be more easily supported. Just use percentages with everything. Of course, as you noted, tables would still be an issue; however, tables are perfect candidates for "overflow: scroll" -- I mean, after all, they're just static spreadsheets and we accept scrollbars with those. (if they're not used for layout -- which they shouldn't be)
Maybe for RHEL, but what about for the Linux installation on that linksys router? What about on the TiVO?
Last I checked, (and maybe I haven't checked in a while) these devices do not ship with source code in the package.
You're right that in the US, such a sized car will seem misplaced. Although here in Poland, the Smart car is not all that small after all. True, it *is* a small car, but we have millions of Maluchs (Fiat 126p's) on the road, a car much smaller than the Smart car. In fact, we call the shoulder, "the maluch lane" as the cars are so small that they often drive on the shoulder while we pass them. But thats not the only small car, most cars here are small. Our imported Nissian Ultima is the largest car that we've seen here, and we hardly ever see an SUV. Then again, small cars are more economical, especially where it is about $10 per gallon.
I suspect with rising gas prices, in the states, the SUVs will "phase out" and small cars will "be in". My biggest concern is if the market for SUVs crash, only the poor will be purchasing these large gas guzzlers. That could be a disaster for cities with limited public transportation.
The things that people will complain about! Be luckly that you're not still working with 16bit Windows applications, cooperative multitasking, or Xaw widgets. Sheesh, kids these days!
If that one of the biggest drawbacks of the Linux desktop, then I think "our" job is done. Besides, its personal preference, which interestingly enough, is provided to you in Linux. You have an almost limitless ability to customize your widgets and window borders, it can look like XP or Vista if you want it to. Personally, I use the Human theme from Ubuntu with Beryl.
Really, Linux won the "pretty graphical interface" award before Y2K, when GTK1 came around to replace Xaw/Athena. Even as ugly as GTK1 was, it was still well beyond Microsoft's toolkit, graphically. The Linux desktop, graphically, was second place only to OSX until Compiz came around... and with that, Linux still beat Microsoft to the table.
No rusting of the springs when put in the dishwasher? I agree that the model m is easy enough to take apart and clean with the proper amount of patience, shouldn't be any need to throw it in the dishwasher.
This area of law can get really complicated... Is it legal for FatWallet to republish BestBuy's prices online? Is it legal to republish facts taken from the Guiness Book of World records? The scores from a football game? The statistics of a baseball player? Its just data, just facts.. but so is a number (like the AACS one)
The question is, where are the limits of fair-use, if these things can really be copyrighted at all?
I understand the counter argument, but increased heat from a CPU can be seen as a downgrade, not an advancement.
Considering most people will admit to being an "idiot" when it comes to computers, his opinions might have some merit.
The problem is, if you're a new user to the Mac, and you rely on friends, or even forums to find good Mac applications, you will probably be referred to many inexpensive small utility applications. MacOS has a very strong culture of single-task shareware utilities. This is a carry-over from the days of Classic. Ultimately, the cost of all these applications can quickly accumulate.
However, that culture appears to be changing with an increasing number of Open Source applications being made available for OSX. Most of them aren't even ports, but honest-to-goodness real OSX applications developed specifically for the platform.
Personally, my Macs are run fine without any commercial payware, single-use utilities. I've found that free software can almost completely fulfill my needs without compromise. The only places where free software fails on the Mac are where inexpensive payware applications also fail. That said, Linux does provide a more complete free-software solution than OSX, and I will even argue that with Ubuntu Feisty, has surpassed OSX Tiger with features and usability. Though, with Leopard on the prowl later this year, Ubuntu has some tough competition.
To clarify, the "20th time" my wife dropped it was what ultimately killed the laptop. The fact remains, the malfunctioning fan had nothing to do with the laptop's demise.