I have two HP Stream Minis. One upgraded fine to Windows 10, the other did not. The one that did, is now running a couple of services on my home network, and the other is now running linux and is a media machine. To be fair, the Streams came with a 32G SSD with a recovery partition, so only had about 24G of drive space, which windows 7 took up a big chunk, and once the downloads started, they choked up pretty fast. In retrospect, I'm surprised that one of them did upgrade properly.
Unless you have a bleeding edge laptop, then Linux will most likely work fine for you. I have an HP Elitebook which ran Windows 7 Pro, I dual booted it with Mint 17.1, It successfully upgraded the Windows to 10 without destroying the dual boot. I was impressed actually, although once I started looking at Windows 10 more closely, the less I liked it. So, when I upgraded to a SSD, Windows got dropped. Everything works out of the box.
The Start of the End of BB10 was the realization (of the Company) that their App store was never going to compete with Google's, or Apple's app stores.
I really liked my Q30. But in the end, I moved back to Android for a couple of Apps that I couldn't get to run. Now that the Priv is out, I'm really interested in returning to the BB fold.
If MS adopts android apps, it will be a short trip to giving up on Windows Mobile. Microsoft's experiment in trying to use their desktop dominance to muscle in on the mobile domain may ultimately be viewed as a major mistake. Their Surface Line of devices are really laptops just masquerading as tablets, and that they are so successful right now are lending credence to the thought that tablets have come as far as they can, and they can't replace a good general purpose computer completely.
We were looking at Sparc Server support. I couldn't find a power supply online, so ended up calling the Oracle Help line. Turns out, you couldn't just buy one. they would provide them as part of a service contract. I can't remember the exact price, but it was pretty much the same as the server itself.
We now have Solaris running on a HP Proliant Server, and it runs great, and easy to find spare parts.
With the current situation concerning Privacy Law, being that it is becoming quite complex, what we need is a "Data Extradition Treaty"
If your Courts want some Data which is related to an ongoing investigation, you trundle over the Country that is holding it, and ask for permission to get it.
As long as the local Court has some sort of leverage over a company, they can make that company do their dirty work. The second they lose that leverage, they will have to do it themselves. The thing that the US Gov has to remember is how this could backfire. ITAR guidlines were designed to prevent the spread of military technology, then it was used to give US firms an advantage in foreign sales. Well, that has backfired now, as ITAR un-encumbered weapon systems are growing in popularity. Recently, Canada, a notable ally of the US encouraged the use of non-US systems in order to reduce risk and delays. This DATA situation seems likely to cause similar issues.
In the end, Countries won't really care about complying with US law, especially if the DATA concerned is personal data belonging to that Country's citizens. I see lots of stove-pipe systems cropping up in order to remove the likelihood of having a data-leak to the US justice system.
I can confirm, my work e-mail has been bursting with requests to renew email that I don't read anyways!
I work for the Canadian Government in IT, and hidden url's are stripped out of emails, so when these "partner" email request come in, asking for me to consent to receiving marketing, info and other types of email, I can't. Even if I wanted to. But it turns out that this is a great way to reset the emails I'm getting.
I love it, and not really sure why there is so much hate out there for the legislation. There was certainly a lot of hate for the SPAM people were getting. There are websites that I had to register onto just to see what they were selling . And the sponsored link that took me there, just told me that the item I was looking for was no longer for sale there! But I digress. I'm tired of companies sending me crap emails just because I had a tenuous relationship with them. I understand that this law may stick in the craw of some legitimate businesses, but hey, they can always ask me to opt in.
Now, if we can just get them to stop trying to get me to "like" them on Facebook.
But of course, behaving like a "good-faith plaintiff" does not fit in with the revenue model. The whole original plan was to try and scare people into settling without going into a courtroom. Because, as soon as you get in the courtroom, there are Judges and sometimes Juries who you can never completely control. Costs also increase. So, you pick a test case you think you can win, prosecute the shit out of that one, even though you know you'll never get any real money, the judgement is the prise. Keep it really high, so that when you get your next batch of infringers you can threaten them with complete destruction. That way, more people will be inclined to settle without you every having to go back in the Courtroom again.
Of course, the Canadian rules have broken this model. Now, they have to pay for the list of names. They will have to pay to bring someone in to actually sue to make the point, and determine how the Canadian Courts are actually going to award damages. With a max infringement level of $5000, this is going to be close. Even if they are awarded some court costs, there will be few big payoff days. I suspect they are hoping that one of the secret treaties (TPP maybe) will force the Canadians to change the rules and come back to a more US style of play, and actions like this will be more placeholders to "prove" that litigation like this is truly important.
I like Slashdot. I have learned to live with its silly foibles, even when things don't work perfect they work well.
I suppose I am a bit of traditionalist. I hate change for changes sake, I don't really like it unless it is to make things better. Today I got a bit of a look at the beta site. Wow. It appears to embody all of the recent "flat" style that Apple, Microsoft and even Android is gravitating towards.
Why? I don't know. In MS Office, I hardly know what a button is anymore just be looking at it quickly. I have to decide on where to click, and often I have to hunt for the buttons. I don't really like it. It doesn't bring anything real to the table.
I'm not looking for karma, I don't really care, but it won't really matter because/. will change, and if I don't like the changes I'll just stop going there. It's a shame, because I really liked the discussions that took place. Sometimes, I even got the news before it appeared on other sites I frequent.
The bottom line for me is, if the conversation stops, and the futue looks like a whitewashed, pastel coloured world I won't bother. It's not worth it to get upset, I'll just look for something else to pass my time.
The site belongs to Dice. They can do what they will with it. If they screw it up, well, not many of us from the looks of it will be back to say "I told you so"
That's it. My 2 cents. Good luck Slashdot, I'll miss you for a while,
It seems as well that Microsoft wanted the locked-down environment to prevent Windows RT from having viruses,
I don't think so.
Microsoft, ultimately wanted to duplicate Apple's App Store Environment. They were hoping the lower price point would bring in the users, which would spur development of the Applications for it, which would of course induce more to join the ecosystem. Once Microsoft realized the value of the entire system, they were willing to try and duplicate it.
Of course, the hardware was there, but the Apps and the OS itself fell short, and they were not able to complete the task at hand. In order for them to have a chance at success here, they need more time. Time that just may not be available.
The real problem is a lack of real information so people can only guess. It's hard for manufacturers to deal with this kind of situation because they don't want to say anything until they are sure.
Hammer, meet Nail!
This is the issue exactly! Apple is not the only company that likes to hold information closely. I once had an ISP that would pretend that they did not have outages, and liked to blame their customers. I spent several hours trying to debug my girlfriend's network connection only to find out that they had a 6 hour outage that they only admitted to after the fact.
I have a WII, didn't see the need to upgrade to the WII-U. I also have a XBox, had a PS3 but only because I wanted to watch BlueRays. Is it me, or has Nintendo just lagged a bit in terms of graphics? They revolutionized the controllers with the WII, but now I really feel the others have caught up. I do not know if the Nintendo catalog will be enough to keep people with the platform just to play those games. Time will tell.
They already switched to OpenOffice, I've used both and while there are some differences, if you know one, you can use the other without too many problems.
Most folks don't even use more than a small percentage of the features of a word processor anyways. I have friends who work with lawyers who say Word is no good for them, and that they have to use WordPerfect for their legal documents.
I agree that formats are very important. This organization is large enough to be able to mandate the formats they will use. But a quick check of LibreOffice Writer (4.0.2.2) shows it can handle the fol formats:
odt, ott, sxw, stw, fodt, uot, doxc(MS Word 2007/2010 XML) , doc, xml(ms Word 2003 and Doc Book), html, rtf, txt, and docx (OpenOffice XML Text)
It appears that they won't have many problems accepting any common format.
I work in a very large organization. We use MS Office, and we provide training for many of our staff in Excel, Word, Powerpoint and Outlook. If we were to swtich, it would involve creating new lesson plans, but the savings in licensing would more than pay for that.
Morse Code was predigital. It was on and off keyed using an unmodulated carrier designed to be sent my human operators. There are variations between the length of the elements, the space between the elements, the space between letters and words. This is more a language than code, experienced operators did not hear letters, they heard words. Speeds up to and past 60 wpm were not unheard of. And there were no machines up until recently that could compete with the accuracy of a human operator.
Morse code does not necessarily a binary system. If sent by a machine, I could buy that, but it was designed to be sent by humans using a key. Later a two paddle bug was often used to speed up the code. One paddle sent a stream of dits, and the other keyed the dahs. you could vary the speed of the dits using a dial, but you varied the dahs using the paddle itself. Good operators would shorten the dahs, and use the fastest dits they could manage. So, you might use a dit from 40 wpm, but a dah from 45 wpm. The end result was code that was fairly easy to decode by a human operator, but difficult to decode by a machine. The best machines that I saw had an accuracy of about 85%, which was not good enough.
Later electronic bugs had two paddles that shaped both the dits and the dahs, but because the operator varied the space in between the elements you ended up with the same issues
A digital replacement for morse code was the Baudot Code
.This used machine generated and read code. Early systems used a punch tape as storage medium.
I was a trained and certified Wireless Station Operator, when I first qualified I could send and receive 20> wpm using a stick (pencil) and hand key
Indeed, I was trained as a wireless operator after high school. I certified in morse code, sending and receiving 20wpm. There was some effort in sending the telegram, but even calculating how much it was going to cost. A good operator could save the sender money by combining words and using shorthand expressions.
When I was unable to attend either of my brother's weddings, I sent telegrams to congradulate them. Aside from the cost, they represent a level of effort which email or a telephone call just cannot emulate.
Easy answer, any country that wishes to maintain a balanced Naval Fleet requires submarines. These vessels, if not completely accounted for make an excellent "Fleet in being". During the Falklands, just the possibility of Argentine subs meant the Royal Navy had to commit significant ASW forces to the campaign. Spain and Canada nearly came to blows during the "Turbot War"In the event that that conflict had gone "hot" you can bet Spanish Submarines would have played a pivotal role.
From the Wikipedia article:
The Spanish Navy deployed the patrol boat P-74 Atalaya to protect them. The Spanish Navy also prepared a surface task group with frigates and tankers, but Spain eventually decided against sending it. Negotiations ceased on March 25, and the following day, Canadian ships cut the nets of the Spanish trawler Pescamero Uno. The Spanish Navy responded by deploying a second patrol boat. Canadian warships and patrol planes in the vicinity were authorized by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to fire on Spanish vessels that exposed their guns.
I look down on them because of their widespread bad business practices: the majority of the time you can expect price gouging and poor workmanship. They'd be better off working for Microsoft with that attitude.
OUCH!
I'm sorry that you have experienced the worst side of the human experience. It has certainly not been mine. Yes, I have encountered the occasional scammer, but by and large the tradesmen I have had direct contact with have been honest. I have heard people complain about the $50/hr plumber or mechanic, so they hire the $20/hr guy who comes in and does a crappy job, then they end up paying a competent worker the 50 bucks an hour anyways to make it right.
If you hire someone who takes you to the cleaners, you have a right to be upset, but if you failed to get references, and do your research, you have to accept some of the blame as well
There is nothing wrong with becoming a Tradesman. Plumber, Electrician, Welder or Mechanic, etc
Just as we need Engineers, Nurses and Lawyers (I can't believe I'm including Lawyers!), we need the folks that keep our machines running. Just as not everyone has the money, or the aptitude to become a Doctor, I know many people who do not have the abilities to become a carpenter or metal worker.
I don't much care for the way some look down on the tradesmen that keep things running. Where I live there is a shortage of plumbers and electricians. Out west there is a shortage of carpenters. As a resul the ones that do exist command high wages, and are busy with lots of work. All this without the debilitating school loans that many University Graduates have.
I'm running XFCE on Ubuntu on mine. The only reason I left chromeOS running was to handle netflix. Otherwise I have to really agree with most folks that the chromebooks are just too limiting. Running Linux, with an 8 hr battery life is nice. I can sit back and get some work done.
As far as android/win8 or iOS, I do not even want to consider one of these without a touchscreen.
I see it as an evolutionary process, the hydrogen powered ICE (Internal Combustable Engine) while not that efficient, may well prove to be better than a gasoline powered unit. If we can keep costs down, and then when the next generation of technology is ready to do it cheaply, then slide it in. You will always have early adopters ready to spend big money right away in order to be more green, or perhaps burn less gas. But like the chevy volt, who can affort to pay the full cost of new technology?
If we are using excess energy to produce Hydrogen gas, why not burn it initially in an ICE even if it is not the most efficient use possible? Compared to what we have now, it's found power. We can start using it right away, and then get extra capacity later on by increasing efficiency, either by better production techniques or more efficient engine systems, or both. If we start producing Hydrogen with our spare power, I think there would be room to try several things to see what we can come up with.
Slashdot Mirror
I have two HP Stream Minis. One upgraded fine to Windows 10, the other did not. The one that did, is now running a couple of services on my home network, and the other is now running linux and is a media machine. To be fair, the Streams came with a 32G SSD with a recovery partition, so only had about 24G of drive space, which windows 7 took up a big chunk, and once the downloads started, they choked up pretty fast. In retrospect, I'm surprised that one of them did upgrade properly.
Unless you have a bleeding edge laptop, then Linux will most likely work fine for you. I have an HP Elitebook which ran Windows 7 Pro, I dual booted it with Mint 17.1, It successfully upgraded the Windows to 10 without destroying the dual boot. I was impressed actually, although once I started looking at Windows 10 more closely, the less I liked it. So, when I upgraded to a SSD, Windows got dropped. Everything works out of the box.
The Start of the End of BB10 was the realization (of the Company) that their App store was never going to compete with Google's, or Apple's app stores.
I really liked my Q30. But in the end, I moved back to Android for a couple of Apps that I couldn't get to run. Now that the Priv is out, I'm really interested in returning to the BB fold.
If MS adopts android apps, it will be a short trip to giving up on Windows Mobile. Microsoft's experiment in trying to use their desktop dominance to muscle in on the mobile domain may ultimately be viewed as a major mistake. Their Surface Line of devices are really laptops just masquerading as tablets, and that they are so successful right now are lending credence to the thought that tablets have come as far as they can, and they can't replace a good general purpose computer completely.
I believe it.
We were looking at Sparc Server support. I couldn't find a power supply online, so ended up calling the Oracle Help line. Turns out, you couldn't just buy one. they would provide them as part of a service contract. I can't remember the exact price, but it was pretty much the same as the server itself.
We now have Solaris running on a HP Proliant Server, and it runs great, and easy to find spare parts.
With the current situation concerning Privacy Law, being that it is becoming quite complex, what we need is a "Data Extradition Treaty"
If your Courts want some Data which is related to an ongoing investigation, you trundle over the Country that is holding it, and ask for permission to get it.
As long as the local Court has some sort of leverage over a company, they can make that company do their dirty work. The second they lose that leverage, they will have to do it themselves. The thing that the US Gov has to remember is how this could backfire. ITAR guidlines were designed to prevent the spread of military technology, then it was used to give US firms an advantage in foreign sales. Well, that has backfired now, as ITAR un-encumbered weapon systems are growing in popularity. Recently, Canada, a notable ally of the US encouraged the use of non-US systems in order to reduce risk and delays. This DATA situation seems likely to cause similar issues.
In the end, Countries won't really care about complying with US law, especially if the DATA concerned is personal data belonging to that Country's citizens. I see lots of stove-pipe systems cropping up in order to remove the likelihood of having a data-leak to the US justice system.
My 2 cents
They care because their profits are tied into the upgrade cycle.
I can confirm, my work e-mail has been bursting with requests to renew email that I don't read anyways!
I work for the Canadian Government in IT, and hidden url's are stripped out of emails, so when these "partner" email request come in, asking for me to consent to receiving marketing, info and other types of email, I can't. Even if I wanted to. But it turns out that this is a great way to reset the emails I'm getting.
I love it, and not really sure why there is so much hate out there for the legislation. There was certainly a lot of hate for the SPAM people were getting. There are websites that I had to register onto just to see what they were selling . And the sponsored link that took me there, just told me that the item I was looking for was no longer for sale there! But I digress. I'm tired of companies sending me crap emails just because I had a tenuous relationship with them. I understand that this law may stick in the craw of some legitimate businesses, but hey, they can always ask me to opt in.
Now, if we can just get them to stop trying to get me to "like" them on Facebook.
Well stated, from Voltage's point of view
But of course, behaving like a "good-faith plaintiff" does not fit in with the revenue model. The whole original plan was to try and scare people into settling without going into a courtroom. Because, as soon as you get in the courtroom, there are Judges and sometimes Juries who you can never completely control. Costs also increase. So, you pick a test case you think you can win, prosecute the shit out of that one, even though you know you'll never get any real money, the judgement is the prise. Keep it really high, so that when you get your next batch of infringers you can threaten them with complete destruction. That way, more people will be inclined to settle without you every having to go back in the Courtroom again.
Of course, the Canadian rules have broken this model. Now, they have to pay for the list of names. They will have to pay to bring someone in to actually sue to make the point, and determine how the Canadian Courts are actually going to award damages. With a max infringement level of $5000, this is going to be close. Even if they are awarded some court costs, there will be few big payoff days. I suspect they are hoping that one of the secret treaties (TPP maybe) will force the Canadians to change the rules and come back to a more US style of play, and actions like this will be more placeholders to "prove" that litigation like this is truly important.
I like Slashdot. I have learned to live with its silly foibles, even when things don't work perfect they work well.
I suppose I am a bit of traditionalist. I hate change for changes sake, I don't really like it unless it is to make things better. Today I got a bit of a look at the beta site. Wow. It appears to embody all of the recent "flat" style that Apple, Microsoft and even Android is gravitating towards.
Why? I don't know. In MS Office, I hardly know what a button is anymore just be looking at it quickly. I have to decide on where to click, and often I have to hunt for the buttons. I don't really like it. It doesn't bring anything real to the table.
I'm not looking for karma, I don't really care, but it won't really matter because /. will change, and if I don't like the changes I'll just stop going there. It's a shame, because I really liked the discussions that took place. Sometimes, I even got the news before it appeared on other sites I frequent.
The bottom line for me is, if the conversation stops, and the futue looks like a whitewashed, pastel coloured world I won't bother. It's not worth it to get upset, I'll just look for something else to pass my time.
The site belongs to Dice. They can do what they will with it. If they screw it up, well, not many of us from the looks of it will be back to say "I told you so"
That's it. My 2 cents. Good luck Slashdot, I'll miss you for a while,
Lying is a crime now?
Just ask Martha Stewart.
It seems as well that Microsoft wanted the locked-down environment to prevent Windows RT from having viruses,
I don't think so.
Microsoft, ultimately wanted to duplicate Apple's App Store Environment. They were hoping the lower price point would bring in the users, which would spur development of the Applications for it, which would of course induce more to join the ecosystem. Once Microsoft realized the value of the entire system, they were willing to try and duplicate it.
Of course, the hardware was there, but the Apps and the OS itself fell short, and they were not able to complete the task at hand. In order for them to have a chance at success here, they need more time. Time that just may not be available.
The real problem is a lack of real information so people can only guess. It's hard for manufacturers to deal with this kind of situation because they don't want to say anything until they are sure.
Hammer, meet Nail!
This is the issue exactly! Apple is not the only company that likes to hold information closely. I once had an ISP that would pretend that they did not have outages, and liked to blame their customers. I spent several hours trying to debug my girlfriend's network connection only to find out that they had a 6 hour outage that they only admitted to after the fact.
I have a WII, didn't see the need to upgrade to the WII-U. I also have a XBox, had a PS3 but only because I wanted to watch BlueRays. Is it me, or has Nintendo just lagged a bit in terms of graphics? They revolutionized the controllers with the WII, but now I really feel the others have caught up. I do not know if the Nintendo catalog will be enough to keep people with the platform just to play those games. Time will tell.
They already switched to OpenOffice, I've used both and while there are some differences, if you know one, you can use the other without too many problems.
Most folks don't even use more than a small percentage of the features of a word processor anyways. I have friends who work with lawyers who say Word is no good for them, and that they have to use WordPerfect for their legal documents.
I agree that formats are very important. This organization is large enough to be able to mandate the formats they will use. But a quick check of LibreOffice Writer (4.0.2.2) shows it can handle the fol formats: odt, ott, sxw, stw, fodt, uot, doxc(MS Word 2007/2010 XML) , doc, xml(ms Word 2003 and Doc Book), html, rtf, txt, and docx (OpenOffice XML Text)
It appears that they won't have many problems accepting any common format.
I work in a very large organization. We use MS Office, and we provide training for many of our staff in Excel, Word, Powerpoint and Outlook. If we were to swtich, it would involve creating new lesson plans, but the savings in licensing would more than pay for that.
CISCO has IOS which of course Apple has licenced
Well, there's the ipaq, which someone else pointed out.
iMac
The announcement of the iMac in 1998
ipaq
The iPAQ Desktop Personal Computer in its various incarnations was a Legacy-free PC produced by the Compaq Computer Corporation around the year 2000
Morse Code was predigital. It was on and off keyed using an unmodulated carrier designed to be sent my human operators. There are variations between the length of the elements, the space between the elements, the space between letters and words. This is more a language than code, experienced operators did not hear letters, they heard words. Speeds up to and past 60 wpm were not unheard of. And there were no machines up until recently that could compete with the accuracy of a human operator.
Morse code does not necessarily a binary system. If sent by a machine, I could buy that, but it was designed to be sent by humans using a key. Later a two paddle bug was often used to speed up the code. One paddle sent a stream of dits, and the other keyed the dahs. you could vary the speed of the dits using a dial, but you varied the dahs using the paddle itself. Good operators would shorten the dahs, and use the fastest dits they could manage. So, you might use a dit from 40 wpm, but a dah from 45 wpm. The end result was code that was fairly easy to decode by a human operator, but difficult to decode by a machine. The best machines that I saw had an accuracy of about 85%, which was not good enough.
Later electronic bugs had two paddles that shaped both the dits and the dahs, but because the operator varied the space in between the elements you ended up with the same issues
A digital replacement for morse code was the Baudot Code
.This used machine generated and read code. Early systems used a punch tape as storage medium.
I was a trained and certified Wireless Station Operator, when I first qualified I could send and receive 20> wpm using a stick (pencil) and hand key
Indeed, I was trained as a wireless operator after high school. I certified in morse code, sending and receiving 20wpm. There was some effort in sending the telegram, but even calculating how much it was going to cost. A good operator could save the sender money by combining words and using shorthand expressions.
When I was unable to attend either of my brother's weddings, I sent telegrams to congradulate them. Aside from the cost, they represent a level of effort which email or a telephone call just cannot emulate.
Serious question.
Easy answer, any country that wishes to maintain a balanced Naval Fleet requires submarines. These vessels, if not completely accounted for make an excellent "Fleet in being". During the Falklands, just the possibility of Argentine subs meant the Royal Navy had to commit significant ASW forces to the campaign. Spain and Canada nearly came to blows during the "Turbot War"In the event that that conflict had gone "hot" you can bet Spanish Submarines would have played a pivotal role.
From the Wikipedia article:
The Spanish Navy deployed the patrol boat P-74 Atalaya to protect them. The Spanish Navy also prepared a surface task group with frigates and tankers, but Spain eventually decided against sending it. Negotiations ceased on March 25, and the following day, Canadian ships cut the nets of the Spanish trawler Pescamero Uno. The Spanish Navy responded by deploying a second patrol boat. Canadian warships and patrol planes in the vicinity were authorized by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to fire on Spanish vessels that exposed their guns.
I look down on them because of their widespread bad business practices: the majority of the time you can expect price gouging and poor workmanship. They'd be better off working for Microsoft with that attitude.
OUCH!
I'm sorry that you have experienced the worst side of the human experience. It has certainly not been mine. Yes, I have encountered the occasional scammer, but by and large the tradesmen I have had direct contact with have been honest. I have heard people complain about the $50/hr plumber or mechanic, so they hire the $20/hr guy who comes in and does a crappy job, then they end up paying a competent worker the 50 bucks an hour anyways to make it right.
If you hire someone who takes you to the cleaners, you have a right to be upset, but if you failed to get references, and do your research, you have to accept some of the blame as well
There is nothing wrong with becoming a Tradesman. Plumber, Electrician, Welder or Mechanic, etc
Just as we need Engineers, Nurses and Lawyers (I can't believe I'm including Lawyers!), we need the folks that keep our machines running. Just as not everyone has the money, or the aptitude to become a Doctor, I know many people who do not have the abilities to become a carpenter or metal worker.
I don't much care for the way some look down on the tradesmen that keep things running. Where I live there is a shortage of plumbers and electricians. Out west there is a shortage of carpenters. As a resul the ones that do exist command high wages, and are busy with lots of work. All this without the debilitating school loans that many University Graduates have.
From my perspective, it sounds like good advice
As far as android/win8 or iOS, I do not even want to consider one of these without a touchscreen.
But I suppose it's OK when Ubuntu does it because you haven't paid for it?
Dangerous line of argument there.
Actually, it wasn't OK. That is why Mate and Cinnamon exist now. At least with Linux there is still some choice
And the fools days is upon us again. Well done slashdot, and happy Birthday to the Royal Canadian Air Force
I hear you.
I see it as an evolutionary process, the hydrogen powered ICE (Internal Combustable Engine) while not that efficient, may well prove to be better than a gasoline powered unit. If we can keep costs down, and then when the next generation of technology is ready to do it cheaply, then slide it in. You will always have early adopters ready to spend big money right away in order to be more green, or perhaps burn less gas. But like the chevy volt, who can affort to pay the full cost of new technology?
If we are using excess energy to produce Hydrogen gas, why not burn it initially in an ICE even if it is not the most efficient use possible? Compared to what we have now, it's found power. We can start using it right away, and then get extra capacity later on by increasing efficiency, either by better production techniques or more efficient engine systems, or both. If we start producing Hydrogen with our spare power, I think there would be room to try several things to see what we can come up with.