Simple, you plug it in the outlet at your parking spot. Most company parking lots here in Sweden have them. If these are not available at your work and you live in a cold climate you should tell them to install some as it is the 'green' thing to do and will be of use when cars go electric as well...
Another option is a blowtorch... if you happen to drive a tractor. I use one to get my tractor to start if I leave it in the forest overnight. I have used it on my motorbike as well... I'm thinking about a way to get the thing to warm up without such dangerous tricks like a heating element in the oil pan. Carburetors and blowtorches do not make good company...
The Internet is a great place to let people know God is real.
Nah, any god worth a capitalised name does not need something as primitive as the internet. They just, you know, appeae out of nothing in burning bushes or goat entrails or burned toast. Internet is for wannabe-gods.
...is to empty the account every day. There is no sense in keeping any amount of money within their graps as they have shown time and time again they will freeze access without real cause or warning.
I was part of the collective to buy i-Opener machines from the failed Netpliance company. We used Paypal to collect fund from participants as that seemed to be the best way at the moment... How wrong we were... Paypal froze access to the account once it had accumulated enough money for them to be profitable to draw interest from. Of course they did NOT block payment into the account, just access to the funds. They had no real reason to freeze the account and ignored their own rules in both freezing and unblocking the account. They just sat on the money for a month or two, drawing interest from it. When they finally unblocked the account - again without giving any reason whatsoever - the deal with Netpliance had almost bounced.
Paypal is not a bank. Don't treat it as a bank. Don't entrust them with your money. Don't give them access to a debit account, only to a credit card.
Paypal, in short, can not be trusted. Use it at your own peril, only use credit cards so you can reverse the transaction. Never ever accumulate any real amount of money on a Paypal account.
Re:Great, still doesn't fix the Houston problem.
on
The Year of the E-Bicycle
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I've seen people riding with ladders, and lawn furniture.
You forgot washing machines, 2.10x1.20 slabs of 18mm multiplex (wood) and 2x4's. I transported all on a trailer behind my bike, the latter in sufficient quantity to build all my furniture.
Now I live in Sweden where cycling is no nearly as popular as in the Netherlands. Some people look at me like I just climbed out of a flying saucer. They do sell studded tires for bikes here so I can not be the only one cycling in winter...
What does it matter that Shuttleworth finances the distro? He does not finance me, nor any of the other volunteers. Counted in hours*$ their contribution is bigger than Shuttleworth's but they (rightfully) do not get an exception in the Code. Neither should Shuttleworth or anyone else. Having a leader does not mean that person is infallible.
Developers are a picky and meticulous lot. This joke in the Code does not fall well with many, just search the web for "ubuntu code of conduct sabdfl". There is even a bug out on it:
There is actually a difference between the Code of Conduct you read on the website (http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct) and the one you are supposed to sign (https://launchpad.net/codeofconduct/1.0.1). The former does not refer to Shuttleworth as being any different from anyone else - it actually does not refer to him at all. That is just as well as he plans to step down next year...
I guess they forgot to update the version you are supposed to sign?
Well, there used to be a problem in the Ubuntu Code of Conduct in that it contained some guff about Shuttleworth (or 'SABDFL') always being right and such. That made me, even though I am quite active in Ubuntu, refuse to sign the Code. Most of those references have been taken but it still refers to SABDFL as being perfect. Come on, Ubuntu project, this is not a religion. Remember, No kings, no queens but rough concensus and running code (to roughly paraphrase IETF's original credo)...
Remove the last reference to the Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator For Life and I will reconsider. Until that time I will continue to contribute as long as I agree to the course the project takes but I will not sign any declaration of conformity.
I caught her more than once just staring out of the window, not really studying. For her that was part of "studying" but in reality it isn't.
"Staring out of the window" can be very much a part of studying. If by studying you mean "learning the book by heart, page by page" it is not. If you mean "real" studying, ie. trying to think about the subject matter, learning not just what and how but also why something is the way it is you'll find yourself looking at the window (or the table or the floor, or picking your nose or whatever) more often than not.
Imagine the following scenario: you are sitting outside on a log in the snow. There is a nice January sun shining down on you, the temperature is a crisp -8 and you are minding your own business. Suddenly someone comes along and shouts out loud 'YOU DO NOT EXIST'. What would your reaction be?
The most likely reaction would be one of scorn and ridicule, right? Being secure in the fact of your existence you would not feel the need for others around you to confirm your existence. You KNOW you exist so what do you care what others say?
Now imagine you are..... GOD. Big Capital Letter GOD, creator of the universe (or at least separator of light and darkness if you want to follow the most recent translations) and everything that moves and lives and breathes. Your denizens are like microbes on a human's skin, so many of your creation walks and crawls and creeps and slithers around that blue planet. What would you care if one of those creatures, one of those microbes, proclaims you non-existence? Would you clamor for confirmation of it to those other creatures, those other microbes? Of course not. You are GOD! You don't need confirmation of anything! You are the past, the present and the future, everything moves only by your grace, you are omnipotent and omniscient.
Why, then, do these religious nutcases claim that it is a criminal act to claim the aformentioned?
The only possible explanation is that they are not sure at all that this deity they proclaim to believe in actually exists. They will do anything to keep up appearances, anything to keep their mind-construct from failing. Anyone who shakes the tree has to be stopped before they fall out. Anyone who points out that the book they read is actually an allegorical work of fiction has to be punished.
By trying to stop anyone from claiming god does not exist they prove that god does, in fact, not exist.
In summary, you're right that Win 7 is basically just a Vista rebrand, but it doesn't mean that a Vista hater will hate Win 7. Only a Vista hater for legitimate reasons will (minority), a market sheep will not (majority).
That is of course the whole point of my posting - which was for some reason modded down as offtopic even though TFA hails Windows 7 as 'the comeback kid' for Microsoft. The whole 'Windows Vista Bad, Windows 7 Good' media brouhaha seems to be nothing more than a regurgitation of some marketing mantra. The question I posed in my original posting was why so many people actually fell for this, instead of judging both versions on their merits. Windows 7 is not much different from Windows Vista so the media stance is incongruous and does not speak well for their reliability. Either they lied when they called Vista a dead duck or they lie when they call Windows 7 a fresh breath of air...
I just tried to fix a neighbour's new Toshiba laptop which came with Windows 7 home premium installed. I have fixed similar Toshiba machines with Vista. The difference between the two is so small as to be negligible, both in speed as well as 'features'. The Windows 7 panel might be nicer than the Vista/XP/2000/w98/w95 panel and the somethat less torrential flood of UAC prompts is an improvement but I really do not get why Windows y is being portrayed as the second coming while Vista is painted blacker than black.
If you like Vista you will like Windows 7, if you dislike Vista you most likely will also dislike Windows 7. Some anecdotal evidence comes from the experience I had about two hours ago...
The new Toshiba my neighbour bought did not want to connect to his wireless network while it does connect to mine as well as the one in the shop where he bought it (which he found out when he brought the thing back to complain). Other machines with other operating systems have no problems connecting to the same router so the router is OK. Debugging this problem was made impossible by Internet Explorer and the panel crashing all the time. This might be due to his installing of some Norton crap product. The machine bluescreened three times in a span of 20 minutes while it was only in use for light web browsing (looking for a new 802.11 driver for the RealTek chipset in the machine). The only way to get the machine to be in a usable state was to start it with a Ubuntu 9.04 CD. Unfortunately Windows 7 did not want to recognize the Windows Mobile (!) phone which was used as a temporary storage device for the downloaded driver.
I ended up giving the neighbour the Ubuntu CD with some instructions on how to use it for browsing etc. As to whether I will retry getting that machine connected with Windows 7 or just try to downgrade it to XP or upgrade it to Ubuntu I don't know yet. For now he can at least use the machine he bought, no thanks to Windows 7.
OK, the next bomb will be in a piece of hand luggage, pushed snugly against the back of the overhead locker so it is as close to the hull as possible. The detonator is hooked up to a remote control doohickey fabricated out of one of those cheap remote control planes/cars/helicopters, built into a laptop or something similar. Or there is no remote control at all, the thing is rigged to explode at a certain time after pressing some button on the laptop.
No, this does not sound like it will have any effect. It will just inconvenience all those who have no plans whatsoever to blow up planes. It does resemble DRM a bit in the sense that the 'security' measures are at most a small hindrance to the bad guys while causing loads of discomfort and annoyance to the rest.
Maybe the air transport sector should take a look at how DRM fared in the audio sector?
"...Actually, Sonny wanted the term of copyright protection to last forever. I am informed by staff that such a change would violate the Constitution. I invite all of you to work with me to strengthen our copyright laws in all of the ways available to us. As you know, there is also Jack Valenti's proposal for term to last forever less one day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress..."
Forever minus one day. Look for it around 2022-2023...r
You don't need to block all external images to get rid of this type of tracking. Blocking 1x1 web bugs is sufficient. Another way of getting rid of this type of tracking is by pointing statcounter (et al) to 0.0.0.0 on your DNS proxy or in the hosts file. No tin foil hat needed at all.
...they can be filtered out very easily by muting the sound and dimming/blurring the screen while they run. For those lost souls who still watch television this might be a means to at least escape part of the annoyance.
The better solution is of course to get rid of TV and get your news and entertainment from the 'net. Filtering out commercial drivel becomes easier as well.
Oh, and for those who think that I am obliged to watch commercial sh*t to 'pay' for all that 'free' content on the 'net I'd like to say 'Ascend Thine'...
We have inalienable rights endowed by a creator. In other words, not given to us by men and as such cannot be taken away by men.
That, of course, is not true. What most likely happened is that, in the search for a method of crowd control, far back in time some smart person came up with the idea of using the already existing religious beliefs for this purpose. As most religions had and still have an upper class of priests/mullahs/shamans/witch doctors/etc the solution was to engage those religious rulers in the scheme. It is also possible that the idea sprang up out within this religious upper class.
The smart person, seeing that believers are attuned to whatever needs and wants their gods are supposed to have, created some dictions in name of those gods. The gods, he said, do not like it if you kill your neighbour to steal his sheep, donkey, camel, cow, wife, land and whatnot. They don't like it if in a situation of famine you hoard all food and refuse to come to aid of others. The gods, in short, did not like their followers to upset their own society or to rebel against it. As to whether it was the same smart person who came up with the idea to use those religious beliefs to further strife and war as well is of course a question which remains to be answered. It is clear, however, that the gods generally DO like it for their followers to compete with followers of other gods. This may also be a means of channelling the aggression of the people so that they don't expend it within their own society.
Free speech, the right to bear arms, a common trait of all things that are actually rights is that they do not cost money.
Compare the homicide/manslaughter and accidental death by firearm statistics within the US with those of northern Europe and you'll see what the cost of that right is. Yes, the right to bear arms does cost money, a lot of it in fact.
You do not have a right to tangible things. They cost money.
If you narrow that to 'luxury goods' you are close to the truth. You do, however, have the right to sufficient food, clothing and shelter to remain alive. Those things generally don't spring up all by themselves, their is a cost involved in their creation. As to whether you want to express that cost in money, cows, hours or someone's time or shiny shells does not really matter. If for whatever legitimate reason you can not procure these things for yourself they should be provided to you,
If you don't believe me read your holy book or roll or palm leaf or buffalo hide. I'm pretty sure your god(s) will require this of their followers.
You can give them a telescope. Both of them, for their own. For $20 (plus shipping) per telescope which is of course a plus, especially given that they might decide that stargazing is not their thing. Then again, they might get hooked.
Have a look at the Galileoscope site for an idea of what you'd get. Or maybe I should say have a look at the Google-cached version as the site seems to be unavailable right now.
I do not have one of these so I can only go by what the site says so read the small print before you order...
Forget kosher, the important question is 'is it slezghnash?'
What, never heard of slezghnash? It is slezghnash if the name, spelled backwards and converted to numerals is not a multiple of 7. To learn whether something is slezghnash you'd best go to your bwahohooie, he can tell you all about this important rule.
I propose a change of term for this sort of stuff. Instead of "rich" content call it "obese" content or "overloaded" content or "bloated" content. That "rich" term sounds desirable while often the opposite is true. Call the real useful stuff "enhanced" content or something similar...
Me, take a handout from an advertising company? Are you silly? I make an effort to lower the amount of commercial drivel which surrounds me. Why would I allow them to give me some trinket to shower me in ads? Thanks but no thanks, if I want a 'netbook' I'll buy one myself. Without ads.
I'd say it is past time to ditch TV alltogether. You want news? Find it on the 'net. Want movies? Find them on the 'net, rent them through whatever service, etc. The only thing you should not want is the next installment of 'who wants to be an idiot|zillionaire|etc' but if you want that... you might as well keep watching TV...
And apart from that, you don't need power assisted steering when driving over 10 km/h. Power assisted braking is handy to have but if it fails you just jam down the pedal. Pull the handbrake or push the emergency brake pedal as well for even more stopping power. The handbrake should be able to lock the wheels, if it can not you should adjust it. Some handbrakes are just woefully inadequate and will need regular care to be effective but that's just something to keep in mind when looking for a new used vehicle...
X11 would have a hard time trying to do the Windows 7 alt-tab or OS X expose features where Windows move around in 3-dimensions on the screen. X11 doesn't expose that kind of stuff.
Uhhhh... have you seen Compiz, Beryl, Metisse, Gnome-Shell or any of the other whiz-bang screen-flipping and warping and cubing desktops? They do run X11 apps... through an X11 extension, be it AIGLX or XGL or something similar. X11 exposes whatever you want through the use of extensions, including the stuff needed to do 3D window manipulation. It did this when Vista was still Longhorn, let alone Windows come lately annex 7...
I have never done a re-install of Debian or any Debian-derived distribution. The upgrade process is generally smooth and painless. My current main system (a Thinkpad T23) has seen all versions starting from Hoary (5.04) in succession without (the need for) a re-install or (possibly more important) the need for extensive manual intervention during upgrades. You get to answer the standard 'this configuration file has changed, what do you want to do' or 'these services need to be restarted' questions but that is about it.
Slashdot Mirror
Northern Europe, parts of Africa and China come to mind...
Simple, you plug it in the outlet at your parking spot. Most company parking lots here in Sweden have them. If these are not available at your work and you live in a cold climate you should tell them to install some as it is the 'green' thing to do and will be of use when cars go electric as well...
Another option is a blowtorch... if you happen to drive a tractor. I use one to get my tractor to start if I leave it in the forest overnight. I have used it on my motorbike as well... I'm thinking about a way to get the thing to warm up without such dangerous tricks like a heating element in the oil pan. Carburetors and blowtorches do not make good company...
Nah, any god worth a capitalised name does not need something as primitive as the internet. They just, you know, appeae out of nothing in burning bushes or goat entrails or burned toast. Internet is for wannabe-gods.
...is to empty the account every day. There is no sense in keeping any amount of money within their graps as they have shown time and time again they will freeze access without real cause or warning.
I was part of the collective to buy i-Opener machines from the failed Netpliance company. We used Paypal to collect fund from participants as that seemed to be the best way at the moment... How wrong we were... Paypal froze access to the account once it had accumulated enough money for them to be profitable to draw interest from. Of course they did NOT block payment into the account, just access to the funds. They had no real reason to freeze the account and ignored their own rules in both freezing and unblocking the account. They just sat on the money for a month or two, drawing interest from it. When they finally unblocked the account - again without giving any reason whatsoever - the deal with Netpliance had almost bounced.
Paypal is not a bank. Don't treat it as a bank. Don't entrust them with your money. Don't give them access to a debit account, only to a credit card.
Paypal, in short, can not be trusted. Use it at your own peril, only use credit cards so you can reverse the transaction. Never ever accumulate any real amount of money on a Paypal account.
You forgot washing machines, 2.10x1.20 slabs of 18mm multiplex (wood) and 2x4's. I transported all on a trailer behind my bike, the latter in sufficient quantity to build all my furniture.
Now I live in Sweden where cycling is no nearly as popular as in the Netherlands. Some people look at me like I just climbed out of a flying saucer. They do sell studded tires for bikes here so I can not be the only one cycling in winter...
What does it matter that Shuttleworth finances the distro? He does not finance me, nor any of the other volunteers. Counted in hours*$ their contribution is bigger than Shuttleworth's but they (rightfully) do not get an exception in the Code. Neither should Shuttleworth or anyone else. Having a leader does not mean that person is infallible.
Developers are a picky and meticulous lot. This joke in the Code does not fall well with many, just search the web for "ubuntu code of conduct sabdfl". There is even a bug out on it:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-codeofconduct/+bug/53843
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-codeofconduct/+bug/53843/comments/11
There is actually a difference between the Code of Conduct you read on the website (http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct) and the one you are supposed to sign (https://launchpad.net/codeofconduct/1.0.1). The former does not refer to Shuttleworth as being any different from anyone else - it actually does not refer to him at all. That is just as well as he plans to step down next year...
I guess they forgot to update the version you are supposed to sign?
Well, there used to be a problem in the Ubuntu Code of Conduct in that it contained some guff about Shuttleworth (or 'SABDFL') always being right and such. That made me, even though I am quite active in Ubuntu, refuse to sign the Code. Most of those references have been taken but it still refers to SABDFL as being perfect. Come on, Ubuntu project, this is not a religion. Remember, No kings, no queens but rough concensus and running code (to roughly paraphrase IETF's original credo)...
Remove the last reference to the Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator For Life and I will reconsider. Until that time I will continue to contribute as long as I agree to the course the project takes but I will not sign any declaration of conformity.
"Staring out of the window" can be very much a part of studying. If by studying you mean "learning the book by heart, page by page" it is not. If you mean "real" studying, ie. trying to think about the subject matter, learning not just what and how but also why something is the way it is you'll find yourself looking at the window (or the table or the floor, or picking your nose or whatever) more often than not.
Imagine the following scenario: you are sitting outside on a log in the snow. There is a nice January sun shining down on you, the temperature is a crisp -8 and you are minding your own business. Suddenly someone comes along and shouts out loud 'YOU DO NOT EXIST'. What would your reaction be?
The most likely reaction would be one of scorn and ridicule, right? Being secure in the fact of your existence you would not feel the need for others around you to confirm your existence. You KNOW you exist so what do you care what others say?
Now imagine you are..... GOD. Big Capital Letter GOD, creator of the universe (or at least separator of light and darkness if you want to follow the most recent translations) and everything that moves and lives and breathes. Your denizens are like microbes on a human's skin, so many of your creation walks and crawls and creeps and slithers around that blue planet. What would you care if one of those creatures, one of those microbes, proclaims you non-existence? Would you clamor for confirmation of it to those other creatures, those other microbes? Of course not. You are GOD! You don't need confirmation of anything! You are the past, the present and the future, everything moves only by your grace, you are omnipotent and omniscient.
Why, then, do these religious nutcases claim that it is a criminal act to claim the aformentioned?
The only possible explanation is that they are not sure at all that this deity they proclaim to believe in actually exists. They will do anything to keep up appearances, anything to keep their mind-construct from failing. Anyone who shakes the tree has to be stopped before they fall out. Anyone who points out that the book they read is actually an allegorical work of fiction has to be punished.
By trying to stop anyone from claiming god does not exist they prove that god does, in fact, not exist.
That is of course the whole point of my posting - which was for some reason modded down as offtopic even though TFA hails Windows 7 as 'the comeback kid' for Microsoft. The whole 'Windows Vista Bad, Windows 7 Good' media brouhaha seems to be nothing more than a regurgitation of some marketing mantra. The question I posed in my original posting was why so many people actually fell for this, instead of judging both versions on their merits. Windows 7 is not much different from Windows Vista so the media stance is incongruous and does not speak well for their reliability. Either they lied when they called Vista a dead duck or they lie when they call Windows 7 a fresh breath of air...
I just tried to fix a neighbour's new Toshiba laptop which came with Windows 7 home premium installed. I have fixed similar Toshiba machines with Vista. The difference between the two is so small as to be negligible, both in speed as well as 'features'. The Windows 7 panel might be nicer than the Vista/XP/2000/w98/w95 panel and the somethat less torrential flood of UAC prompts is an improvement but I really do not get why Windows y is being portrayed as the second coming while Vista is painted blacker than black.
If you like Vista you will like Windows 7, if you dislike Vista you most likely will also dislike Windows 7. Some anecdotal evidence comes from the experience I had about two hours ago...
The new Toshiba my neighbour bought did not want to connect to his wireless network while it does connect to mine as well as the one in the shop where he bought it (which he found out when he brought the thing back to complain). Other machines with other operating systems have no problems connecting to the same router so the router is OK. Debugging this problem was made impossible by Internet Explorer and the panel crashing all the time. This might be due to his installing of some Norton crap product. The machine bluescreened three times in a span of 20 minutes while it was only in use for light web browsing (looking for a new 802.11 driver for the RealTek chipset in the machine). The only way to get the machine to be in a usable state was to start it with a Ubuntu 9.04 CD. Unfortunately Windows 7 did not want to recognize the Windows Mobile (!) phone which was used as a temporary storage device for the downloaded driver.
I ended up giving the neighbour the Ubuntu CD with some instructions on how to use it for browsing etc. As to whether I will retry getting that machine connected with Windows 7 or just try to downgrade it to XP or upgrade it to Ubuntu I don't know yet. For now he can at least use the machine he bought, no thanks to Windows 7.
OK, the next bomb will be in a piece of hand luggage, pushed snugly against the back of the overhead locker so it is as close to the hull as possible. The detonator is hooked up to a remote control doohickey fabricated out of one of those cheap remote control planes/cars/helicopters, built into a laptop or something similar. Or there is no remote control at all, the thing is rigged to explode at a certain time after pressing some button on the laptop.
No, this does not sound like it will have any effect. It will just inconvenience all those who have no plans whatsoever to blow up planes. It does resemble DRM a bit in the sense that the 'security' measures are at most a small hindrance to the bad guys while causing loads of discomfort and annoyance to the rest.
Maybe the air transport sector should take a look at how DRM fared in the audio sector?
SONNY BONO COPYRIGHT TERM EXTENSION ACT (House of Representatives - October 07, 1998)
(should this search expire go to SONNY BONO COPYRIGHT TERM EXTENSION ACT (House of Representatives - October 07, 1998) and look for page 9951)
"...Actually, Sonny wanted the term of copyright protection to last forever. I am informed by staff that such a change would violate the Constitution. I invite all of you to work with me to strengthen our copyright laws in all of the ways available to us. As you know, there is also Jack Valenti's proposal for term to last forever less one day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress..."
Forever minus one day. Look for it around 2022-2023...r
You don't need to block all external images to get rid of this type of tracking. Blocking 1x1 web bugs is sufficient. Another way of getting rid of this type of tracking is by pointing statcounter (et al) to 0.0.0.0 on your DNS proxy or in the hosts file. No tin foil hat needed at all.
...they can be filtered out very easily by muting the sound and dimming/blurring the screen while they run. For those lost souls who still watch television this might be a means to at least escape part of the annoyance.
The better solution is of course to get rid of TV and get your news and entertainment from the 'net. Filtering out commercial drivel becomes easier as well.
Oh, and for those who think that I am obliged to watch commercial sh*t to 'pay' for all that 'free' content on the 'net I'd like to say 'Ascend Thine'...
That, of course, is not true. What most likely happened is that, in the search for a method of crowd control, far back in time some smart person came up with the idea of using the already existing religious beliefs for this purpose. As most religions had and still have an upper class of priests/mullahs/shamans/witch doctors/etc the solution was to engage those religious rulers in the scheme. It is also possible that the idea sprang up out within this religious upper class.
The smart person, seeing that believers are attuned to whatever needs and wants their gods are supposed to have, created some dictions in name of those gods. The gods, he said, do not like it if you kill your neighbour to steal his sheep, donkey, camel, cow, wife, land and whatnot. They don't like it if in a situation of famine you hoard all food and refuse to come to aid of others. The gods, in short, did not like their followers to upset their own society or to rebel against it. As to whether it was the same smart person who came up with the idea to use those religious beliefs to further strife and war as well is of course a question which remains to be answered. It is clear, however, that the gods generally DO like it for their followers to compete with followers of other gods. This may also be a means of channelling the aggression of the people so that they don't expend it within their own society.
You can give them a telescope. Both of them, for their own. For $20 (plus shipping) per telescope which is of course a plus, especially given that they might decide that stargazing is not their thing. Then again, they might get hooked.
Have a look at the Galileoscope site for an idea of what you'd get. Or maybe I should say have a look at the Google-cached version as the site seems to be unavailable right now.
I do not have one of these so I can only go by what the site says so read the small print before you order...
Forget kosher, the important question is 'is it slezghnash?'
What, never heard of slezghnash? It is slezghnash if the name, spelled backwards and converted to numerals is not a multiple of 7. To learn whether something is slezghnash you'd best go to your bwahohooie, he can tell you all about this important rule.
I propose a change of term for this sort of stuff. Instead of "rich" content call it "obese" content or "overloaded" content or "bloated" content. That "rich" term sounds desirable while often the opposite is true. Call the real useful stuff "enhanced" content or something similar...
Me, take a handout from an advertising company? Are you silly? I make an effort to lower the amount of commercial drivel which surrounds me. Why would I allow them to give me some trinket to shower me in ads? Thanks but no thanks, if I want a 'netbook' I'll buy one myself. Without ads.
I'd say it is past time to ditch TV alltogether. You want news? Find it on the 'net. Want movies? Find them on the 'net, rent them through whatever service, etc. The only thing you should not want is the next installment of 'who wants to be an idiot|zillionaire|etc' but if you want that... you might as well keep watching TV...
And apart from that, you don't need power assisted steering when driving over 10 km/h. Power assisted braking is handy to have but if it fails you just jam down the pedal. Pull the handbrake or push the emergency brake pedal as well for even more stopping power. The handbrake should be able to lock the wheels, if it can not you should adjust it. Some handbrakes are just woefully inadequate and will need regular care to be effective but that's just something to keep in mind when looking for a new used vehicle...
Uhhhh... have you seen Compiz, Beryl, Metisse, Gnome-Shell or any of the other whiz-bang screen-flipping and warping and cubing desktops? They do run X11 apps... through an X11 extension, be it AIGLX or XGL or something similar. X11 exposes whatever you want through the use of extensions, including the stuff needed to do 3D window manipulation. It did this when Vista was still Longhorn, let alone Windows come lately annex 7...
I have never done a re-install of Debian or any Debian-derived distribution. The upgrade process is generally smooth and painless. My current main system (a Thinkpad T23) has seen all versions starting from Hoary (5.04) in succession without (the need for) a re-install or (possibly more important) the need for extensive manual intervention during upgrades. You get to answer the standard 'this configuration file has changed, what do you want to do' or 'these services need to be restarted' questions but that is about it.