On Oracle Magazine ( http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/06- may ), they said they used Linux for their "render farm" (I hate the word farm, computers aren't cattle), but designs were made in other platforms (SGI, Mac...). Finally, everything, even every single rendered, uncompressed frame is stored on an Oracle database (which runs on Linux).
Bill Gates and his Philantropic efforts? Dude, he's got like 53 billion dollars and he's given away how much? Like, 100 million? Besides, I'm pretty sure those were tax-deductible donations.
To put it in perspective, I would respect Bill more if he donated, say, 10 billion dollars. No, I'm not joking, I know it's a lot of money. But he's got like what left? 40bn. Dude. You could live several lifetimes with 1bn alone. The amount of money Bill has is just ridiculous. And he wants more. More. MORE!!!!!! Come on, step aside, and let someone else have their piece of the cake too, you have earned more than you'll ever spend.
Are you stupid? Do you really think these scientists make their research out of their pockets and make money out of their papers? No sir, they work for universities, public institutions, etc. They already get paid for it. And universities get enough funding from student admissions (and the government in public schools). And public institutions get enough funding from the government. They don't need to charge you for it, if you're just an individual who happens to be interested in that particular topic.
Oh, and most people that discovers things that save lives, work for big corporations. These corporations make money out of that (and the research is protected by secret).
What about all the things corporations have discovered (cancer drugs, etc) that don't get manufactured because there is no market for that? So, you say someone that discovers something that saves lives, deserves more than "hey, thanks" from the society? Well, I think the society gives enough to some people, and gets more than enough "hey, fuck you" from greedy corporations, protected by patents, etc. Making even public-funded research available by subscription only, just makes things worse.
Oh yes, the American way. Information that's vital for you: either pay for it, or die.
Now seriously, come on! those "scientific" papers, I didn't know they made MILLIONS a year out of subscriptions (that's what research costs, millions if not billions). Maybe I'm in the wrong business?
I'm not sure about the Indy Racing League (there's a new channel called Speed, maybe it's there but I don't have it yet), but the NFL games show on ESPN or ESPN+ (both local versions), or FOX Sports. I know there's also NBA games, and even Baseball (though nobody plays Baseball down here in South America, except for Venezuela, and we don't play by the NBA rules, but the FIBA's). They even have those Poker championships, Tennis, Golf, etc. There is a LOT of Soccer: FOX Sports was live from Germany all day long in the last World Cup, and they play all of Europe's soccer games, many of them live. There's also the highlights on CNN International.
These were the ones that I remember at the time. To tell the truth, I don't have much time for TV, I just watch FOX's block of animation when I remember to: The Simpsons, Futurama and Family Guy. Old episodes, of course (Mon-Fri 8PM).
Well, so what do you like? We also (used to) get Six Feet Under, Band Of Brothers, The Sopranos, etc (these on HBO, and a year later, for "free" on Warner Channel).
Hahaha! But hey! How else do you expect us to get "the scoop" on K-Fed and Bennifer?... Anyway if I had to choose between E! Entertainment and FTV (Fashion TV), I'd choose E!.
And don't think we don't have our own productions on E! Latin. They seem to have every now and then a show called "Historias Verdaderas" (True Stories), our local E! True Hollywood Story (local artists, etc), only we don't have Hollywood so they removed that from the name.
Sad? Yes. But is it better than Discovery Channel? I don't know. Discovery has ruined their reputation when they hired Chip Foose and the Teutuls. Now Discovery is custom-cars-and-bikes all day long. At least MTV had a reason to make a customized-car show (Pimp My Ride): They are the channel for a stupid audience. But Discovery underestimates their audience once and again with their car shows and the Mythbusters motto of OMG! SCIENCE IS SO COOL BECAUSE YUO GET TO BLOW TIHNGS UP EVRY DAY!!!!11one KEKEKEKEEK!!!!!11eleven
A bigger problem than music and film, however, is TV shows. These are typically broadcast in one country up to a year before they are syndicated elsewhere.
Just a quick correction. I live in Latin America (Argentina) and we get most US shows 2 to 4 weeks after broadcast in the US. Most of them through Sony Entertainment Television and The Warner Channel. (Desperate Housewives, Top Chef, ER, Grey's Anatomy, and many many others. The prime time is from 9 to 12pm, that's 4 sitcoms and one 1-hour show every day). We have FOX too, but they start broadcasting the Simpsons only after the season is over.
E! News Live is live every night and translated the next day.
My point was that if there is ENOUGH interest, companies will sell the show even before syndicating it.
You're right. We could also make GPS a subscription-based service, so you have to identify and pay for it, or at least get an idea of who used it. We could also make the GPS "blackhole" some 6 sq miles around potential targets. That would make GPS unuseful in cities, but hey, who cares? Anything to stop the terrorists. Yeah well, the systems has its flaws. If you're walking around the woods and suddenly you lose signal, you will know that there is a potential target within 6 miles, but that's easily solved. Just put a few guards around the perimeter. If they see you walking around with a GPS unit, they are authorized to use deadly force (Some innocent lives will be lost, but they will sure catch a few terrorists in the process).
OK now seriously. Are you a government employee? Or are you a stupid US soldier? I know you voted for Bush (and I know you're in for registered voting. That is, you sign your name and candidate, so there is a record for whom you voted). Dude, you can't really be serious, either you are really, really stupid, or your sarcasm tags don't render well in my old SeaMonkey build.
Let me put it this way: THERE ARE CONTROLS IN THE BORDERS, FAR MORE RIGUROUS THAN WHAT YOU NEED TO GET A STUPID MAP, AND TERRORISTS FIND THEIR WAY IN. DO YOU THINK THAT RECORDING WHO VIEWED WHAT ON GOOGLE MAPS YOU WILL SOLVE ANYTHING? EVEN IF YOU'RE REQUIRED TO SHOW UP IN PERSON WITH YOUR ID, YOU CAN VERY EASILY GET A FAKE ID AND GET THE DATA ANYWAY.
I use Philips and Osram lamps. Never used cheap lamps. I also use "color 84" lamps, 83 is the regular "warm white" while 86 is the "daylight" bluish regular lamp. 84 is something in between, IIRC it was also called "natural" color. Is not as yellow as the warm whites.
About the delay, well, like 10 years ago I bought the first CCFL lamp we ever used. It was a Philips, made in Holland, really heavy (when it finally burnt out, I took it apart and found a nice regular "transformer" ballast). I was surprised about how long they lasted, I mean almost 10 years for a light bulb that is used every day for about 4 hours? But well, the problem is that these lamps were REALLY slow to start, and I mean like minutes of warming up. And while it warmed up, it gave some kind of very annoying orange light.
But this has changed. All new lamps have electronic ballasts (the ones from a few years ago had regular "through hole" components, newer ones have SMT). And these ballasts start instantly, no half-second or one-second or whatever. Click, and it's on. I noticed that when the outside temperature is low (like 10C) they don't start at full bright, but nevertheless they start instantly.
Heh, I even fixed a couple of these lamps. They stopped working "just a few years" after I installed them. So, I was gonna take them apart anyway so why not try? Guess what: bad solder. A quick touch of my soldering iron and these lamps still work now.
The saddest part of this, is the attitude of people like you. "Oh, so they censored a little, for the sake of national security, that should be fine." All dictatorships start like this, with government taking and people giving a little of their rights. So little that you don't notice, but looking back you see how much you lost and can't get back. It's a shame that "in the land of the free", it's normal, and perfectly acceptable to have a censor. And you know why? Because american society as a whole is so ignorant that they let the government do the thinking. That's what taxpayer dollars are for, right?. You know what Fidel Castro said to Barbara Walters? "Ignorant people are not ready to be free".
Nope, that is actual, Telco-installed phone wire (it says electrical wire on the pic but it's actually telephone wire). If you ever go to Buenos Aires and look up, you'll see that all over the country. There aren't that many cable pirates heh.
I'm too lazy to go take a picture, it's 4 blocks away from here, but I could show you a good ol' fashioned wooden telephone pole (one of the few remaining) with almost 100 lines coming out of it in every direction. It's so weird it's like a monument or something.
Actually the telco replaced those poles about 10 years ago, with surface boxes bolted to people's walls, and multipair cables going underground to somewhere (never had the luck to see where those cables go underground, because they go way inside the block and come out I don't know where, and come out at little white closets every few blocks (where I assume they go through more heavier multipair wires). I think those "mega-poles" remain in service because it's too complicated to rewire that many houses.
heh, what for? I use this PC only for pr0n, P2P and/. If I used games on this, sure, but for games, I have an XBOX. Planning on buying a 360 next year (not that I care too much anyway). So I don't need that much power from my computer. No actual need to upgrade.
Oh, forgot to mention, I live in the "third world" (Argentina).
all the NIMBY lawsuits and "beautification" lawsuits (you know, those wires are really ugly...) and endless other lawsuits a lot of people feel very justified in suing over what will essentially put them out of business.
Not sure what it's like where you live, but look at what happens when you let the monopoly lay ther wires whenever they like:
http://comunidad.muchoviaje.com/cs/photos/dan/pict ure417.aspx
That's all over the country. And they can't change it now because it costs a lot of money and the company is not interested in fixing that.
A little competition doesn't harm anyone. There was only one broadband (ADSL) provider here in my country (the largest monopoly). They charged whatever they wanted. One day they went too far (the infamous 4GB cap and $20 for the extra GB or fraction). What happened? Cable modem operators started operating in cities where they didn't provide service, with double the speed and no limits.
So, Telecom Argentina had to do something to keep their customers: They increased the speed 5x, kept the same price, and removed all kind of caps. That's just capitalism and competition in action. Yes, local cable operators want to "protect their investment", but most of these did that investment 10 years ago, and want to keep earning money without investing in newer stuff. So they go through the legal way in order to stop competition (or to buy a few more months). But, well, sooner or later they either do some spending or competition will eat them. It's just the way it is. It's everyting america stands for, right? Capitalism.
OK, let me illustrate that. I live in Argentina. Northeast. Near the 28 South parallel. Yesterday I was at 39 degrees celsius (102 F). So hot that the water pressure drops during day time. Our electrical bill shows an usage of 1500 KWh a month in summer, and 700KWh in winter. In summer, that extra 800KWh is the air conditioning. We have 3 12.000 BTU units that run every night for 10 hours, and one 24.000 BTU unit that runs 1 hour a day (dining room). Each units uses about 1800 Watts when running so that's an approximate average (or my power meter doesn't work properly).
What do I spend 700KWh on during the month? Well not that much, a 20W fluorescent lamp in the kitchen that's on for over 8 hours a day, 1 80 Liters water heater (electric, we don't have gas lines down here, and it's a pain to replace the 45Kg gas tank every month), 2 computers, 2 refrigerators, 3 TVs and a few lights. We do use a washing machine, but in cold water (no need to warm the water because even in summer water doesn't get cooler than 10C). We seldom use the dryer (only after a week or so of rain, when dirty clothes start to pile up. Thats in march-april, when there are weeks and weeks of cloudy days).
Hanging the clothes to dry is the best you can do. A little UV from the sun kills bacteria and keeps the clothes from smelling, without the need to use fabric softener. It also doesn't harm clothes. Doesn't shrink it either. If you hang clothes properly, you don't even need to iron some clothes. Oh, and it's also "free and eco-friendly". Yes, I also like the idea of pushing a button and have my clothes clean and dry. But it costs too much.
So is that because Vista is good or because XP was so badly designed...? (Everything in a single menu???)
That wasn't a feature of XP, it was presented on Windows 95. Maybe 11 years ago it was a good idea, now it seems like it didn't work (either that, or people abused it). Anyway, who are you to say what's good and what's bad design? You, or your company (whoever you are), don't spend the kind of money Microsoft or Apple spend in research. Yes, there's a lot of research, especially in usability and UI design. Even in simple things as "fonts" (www.microsoft.com/typography).
Last time I used KDE, it contained everything in a single menu. If it's such a bad design, then why does KDE, and many other window/desktop managers come with a "single menu" and a "task bar" and "icons on the desktop", things that seem to be a capital sin to "UI designers", that is, some guy with a blog who thinks he's better than the UI teams from Microsoft and Apple. Why do they copy Microsoft's way of doing things? I guess because it's a "good", or "good enough" design. I don't want to think it's because they are just sellouts...
I gotta go lunch now, I'll keep going later, when someone answers "duuuh! that's because people are familiar with windows so they have to make it like windows or people won't switch!!".
Every day I read some news about Microsoft and Novell, IBM, etc. What's the big deal? Their "agreements", or whatever, don't change anything we can see. Even if they agree not to step on each other's grass, they keep doing it anyway, because of their "Shark" methods (or just plain western capitalism). Then they sue each other, and the cycle starts all over.
But hey! I don't see the news about their lawyers having dinner together or going to some party. But they do! They take their eyes out in court, but outside they are friends. It's just lawyers justifying their salary. They make a big circus out of it to get a juicy paycheck.
All of this, because these operations are published in slashdot, where people don't understand a thing, but they talk anyway, as if Novell signing with SuSE will change SuSE linux or something. Well, if it does, just get a new distro.
The actual meaning for this (getting published in massive media) is so that "investors" (the ones that don't know jack about corporate operations) will buy/sell more stock of one of these companies. They're just stirring the water to make it less boring.
Slashdot Mirror
don't ask me. They claim to have a 300TB Oracle database. whatever works for them, right? anyway check the article I posted, maybe I misunderstood it.
On Oracle Magazine ( http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/06- may ), they said they used Linux for their "render farm" (I hate the word farm, computers aren't cattle), but designs were made in other platforms (SGI, Mac...). Finally, everything, even every single rendered, uncompressed frame is stored on an Oracle database (which runs on Linux).
Bill Gates and his Philantropic efforts? Dude, he's got like 53 billion dollars and he's given away how much? Like, 100 million? Besides, I'm pretty sure those were tax-deductible donations.
To put it in perspective, I would respect Bill more if he donated, say, 10 billion dollars. No, I'm not joking, I know it's a lot of money. But he's got like what left? 40bn. Dude. You could live several lifetimes with 1bn alone. The amount of money Bill has is just ridiculous. And he wants more. More. MORE!!!!!! Come on, step aside, and let someone else have their piece of the cake too, you have earned more than you'll ever spend.
Dude. Bearshare. Ares. eMule. BitTorrent. Do you need to be smart to use any of these?
Are you stupid? Do you really think these scientists make their research out of their pockets and make money out of their papers? No sir, they work for universities, public institutions, etc. They already get paid for it. And universities get enough funding from student admissions (and the government in public schools). And public institutions get enough funding from the government. They don't need to charge you for it, if you're just an individual who happens to be interested in that particular topic.
Oh, and most people that discovers things that save lives, work for big corporations. These corporations make money out of that (and the research is protected by secret).
What about all the things corporations have discovered (cancer drugs, etc) that don't get manufactured because there is no market for that? So, you say someone that discovers something that saves lives, deserves more than "hey, thanks" from the society? Well, I think the society gives enough to some people, and gets more than enough "hey, fuck you" from greedy corporations, protected by patents, etc. Making even public-funded research available by subscription only, just makes things worse.
Oh yes, the American way. Information that's vital for you: either pay for it, or die.
Now seriously, come on! those "scientific" papers, I didn't know they made MILLIONS a year out of subscriptions (that's what research costs, millions if not billions). Maybe I'm in the wrong business?
I'm not sure about the Indy Racing League (there's a new channel called Speed, maybe it's there but I don't have it yet), but the NFL games show on ESPN or ESPN+ (both local versions), or FOX Sports. I know there's also NBA games, and even Baseball (though nobody plays Baseball down here in South America, except for Venezuela, and we don't play by the NBA rules, but the FIBA's). They even have those Poker championships, Tennis, Golf, etc. There is a LOT of Soccer: FOX Sports was live from Germany all day long in the last World Cup, and they play all of Europe's soccer games, many of them live. There's also the highlights on CNN International.
Oh yes, we don't have Telemundo.
These were the ones that I remember at the time. To tell the truth, I don't have much time for TV, I just watch FOX's block of animation when I remember to: The Simpsons, Futurama and Family Guy. Old episodes, of course (Mon-Fri 8PM).
Well, so what do you like? We also (used to) get Six Feet Under, Band Of Brothers, The Sopranos, etc (these on HBO, and a year later, for "free" on Warner Channel).
Hahaha! But hey! How else do you expect us to get "the scoop" on K-Fed and Bennifer? ... Anyway if I had to choose between E! Entertainment and FTV (Fashion TV), I'd choose E!.
And don't think we don't have our own productions on E! Latin. They seem to have every now and then a show called "Historias Verdaderas" (True Stories), our local E! True Hollywood Story (local artists, etc), only we don't have Hollywood so they removed that from the name.
Sad? Yes. But is it better than Discovery Channel? I don't know. Discovery has ruined their reputation when they hired Chip Foose and the Teutuls. Now Discovery is custom-cars-and-bikes all day long. At least MTV had a reason to make a customized-car show (Pimp My Ride): They are the channel for a stupid audience. But Discovery underestimates their audience once and again with their car shows and the Mythbusters motto of OMG! SCIENCE IS SO COOL BECAUSE YUO GET TO BLOW TIHNGS UP EVRY DAY!!!!11one KEKEKEKEEK!!!!!11eleven
Just a quick correction. I live in Latin America (Argentina) and we get most US shows 2 to 4 weeks after broadcast in the US. Most of them through Sony Entertainment Television and The Warner Channel. (Desperate Housewives, Top Chef, ER, Grey's Anatomy, and many many others. The prime time is from 9 to 12pm, that's 4 sitcoms and one 1-hour show every day). We have FOX too, but they start broadcasting the Simpsons only after the season is over.
E! News Live is live every night and translated the next day.
My point was that if there is ENOUGH interest, companies will sell the show even before syndicating it.
Oh, where are my mod points when I need you? GP +1 Insightful, GGP -1 Troll.
You're right. We could also make GPS a subscription-based service, so you have to identify and pay for it, or at least get an idea of who used it. We could also make the GPS "blackhole" some 6 sq miles around potential targets. That would make GPS unuseful in cities, but hey, who cares? Anything to stop the terrorists. Yeah well, the systems has its flaws. If you're walking around the woods and suddenly you lose signal, you will know that there is a potential target within 6 miles, but that's easily solved. Just put a few guards around the perimeter. If they see you walking around with a GPS unit, they are authorized to use deadly force (Some innocent lives will be lost, but they will sure catch a few terrorists in the process).
OK now seriously. Are you a government employee? Or are you a stupid US soldier? I know you voted for Bush (and I know you're in for registered voting. That is, you sign your name and candidate, so there is a record for whom you voted). Dude, you can't really be serious, either you are really, really stupid, or your sarcasm tags don't render well in my old SeaMonkey build.
Let me put it this way: THERE ARE CONTROLS IN THE BORDERS, FAR MORE RIGUROUS THAN WHAT YOU NEED TO GET A STUPID MAP, AND TERRORISTS FIND THEIR WAY IN. DO YOU THINK THAT RECORDING WHO VIEWED WHAT ON GOOGLE MAPS YOU WILL SOLVE ANYTHING? EVEN IF YOU'RE REQUIRED TO SHOW UP IN PERSON WITH YOUR ID, YOU CAN VERY EASILY GET A FAKE ID AND GET THE DATA ANYWAY.
How can you be so stupid, man?
I use Philips and Osram lamps. Never used cheap lamps. I also use "color 84" lamps, 83 is the regular "warm white" while 86 is the "daylight" bluish regular lamp. 84 is something in between, IIRC it was also called "natural" color. Is not as yellow as the warm whites.
About the delay, well, like 10 years ago I bought the first CCFL lamp we ever used. It was a Philips, made in Holland, really heavy (when it finally burnt out, I took it apart and found a nice regular "transformer" ballast). I was surprised about how long they lasted, I mean almost 10 years for a light bulb that is used every day for about 4 hours? But well, the problem is that these lamps were REALLY slow to start, and I mean like minutes of warming up. And while it warmed up, it gave some kind of very annoying orange light.
But this has changed. All new lamps have electronic ballasts (the ones from a few years ago had regular "through hole" components, newer ones have SMT). And these ballasts start instantly, no half-second or one-second or whatever. Click, and it's on. I noticed that when the outside temperature is low (like 10C) they don't start at full bright, but nevertheless they start instantly.
Heh, I even fixed a couple of these lamps. They stopped working "just a few years" after I installed them. So, I was gonna take them apart anyway so why not try? Guess what: bad solder. A quick touch of my soldering iron and these lamps still work now.
The saddest part of this, is the attitude of people like you. "Oh, so they censored a little, for the sake of national security, that should be fine." All dictatorships start like this, with government taking and people giving a little of their rights. So little that you don't notice, but looking back you see how much you lost and can't get back. It's a shame that "in the land of the free", it's normal, and perfectly acceptable to have a censor. And you know why? Because american society as a whole is so ignorant that they let the government do the thinking. That's what taxpayer dollars are for, right?. You know what Fidel Castro said to Barbara Walters? "Ignorant people are not ready to be free".
click here to view our latest products!
... sorry, our website is under construction. (animated gif of a construction sign here).
*clicks*
Nope, that is actual, Telco-installed phone wire (it says electrical wire on the pic but it's actually telephone wire). If you ever go to Buenos Aires and look up, you'll see that all over the country. There aren't that many cable pirates heh.
I'm too lazy to go take a picture, it's 4 blocks away from here, but I could show you a good ol' fashioned wooden telephone pole (one of the few remaining) with almost 100 lines coming out of it in every direction. It's so weird it's like a monument or something.
Actually the telco replaced those poles about 10 years ago, with surface boxes bolted to people's walls, and multipair cables going underground to somewhere (never had the luck to see where those cables go underground, because they go way inside the block and come out I don't know where, and come out at little white closets every few blocks (where I assume they go through more heavier multipair wires). I think those "mega-poles" remain in service because it's too complicated to rewire that many houses.
heh, what for? I use this PC only for pr0n, P2P and /. If I used games on this, sure, but for games, I have an XBOX. Planning on buying a 360 next year (not that I care too much anyway). So I don't need that much power from my computer. No actual need to upgrade.
Oh, forgot to mention, I live in the "third world" (Argentina).
http://comunidad.muchoviaje.com/cs/photos/dan/pic
That's all over the country. And they can't change it now because it costs a lot of money and the company is not interested in fixing that.
A little competition doesn't harm anyone. There was only one broadband (ADSL) provider here in my country (the largest monopoly). They charged whatever they wanted. One day they went too far (the infamous 4GB cap and $20 for the extra GB or fraction). What happened? Cable modem operators started operating in cities where they didn't provide service, with double the speed and no limits.
So, Telecom Argentina had to do something to keep their customers: They increased the speed 5x, kept the same price, and removed all kind of caps. That's just capitalism and competition in action. Yes, local cable operators want to "protect their investment", but most of these did that investment 10 years ago, and want to keep earning money without investing in newer stuff. So they go through the legal way in order to stop competition (or to buy a few more months). But, well, sooner or later they either do some spending or competition will eat them. It's just the way it is. It's everyting america stands for, right? Capitalism.
OK, let me illustrate that. I live in Argentina. Northeast. Near the 28 South parallel. Yesterday I was at 39 degrees celsius (102 F). So hot that the water pressure drops during day time. Our electrical bill shows an usage of 1500 KWh a month in summer, and 700KWh in winter. In summer, that extra 800KWh is the air conditioning. We have 3 12.000 BTU units that run every night for 10 hours, and one 24.000 BTU unit that runs 1 hour a day (dining room). Each units uses about 1800 Watts when running so that's an approximate average (or my power meter doesn't work properly).
What do I spend 700KWh on during the month? Well not that much, a 20W fluorescent lamp in the kitchen that's on for over 8 hours a day, 1 80 Liters water heater (electric, we don't have gas lines down here, and it's a pain to replace the 45Kg gas tank every month), 2 computers, 2 refrigerators, 3 TVs and a few lights. We do use a washing machine, but in cold water (no need to warm the water because even in summer water doesn't get cooler than 10C). We seldom use the dryer (only after a week or so of rain, when dirty clothes start to pile up. Thats in march-april, when there are weeks and weeks of cloudy days).
Hanging the clothes to dry is the best you can do. A little UV from the sun kills bacteria and keeps the clothes from smelling, without the need to use fabric softener. It also doesn't harm clothes. Doesn't shrink it either. If you hang clothes properly, you don't even need to iron some clothes. Oh, and it's also "free and eco-friendly". Yes, I also like the idea of pushing a button and have my clothes clean and dry. But it costs too much.
Indeed. My specs:
Sempron 2200
1 GB RAM DDR400 (running at 333)
2 hard drives (one external)
geforce 5200
17" LCD monitor
400 W out PSU
Actual draw, according to APC PowerCute (APC BR1000I UPS): 126 VA.
That wasn't a feature of XP, it was presented on Windows 95. Maybe 11 years ago it was a good idea, now it seems like it didn't work (either that, or people abused it). Anyway, who are you to say what's good and what's bad design? You, or your company (whoever you are), don't spend the kind of money Microsoft or Apple spend in research. Yes, there's a lot of research, especially in usability and UI design. Even in simple things as "fonts" (www.microsoft.com/typography).
Last time I used KDE, it contained everything in a single menu. If it's such a bad design, then why does KDE, and many other window/desktop managers come with a "single menu" and a "task bar" and "icons on the desktop", things that seem to be a capital sin to "UI designers", that is, some guy with a blog who thinks he's better than the UI teams from Microsoft and Apple. Why do they copy Microsoft's way of doing things? I guess because it's a "good", or "good enough" design. I don't want to think it's because they are just sellouts...
I gotta go lunch now, I'll keep going later, when someone answers "duuuh! that's because people are familiar with windows so they have to make it like windows or people won't switch!!".
use tor (tor.eff.org) and you're most likely safe.
Must have been a pretty slow year!
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/3F07.html
Every day I read some news about Microsoft and Novell, IBM, etc. What's the big deal? Their "agreements", or whatever, don't change anything we can see. Even if they agree not to step on each other's grass, they keep doing it anyway, because of their "Shark" methods (or just plain western capitalism). Then they sue each other, and the cycle starts all over.
But hey! I don't see the news about their lawyers having dinner together or going to some party. But they do! They take their eyes out in court, but outside they are friends. It's just lawyers justifying their salary. They make a big circus out of it to get a juicy paycheck.
All of this, because these operations are published in slashdot, where people don't understand a thing, but they talk anyway, as if Novell signing with SuSE will change SuSE linux or something. Well, if it does, just get a new distro.
The actual meaning for this (getting published in massive media) is so that "investors" (the ones that don't know jack about corporate operations) will buy/sell more stock of one of these companies. They're just stirring the water to make it less boring.