That 1$ US = 1GBP in the electronics/computer world. Sometimes, it might even be worse than that. Ok, I know the current rate is closer to 2$US=1GBP but that does not stop the likes on M$, ADOBE (very bad IMHO) and many others from ripping us off.
I'm not the worlds greatest programmer but so far I made a living for the past 30+ years doing exactly that( Graduated in 1975) I am also a DBA( DB2, Oracle), SysAdmin(Windows, Linux, Unix) and overall jack of all trades in the IT world. This helps in the sort of work I do now. Systems Integration. The fact that I know I'm not the worlds best coder, makes any software I write actually work because I test it properly Some so called 'flashy coders' I have come across over the years actually write code that is a nightmare to maintain. I'm also not afraid to learn new skills even in my mid 50's.
I know this is/. and many here will shot me down in flames but I'm really saying, don't close any doors too soon. They may be difficult to open again in the future.
Ok, I use Linux and have since Slackware 1.1. I promote Linux as a more than viable alternative to the Redmond 'Lock in System'.
But, I see SUSE as the following.
A Linux system that you can buy (note not OpenSUSE) without the fear of being sued by Microsoft for the duration of the licensing agreement between the two companies.
For that reason, I would not recommend SUSE to any business at all. I might be legally wrong but that is how the tie up between Novell & MS seem to me a non Lawyer.
I do appreciate the stuff that Novell has contributed but personally, I won't touch anything that uses MONO with a 100m Barge Pole. Yes, I know it is apparently free of any potential patent liabilities but I see it as a trojan horse much like Moonlight.
IMHO, Microsoft wished that Novell, RedHat & Canonical would just disappear. They are not so I wish that for once they (MS that is) would say 'Ok guys, we will work properly with you for the pure benefit of our customers'. That is as likely (IMHO) as Concorde ever flying again.
The TV Receiving License is per {House,Flat,Shop,School,etc}
You can have as many TV's as you like in your house and only pay 1 License fee. HMO's are treated as separate residences. ( HMO = House for Multiple Occupancy )
That would be a wonderful bit of irony if they were. As other people here have noted, it is the shareholders who decide who they are going to sell out to not the BOD. If Microsoft were to take over Disney then it would really be a poke in the eye with a blunt stick for Jobs.
Nah. Thats the normal/. Standing Wave coming into play. It sweeps all in its path like a Tsunami. Then after a period of total anihilation, things start recovering.
Re:
Anything with more than 5 megapixels needs digital image stabilization - otherwise your extra resolution will be smeared out by natural shaking of your hands (or even your tripod - but this takes effect later).
I would like to say this is absolute bull. How on earth does the image resolution have anything to do with sharpness etc of the image?
IMHO, nothing at all.
I use 12Mp Nikon D2x and on sort focal lengths, all my lenses are of the non Images Stabilised type and I get perfectly sharp images with it handheld.
I think you are very wrong in this statement.
Many compact Digital cameras these days may well have a pixel size far greater than 5MP. They will also include quite long zoom lenses. Some will even include image stabilisation so all the objections made by the poster can be overcome.
however, the main thing I would want in a compact camera is a viewfinder. Why you may ask?. The simple act of putting it up to your face/eye to take a picture solves many of the blurry image problem you get with other compact camera that have only LCD screens. Also taking a picture at arms length while trying to use the LCD as a viewfinder is a sure fire way to get blurry pictures unless, you have image stabilisation built into the camera.
Much of what the poster said may well have applied 3-4 years ago but not now.
At the risk of starting a flame war, I don't mind paying the UK TV Receiving License ( pays for BBC TV and Radio and some other public service broadcasting) As long as I don't have to put up with almost 20 minutes Advertising per hour. I TIVO ( on my Humax PVR) many show on Commercial TV and fast forward over the adverts. I timed an episode of CSI recently. 41m 21sen in an Hour slot. Sorry, I have other things to do with my time. I don't want to watch endless adverts for Holidays or Sofa Sales or Making a Skoda out of Cake. I expect that of the 'real time TV' I watch is on the BBC. Yippee, The six Nations starts soon. No adverts while the players get set for a scrum unlike the endless ad breaks that American Footie is designed to give. To those who decry the Beeb ( and sometimes they do deserve critism), try living somewhere where there is no real choice other than TV with Commercials every few minutes. You will soon say, come back BBC, all is forgiven.
re "open source software so that they can make small changes and sell them as bespoke solutions"
However, the GPL license means that any changes they make (to the FOSS stuff) HAVE to be fed back thus nullyifying the uniqueness.
Microsoft does not have to do that. I'm all for the likes of IBM etc improving the FOSS O/S etc in order to make their products run better. They can't directly do this with the Windows versions ( except by paying lots of $$$$ to Microsoft). This is the part that makes sense. It benefits all FOSS users is say, IBM makes improvements to Linux in order that DB2 runs better in the real world.
This is the threat that M$ can't live with. Collaboration.
I spent a few hours today promoting FOSS at the Bracknell Computer Fair (UK). In general, we are getting a more and more positive situation and recognition of Linux and FOSS in general. We probably distributed more Ubuntu/Kubuntu live Cd's today than ever before.
However one person today accused FOSS proponents of being Leeches. He stated that he worked(retired now) for a now defunct British computer maker that was taken over by a large japanese company and that we (FOSS proponents) were nothing more than leeches buy using the R&D of his former company and giving nothing back. His venom was only to obvious to see so I didn't try even think about arguing with him. It was not worth it. However he go me thinking about his statement. After some reflection, I have to state that he is 'barking mad'. Why would the likes of IBM, Sun, RedHat etc put lots of R&D $$$, Yen, GBP, Euros etc into Open source and actually want to get nothing in return? It simply does not stack up unless, you follow the Microsoft business model. But, the question remains though, how do we get this sort of person on our side?
As an aside, many schools seem to be giving two fingers to Vista. Not through ideology but simply expense. Many schools just can't afford the hardware upgrade costs even if M$ were giving away Vista for next to nothing.
I expect that some people simply can't or won't be persuaded.
13: Gates resumes daily role in Microsoft, fires Balmer and then starts throwing chairs out of the Window as he struggles to use the latest beta of VS 2010 shouting, "I know how to frigging program
you useless heap of sh1t" as the 'help' system tries to tell him that 'goto' is not allowed.
IBM have AFAIK, the largest share by a long way of the Middleware market segment. Middleware, is not just about JBOS/WAS/etc application servers. I work in this area and it goes far beyond what RH, Oracle etc have to offer. IBM invest a huge amount of $$$ into this area. Just look at the Websphere Brand. If RH can succeed where the likes of BEA etc have largely failed then there is scope for them to increase revenues significantly. JBOSS is to me, the first building block they need in order to develop their offerings outside of their traditional Linux base. However, the downside of RH growing, is the fact that they become more attractive for the likes of Oracle to takeover or buy and quietly remove a competitor. I would watch out for Oracle now that they seem to have RH in the sights of their big guns.
There is no way in hell that you can get from $500M to $5B just by cutting costs unless of course, your cost base is totally messed up and by all accounts that is not true at RH.
RH will have to grow and improve its support as well as enlarging their product portfolio. Generic Linux Service growth will IMHO not get them much beyond the $1B mark.
I can only hope that the new CEO can fix the issues with JBOSS and that the lessons learned here can be taken forward so that future purchases don't suffer the same problems.
The thing about(IMHO) RH is that they really don't do the self promotion thing very well especially when compared to others in the Linux business.
I expect some Marketing Drone in Microsoft is at this moment cooking up their next FUD Campaign around the theme that SUSE is 'sort of ok' if you really, really have to use something other than our fantastic Windows products. As far as at least one Microsoft Account manager I know, if they absolutely have to lose a sale to Linux, then it had better be to Novell/SUSE than the devil incarnate called RedHat.
IMHO, SLES/SLED is just different enough from RHEL/Fedora that I get frustrated when I have to make changes to root level config scripts etc just for SUSE. sort of like having to code web pages specifically for IE.
And even though, I normally prefer a GNOME desktop but with more bits of it being written using MONO, I am getting more and more uneasy about using it for the long term. I do think there is a risk from Microsoft getting tough about licensing with MONO etc.
I think they will but probably only on the cost of the whole thing. ALL gov IT projects go wildly over budget and timescale. This is due ( on my own personal experience) what the US call 'mission creep' or the 'can you add this bit of functionality' repeated n times over (where n is a big number) Things which are 'nice to have' suddenly become mandatory and essential to the whole project. some jumped up civil servant has their own pet project which needs x,y & z. These get factored in to the original project. then they need o,p & q and think this must be added a no cost or time implications and refuse to believe otherwise.
The UK does not have ID Cards. Ok, the Government wants to introduce them but AFAIK, the bill to introduce them has not been passed by Parliament and received Royal Ascent( The Queen's Signature ) There are several Political Parties which are totally opposed to the introduction of ID Cards.
Finally, given the fiasco that normally accompanies government IT Projects, I don't expect to see them introduced before 2020 anyway.
When F8 was released, I found several problems which were submitted to bugzilla. Within hours, a developer was assigned and we worked together to pinpoint the problems. These fixes are available for download by many means including "yum update". These fixes will also be ported into the RHEL codebase, and then into distros like CentOS etc.
The whole Fedora support environment has been overhauled in the past year and is much more responsive than it was previously.
Mirrors? There are plenty of them. F8 was seeded to many sites before official release. I can only speal about the UK but mirrorservice.org does a splendid job in my opinion. If you go to the fedora mirror page, it tries to direct you to a mirror close to where you are located by using your IP Address. Ok, for some companies it gives a false result but in the main, it seems pretty accurate.
I make weekly respins of F8. It takes 1-2 minutes. I include things like the livna repo OOTB so adding things like mp3 players is just so easy.
Fedora has improved dramatically over the past few releases. This is no doubt due to the presence of Ubuntu. On a personal note, I refuse to use Ubuntu as the Black/Orange theme is just awful from a usability point of view. kbuntu, is another matter. Yes, I know I can change it but having spent a number of years working in a usability lab, orange/black is almost as bad as it gets.
For one reason, I'm glad that we don't get adverts every few minutes.
In the USA even free to air tv (apart from PBS) carries ads. You pay for the that in the products you buy. Personally, I listen to the Radio far more than watch TV. BBC radio is like the TV. No Ad breaks and after all would a commercial broadcaster have made programs like - Monty Pyhon - Hitchhikers Guide - The Office - Little Britain - The Goon Show etc etc etc
And as far as raw performance goes, Intel GPU's are a bit 2nd division. Granted that they have opened up their specs. However this has tipped the hand of ATI(AMD) and Nvidia to do the same with theirs. After all, how many top notch graphics cards are there on the market that use Intel GPU's?
Here, AMD seem to be saying that we are looking at ways to change parts of the GPU so that bits that we can't get permission to release(patents DRM etc etc) are no longer used. To me, that is good news. That statement has nowt to do with Intel or Nvidia. This is an ongoing process and will not happen overnight. Remember that Sun took a long time to open up the Solaris source code due to licensing issues. IMHO, this is just the same process.
The average Joe SixPack who shops at Walmart is hardly to read PC Mag so I would love to be proved wrong about Walmart being a sponsor (advertiser?) in PC Mag.
IMHO think that AC is posting out of their backsides.
I have read many PC Mags of various titles over the years and have found many of them just promo vehicles for Microsoft. This naturally excludes those who are aimed at one niche or another (MacUser, Linux Format).
If Microsoft were to follow this up with legal docmuments, would they not be risking having to provide lots of really sensitive information to Google during Discovery. That, IMHO is why so far they appear/alledgely have been using proxy companies (something like SCO) in attempts to retain their market share. If they can still strike deals with H/W Suppliers & Retailers that effectively lock out the competition then this could be their Pandoras Box of absolutely huge proportions.
If on the other hand, they can persuade the DOJ or EU to investigate Google on their behalf, then they would seem safe.
However there could be a sting in the tail. What if, Google then say, Ok, investigate us but do exactly the same to Microsoft.
Personally, I ONLY ever use google as a search engine. I don't pay them money for their services. Adblock+ keeps unwanted adverts at bay so I'm generally pretty happy with their service. But there are still other Search engines out there, including microsoft so I do have an alternative that won't cost me a penny.
There is already an undersea cable carrying significant power between France & GB. AFAIK, it uses DC transmission not AC.
I would guess that this might be the solution for the farms in the north sea. Send it ashore in DC form and then turn it into AC and synchronize it with the Grid onshore. Sort of much like the existing gas(natural not petroleum) transmission networks.
Slashdot Mirror
That 1$ US = 1GBP in the electronics/computer world. Sometimes, it might even be worse than that. Ok, I know the current rate is closer to 2$US=1GBP but that does not stop the likes on M$, ADOBE (very bad IMHO) and many others from ripping us off.
I'm not the worlds greatest programmer but so far I made a living for the past 30+ years doing exactly that( Graduated in 1975)
I am also a DBA( DB2, Oracle), SysAdmin(Windows, Linux, Unix) and overall jack of all trades in the IT world.
This helps in the sort of work I do now. Systems Integration.
The fact that I know I'm not the worlds best coder, makes any software I write actually work because I test it properly
Some so called 'flashy coders' I have come across over the years actually write code that is a nightmare to maintain.
I'm also not afraid to learn new skills even in my mid 50's.
I know this is /. and many here will shot me down in flames but I'm really saying, don't close any doors too soon. They may be difficult to open again in the future.
Ok, I use Linux and have since Slackware 1.1. I promote Linux as a more than viable alternative to the Redmond 'Lock in System'.
But, I see SUSE as the following.
A Linux system that you can buy (note not OpenSUSE) without the fear of being sued by Microsoft for the duration of the licensing agreement between the two companies.
For that reason, I would not recommend SUSE to any business at all. I might be legally wrong but that is how the tie up between Novell & MS seem to me a non Lawyer.
I do appreciate the stuff that Novell has contributed but personally, I won't touch anything that uses MONO with a 100m Barge Pole. Yes, I know it is apparently free of any potential patent liabilities but I see it as a trojan horse much like Moonlight.
IMHO, Microsoft wished that Novell, RedHat & Canonical would just disappear. They are not so I wish that for once they (MS that is) would say 'Ok guys, we will work properly with you for the pure benefit of our customers'. That is as likely (IMHO) as Concorde ever flying again.
here not too long ago when there was another article on...
The RIAA
Now there is a surprise indeed.
"The UK taxes people per TV,"
This is totally wrong.
The TV Receiving License is per {House,Flat,Shop,School,etc}
You can have as many TV's as you like in your house and only pay 1 License fee.
HMO's are treated as separate residences. ( HMO = House for Multiple Occupancy )
I have 3 TV's in my House and pay 1 TV License.
That would be a wonderful bit of irony if they were. As other people here have noted, it is the shareholders who decide who they are going to sell out to not the BOD.
If Microsoft were to take over Disney then it would really be a poke in the eye with a blunt stick for Jobs.
Nah. Thats the normal /. Standing Wave coming into play.
It sweeps all in its path like a Tsunami.
Then after a period of total anihilation,
things start recovering.
Sounds Familiar eh?
I use 12Mp Nikon D2x and on sort focal lengths, all my lenses are of the non Images Stabilised type and I get perfectly sharp images with it handheld.
I think you are very wrong in this statement.
Many compact Digital cameras these days may well have a pixel size far greater than 5MP. They will also include quite long zoom lenses. Some will even include image stabilisation so all the objections made by the poster can be overcome.
however, the main thing I would want in a compact camera is a viewfinder. Why you may ask?. The simple act of putting it up to your face/eye to take a picture solves many of the blurry image problem you get with other compact camera that have only LCD screens. Also taking a picture at arms length while trying to use the LCD as a viewfinder is a sure fire way to get blurry pictures unless, you have image stabilisation built into the camera.
Much of what the poster said may well have applied 3-4 years ago but not now.
https://www.ukfsn.org/business/internet/adsl/maxallowance.html
45Gb peak D/L, 300Gb Off Peak D/L up to 8mb, £25.00 + VAT = £29.35 ( $57.25 approx )
At the risk of starting a flame war,
I don't mind paying the UK TV Receiving License ( pays for BBC TV and Radio and some other public service broadcasting)
As long as I don't have to put up with almost 20 minutes Advertising per hour.
I TIVO ( on my Humax PVR) many show on Commercial TV and fast forward over the adverts. I timed an episode of CSI recently. 41m 21sen in an Hour slot. Sorry, I have other things to do with my time. I don't want to watch endless adverts for Holidays or Sofa Sales or Making a Skoda out of Cake.
I expect that of the 'real time TV' I watch is on the BBC.
Yippee, The six Nations starts soon. No adverts while the players get set for a scrum unlike the endless ad breaks that American Footie is designed to give.
To those who decry the Beeb ( and sometimes they do deserve critism), try living somewhere where there is no real choice other than TV with Commercials every few minutes. You will soon say, come back BBC, all is forgiven.
re
"open source software so that they can make small changes and sell them as bespoke solutions"
However, the GPL license means that any changes they make (to the FOSS stuff) HAVE to be fed back thus nullyifying the uniqueness.
Microsoft does not have to do that.
I'm all for the likes of IBM etc improving the FOSS O/S etc in order to make their products run better. They can't directly do this with the Windows versions ( except by paying lots of $$$$ to Microsoft). This is the part that makes sense. It benefits all FOSS users is say, IBM makes improvements to Linux in order that DB2 runs better in the real world.
This is the threat that M$ can't live with. Collaboration.
I spent a few hours today promoting FOSS at the Bracknell Computer Fair (UK). In general, we are getting a more and more positive situation and recognition of Linux and FOSS in general. We probably distributed more Ubuntu/Kubuntu live Cd's today than ever before.
However one person today accused FOSS proponents of being Leeches. He stated that he worked(retired now) for a now defunct British computer maker that was taken over by a large japanese company and that we (FOSS proponents) were nothing more than leeches buy using the R&D of his former company and giving nothing back. His venom was only to obvious to see so I didn't try even think about arguing with him. It was not worth it. However he go me thinking about his statement.
After some reflection, I have to state that he is 'barking mad'. Why would the likes of IBM, Sun, RedHat etc put lots of R&D $$$, Yen, GBP, Euros etc into Open source and actually want to get nothing in return?
It simply does not stack up unless, you follow the Microsoft business model.
But, the question remains though, how do we get this sort of person on our side?
As an aside, many schools seem to be giving two fingers to Vista. Not through ideology but simply expense. Many schools just can't afford the hardware upgrade costs even if M$ were giving away Vista for next to nothing.
I expect that some people simply can't or won't be persuaded.
That is vista
12: Microsoft continues to promote their 'Surface' technology http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7174333.stm as the be-all and end all of input systems
13: Gates resumes daily role in Microsoft, fires Balmer and then starts throwing chairs out of the Window as he struggles to use the latest beta of VS 2010 shouting, "I know how to frigging program
you useless heap of sh1t" as the 'help' system tries to tell him that 'goto' is not allowed.
IBM have AFAIK, the largest share by a long way of the Middleware market segment. Middleware, is not just about JBOS/WAS/etc application servers. I work in this area and it goes far beyond what RH, Oracle etc have to offer.
IBM invest a huge amount of $$$ into this area. Just look at the Websphere Brand. If RH can succeed where the likes of BEA etc have largely failed then there is scope for them to increase revenues significantly.
JBOSS is to me, the first building block they need in order to develop their offerings outside of their traditional Linux base. However, the downside of RH growing, is the fact that they become more attractive for the likes of Oracle to takeover or buy and quietly remove a competitor. I would watch out for Oracle now that they seem to have RH in the sights of their big guns.
There is no way in hell that you can get from $500M to $5B just by cutting costs unless of course, your cost base is totally messed up and by all accounts that is not true at RH.
RH will have to grow and improve its support as well as enlarging their product portfolio. Generic Linux Service growth will IMHO not get them much beyond the $1B mark.
I can only hope that the new CEO can fix the issues with JBOSS and that the lessons learned here can be taken forward so that future purchases don't suffer the same problems.
The thing about(IMHO) RH is that they really don't do the self promotion thing very well especially when compared to others in the Linux business.
I expect some Marketing Drone in Microsoft is at this moment cooking up their next FUD Campaign around the theme that SUSE is 'sort of ok' if you really, really have to use something other than our fantastic Windows products.
As far as at least one Microsoft Account manager I know, if they absolutely have to lose a sale to Linux, then it had better be to Novell/SUSE than the devil incarnate called RedHat.
IMHO, SLES/SLED is just different enough from RHEL/Fedora that I get frustrated when I have to make changes to root level config scripts etc just for SUSE. sort of like having to code web pages specifically for IE.
And even though, I normally prefer a GNOME desktop but with more bits of it being written using MONO, I am getting more and more uneasy about using it for the long term. I do think there is a risk from Microsoft getting tough about licensing with MONO etc.
I think they will but probably only on the cost of the whole thing.
ALL gov IT projects go wildly over budget and timescale. This is due ( on my own personal experience) what the US call 'mission creep' or the 'can you add this bit of functionality' repeated n times over (where n is a big number)
Things which are 'nice to have' suddenly become mandatory and essential to the whole project. some jumped up civil servant has their own pet project which needs x,y & z. These get factored in to the original project. then they need o,p & q and think this must be added a no cost or time implications and refuse to believe otherwise.
The UK does not have ID Cards.
Ok, the Government wants to introduce them but AFAIK, the bill to introduce them has not been passed by Parliament and received Royal Ascent( The Queen's Signature )
There are several Political Parties which are totally opposed to the introduction of ID Cards.
Finally, given the fiasco that normally accompanies government IT Projects, I don't expect to see them introduced before 2020 anyway.
In answer to some of your questions.
When F8 was released, I found several problems which were submitted to bugzilla. Within hours, a developer was assigned and we worked together to pinpoint the problems. These fixes are available for download by many means including "yum update". These fixes will also be ported into the RHEL codebase, and then into distros like CentOS etc.
The whole Fedora support environment has been overhauled in the past year and is much more responsive than it was previously.
Mirrors? There are plenty of them. F8 was seeded to many sites before official release. I can only speal about the UK but mirrorservice.org does a splendid job in my opinion. If you go to the fedora mirror page, it tries to direct you to a mirror close to where you are located by using your IP Address. Ok, for some companies it gives a false result but in the main, it seems pretty accurate.
I make weekly respins of F8. It takes 1-2 minutes. I include things like the livna repo OOTB so adding things like mp3 players is just so easy.
Fedora has improved dramatically over the past few releases. This is no doubt due to the presence of Ubuntu.
On a personal note, I refuse to use Ubuntu as the Black/Orange theme is just awful from a usability point of view. kbuntu, is another matter. Yes, I know I can change it but having spent a number of years working in a usability lab, orange/black is almost as bad as it gets.
So, we pay a license to Receive TV (not watch).
For one reason, I'm glad that we don't get adverts every few minutes.
In the USA even free to air tv (apart from PBS) carries ads. You pay for the that in the products you buy.
Personally, I listen to the Radio far more than watch TV. BBC radio is like the TV. No Ad breaks and after all would a commercial broadcaster have made programs like
- Monty Pyhon
- Hitchhikers Guide
- The Office
- Little Britain
- The Goon Show
etc etc etc
And as far as raw performance goes, Intel GPU's are a bit 2nd division. Granted that they have opened up their specs. However this has tipped the hand of ATI(AMD) and Nvidia to do the same with theirs.
After all, how many top notch graphics cards are there on the market that use Intel GPU's?
Here, AMD seem to be saying that we are looking at ways to change parts of the GPU so that bits that we can't get permission to release(patents DRM etc etc) are no longer used. To me, that is good news. That statement has nowt to do with Intel or Nvidia.
This is an ongoing process and will not happen overnight. Remember that Sun took a long time to open up the Solaris source code due to licensing issues. IMHO, this is just the same process.
So how can it be a BIG sponsor of PC Mag?
The average Joe SixPack who shops at Walmart is hardly to read PC Mag so I would love to be proved wrong about Walmart being a sponsor (advertiser?) in PC Mag.
IMHO think that AC is posting out of their backsides.
I have read many PC Mags of various titles over the years and have found many of them just promo vehicles for Microsoft.
This naturally excludes those who are aimed at one niche or another (MacUser, Linux Format).
If Microsoft were to follow this up with legal docmuments, would they not be risking having to provide lots of really sensitive information to Google during Discovery.
That, IMHO is why so far they appear/alledgely have been using proxy companies (something like SCO) in attempts to retain their market share.
If they can still strike deals with H/W Suppliers & Retailers that effectively lock out the competition then this could be their Pandoras Box of absolutely huge proportions.
If on the other hand, they can persuade the DOJ or EU to investigate Google on their behalf, then they would seem safe.
However there could be a sting in the tail. What if, Google then say, Ok, investigate us but do exactly the same to Microsoft.
Personally, I ONLY ever use google as a search engine. I don't pay them money for their services. Adblock+ keeps unwanted adverts at bay so I'm generally pretty happy with their service. But there are still other Search engines out there, including microsoft so I do have an alternative that won't cost me a penny.
There are more Internet users in Europe than in the USA.
That is why.... Simple isn't it.
The EU ( not all European Counties are members, Norway, Switzerland, Serbia etc) has a bigger population that the US + Canada.
There is already an undersea cable carrying significant power between France & GB. AFAIK, it uses DC transmission not AC.
I would guess that this might be the solution for the farms in the north sea. Send it ashore in DC form and then turn it into AC and synchronize it with the Grid onshore. Sort of much like the existing gas(natural not petroleum) transmission networks.