lower temperature means less energy, which means less chemical reactions happening. Less reactions means less probability of hitting on the right combination needed to get a self-reproducing molecule.
Many cold worlds exhibit cryovolcanism. Some cold moons are also experiencing tidal forces. Some worlds may have underground oceans. Sun is not the only source of energy out there. There is kinetic energy as well, and cryovolcanism, tidalism, oceans, and geoactivity may provide it in abundance.
It looks like self-reproducing molecules on Earth have been successful in utilising every form of energy they could find, even in harsh underground environments. With such a determination to live and reproduce, I think that some molecules on a cold world could utilise kinetic energy to sustain their reproduction.
I wonder whether any innocent person is going to be jailed or face other consequences for a forgotten decryption key.
It is not inconceivable to think that this fictional story may become reality sometime as a result of such a law: Mr X downloads an encryption program from the Net and tries it by encrypting a text file of random data, just for fun and curiosity. After a year he buys a new disk and leaves the old disk, which has the encrypted text file in it, in a small box on the bookcase. He didn't bother deleting anything, and the encrypted text file is still there. Needless to say, he couldn't remember the decryption key even to save his own life. Time passes and after 6 months his house is being investigated as he is suspect for a crime because he was in the wrong place in the wrong time and his beard makes him look like the real criminal. The police gets his PC and finds nothing but the occassional pinup girl photo, holiday videos, and some work spreadsheets. Considering that he has a very long beard and his skin is not as white as the police officer would like it to be, the police searches his house a bit more thouroughly and finally finds that old disk on the bookcase. The police officer managing the investigation says "aha! a hard disk hidden inside a box on the bookcase, cleverly camouflaged as a book! here is what we are looking for, here is my chance for getting a promotion after putting a dangerous criminal in prison!". The police copies the disk and then finds the encrypted text file. It is so small, only a few bytes (actually random keystrokes Mr X typed to test the program), and randomly placed inside a directory full of unrelated non-encrypted personal and work data (that's My Documents), that the police starts to believe that this is some form of steganography or attempt to hide the fact that encrypted data were there. Since the program Mr X downloaded was very good, the police cannot break the encryption so they ask him what the decryption key is. Mr X says he does not remember, and the police officer tells him he has to remember or be jailed for obstruction of justice. As Mr X has no idea what he typed one and a half year ago during testing an encryption program, he is thrown in a prison cell for "refusing" to hand over the key. A combination of factors, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, having a beard and not so white skin, and possessing an encrypted file without handing over the key resulted in the conviction of an innocent person who if remained free would be a useful professional in society. All that is fictional, of course, but I am afraid that sometime innocent people will face consequences for not remembering decryption keys.
And I can think of other stories as well... Mr Y is being given a hard disk as a gift from his sweetheart, and the disk contains an encrypted file. Mr Y never bothers to delete it and he does not even know it is encrypted or what it is, and when his PC is being investigated by the police on suspicion of a crime, he is requested to hand over the decryption key of a file he does not know what it is and had no idea was encrypted. Likewise this is a fictional story as well, but what if it becomes reality?
A law like this effectivelly forces people to remember decryption keys, assuming that everyone who is in possession of encrypted data knows how to decrypt them.
How many innocents will have to be destroyed before we catch the real terrorists? Shoudln't lawmakers take the potential toll on innocents into account before signing a new law?
I don't know about you, but for me even one innocent person being charged means that a law has to be made more specific, or its application by a court was not made correctly. Having the power to put people in prison (which is a form of violence) must come with a great sense of responsibility and willingness to avoid damaging any innocent people.
European science flourished after the church lost its power. The Islamic world still mixes politics with religion. If a king and a bishop cooperate, together they are a great power that cannot be confronted by anything else (the king controls your body through violence, the bishop controls your mind through religion). Any discovery a scientist makes that is against their interests or preferences will be destroyed, together with the scientist, not by the king and bishop themselves but by an angry mob of zombies who believe they do what the Good Book teaches them. That's one of the many reasons that explain why science fails to flourish in a society, but it is one of the most important reasons, as scientific findings are often controversial and not in the interests of rulers and priests.
I always thought the purpose of Language is to facilitate communication.
That's one of the possible purposes. Various people use language for a variety of purposes, including: Social stratification (eg upper class want to speak different language than lower class), nationalism, symbolism (eg speaking in Latin may symbolise respect, seriousness, etc), force of law (it may be illegal to speak in a language other than that of the dominating people who draft the laws, and it may be not acceptable to publish an official document in a non-official language, etc), force of violence (Speaking a certain language can make other people beat you, eg see how Welsh was treated in the old England), differentiation from other people and subcultures (eg radio amateurs and computer hackers have their own jargon, and in extreme cases certain groups may wish to differentiate even in language), political purposes (speaking a certain language to gain support from a specific portion of the populace), etc etc etc...
So, people use language in a complex way with lots of social, economic, political, cultural, national, legal, and practical variables.
I think the patch is in Debian volatile repository, which is Debian's policy to put there any software updates that aren't security bugs but are needed to keep the system working properly. A Debian GNU/Linux user/sysadmin (I am one incidentally) should know about volatile (if not it means that either there is insufficient documentation or the user/sysadmin didn't RTFM). Comparing Debian with Microsoft is wrong, because Microsoft Windows Update is used to update a variety of issues with Windows, not just security bugs. But Debian is usually only focusing on security updates after a stable release is made, it is their policy (whether it's good or bad is another story). The volatile repository was made for non-security important updates, which I think fits nicely with a timezone update. It is important to realise that new Debian users/sysadmins must learn the apt system pretty well, as it is fundamental in managing a Debian system. Debian just follows its own policies here, while still allowing users/sysadmins to get the patch through volatile (and I think also backports), and why this hit Slashdot I really don't know. Of course, this update should be included in the next point release (ie 4.0r2), and perhaps a higher number of volunteers would be helpful here. Are any of you willing to actually help Debian include important bugfixes and updates in next point releases rather than losing your time discussing about non-issues?
If I were to employ employees for me I would have no problem to let them nap as much as they wanted as long as their sleep did not interfere with business objectives (this means no sleep during a meeting or when a client is about to call). Napping is good for the health and makes you more alert, which translates to higher job performance when awake. I have worked for IT companies in the past, writing software for the European Union, and I know first hand how inadequate sleep and inability to nap can lower job performance, especially around 15:00. I would not want my own staff to yawn and be bored while working, so I would give them free pillows and try to schedule business activities in such a way to allow them take a nap, even on their office (if not telecommuting), except during some special occassions (eg if a client comes to the office to talk with us etc).
Many times I have thought of wearing an Internet-connected wireless camera to record my surroundings in case of a crime against me or my property (ie the laptop I carry, and although it is empty of useful information as I store all of it on my secure server, with the laptop being used merely as a terminal, I still don't want it to be stolen) while I'm walking. However, the same people who use cameras for the same purpose in their premises prohibit other people from doing exactly the same. Supermarkets and department stores happily record all your moves, but a sign warning you that "photography is prohibited", as well as the various new laws introduced after 911 around the world against photography in public places or near some buildings, makes you think how you can protect yourself without being considered a troublemaker. Unfortunately it seems that in the present society one is forced to rely on the willingness of the authorities to protect you against criminals, and you don't have the right to protect yourself.
Typical of most nerds, when I want to communicate with someone it doesn't mean I also want to see them. I perceive Japanese and Asians as more closed to themselves than Westerners, so I'm not surprised they don't like videocalling.
At first I thought this must be their publicity stunt to get their game in the news... but when I noticed they are a Chinese company I understood that the true cause behind this policy is a combination of stupidity and fascism. Communist criminal regimes were known for assuming that everyone (in our case, every player wanting to play as female character) is guilty (in our case, they are male in real life) until they can prove otherwise (in our case, a webcam showing they are truly female). Hitler prohibited a song in Nazi Germany simply because he did not like it, and banning female characters not belonging to true females is not much different. Too bad that after 911 the West is emulating the Soviets (and I just hope we won't fall into emulating the Nazis...), and if this continues we very soon won't be much different than the Chinese. 911 was of course a serious terrorist attack that did call for a decisive answer and a comparable action against associated terrorist groups, but not this kind of security-mania and erosion of civil rights and free trade we see now, with passengers having to remove shoes and belts in order to fly to a business meeting and other ridiculous demands - just because a stupid terrorist decided he could hide a bomb into his shoes doesn't mean that millions of travellers who are often in a hurry have to lose valuable time, ie money, to remove them before flying to prove they don't hide a bomb in there. Everyone is male until proven otherwise; everyone is a terrist until proven otherwise; Everyone is... until no free person is left anymore under the Sun.
Why spend time designing a new 3D world and not build a robust protocol to allow the interconnection of different 3D worlds into one super-3D world? We already have 3D worlds, and what we need now is to connect them all together.
I don't particularly prefer WordPress, and while recently considering various blogging tools for my new blogs and a new website service offering hosted blogs that I am designing, I ended up building my own tool based on some pre-existing code: I got Drupal's HEAD and I am currently modifying its blog module to create exactly what I perceive as the perfect blogging tool for me and the blog service I am going to launch. I'll provide patches or a complete new blog module to the Drupal project when I finish the preliminary testing of my changes. I liked Drupal's blog module for its simplicity and small size, as I had a good base (posting system and Drupal's blog API support) to start adding features to, without having to worry about breaking an existing large complex system. I found Drupal's blog module easy to customise, so I think it's a good platform to base your own blog on, especially if you know PHP programming and you have special requirements that are not solved by existing packages (like in my case). So, if you feel that WP or MT or any other blogging tool does not fully suit you, I encourage you to have a look at Drupal and modify it to create the perfect solution just for you. After all, a blog is something personal and must fully express your individuality and personality, and this cannot be done simply by changing a theme, as the software code itself is also an expression of your personality, so my idea is that if you want a fully personalised blog you should run your own blog engine too.
How come the Firefox developers came to agree to this in the first place? I just don't get it. This seems to be the total opposite of what free software is about:(
I admit I haven't read much about the history of Firefox/Mozilla, but my gut feeling is that Firefox mostly resembles an open source project, and not so much a free software community. Perhaps the Netscape and AOL connections played a role in the shaping of the current Firefox community's culture. Again, I'm just expressing my own views, which I warn you are not based on research but only on limited short day-to-day observations, so I could be wrong.
I do use Firefox (actually Debian's Iceweasel version), but I also like to use Konqueror, Epiphany, Galeon, and when falling in nostalgia (or feeling fed up with stupidly designed sites full of animated graphics and ads) also lynx or links:)
If children were well-educated, they wouldn't engage in cyberbullying, and they would put social networking sites into good use. Their current use of such wonderful tools as social networking clearly shows that their mental state is many orders of magnitude below the threshold required to characterise a living being as an animal, yet alone a human. This is the result of a combination of poor parentage and a broken bankrupt society. If they had good parents *and* were living in a healthy caring society, they wouldn't be like that. Children are the image of their parents and the society they were born in. The schooling systems only make the problem worse. Schools are supposed to educate, but in fact they fail to do so, and they don't help the socialisation of youth either. What we need is an active endeavour run by citizen volunteers (eg an NGO) to educate not only the youth but also their parents and other adults. Approaches such as homeschooling must be promoted more, as well. Education must be perceived as something that makes you wealthier in spirit, not something that enables you to get a job.
If they call an 800MHz G4 a 'lesser machine' then they should put a 'lesser mode' in their OS to allow it to run without funny graphics and whatnot. Why alienate old faithful users when you can just put a few more lines of code to disable power-hungry stuff when a 'lesser CPU' is detected? Also, smart users get fast CPUs to do something meaningful with them, not spend all their processing cycles to unnecessary OS graphics and bad programming (people in Commodore days where doing wonders with 64K, and actually much less than that as about half of it was reserved by BASIC, and now we need GBs just to run an OS and a leaky browser??? where are the real programmers? if 64K were enough to do wonders in 1980s then imagine what one could do with 2 or 4G if real programming were used today).
Until every site out there is a wiki, we won't have a true Web 2.0 to play with, so talking about a Web 3.0 sounds like another marketer's attempt to grab the headlines (and they succeed).
and since artistic license is a free license there *are no* actual damages
I don't remember what Artistic says about this, but I think thatGPL allows one to charge distribution fees. Therefore, it is not inconceivable that a company could have distribution fees of GPLed software as its only revenue stream. In fact, there are many Web shops around that sell nothing more than GNU/Linux and BSD CDs/DVDs. Their profitability revolves around their ability to offer quick access to superior high-quality software. If they cannot offer high-quality software, then their profitability will suffer. If a company gets the source, improves it, and refuses to supply the modified source under the GPL, then they do damage Web shops like these, since they deny them the opportunity to offer improved versions of the software they distribute.
Not sure whether this would be considered valid reasoning in a court, IANAL.
Then try and actually use a credit card at a site like Think Geek, where they ask you to supply digital photos of your drivers licences, a recent bill, etc.
Giving a CC is already dangerous, so emailing or faxing an identity document along with it is unacceptable. I do not buy from such shops, and if I have to then I choose a non-CC payment option if they provide any (here in Europe they often do, eg you can just order online and then let them come to your home and you pay them in cash at the door, while some others just call you on the phone the other day to ask you to confirm your name, CC number, address, etc, while I have also seen shops that do charge your CC without identification but when they come with their truck to give you your goods the driver demands to see the CC you ordered with and an identity document of yours before allowing you to take your goods, and almost all shops allow you to deposit to their bank account which can be done via Web banking).
Apart from the identity theft concerns, there are also usability issues. Fraud must be attacked and eradicated, but this must not make the life of customers hard. If any anti-fraud solution makes online shopping difficult, then it is just not a good solution. We want solutions that are both secure *and* easy. Having to fax or scan identity documents means I need more time to complete a transaction as a customer, and knowing that lost time translates to lost productivity and therefore lost money this alone is a serious reason to not buy from shops with such policies; when you also take account the identity theft risk, which is quite high, then just the mention of such a policy is laughable. Vote with your money and prefer shops that allow you to pay easily and quickly in your preferred method.
Unfortunately many organisations think that by having customers supplying more personal information they can lower the incidence of fraud. That's an incorrect idea: Criminals exist everywhere and they *will* find a way to circumvent any measure, so the solution is to provide *less* personal information when paying, not more. This way, when a CC or other payment instrument is stolen by a thief you don't run the risk of losing the whole of your identity. Some banks here have started offering the option of having your photo on your CC, but I find this a bad idea because it means that when someone physically steals your CC they will also have your photo, and they could use it to make illicit identity documents.
I personally would very much prefer a criminal to steal my cash rather than my credit cards or any other document. If you get robbed and they get the cash, you just lose some money. If they get your CCs or an identity document of yours you run serious risk of losing much more - especially if your bank is not very helpful.
As far as I know there is a little region near Pacific Ocean in Antactica that is not claimed by any government. Perhaps you can do whatever you want there, without any legal authority limiting your actions. Perhaps not, however, as Antactica is managed by some international treaties. But I believe you could do many things from international waters without having to ask anyone.
I infer from your post that now your mobile phone works where you are. Therefore, the solution is to get 3G broadband. Here in Europe we use GPRS, UMTS, and HSDPA a lot. In fact, right now I am posting from a 1.8mbps HSDPA connection on a Thinkpad laptop right on the middle of the sea onboard a ship. There are PCMCIA (cost approx 400 EUR), ExpressCard, and USB mobile antennas that you can connect to laptops and desktops, and 3G even works on GNU/Linux. If your mobile phone really works there, then 3G or in the worst case GPRS should work as well. Just call your mobile phone operator to learn how much you pay per kilobyte and what the monthly download limit is, then consider the price (here 30 Euro per month for 80 MB per month at 1.8mbps) and your needs and sign up if you like it.
Department stores in high-density populated areas go nuts over anything. Smaller independent shops and shops in low-density areas are more sensible. Shop from there.
Slashdot Mirror
Many cold worlds exhibit cryovolcanism. Some cold moons are also experiencing tidal forces. Some worlds may have underground oceans. Sun is not the only source of energy out there. There is kinetic energy as well, and cryovolcanism, tidalism, oceans, and geoactivity may provide it in abundance.
It looks like self-reproducing molecules on Earth have been successful in utilising every form of energy they could find, even in harsh underground environments. With such a determination to live and reproduce, I think that some molecules on a cold world could utilise kinetic energy to sustain their reproduction.
I wonder whether any innocent person is going to be jailed or face other consequences for a forgotten decryption key.
It is not inconceivable to think that this fictional story may become reality sometime as a result of such a law: Mr X downloads an encryption program from the Net and tries it by encrypting a text file of random data, just for fun and curiosity. After a year he buys a new disk and leaves the old disk, which has the encrypted text file in it, in a small box on the bookcase. He didn't bother deleting anything, and the encrypted text file is still there. Needless to say, he couldn't remember the decryption key even to save his own life. Time passes and after 6 months his house is being investigated as he is suspect for a crime because he was in the wrong place in the wrong time and his beard makes him look like the real criminal. The police gets his PC and finds nothing but the occassional pinup girl photo, holiday videos, and some work spreadsheets. Considering that he has a very long beard and his skin is not as white as the police officer would like it to be, the police searches his house a bit more thouroughly and finally finds that old disk on the bookcase. The police officer managing the investigation says "aha! a hard disk hidden inside a box on the bookcase, cleverly camouflaged as a book! here is what we are looking for, here is my chance for getting a promotion after putting a dangerous criminal in prison!". The police copies the disk and then finds the encrypted text file. It is so small, only a few bytes (actually random keystrokes Mr X typed to test the program), and randomly placed inside a directory full of unrelated non-encrypted personal and work data (that's My Documents), that the police starts to believe that this is some form of steganography or attempt to hide the fact that encrypted data were there. Since the program Mr X downloaded was very good, the police cannot break the encryption so they ask him what the decryption key is. Mr X says he does not remember, and the police officer tells him he has to remember or be jailed for obstruction of justice. As Mr X has no idea what he typed one and a half year ago during testing an encryption program, he is thrown in a prison cell for "refusing" to hand over the key. A combination of factors, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, having a beard and not so white skin, and possessing an encrypted file without handing over the key resulted in the conviction of an innocent person who if remained free would be a useful professional in society. All that is fictional, of course, but I am afraid that sometime innocent people will face consequences for not remembering decryption keys.
And I can think of other stories as well... Mr Y is being given a hard disk as a gift from his sweetheart, and the disk contains an encrypted file. Mr Y never bothers to delete it and he does not even know it is encrypted or what it is, and when his PC is being investigated by the police on suspicion of a crime, he is requested to hand over the decryption key of a file he does not know what it is and had no idea was encrypted. Likewise this is a fictional story as well, but what if it becomes reality?
A law like this effectivelly forces people to remember decryption keys, assuming that everyone who is in possession of encrypted data knows how to decrypt them.
How many innocents will have to be destroyed before we catch the real terrorists? Shoudln't lawmakers take the potential toll on innocents into account before signing a new law?
I don't know about you, but for me even one innocent person being charged means that a law has to be made more specific, or its application by a court was not made correctly. Having the power to put people in prison (which is a form of violence) must come with a great sense of responsibility and willingness to avoid damaging any innocent people.
RMS has many times explained very clearly why software patents suck.
European science flourished after the church lost its power. The Islamic world still mixes politics with religion. If a king and a bishop cooperate, together they are a great power that cannot be confronted by anything else (the king controls your body through violence, the bishop controls your mind through religion). Any discovery a scientist makes that is against their interests or preferences will be destroyed, together with the scientist, not by the king and bishop themselves but by an angry mob of zombies who believe they do what the Good Book teaches them. That's one of the many reasons that explain why science fails to flourish in a society, but it is one of the most important reasons, as scientific findings are often controversial and not in the interests of rulers and priests.
That's one of the possible purposes. Various people use language for a variety of purposes, including: Social stratification (eg upper class want to speak different language than lower class), nationalism, symbolism (eg speaking in Latin may symbolise respect, seriousness, etc), force of law (it may be illegal to speak in a language other than that of the dominating people who draft the laws, and it may be not acceptable to publish an official document in a non-official language, etc), force of violence (Speaking a certain language can make other people beat you, eg see how Welsh was treated in the old England), differentiation from other people and subcultures (eg radio amateurs and computer hackers have their own jargon, and in extreme cases certain groups may wish to differentiate even in language), political purposes (speaking a certain language to gain support from a specific portion of the populace), etc etc etc...
So, people use language in a complex way with lots of social, economic, political, cultural, national, legal, and practical variables.
I think the patch is in Debian volatile repository, which is Debian's policy to put there any software updates that aren't security bugs but are needed to keep the system working properly. A Debian GNU/Linux user/sysadmin (I am one incidentally) should know about volatile (if not it means that either there is insufficient documentation or the user/sysadmin didn't RTFM). Comparing Debian with Microsoft is wrong, because Microsoft Windows Update is used to update a variety of issues with Windows, not just security bugs. But Debian is usually only focusing on security updates after a stable release is made, it is their policy (whether it's good or bad is another story). The volatile repository was made for non-security important updates, which I think fits nicely with a timezone update. It is important to realise that new Debian users/sysadmins must learn the apt system pretty well, as it is fundamental in managing a Debian system. Debian just follows its own policies here, while still allowing users/sysadmins to get the patch through volatile (and I think also backports), and why this hit Slashdot I really don't know. Of course, this update should be included in the next point release (ie 4.0r2), and perhaps a higher number of volunteers would be helpful here. Are any of you willing to actually help Debian include important bugfixes and updates in next point releases rather than losing your time discussing about non-issues?
If I were to employ employees for me I would have no problem to let them nap as much as they wanted as long as their sleep did not interfere with business objectives (this means no sleep during a meeting or when a client is about to call). Napping is good for the health and makes you more alert, which translates to higher job performance when awake. I have worked for IT companies in the past, writing software for the European Union, and I know first hand how inadequate sleep and inability to nap can lower job performance, especially around 15:00. I would not want my own staff to yawn and be bored while working, so I would give them free pillows and try to schedule business activities in such a way to allow them take a nap, even on their office (if not telecommuting), except during some special occassions (eg if a client comes to the office to talk with us etc).
Many times I have thought of wearing an Internet-connected wireless camera to record my surroundings in case of a crime against me or my property (ie the laptop I carry, and although it is empty of useful information as I store all of it on my secure server, with the laptop being used merely as a terminal, I still don't want it to be stolen) while I'm walking. However, the same people who use cameras for the same purpose in their premises prohibit other people from doing exactly the same. Supermarkets and department stores happily record all your moves, but a sign warning you that "photography is prohibited", as well as the various new laws introduced after 911 around the world against photography in public places or near some buildings, makes you think how you can protect yourself without being considered a troublemaker. Unfortunately it seems that in the present society one is forced to rely on the willingness of the authorities to protect you against criminals, and you don't have the right to protect yourself.
Typical of most nerds, when I want to communicate with someone it doesn't mean I also want to see them. I perceive Japanese and Asians as more closed to themselves than Westerners, so I'm not surprised they don't like videocalling.
How come the official Shanda site doesn't mention this King game?
At first I thought this must be their publicity stunt to get their game in the news... but when I noticed they are a Chinese company I understood that the true cause behind this policy is a combination of stupidity and fascism. Communist criminal regimes were known for assuming that everyone (in our case, every player wanting to play as female character) is guilty (in our case, they are male in real life) until they can prove otherwise (in our case, a webcam showing they are truly female). Hitler prohibited a song in Nazi Germany simply because he did not like it, and banning female characters not belonging to true females is not much different. Too bad that after 911 the West is emulating the Soviets (and I just hope we won't fall into emulating the Nazis...), and if this continues we very soon won't be much different than the Chinese. 911 was of course a serious terrorist attack that did call for a decisive answer and a comparable action against associated terrorist groups, but not this kind of security-mania and erosion of civil rights and free trade we see now, with passengers having to remove shoes and belts in order to fly to a business meeting and other ridiculous demands - just because a stupid terrorist decided he could hide a bomb into his shoes doesn't mean that millions of travellers who are often in a hurry have to lose valuable time, ie money, to remove them before flying to prove they don't hide a bomb in there. Everyone is male until proven otherwise; everyone is a terrist until proven otherwise; Everyone is... until no free person is left anymore under the Sun.
Only in China?
Why spend time designing a new 3D world and not build a robust protocol to allow the interconnection of different 3D worlds into one super-3D world? We already have 3D worlds, and what we need now is to connect them all together.
I don't particularly prefer WordPress, and while recently considering various blogging tools for my new blogs and a new website service offering hosted blogs that I am designing, I ended up building my own tool based on some pre-existing code: I got Drupal's HEAD and I am currently modifying its blog module to create exactly what I perceive as the perfect blogging tool for me and the blog service I am going to launch. I'll provide patches or a complete new blog module to the Drupal project when I finish the preliminary testing of my changes. I liked Drupal's blog module for its simplicity and small size, as I had a good base (posting system and Drupal's blog API support) to start adding features to, without having to worry about breaking an existing large complex system. I found Drupal's blog module easy to customise, so I think it's a good platform to base your own blog on, especially if you know PHP programming and you have special requirements that are not solved by existing packages (like in my case). So, if you feel that WP or MT or any other blogging tool does not fully suit you, I encourage you to have a look at Drupal and modify it to create the perfect solution just for you. After all, a blog is something personal and must fully express your individuality and personality, and this cannot be done simply by changing a theme, as the software code itself is also an expression of your personality, so my idea is that if you want a fully personalised blog you should run your own blog engine too.
I admit I haven't read much about the history of Firefox/Mozilla, but my gut feeling is that Firefox mostly resembles an open source project, and not so much a free software community. Perhaps the Netscape and AOL connections played a role in the shaping of the current Firefox community's culture. Again, I'm just expressing my own views, which I warn you are not based on research but only on limited short day-to-day observations, so I could be wrong.
I do use Firefox (actually Debian's Iceweasel version), but I also like to use Konqueror, Epiphany, Galeon, and when falling in nostalgia (or feeling fed up with stupidly designed sites full of animated graphics and ads) also lynx or links :)
If children were well-educated, they wouldn't engage in cyberbullying, and they would put social networking sites into good use. Their current use of such wonderful tools as social networking clearly shows that their mental state is many orders of magnitude below the threshold required to characterise a living being as an animal, yet alone a human. This is the result of a combination of poor parentage and a broken bankrupt society. If they had good parents *and* were living in a healthy caring society, they wouldn't be like that. Children are the image of their parents and the society they were born in. The schooling systems only make the problem worse. Schools are supposed to educate, but in fact they fail to do so, and they don't help the socialisation of youth either. What we need is an active endeavour run by citizen volunteers (eg an NGO) to educate not only the youth but also their parents and other adults. Approaches such as homeschooling must be promoted more, as well. Education must be perceived as something that makes you wealthier in spirit, not something that enables you to get a job.
If they call an 800MHz G4 a 'lesser machine' then they should put a 'lesser mode' in their OS to allow it to run without funny graphics and whatnot. Why alienate old faithful users when you can just put a few more lines of code to disable power-hungry stuff when a 'lesser CPU' is detected? Also, smart users get fast CPUs to do something meaningful with them, not spend all their processing cycles to unnecessary OS graphics and bad programming (people in Commodore days where doing wonders with 64K, and actually much less than that as about half of it was reserved by BASIC, and now we need GBs just to run an OS and a leaky browser??? where are the real programmers? if 64K were enough to do wonders in 1980s then imagine what one could do with 2 or 4G if real programming were used today).
Until every site out there is a wiki, we won't have a true Web 2.0 to play with, so talking about a Web 3.0 sounds like another marketer's attempt to grab the headlines (and they succeed).
I don't remember what Artistic says about this, but I think thatGPL allows one to charge distribution fees. Therefore, it is not inconceivable that a company could have distribution fees of GPLed software as its only revenue stream. In fact, there are many Web shops around that sell nothing more than GNU/Linux and BSD CDs/DVDs. Their profitability revolves around their ability to offer quick access to superior high-quality software. If they cannot offer high-quality software, then their profitability will suffer. If a company gets the source, improves it, and refuses to supply the modified source under the GPL, then they do damage Web shops like these, since they deny them the opportunity to offer improved versions of the software they distribute.
Not sure whether this would be considered valid reasoning in a court, IANAL.
Giving a CC is already dangerous, so emailing or faxing an identity document along with it is unacceptable. I do not buy from such shops, and if I have to then I choose a non-CC payment option if they provide any (here in Europe they often do, eg you can just order online and then let them come to your home and you pay them in cash at the door, while some others just call you on the phone the other day to ask you to confirm your name, CC number, address, etc, while I have also seen shops that do charge your CC without identification but when they come with their truck to give you your goods the driver demands to see the CC you ordered with and an identity document of yours before allowing you to take your goods, and almost all shops allow you to deposit to their bank account which can be done via Web banking).
Apart from the identity theft concerns, there are also usability issues. Fraud must be attacked and eradicated, but this must not make the life of customers hard. If any anti-fraud solution makes online shopping difficult, then it is just not a good solution. We want solutions that are both secure *and* easy. Having to fax or scan identity documents means I need more time to complete a transaction as a customer, and knowing that lost time translates to lost productivity and therefore lost money this alone is a serious reason to not buy from shops with such policies; when you also take account the identity theft risk, which is quite high, then just the mention of such a policy is laughable. Vote with your money and prefer shops that allow you to pay easily and quickly in your preferred method.
Unfortunately many organisations think that by having customers supplying more personal information they can lower the incidence of fraud. That's an incorrect idea: Criminals exist everywhere and they *will* find a way to circumvent any measure, so the solution is to provide *less* personal information when paying, not more. This way, when a CC or other payment instrument is stolen by a thief you don't run the risk of losing the whole of your identity. Some banks here have started offering the option of having your photo on your CC, but I find this a bad idea because it means that when someone physically steals your CC they will also have your photo, and they could use it to make illicit identity documents.
I personally would very much prefer a criminal to steal my cash rather than my credit cards or any other document. If you get robbed and they get the cash, you just lose some money. If they get your CCs or an identity document of yours you run serious risk of losing much more - especially if your bank is not very helpful.
As far as I know there is a little region near Pacific Ocean in Antactica that is not claimed by any government. Perhaps you can do whatever you want there, without any legal authority limiting your actions. Perhaps not, however, as Antactica is managed by some international treaties. But I believe you could do many things from international waters without having to ask anyone.
I infer from your post that now your mobile phone works where you are. Therefore, the solution is to get 3G broadband. Here in Europe we use GPRS, UMTS, and HSDPA a lot. In fact, right now I am posting from a 1.8mbps HSDPA connection on a Thinkpad laptop right on the middle of the sea onboard a ship. There are PCMCIA (cost approx 400 EUR), ExpressCard, and USB mobile antennas that you can connect to laptops and desktops, and 3G even works on GNU/Linux. If your mobile phone really works there, then 3G or in the worst case GPRS should work as well. Just call your mobile phone operator to learn how much you pay per kilobyte and what the monthly download limit is, then consider the price (here 30 Euro per month for 80 MB per month at 1.8mbps) and your needs and sign up if you like it.
How come an article like this does not contain a link to GNU Radio?
I have no flash on my Debian box, and I hardly ever had any problems. I hardly ever notice its absense.
One more reason to not install Flash, or uninstall it if you have it.
Department stores in high-density populated areas go nuts over anything. Smaller independent shops and shops in low-density areas are more sensible. Shop from there.