Trump's immigration reform is not "comprehensive". Whatever you think of the migrant workers in the south, the US immigration system is really broken in many other ways on many other issues. Conservative republicans are so worried about workers from Mexico that they block all other attempts at immigration reform, this is no exception. The H1-B stuff is a undeveloped tag-on to attract tech voters and it's the only non-mexican border reform proposed.
There are problems with Gnome and GTK+, but what surprises me is that KDE and QT have managed to remain consistently, in the words of RMS, butt-ugly throughout the years. It's like a requirement for each new release to be at least as ugly as the last one. Even with plasma and fancy 3D effects, still that same ugly-mugly, kinda-boxy, badly spaced, wierdly rendered fonts, dumb controls, QT look. My love for gnome has dissipated markedly in the last few years with the gnome 3 disaster, but it is hard to imaging replacing it with, ugh, butt-ugly kde.
Or you could just use your Wii controllers with your pc using bluetooth. I love playing Assasin's Creed on the big tv, with surround sound, and my wii-controllers so I can jump around instead of being hunched over in front of the computer screen. Also works great for controlling your pc's media player like a remote control.
For someone like me, who hated marshmallows, the experiment would have ended up being a bit different. I would have asked myself: Can I bear to eat one marshmallow now so that I don't have to eat two later on?
First of all, as the update to the article says, this doesn't make it illegal to sell english versions of video games, only that if there is a french version available it must be sold along side of it. This does not lead to delays of games and will not make companies stop selling French versions. Actually, since 2007, the opposite has been true with most new titles having french options which broadens the game market, not shrinks it (ie. there are lots of people in quebec who don't speak english).
Remember that the *only* official language in Quebec is French. Moreover, 80% of the population speaks French as their mother tongue, vs. 8% english.
Finally, language is important part of culture. Language protection laws have been really successful in Quebec and are part of what makes it such an amazing place with a really vibrant, rich, cosmopolitan, and arts-rich province. If you live in Quebec and have seen the rest of Canada (I mean for more than your 3 or 4 year university degree), I think you will agree that Quebec is a unique and special place, due mostly to it's french background. Canada is so huge and has a huge amount of diversity, Vancouver, the BC. mountains, the praries, the badlands, Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes, Northwest, Northeast, Canadian Sheild, the north praries... and many more, each distinct for different reasons.
Why are all these anglophones so upset about a bill that promotes french culture in Quebec without affecting them nor preventing any gamers in Quebec from getting english games on the same schedule they would have without the law?
Don't forget though that the ability of bigger enterprise-driven companies like Redhat and Novell to pay full-time linux programmers has had a tremendously postive effect on community distros.
It is hard to imagine what the linux desktop would look like today without the contribution of Redhat and Novell programmers during the last 5 years.
First off, it is good to keep in mind that men's bodies are programmed to do that as they get older (look at most men over 40). Dieting and exercise routines are one thing but what you really need to do for long-term and sustainable body change is to look at your whole lifestyle.
Rather than trying to force yourself to go to the gym 3 times a week, get involved in something that you have an interest in that involves physical activity. Ballroom dance/Swing dance/Tango dance is amazing for this. You get to meet people in an environment where the goal is not just to socialize like at a bar or something, your are being very physically active but not in a way that will tire you out, I promise it will invigorate you. On top of that, it will improve your posture and self-confidence. Who knows, you might even make some really great friends! I used to teach it and let me assure you that there are plenty of geekier sorts there (I swear half the men are engineers and 25% are computer programmers). Walking to work, around downtown, to get the groceries, walking the dog for at least 30 minutes twice-a-day, etc. are good ideas. Don't make it a chore though, consider your daily lifestyle in such a way that you are active without "having to make an effort". If it is a struggle, you will give up eventually.
Audio books at the gym definitely help for spending time on the treadmill. There are loads of science fiction and fantasy books on mp3/cd and it is a perfect opportunity to go through classics that you don't have time to sit down and read.
Finally, think about your diet. Cutting down the amount of meat and dairy in your daily diet will work wonders. Eat lots of fresh produce and fruit, avoid things loaded with saturated fat. Try getting into pizzas without cheese on top (they are delicious). Find snack foods that you love, like cashews, almonds, dried cranberries, raisons, carrots, etc. and replace your less body-friendly snacks with them. If you don't cook much, try cooking more at home, it can be amazing fun (and intellectually stimulating too) and a way to really embrace healthier eating into your lifestyle.
Finally, although I know you don't want to exercise in front of others, joining a casual club that gets together once a week to play frisbee, go biking, walking, golf, tenis, etc. can be a great way to be physical without forcing yourself too.
Good luck, remember that you aren't alone and you can learn what not to do by watching other folks going through the same thing!
Assuming that the "self" (ie. the soul/consciousness/memory/etc.) resides biologically and physically in the brain and considering that, from what I understand, longevity research has a great deal to do with regeneration of cells more than extending lifetimes of individual cells, what implications are there if an individual has wholly "regenerated" the cells in their brain?
For example, somebody may have a brain that is composed of entirely new brain cells than they had X number of years ago. Does this have implications of their memory of themselves, their sense of self, etc.?
I also highly recomment the Earthsea series, the 4th book, Tehanu, is actually my favourite book of all time.
There are actually 6 books: - A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) - Tombs of Atuan (1971) - The Farthest Shore (1972) - Tehanu (1990) - Tales from Earthsea (2001) - The Other Wind (2001)
Tehanu is a revist to the world of Earthsea through female characters. Tales from Earthsea is a collection of short stories (fairly long short stories) which occur mostly outside of the plot of the other 5 books, but who give context to the world itself and the final book. The last book continues from Tehanu and brings her narrative and the whol series to a more conclusive, and beautiful, end. Highly recommended for any age of person!!
Does this mean that we can see the fingerprints of people that handled old metal objects/chalices/swords/etc.? Maybe it would just be an item of curiousity to have a copy of Julius Ceasar's or Queen Elizabeth's fingerprints but I would put it on my wall! Maybe we could learn something about how fingerprints have changed (or not) over the course of history.
I've been vegan for ten years and, although I am not a particularly preachy, missionary-style vegan, it now and then strikes me as completely bizarre when something reminds me that people actually eat at McDonald's and other places like that where they claim to serve "food". It's appalling, ridiculous, and sort of funny at the same time.
So, although I would much prefer it if non-veggie folks ate lab fabricated meat, in much the same words I would use if I saw you walking into McDonalds: Ugh, would you actually *eat* that? Why would you ever put that in your body? Enjoy your dinner!
Although this doesn't make the simulation any less interesting, the article is misleading: Neanderthals are not really "ancient humans", they are a different branch of the hominid line that probably co-existed with our ancestors.
I suppose it is fitting for an anthropologist but I also find it a bit anthroprocentric that because the simulation suggests they did not produce the same types of sounds as humans that they somehow did not have subtleties in their language nor could they have a spoken language. It is possible they simply spoke to one another differently (maybe in Morse Code using grunts and whistles).
to leave. I have an engineering degree and am/was good a programming, design, etc. I programed on some open source projects under a male pseudonym so I wouldn't have to be treated like "whoa! a cool geek chick" but as a person. I quit in a large part because of the gender dynamics... you can see in these comments that the men who are appearing to be "supportive" of women in IT are still emphasizing the women who are able to outshine boys, are hot, etc. Even through my degree I felt like 24/7 I had to prove I had a right to be there. Sometimes the gender environment is more than competitive like this, it is hostile and abusive. I could only take it for so long, I quit, I am much happier than I was then. I love tech stuff, I miss it, I still program, I still do little things now and then, I am still good at it, it is just that I don't want to be fighting my whole life.
You can say all the biological determinism (yeah right, men are biologically programmed to be in IT... ugh) stuff you want, the reality is there is a major social bias. Some of it is the whole environment from top to bottom, the solution isn't just to have some postercard companies hiring 20% female workers, it require a much larger shift than that, a shift in people's willingness to engage with a gender analysis. Like, even if you are "a nice guy" or you "support women in IT", maybe you have certain behaviours and ways of organizing/managing/participating that alienate women and you need to address them personally. Maybe you need to criticize your male peers when you are talking in the washroom (er. locker room) What do you expect of your women co-workers? There are lots of men who are completely incompetent in IT but manage to have full financially rewarding careers in it, is that true for women?
I don't know how to bring it about but it requires men from all levels of the workplace to be able to critique themselves and the work environment and be willing to change, not just get all confused when they see the stats. It isn't really a discussion if it's a problem, or why it's a problem. We, as women in tech, are telling you there is a major problem and there are many many eloquent papers/reports/studies/etc. that explain what that problem is and that suggest some strategies to approach it. Men can call us whiners for pointing it out, or they swallow their ego and start trying to address the issues.
If that is what you found, you found a really excellent deal on the mac or a really crappy deal on the HP.
This is as close as I could find for comparison. You can get the HP cheaper on Buy.com or somewhere else but these are both listed on bestbuy so it's a good comparison. The HP is better (twice the harddrive space, bigger screen, etc.) than the Apple and $200 cheaper.
If you wanted to go with an Acer with an AMD turion (I like AMD and find Acers better than HPs, personally), you would get even more for less. These prices are closer than they used to be, but Mac will always be more than the equivalent in a non-mac computer, unless you get suckered.
The difference between mac notebooks and hp notebooks? About $1000.
The major difference is price, you are not paying for hardware, you are paying for the pretty plastic box and the operating system. You should go with the HP notebooks and explore the MacOSX86 project. I have seen several triple-booting (Windows/MacOSX/Linux) laptops (HPs, Acers, etc.). Ie. you can run MacOS on your AMD64 or Intel notebook (albeit not 100% legally).
In response to the original story, I don't really get why they wouldn't just dual boot... Have a common ext3 or ntfs-3g partition for doing all your work, storage, etc. If you want to use iMovie one day, boot to MacOSX, if you want to use Kino, boot to linux. The same movie could be accessed by both OSes. Why delete MacOSX? That is what you paid the extra $1000 for in the first place!
but this was a bit over the top. I am glad that it wasn't on the Fox national news (foxnews.com) and not even on the Fox Los Angeles news (myfoxla.com). Correct me if I am wrong but the "MyFox Investigates" is just a tabloid-esque sensationalist wing of FoxLA that produces fun, outrageous shows just for ratings. Sort of like talk radio. At least that is the impression I get by looking at the other "scoops" on the Fox 11 Investigates Page. For example, see Beauty Disasters where people get bad haircuts.
Not that I am denying that the American mainstream news continues to blur the line between "news" and "tabloid", it hasn't gone quite this far yet... I hope.
I think the headline is a bit ridiculous, I don't think we are at the point were we should say "Linux has failed on the Desktop". However, if you read the interview, it is hard to deny that he is right. We have seen desktop performance continually undervalued on the kernel side and the work of somebody passionate about fixing these bugs (yes, bugs) should be encouraged if not embraced by those who aren't involved in it.
Here we have someone with talent, passion, and who has invested a huge amount of time in the kernel giving up after being ignored and undervalued for years. It is reasonable, understandable, and a big loss for all of us that he has left.
I am also sad to see that most of the comments on slashdot are arguing over the semantics of the headline and not valuing/discussing/disagreeing with the criticism contained within the interview. We are all desktop users, why are we so defensive when someone suggests that we have ignored desktop performance in the kernel? The proof of that lack of attention is in front of every person running linux to view the article.
I tend to be an "early-installer" and I also love eye-candy. As such, I was one who was running the early versions of compiz and Xgl when switching to modular xorg was still an advanced procedure.
After a 10 month repose from all those snazzy effects, I recently installed Beryl on my gentoo laptop (acer 5102). It was easy (and if you compare it to the nightmare it used to be, it was -extremely- easy). Not only that, it is themeable, the beryl manager allows for easy to understand configuration of oodles of tasks. In short, even though Beryl is still in heavy development, it is coming along very well and is very useable.
Even with the factory video card in my laptop (Radeon Xpress 1100) I have lots of unused hardware power sitting around. The configurability of Beryl allows you to, say, disable all of the effects except drop shadows and menu fading. Thus, without noticeably affecting the responsiveness of your system, you can add some very overdue, subtle, and appealing aesthetic touches to your desktop.
Anyway, my point is: don't over emphasize Beryl's beta-ness more than is due. It is really coming along and is very functional and, I think, a necessary development that is needed to revitalize our aging, grey desktops.
Slashdot Mirror
What rating did it receive?
Trump's immigration reform is not "comprehensive". Whatever you think of the migrant workers in the south, the US immigration system is really broken in many other ways on many other issues. Conservative republicans are so worried about workers from Mexico that they block all other attempts at immigration reform, this is no exception. The H1-B stuff is a undeveloped tag-on to attract tech voters and it's the only non-mexican border reform proposed.
Although Alan Cox probably has something to say about SSDs, I don't think anyone bothered to contact him for this article.
The environmental, material, and human costs that went into making and then destroying 2000 of these things matters too. What a waste!
There are problems with Gnome and GTK+, but what surprises me is that KDE and QT have managed to remain consistently, in the words of RMS, butt-ugly throughout the years. It's like a requirement for each new release to be at least as ugly as the last one. Even with plasma and fancy 3D effects, still that same ugly-mugly, kinda-boxy, badly spaced, wierdly rendered fonts, dumb controls, QT look. My love for gnome has dissipated markedly in the last few years with the gnome 3 disaster, but it is hard to imaging replacing it with, ugh, butt-ugly kde.
Or you could just use your Wii controllers with your pc using bluetooth. I love playing Assasin's Creed on the big tv, with surround sound, and my wii-controllers so I can jump around instead of being hunched over in front of the computer screen. Also works great for controlling your pc's media player like a remote control.
maybe it's not worth the fight. Why not just use a language that IS relevant rather than "struggling" to make relevant people use one that isn't?
For someone like me, who hated marshmallows, the experiment would have ended up being a bit different. I would have asked myself: Can I bear to eat one marshmallow now so that I don't have to eat two later on?
In case you actually want to try this sometime in the next few days. I suggest getting via bittorrent. It is on the bay:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4904993/moblin-netbook-ux-beta-20090518-004
First of all, as the update to the article says, this doesn't make it illegal to sell english versions of video games, only that if there is a french version available it must be sold along side of it. This does not lead to delays of games and will not make companies stop selling French versions. Actually, since 2007, the opposite has been true with most new titles having french options which broadens the game market, not shrinks it (ie. there are lots of people in quebec who don't speak english).
Remember that the *only* official language in Quebec is French. Moreover, 80% of the population speaks French as their mother tongue, vs. 8% english.
Finally, language is important part of culture. Language protection laws have been really successful in Quebec and are part of what makes it such an amazing place with a really vibrant, rich, cosmopolitan, and arts-rich province. If you live in Quebec and have seen the rest of Canada (I mean for more than your 3 or 4 year university degree), I think you will agree that Quebec is a unique and special place, due mostly to it's french background. Canada is so huge and has a huge amount of diversity, Vancouver, the BC. mountains, the praries, the badlands, Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes, Northwest, Northeast, Canadian Sheild, the north praries... and many more, each distinct for different reasons.
Why are all these anglophones so upset about a bill that promotes french culture in Quebec without affecting them nor preventing any gamers in Quebec from getting english games on the same schedule they would have without the law?
Don't forget though that the ability of bigger enterprise-driven companies like Redhat and Novell to pay full-time linux programmers has had a tremendously postive effect on community distros.
It is hard to imagine what the linux desktop would look like today without the contribution of Redhat and Novell programmers during the last 5 years.
First off, it is good to keep in mind that men's bodies are programmed to do that as they get older (look at most men over 40). Dieting and exercise routines are one thing but what you really need to do for long-term and sustainable body change is to look at your whole lifestyle.
Rather than trying to force yourself to go to the gym 3 times a week, get involved in something that you have an interest in that involves physical activity. Ballroom dance/Swing dance/Tango dance is amazing for this. You get to meet people in an environment where the goal is not just to socialize like at a bar or something, your are being very physically active but not in a way that will tire you out, I promise it will invigorate you. On top of that, it will improve your posture and self-confidence. Who knows, you might even make some really great friends! I used to teach it and let me assure you that there are plenty of geekier sorts there (I swear half the men are engineers and 25% are computer programmers). Walking to work, around downtown, to get the groceries, walking the dog for at least 30 minutes twice-a-day, etc. are good ideas. Don't make it a chore though, consider your daily lifestyle in such a way that you are active without "having to make an effort". If it is a struggle, you will give up eventually.
Audio books at the gym definitely help for spending time on the treadmill. There are loads of science fiction and fantasy books on mp3/cd and it is a perfect opportunity to go through classics that you don't have time to sit down and read.
Finally, think about your diet. Cutting down the amount of meat and dairy in your daily diet will work wonders. Eat lots of fresh produce and fruit, avoid things loaded with saturated fat. Try getting into pizzas without cheese on top (they are delicious). Find snack foods that you love, like cashews, almonds, dried cranberries, raisons, carrots, etc. and replace your less body-friendly snacks with them. If you don't cook much, try cooking more at home, it can be amazing fun (and intellectually stimulating too) and a way to really embrace healthier eating into your lifestyle.
Finally, although I know you don't want to exercise in front of others, joining a casual club that gets together once a week to play frisbee, go biking, walking, golf, tenis, etc. can be a great way to be physical without forcing yourself too.
Good luck, remember that you aren't alone and you can learn what not to do by watching other folks going through the same thing!
Assuming that the "self" (ie. the soul/consciousness/memory/etc.) resides biologically and physically in the brain and considering that, from what I understand, longevity research has a great deal to do with regeneration of cells more than extending lifetimes of individual cells, what implications are there if an individual has wholly "regenerated" the cells in their brain?
For example, somebody may have a brain that is composed of entirely new brain cells than they had X number of years ago. Does this have implications of their memory of themselves, their sense of self, etc.?
I also highly recomment the Earthsea series, the 4th book, Tehanu, is actually my favourite book of all time.
There are actually 6 books:
- A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
- Tombs of Atuan (1971)
- The Farthest Shore (1972)
- Tehanu (1990)
- Tales from Earthsea (2001)
- The Other Wind (2001)
Tehanu is a revist to the world of Earthsea through female characters. Tales from Earthsea is a collection of short stories (fairly long short stories) which occur mostly outside of the plot of the other 5 books, but who give context to the world itself and the final book. The last book continues from Tehanu and brings her narrative and the whol series to a more conclusive, and beautiful, end. Highly recommended for any age of person!!
Does this mean that we can see the fingerprints of people that handled old metal objects/chalices/swords/etc.? Maybe it would just be an item of curiousity to have a copy of Julius Ceasar's or Queen Elizabeth's fingerprints but I would put it on my wall! Maybe we could learn something about how fingerprints have changed (or not) over the course of history.
I've been vegan for ten years and, although I am not a particularly preachy, missionary-style vegan, it now and then strikes me as completely bizarre when something reminds me that people actually eat at McDonald's and other places like that where they claim to serve "food". It's appalling, ridiculous, and sort of funny at the same time.
So, although I would much prefer it if non-veggie folks ate lab fabricated meat, in much the same words I would use if I saw you walking into McDonalds: Ugh, would you actually *eat* that? Why would you ever put that in your body? Enjoy your dinner!
Although this doesn't make the simulation any less interesting, the article is misleading:
Neanderthals are not really "ancient humans", they are a different branch of the hominid line that probably co-existed with our ancestors.
I suppose it is fitting for an anthropologist but I also find it a bit anthroprocentric that because the simulation suggests they did not produce the same types of sounds as humans that they somehow did not have subtleties in their language nor could they have a spoken language. It is possible they simply spoke to one another differently (maybe in Morse Code using grunts and whistles).
if they had a robotic arm like that! I am surprised it took that long, his parents must have tried liquid nitrogen on him.
John Conner
to leave. I have an engineering degree and am/was good a programming, design, etc. I programed on some open source projects under a male pseudonym so I wouldn't have to be treated like "whoa! a cool geek chick" but as a person. I quit in a large part because of the gender dynamics... you can see in these comments that the men who are appearing to be "supportive" of women in IT are still emphasizing the women who are able to outshine boys, are hot, etc. Even through my degree I felt like 24/7 I had to prove I had a right to be there. Sometimes the gender environment is more than competitive like this, it is hostile and abusive. I could only take it for so long, I quit, I am much happier than I was then. I love tech stuff, I miss it, I still program, I still do little things now and then, I am still good at it, it is just that I don't want to be fighting my whole life.
You can say all the biological determinism (yeah right, men are biologically programmed to be in IT... ugh) stuff you want, the reality is there is a major social bias. Some of it is the whole environment from top to bottom, the solution isn't just to have some postercard companies hiring 20% female workers, it require a much larger shift than that, a shift in people's willingness to engage with a gender analysis. Like, even if you are "a nice guy" or you "support women in IT", maybe you have certain behaviours and ways of organizing/managing/participating that alienate women and you need to address them personally. Maybe you need to criticize your male peers when you are talking in the washroom (er. locker room) What do you expect of your women co-workers? There are lots of men who are completely incompetent in IT but manage to have full financially rewarding careers in it, is that true for women?
I don't know how to bring it about but it requires men from all levels of the workplace to be able to critique themselves and the work environment and be willing to change, not just get all confused when they see the stats. It isn't really a discussion if it's a problem, or why it's a problem. We, as women in tech, are telling you there is a major problem and there are many many eloquent papers/reports/studies/etc. that explain what that problem is and that suggest some strategies to approach it. Men can call us whiners for pointing it out, or they swallow their ego and start trying to address the issues.
If that is what you found, you found a really excellent deal on the mac or a really crappy deal on the HP.
This is as close as I could find for comparison. You can get the HP cheaper on Buy.com or somewhere else but these are both listed on bestbuy so it's a good comparison. The HP is better (twice the harddrive space, bigger screen, etc.) than the Apple and $200 cheaper.
If you wanted to go with an Acer with an AMD turion (I like AMD and find Acers better than HPs, personally), you would get even more for less. These prices are closer than they used to be, but Mac will always be more than the equivalent in a non-mac computer, unless you get suckered.
The difference between mac notebooks and hp notebooks? About $1000.
The major difference is price, you are not paying for hardware, you are paying for the pretty plastic box and the operating system. You should go with the HP notebooks and explore the MacOSX86 project. I have seen several triple-booting (Windows/MacOSX/Linux) laptops (HPs, Acers, etc.). Ie. you can run MacOS on your AMD64 or Intel notebook (albeit not 100% legally).
In response to the original story, I don't really get why they wouldn't just dual boot... Have a common ext3 or ntfs-3g partition for doing all your work, storage, etc. If you want to use iMovie one day, boot to MacOSX, if you want to use Kino, boot to linux. The same movie could be accessed by both OSes. Why delete MacOSX? That is what you paid the extra $1000 for in the first place!
but this was a bit over the top. I am glad that it wasn't on the Fox national news (foxnews.com) and not even on the Fox Los Angeles news (myfoxla.com). Correct me if I am wrong but the "MyFox Investigates" is just a tabloid-esque sensationalist wing of FoxLA that produces fun, outrageous shows just for ratings. Sort of like talk radio. At least that is the impression I get by looking at the other "scoops" on the Fox 11 Investigates Page. For example, see Beauty Disasters where people get bad haircuts.
Not that I am denying that the American mainstream news continues to blur the line between "news" and "tabloid", it hasn't gone quite this far yet... I hope.
I think the headline is a bit ridiculous, I don't think we are at the point were we should say "Linux has failed on the Desktop". However, if you read the interview, it is hard to deny that he is right. We have seen desktop performance continually undervalued on the kernel side and the work of somebody passionate about fixing these bugs (yes, bugs) should be encouraged if not embraced by those who aren't involved in it.
Here we have someone with talent, passion, and who has invested a huge amount of time in the kernel giving up after being ignored and undervalued for years. It is reasonable, understandable, and a big loss for all of us that he has left.
I am also sad to see that most of the comments on slashdot are arguing over the semantics of the headline and not valuing/discussing/disagreeing with the criticism contained within the interview. We are all desktop users, why are we so defensive when someone suggests that we have ignored desktop performance in the kernel? The proof of that lack of attention is in front of every person running linux to view the article.
Not that it probably matters that much but if it weighs 1.15kg, it also weighs 2.54lbs, not 2.4 (at least on the planet earth).
I tend to be an "early-installer" and I also love eye-candy. As such, I was one who was running the early versions of compiz and Xgl when switching to modular xorg was still an advanced procedure.
After a 10 month repose from all those snazzy effects, I recently installed Beryl on my gentoo laptop (acer 5102). It was easy (and if you compare it to the nightmare it used to be, it was -extremely- easy). Not only that, it is themeable, the beryl manager allows for easy to understand configuration of oodles of tasks. In short, even though Beryl is still in heavy development, it is coming along very well and is very useable.
Even with the factory video card in my laptop (Radeon Xpress 1100) I have lots of unused hardware power sitting around. The configurability of Beryl allows you to, say, disable all of the effects except drop shadows and menu fading. Thus, without noticeably affecting the responsiveness of your system, you can add some very overdue, subtle, and appealing aesthetic touches to your desktop.
Anyway, my point is: don't over emphasize Beryl's beta-ness more than is due. It is really coming along and is very functional and, I think, a necessary development that is needed to revitalize our aging, grey desktops.