I have no idea where you're coming from with this statement. Wikileaks is exposing the corruption of power, be it in politics, bureaucracy, the banking sector, wherever. The information they've released is relevant for all Americans to understand their power structure -- regardless of any political stripe (note they don't favour the Democrats over the Republicans), as well as those whose countries wheel and deal behind closed doors with the United States.

While I think it would be very helpful to have an organization dedicated to releasing information specific to very particular cases, Wikileaks does a great job of releasing general information important for all of us.
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Information is the key to democracy

If you mean matured enough that it's become the one of the main entry points for malware on PCs and still tries to insist I install an annoying Yahoo toolbar every time we update it, then I would have to say it's not mature enough for me.

No, don't pay attention to the FUD artists. 9.8 million goes to "technology" costs, including 1.8 for existing hosting costs, and 3.3 in new capital expenditures on their data centers.

I think everyone knows Wikipedia has its issues with the editing process, but their overall management appears very transparent and well-intentioned. Any organization that grows so fast is going to have problems along the way, but I don't understand why some people need to go out of their way to make wikipedia itself seem evil.

You link is correct, but your statement is 100% wrong.

If you'd read the document you linked to, you would see the real figure for 2010/11 is 8.9 million for 91 people, including the costs of recruiting and benefits, which would be somewhat significant. In 09/10 there were only 47 employees.

Regarding the 9.8 million, this includes 1.8 million for their data centers, and 3.3 million in building out the data center in new capital expenditures, and most of the rest for what seems to be quite normal developer and IT salary costs.

Your question/point of "what is an advertisement?" is likely the best one to focus on. I have no problem at all with advertising based on the content of a page, but have a huge issues with doubleclick, facebook connect and their like, who would track users and what they browse.

Still, to create and manage a worldwide ad-server which can't be taken advantage of is not a simple task. One might even suggest they'd need to raise a very large amount of donation money in order to build and maintain it through the opening stages.

Like many mods have suggested, this is an "interesting" idea. It's also completely without any reference and seems to be a serious accusation. Wales' appeal states that wikipedia does need the money for its website, while you say they're lying, and that it's just a siphon.

Your comments are stated as facts, but you give a note at the bottom suggesting it's just opinion.

I'm suggesting that until you give some valid reference that the money is going to sister projects, that your post is full of FUD and not much else.

Wikileaks is like many an open source project: lots of things to do, not many people to do everything, so they need to focus on the interests of the "programmers", in this case headed up by Assange. Your comments sound like many a poster that is against the direction of the way a software project is going. Don't like it? Then either get involved to effect the direction, or do your own thing. No skin off anyone's back.

Actually, it is like you can't find them. All personal laptops are 16:9, while some higher priced business laptops are 16:10, but both are a far cry from the old 16:12 (4:3), perfect for image viewing, and requires a lot less scrolling in a day.

But you really, truly can't find any of the old 4:3 resolutions in a ~14" laptop by any company (nor almost all other sizes). For anyone who uses their computer primarily to read and write documents, they will have a loss in productivity (more scrolling, less context available for the subject at hand) in choosing a 14" widescreen, over a 14" old 4:3 laptop.

I find it amazing that no laptop-maker is extending even a single product to those that would prefer the 4:3 ratio.

Very Insightful and well explained. Still, if the font-size is increased to be the same as a lower-res display, it remains that on shorter, widescreen computers, less text can be seen vertically. Personally, I like as many vertical lines available, as opposed to width for multitasking.

As well, for someone who loves viewing their photos (4:3), a similar-dimensioned computer makes more sense, regardless of resolution. All personal laptops are now configured for dvd playing (16:9 vs 16:12 for images). I wonder if how many of those use their computers more for viewing photos, and maybe their dvd player and tv is what they use for dvds?

While the parent deserves flamebait instead of "interesting", especially given he/she doesn't have the guts to sign their name to the post, here's a brief reply.

- SQL injection works on any database with any programming language, if things aren't programmed properly, and is definitely not specific to PHP.
- PHP is not longer in version 3 or 4, it's got great object-oriented programming possibilities, is faster to program in than many other languages, and if you use intelligent caching, will be pretty much as quick -- with the remaining speed cost for using PHP made negligent by the real action happening in the database.
- "experienced professionals" do program in PHP. A real programmer will use the best language for the job, and often times that language is PHP. Working with a client who will only pay ~$20/month in hosting on their current webhost often means that a LAMP installation is what you've got to work with. Quick, easy, secure, and job well done using PHP.
- SQL Server is the most miserable, buggy, and overpriced db out there in my experience, and it gives no practical advantage security-wise over MySQL, and nor does postgres or other options. MySQL is ubiquitous, which is its advantage over other databases that may perform better.

PHP is a serious programming language for web development, just like RoR and a host of others. The parent is a perfect example of some old chap that:
a) doesn't understand the differences and requirements of web development vs classic application programming
b) Doesn't realise that PHP has evolved -A LOT- over the past 8 years, and is no less inherently insecure than any other programming language.
c) appears to hate programming languages that are accessible to more than computer science majors, whether some computer science majors use them or not.

Seriously, it's time for some posters to grow up and attempt to be objective rather than inserting their short-sighted, uninformed, and most of all, unintelligent posts against some language they have a hate-on for.

No. OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a database collection of borders, multilingual location names, and data to create maps with. There are also points of interest in it, however in my belief, focussing on points of interest would take away from the constant and more important job of filling the OSM database in with street names, and accurate location information.

The database of OSM is already huge (>70GB I believe), and since points of interest are almost always drawn in Javascript (usually via OpenLayers.org's API that works with not just OpenStreetMaps, but Yahoo and google maps as well), it makes more sense to me to have a separate open organisation that takes the job of managing business names, and focusses on that, instead of combining place management with raw map data.

Working with OpenStreetMap data is already somewhat unwieldy, given the size of the database, and while in theory it sounds nice to put places into OSM, I don't see why a second organisation dedicated to doing so wouldn't be a far better idea than handing a second mandate to an organisation that has its hands full with its first.

It is terrific, however some cities (ahem Toronto, Vancouver, and others.) are releasing their municipal border data under a different licence than OSM (openstreetmaps), which is possibly even worse than not keeping them up to date properly. If this continues, a developer will need to navigate dozens or hundreds of unique licences in order to display data legally. A serious problem, that needs to be nipped in the bud ASAP.