When the breaks gradually go into breaking mode when the battery dies, I see no problem (sorry for spoiling the fun).

This is called the becomes operator. I think it was introduced by Dykstra, a well-known computer science professor. The idea is that it is mathematical more correct than the equals (=) operator, as you can do: x := 3; x := 4; Personally, it's not my favourite (I prefer =), but I do think that it leads to less if(a = b) { ... } mistakes than using the = and == operators from the C language

The browser is the computer...

...or the release numbers are:

% date +%y%d

You are absolutely right, but for Diaspora's case: Getting multiple browser support right takes time, getting IE support right even longer. (I admit that for a simple "join page" it wouldn't be that much extra time. During alpha development phase, you want to go forward, not stepping aside.

...and it's nice to let IE users experience the feeling others have for all those IE-only websites.

But very tactical, to promote your new website to new users? No...

I've been following developments of gthumb lately and I've seem a significant increase in improvements the last year. I'm pretty sure it's triggered by competition with F-Spot and possibly Shotwell. The main reason for me to use gthumb is the superior import facility for your digital photos. You can store them in your own hierarchy/folders in the way you like it.

I've written some blog entries about my Garmin Forerunner 305. I also got it to work under linux: http://www.roalt.com/content/blogcategory/28/31/ Just one month ago, I also added a quick release fix and a Cadence meter, so I can use it both with running and with cycling. With the release kit it's also perfect if you want to do triathlon (although I'm not so sure it's swim-proof)...

... studies found that people not interested in listening, playing or watching any media are not buying it, nor downloading it illegally.

Not having e-mail and telephone lines directly available seems pretty technological dark aged to me. Staff needing to use their own (or their foreign country cell phone) and setting up personal gmail accounts in order to do some work isn't helping white house procedures to keep work safe and according to some presidential's disclosure acts. I think the 6-year old O.S. is indeed a bit out-of-place and doesn't prove the point that is made, but relative seen, it's looks pretty dark.

Yes, they are useless on the Dell XPS M1710, but only if you have linux running: I've been searching for a way to control them from my linux operating system and the only information I found that it was already damn hard to do it from Windows using some kind of Dell Windows API (see http://www.notebookforums.com/post840284.html#post 840284.