It could be a test-case, so that if Oracle can take down Google here, they can then use this case as a precedent to file C&D letters.

Plus they're looking at damages and legal fees if they win, and they can potentially demand a cut of every Android-related sale.

Hey, it beats having the retailer (*cough*Amazon*cough*) decide for me whether or not I can buy something from a foreign vendor with a card issued in the US.

Did LibreOffice get rid of the Oracle Java parts, replace them with something, or what?

The article says that LO does support Java, but you need to download it separately (licensing issues?). Certain features (database for one) require Java, but for basic Word/Excel clone stuff, you probably don't need it.

You're on the right track-- the closest classification is probably narcissistic or something similar.

Before he was on television, he was a radio shock jock (for I believe a college radio station)-- and he wasn't much different than his persona on Fox. One of his pastimes was character assassination of a fellow radio host, making public insults of her appearance and such. He continued doing so even though coworkers have pleaded with him to stop, because his ratings were so high.

Sure Intel and AMD's offerings will always be "fastest", but do you really need a Six or Eight Core 4ghz CPU costing $1000 to do a few emails, when a $7 750mhz Dual-Core MIPS will do the exact same job?

I can see i7s topping out at around a thousand, but Phenom II hex-cores shouldn't run much more than a few hundred bucks (still, a couple orders of magnitude more costly than the MIPS). Maybe you could get an AMD CPU for a grand if you're going with server chips.

Microsoft cut off the DEC Alpha, PowerPC and MIPS platforms, over 15 years ago in order for Windows NT to compete internally with Windows 95; now they're paying the price and they're going to take down with them anyone else who clings to their coat-tails.

Doubtless they saw the writing on the wall a couple of years earlier than you have, because they wouldn't announce an architecture shift (ARM) unless they were committed to it. This means they'll basically be standing still (sustained by enterprise users and desktop gamers) while Android and iOS eat their lunch in the tablet space.

Of course, Nokia could come out with a badass WP7 tablet and make it a 3-player market. Unfortunately, from what I'm seeing/hearing from Nokia, they're nowhere near ready to go to market.

Intel is the exception, not the rule. To rephrase GP's post, how often, for a company that Microsoft isn't dependent upon to retain control of the desktop and enterprise, is partnering with Microsoft the smartest thing they've done?

SCO? They're on life support.
Novell? They're on the chopping block.
Those are just the high-profile failures. I'm sure there are several, smaller examples of how companies have failed miserably as a result of joining with Microsoft.

Although the passenger rail line is still alive (sort of) through Irvine and Santa Ana, I don't think anyone around here will go for something proposed by our current President.

Sure, they'll claim it's because of his policies, but it's far more of a visceral, emotional reaction.

Exactly what sort of chance do the other 5 or so parties have? What makes you think that the minority parties are that much better?

Put another way, the last Libertarian candidate is a former prosecutor. Do you honestly think he would have followed through with the Libertarian platform after years as a Republican? I don't think so. Four years may seem like an instant, but that's enough to do a great deal of damage (or self-serving) before getting one's ass kicked out of office-- 2001-2003 is a great and recent example of this.

The minority parties are in a position where they're so desperate to reach the 5% national vote threshold, that they have stopped caring about the voting record or ideology of the people they pick. I've met Greens who say that the democracy movement brewing in Egypt could very well result in another Iran-- this is a party whose platform says self-determination is a key tenet of democracy.

So, yes, we have at least five choices-- one that is politically schizophrenic, one that is allied with too many interests that are against the benefit of the whole nation, and several tiny parties that might not have an office in your district and might not be completely honest with you.

If they can get honest, competent candidates with charisma on the ballot, fine, I'll consider them. But as it stands, the primary reason no one votes for them is because they generally don't fit these criteria-- their entire raison d'election is "I'm not {Democrat|Republican}, those idiots suck".

Legally and constitutionally, absolutely none.

Realistically, they could lobby for a law that imposes even more draconian penalties on distributors of copyrighted content. They could sue Google SCO style and force Google to fritter away money by stalling in court. They could call up their old buddy in Justice and ask him to file IRS charges on Google, or even just open an investigation. They could give Microsoft or Apple cushy contract deals on content while locking out Google entirely. All of these are not unprecedented, not even in America-- they only need to look up past cases to find examples. Some of them are illegal (asking for false investigation, anti-trust behavior), some are not but clearly unethical (lobbying), but if the MPAA really wants to hurt Google, I'm sure they'll eat the punishment and take Google down with them.

Without fansubs, certain series (*cough*Macross 7/Frontier*cough*) wouldn't even possibly be seen here, full stop.

I'm told that there are so many US copyright SNAFUs and licensing hurdles associated with the "Macross" title, that no Macross title aside from Plus and possibly the original can be distributed in the US unless people pay hundreds of dollars per disc.

Then there's the ADV Films licensing brouhaha not too long ago that locked away several series from the early 2000s until recently.

I would agree with the producers that they should be fairly compensated. But something must be done about media companies who either want total control or who want more money than anyone is willing to pay, and immediately hide behind the excuse of "piracy is ruining sales" whenever they're called on these.

Is it a bad analogy? One could argue that the test of any search engine in the marketplace is whether its results are accurate, and whether it delivers the desired information to the user (and perhaps sponsored information for advertisers).

If that is the test of a search engine's success or failure, I'd say that the analogy holds. Moreover, the entire purpose of enforcing no-cheating policies in school tests is to help ensure that we don't cheat in real life.

Now, no one, save for perhaps the FTC, can "expel" Microsoft for doing this the way a school administrator can expel someone for cheating on a test. If that's the contrast you were looking for, that's a rather pedantic rebuttal.

This is infuriating. While the oil and coal shills in Congress and the conservative propaganda networks insist global warming is not real, and while the Greens refuse to have anything to do with nukes, China will be light-years ahead of us in technology.

there simply is no feasible way to bypass the Golden Gate Bridge to get into the city.
That's assuming you're coming in from the north (San Ramon, etc.). I'm pretty sure they don't call the Bay Bridge from Emeryville/Oakland the "Golden Gate"; and those from the South Bay will go for the 92 highway bridge.

It's also bloody effective in scaring the locals into staying indoors and out of opposition rallies.

And Bolton et al have the gall to say that if we don't support Mubarak we'll be allowing a radical Islamist regime to take over? Just who do they think are employing terrorist tactics here? What the fuck!?

It may have nothing to do with the success or failure of the revolt. I remember both Burma and Iran likewise cut off Internet access and both successfully crushed their rebellions.

If anything, this drives the movement further underground where it is harder for the authorities to track their messages-- since SSL and VPN/SSH tunneling aren't as widespread as they should be, it's not that hard for authorities to snoop on online conversations, especially if they are in control of the gateways. I'm sure there are/will be more than a few heated arguments between police and politicians over this one.

Maybe in the long run, such actions will result in the toppling of those two regimes as well. But the first step of any totalitarian regime is to control how the people receive information, and if the Internet stands in their way, they'll cut off the Internet. Strategically and politically it makes little more sense than an angry despot throwing a tantrum, but that's reality.