It's possible for kids to play games at other kids' houses, yeah. I think most of us did something at some point as kids over at a friend's house we weren't supposed to do at home. Kids will always do that, and parents will always try and often fail to keep track of standards set by the parents of the other kids. That still doesn't mean adults should be banned from playing adult-only rated games.

I agree (see my other post).

There is no strawman. The actual complaint about no 18+ games is that there is a valid 18+ market that cannot buy the games because the government won't allow them to be sold. I didn't say that was or wasn't your position, so I'm not even sure how you can try to call it a strawman. Here's a definition of "straw man" for you. I'm not telling you what your position is. I'm pointing out the complaint of many Australians that I have read over and over online.

You aren't telling me my position, that's true. You are, however, telling the specific group of parents and other censors what their position is, in the wider debate. I have played (here in Australia) many, many games which are not at all appropriate for "young teens". I suppose it was a little harsh of me to call "strawman" over that (I'm feeling a little defensive at the moment), but technically, all they're doing is banning the most adult of the adult games. It's not like every piece of software on sale in Australia is appropriate for 13-year-olds.

The oldest laws still in force date from The Statue of Marlborough, in 1267.

(You can follow various Wikipedia categories around to find other old laws.)

So, was it that hard to notice...

a) "you (group, again)"

b) "but you give them power to do that and be treated seriously"//notice no "group"
?

It's perfectly valid to judge also you by the dynamics of a group you identify with. A group which feeds its power from followers like you.

Not if driving cars in rural Ohio for fun isn't sustainable. Not that I really have an opinion on that, I haven't run the numbers. Here's a silly question: why does any auto racing series which claims to have a technical component still use internal combustion engines? Shouldn't auto racing be electric by now? Or at least running on a carbon-neutral fuel?

So... They reported what the situation *is*.. And that's not actual reporting? The fact of the matter, it *is* impossible to go buy a new PS3 with OtherOS. It *may* not be impossible in the future, however that's conjecture, not reporting.

What does Apple have to do with this? In what way is the licensing for an Apple Computer different than a Windows PC? If your talking APPLIANCES, like Game machines or phone devices, such as iPhone, the Apps offered with iPhone don't 'come with the unit'. They weren't sold with it and certainly weren't guaranteed from Apple to be allowed on the device.

In regards to Game consoles, Sony is on a limb here all by their lonesome, as Apple doesn't have a game console (although arguably the iPhone, but they haven't crippled some game that came with it), and there is no similar situation on the XBox either that I know of.

Try to keep your rants in line with the topic at hand?

Backroyalties (license fees for past infringement) -- or the equivalent in case of a lawsuit, damages for past infringement -- certainly add to the problem, but the biggest leverage a patent troll can have is the ability to force an "infringer" to discontinue shipping a key product (or several key products at the same time). That's when a company's ability to stay in business becomes seriously endangered and that's the perfect basis for a hold-up.

then please tell me, how, in Java, to point to 0x11E00164 and read the state of the system cooling fan at bit 1 and heater/dehumidifier at bit 0...

(No, I didn't pull it out of my ass. This is taken from the actual ref sheet on the wall behind me. 0x11E00000 = memmapped IO space, +0x160 = CPLD registers, +0x4 - 230V GPIO lines.)

Well...I wouldn't quite say that. It's different - that's for sure. But, I have seen puke on a screen (my roommate, freshman year, came back and got sick in front of his computer) and the Google redesign doesn't look like that.

So...that means you must care quite frequently as most websites/software/etc don't give you that much of an option on how THEIR interface looks. And, to be fair, you do have an option - go to a different search engine. Or, don't even use the main Google interface. There are many ways to get the results you are looking for that doesn't actually involve hitting the home Google page.

I can understand not liking the new layout. Definitely entitled to your own opinion. I haven't particularly warmed up to the new Google look yet. However, you then go to say (and this is why I'm responding at all)...

"Universally disliked" is a very strong set of words. Do you have proof of this? You mean there is NOBODY who actually likes the changes?

Now that's just not being fair. Google has to make decisions at times about how THEIR product looks. If you read the blog posts (by Google, as well as by others), Google did quite a bit of acceptance testing and research to determine how to best layout their new site to provide better information, more information, and make it easier to read. You may not like what's up there now, but you should have seen the ones they rejected. Either way, Google is not being evil here...they are running a business and trying to make the views to their search results viable and on the cutting edge. They may even make mistakes while doing that (as I said - I'm not sure what I think about the new design yet), but they are most definitely not being evil here. And I never once heard them say, "screw you." Not once.

Gah. I wish Slashdot readers would read the whole thread before replying. But hey, I'll answer your questions.

Because Bob owns parts of the work and Alice doesn't have permission to distribute those parts of the work. If Bob decides to grant Alice permission to distribute the work then he must do so under the terms of the GPL, but he is not required to grant that permission, and has not.

Alice owned copyright on the work before being hired by Bob. Unless she transferred the copyright of that work to Bob she still owns some rights to the work. But as I said in step 1, she licensed those rights under the GPL, so Bob has the right to use the work (under any conditions, the GPL makes no restrictions on use) and has the right distribute the work, under the terms of the GPL.

Since I've discovered tilling WMs, Alt-tab and exposé seem hacks added to a mouse based WM instead of a real solution.

I usually have one Virtual desktop (tabs in Awesome) per application, and then I can join two or more tabs with one combo (Windows key + number), and the two windows show up side-by-side automatically. One more press and they're back in each tab.

Not my video, but it's the same setup I have (except I use Debian): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7KWPKE0TVI#

3000 litres of methane at sea level is about 1.7 kg or about equivelent to third a US gallon of gasoline. So no, not very practical.

My parents use to have a CNG (compressed natural gas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_natural_gas) dual fuel kit for their car, while there was this infrastructure available in my area (government removed subsidies through the 90s). 10kg of CNG (Methane) would give 100-150km of driving, no more than 200km at the outside.

I'm not sure of the pressure required to keep methane clathrate solid, but I know it's found at around 800m depth around continental shelves, so thats over 100 atmospheres of pressure or 1500psi thereabouts. The CNG tank for the car was not more than 150-200 bar

Methane ice would be prone to sudden decomposition when warmed up or depressurised (boom!) whereas CNG tanks were sufficiently engineered to survive a crash that would total the rest of the car, and worst case the safety valve would vent harmlessly.

So at a guess there would be little advantage in methane ice in a automobile tank, obvious dangers asside. Once the gas has been released you have residual water/water ice to somehow extract or reuse too.

similarly the overwhelming majority of the world's population does not have a degree in industrial design.

1) I never specified INDUSTRIAL design. Sure, Apple's products have the best industrial design in the business. But that's only one aspect of design that makes Apple products the best on the market. But then there's software design - how the software looks, yes, but more importantly who the software works.And also the design of the infrastructure - for example that content: apps, music, movies is 0,1,2 clicks away.

2) You don't need any design education to appreciate well designed products. Good design makes products understandable, easy and pleasant to use, it strips away annoyances that are common in other products, it's innovative, it's unobtrusive, it's honest. etc. I mentioned design illiterates because there are people here, like you, who don't understand intellectually WHY certain products are attractive to people. But people don't need design literacy to be drawn to those products which have been well designed.

3) All large companies do marketing. And by it's nature, it's obvious what marketing they do. Any other company could do the same things for marketing as Apple does. And they could do it right now - marketing can be developed in days. Apple's marketing could be emulated in days. They have no advantage here. The answer is that marketing can only work in the longer term when a company has desirable products to sell.

According to the employment contract Bob made Alice sign, probably. Luckily Alice probably knows that's unenforceable in the state of California.

We all know who Steve is. Paul at times pretends to be an independent analyst.