What I don't understand is that people like you aren't intelligent enough to realize that a man like Doc Brown, who's smart and skilled enough to build an actual working time machine wouldn't be smart enough to compensate for the spatial displacement.

Of course Canonical did everything right just as you said. There's one thing they haven't done, though, which is absolutely necessary for widespread adoption of any OS: pre-installation. If you could easily buy a PC with Ubuntu on it (say, as easily as you can buy a Mac), adoption would go up a lot. I have no idea by how much, but look at how well Android is doing. Android uses a Linux kernel, and lots of people who have Android phones have never heard of Linux. This is how MS Windows became #1 - you didn't have to install it. You could just walk into a computer shop and buy a Windows machine, take it home and have it up and running in less than half an hour. If you could do that with a Linux machine (they should probably give it some nice but generic name, e.g. "Diamond Computer") in the same way, lots more people would be using them.

Pretty much. I would add that any F/LOSS which depends on the good will of a large corporation should be ready at any time to cut and run. Nothing against big business (at least regarding this question) but the goal of a corporation is ultimately to make money. The goals of people who write free/open source software are many, though profit for it's own sake isn't usually at the top of the list. For Linus, it was at least originally "just for fun," for Stallman it's always been about the right to freedom - and you could make a long list of other reasons. Some people in the Linux and BSD communities of developers like to write software in an environment where making a mistake won't get them fired from their paying job. OpenOffice.org has been the flagship productivity suite for Linux for a while now. Since the acquisition of Sun by Oracle, it's only been a matter of time before some kind of split. I'm rooting for the fork, whatever they end up calling it, not because I don't like Oracle (I don't like Oracle, but that's not really the issue here), but because a truly independent office suite would be good to have. I hope that at least some of the devs who have been with this project for a long time continue to work on Libre Office.

"There is no such thing as an absolute truth."

Is the above statement absolutely true?

Throws them "a bone" or "the bone?"

Every adult (including parents and non-parents) seems to have lots of opinions on how best to raise children.

Here are mine:

1) Love them

a) Do not harm them

2) Protect them

Everything else is open to interpretation. If you are a parent, teacher, or someone else who has regular contact with children, follow those guidelines and the kids will will mostly be fine (you can't protect them from every danger, nor should you try) - and remember at some point they start making their own choices.

On the subject of interactive books: this was going to happen sooner or later. Still, there should come a time in a person's maturation when reading without aid of images is not only possible but enjoyable.

John Connor did this way back in '91 ... which means the machines ... oh shit.

I know, I know, "'Ubuntu' is an African word meaning 'I'm too stupid for Slackware'" ... I don't use it myself (I use another distribution, not going to plug it here), but I've installed it for a number of friends and family members, and just installed Lynx for my brother, because: 1) Ease of install/configuration 2) Pretty easy transition from Windows 3) Lots of software in the repos And some other reasons. LL is pretty sweet, so I think Shuttleworth & Co. are on the right track in many, if not all, ways. So I think the announcement is pretty exciting. Gnome 3 looks very promising ... so next June' Maverick Meerkat could be pretty interesting.

What's up with this nasty summary? "Social notworking site"? I have no interest in Facebook, but why do we get these unprofessional summaries in this news aggregator? Oh right. Slashdot. Never mind.

That's a very good point you make. We really should hold the companies responsible. Also, we've pretty much passed the point when we could put much economic pressure on China; we're too dependent on them now.

Well, one way to encourage "change from within" is to impose sanctions on countries which have policies that allow what amounts to slave labor. You don't like to call it that, you say they "choose" to work under these conditions, but that's what it is. We imposed sanctions on South Africa because of Apartheid. Why can't we do the same thing with China because of working conditions? Is it because people would have a "shitfest," as you say, if prices went up on what are, for the most part, luxury items? Yes, prices would almost certainly go up if the US, the EU, Canada, Japan, etc. put pressure on China to reform its labor laws. For me it would be worth it if I knew it meant that children weren't working 15 hours a day 6-7 days a week just so that I could have an inexpensive mouse.