I don't know if this deserves a "whoosh". But I read the :P as:

1. go to wikipedia

2. copy and paste the sources listed in the article

3. ???

4. Profit!

Blindly using citations found in Wikipedia, or any other place, is not a good way of doing research. The citations may be bogus, or plainly unreliable. Of course, a lot of researchers actually do this, perhaps just not from Wikipedia.

It wasn't, but AFAIK Apple was the first and is still the only one to use it. So it is a way of using a non proprietary standard that still achieves the same goal as a market lock-in tool. Apple has done this many times - mini display port, mini DVI, recessed jack on original iPhone, etc.

Portal is not difficult by any means. People who have no experience with FPSs may get disoriented at first, but, beyond that, all the initial chambers are really, really easy. Just the last two chambers provide some kind of real challenge. But I think that actually adds, rather than detracts, to the gameplay. The "rythym" of the game is just right as it is, it blends the right amount of curiosity about the puzzles with an excellent story. They complement each other nicely. Portal is one of my favorite games of all times. High hopes for Portal 2.

Well, I guess every country - and in the USA, possibly each state, has its own laws, but I've never seen a traffic law with acceleration limits. Your car may be very silent, so you might accelerate a lot and still don't break any regulations.

And about (1), I don't think you are right. Speed is the rate that space varies with time. A speed rate, therefore, is not speed, but something else, by definition, either acceleration or something else like the rate speed varies with position of the sun, the beats in the car stereo, or whatever. Just because everyone says it wrong, it doesn't make it right.

Copyright protected works cannot work by "free market capitalism" rules (and free market is an abstraction, BTW). Each copyright owner has a monopoly on his own copyrighted work, whereas free market is based on competition. I can only get a Harry Potter book written by Rowling, and whoever happens to be her publisher. There is no possibility of competition. Similarly, I can only get a game from its publisher/developer. There may be other similar games, and there is competition in that sense, but this is indirect competition. You can't replicate the exact experience you get with a piece of software with another. Copyright and patents create state-approved monopolies. The idea is that the incentive to explore your own monopolie would drive innovation forward. So there are no valid comparisons with the (mythical, anyway) free-market that are valid in this case.

I'd like to draw attention to two provisions of the proposed law that are much more important, IMHO: Art. 46, I, explicity allows one copy by any means for private, non-commercial use. Art 46, II, explicity allows format-shifting for private and non-commercial use.

I just found the original project, as we call it. It is up for public scrutiny. It can still be changed when the voting happens. For brazilians, or people from abroad who'd like to take a look at it, here is the original address: http://www.cultura.gov.br/consultadireitoautoral/lei-961098-consolidada/ . The sad fact is that most people simply don't know or care about this proposed law here, and so it might be changed given enough pressure from media lobbyists. Hope it doesn't.

From sugar cane, you mean. In fact we have problems when the sugar price goes up in the international markets and it pays more to produce sugar from cane than ethanol. Ethanol prices goes up and they end up higher than petrol.

back on topic, I've seen nothing in the media here in Brazil regarding this. I'd like to know if this is a proposal or if has been approved already.

The problem with MPEG-LA is that their definition of profit is so vast that if you post your video in a page with ads they may collect royalties, such as your blog or even Youtube. Also, today's digicams/handycams can be used for pro filming, but they don't come with a license that allows you to use the codec "professionally". So you buy a Canon 7D or 5DMkII, and you make an independent movie with it - and you have to pay them royalties.

I guess the irony is due to Avatar being an anti-stablishment movie, where a large corporation that is just worried about its profits try to screw people around. See, life imitates art.

Even if it wasn't stated in the box, it was advertised that it did run Linux. Even people who doesn't need or care about this functionality should stay up to Sony on this. Next time they may remove a funcionality you do care about. Conceptually, it is the same thing as removing the capability of playing Bluray discs.

If you believe the story, he did tried to return it. He called Apple, and got a ticket that was never answered.

How do people play RTSs then? Show me a good player of Warcraft, Starcraft or Supcomm and I'll show you a person that can manage at least half a dozen tasks simultaneously.

didn't they? Not many people complained about the size. Today, what makes the bulk of a software release is the media assets included, not the code itself. Since the iPad has some good GBs of space, and most people will fill these with videos and songs, I doubt some added MB from fat binaries would make a difference.