Only if you've got an NVIDIA Graphics card. Currently it refuses to support anything but NVIDIA's implementation of VDPAU.

As far as google-chrome goes only the alpha builds are hard masked.

As for them not being in stable I can't say I know, but the issue appears to be one similar to not wanting to enable backports in debian and not understanding why you're also still one Firefox (sorry, iceweasel) 3.6.20. It sounds like a non-issue to me.

You can also specify that you want the "unstable/testing" versions of those packages fairly easily and painlessly.

Firefox was updated to 7.0 fairly quick after release, same with 6.0 and 5.0. 4.0 has been too long for me to remember how long it took. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/www-client/firefox

Chrome I can't comment on how quickly it stays updated but it is very much in the package manager. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/www-client/google-chrome

Actually Full Speed USB came before Hi-Speed USB. USB 1.1 was renamed to FullSpeed USB so that manufacturers wouldn't look bad in name if they continued to not support HiSpeed USB. It was the second stupidest decision they made.

The big problem with "download cap" is that most ISPs also include your upload in it too.

While I'm no good at the main game featured this time, Frozen Synapse, which ironically is why I was interested in the first part, it is very reminiscent of the old game Syndicate. I'd definitely recommend paying more than the average to get a hold of at least Trine. It's an absolutely great platformer with a good story and wonderful balance. I haven't had a chance to check out the others yet still.

towards that 8.5"x11" factor, I'd personally love one like that with a color e-ink screen. I don't want something for playing games on, but for reading and taking notes. The addition of color e-ink would make for a much nicer comic book reader and a way to do highlighting inside an textbook just like the real thing.

This is why I question why you need to have such a large one in the first place. Instead make it, say, 150m and then just use it ONLY for sleep and resting. I've got to imagine the impact of being able to lie down for 1/3 of the time would make a big difference on things. since it would give your body some time to readjust things like the spinal fluid. It might not be enough for the bones though, which could pose other problems still.

Motors I'm not sure about (not sure how the coils get wound, never looked into it). But the ICs are automated in manufacturing, so you could probably add that into the whole setup. It would be difficult but I'd say we're really really close to building a factory factory that produces factory factories.

Last time that I *HAD* to flash my bios was when I had an incompatibility with my VooDoo 5 card.

I'd absolutely agree that you can often get close enough that for most practical reasons it does get you all properties. However it is definitely a good idea to understand that while what you have looks like that, underneath it likely doesn't for some short periods of time. The biggest thing here would be that you can get consistency that's very very good while still not being in the academic sense that it is in the theorem (e.g. consistent at all points in time). Understanding those trade-offs is the important part. Much less so than "omg it can't be done". Given that, I think trying to give up consistency for the other two in a project like PostgreSQL would be foolhardy (since you'd end up losing ACID compliance even if you're nominally there).

That being said, it would be nice to see something as mature as PostgreSQL in the field of CP or AP databases. MySQL does have an advantage here as it can handle multiple storage backends that could get you this on a single database system (I think I even recall someone developing a MongoDB storage engine for MySQL).

The big reason you don't find that and it would be a tremendous breakthrough, is that it is currently believed to be actually impossible to get that. Have a look at the CAP Theorem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAP_theorem

IANAL, etc.

I do not believe in most states that you are required to cooperate with the police during execution of a search warrant. In fact I know in some cases they will refuse to allow you to cooperate in them in case they are looking for something they feel you could otherwise interfere with the search.

That being said however, if you do not cooperate in the execution to whatever extent might be reasonable (say unlocking the door), they would be allowed to break the door, lock, door frame, whatever it takes to execute the warrant and you may be better off cooperating in that case just because of the damage they would be allowed to perform.

Already possible. IPv6 Privacy extension. http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4941