I get prompted to download this regularly by my bank. However I use Linux, and they don't produce a Linux version. No idea if they plan to do so either.

Strangely, I'm not that concerned. I would download and use if I used Windows though, even with the new EULA.

Reading the blog, he would not have been fired for using the gendered pronoun, but for refusing to accept it being changed.

It's important. If you don't think it is, try looking for any gendered pronoun in (say) the Eclipe Documentation (Think IBM) or in the Java Tutorial (think Oracle).

And no, I haven't looked at it in depth, but I trust both IBM and Oracle to use gender neutral pronouns (except for the rare cases when they want to specify the gender of a person, as in "Alice" or "Bob"). What is good enough for IBM and Oracle (and every other corporation out there) is good enough for Joyent.

Sorry, can't share your outrage. Using gender-neutral pronouns for documentation seems reasonable to me, especially if viewable by the public, and if that documentation is linked to your company. To refuse to correct gendered pronouns just seems perverse.

From the first review I stumbled upon;

Eh?

You forgot to mention "graph-plotters". Absolutely fascinating to watch in action. Around in the late '80s and early '90s for drawing A4 diagrams. Run from an old-style IBM PC.

(But then I also remember punched cards!)

I like physical books - there are people like me who still buy them. I like dead-tree newspapers - I, like many, still get theirs daily. I like dead-tree magazines - easy to flick-through and just browse. So that's why.

Oh, and yes, I am a subscriber to Linux Voice.

(So to the magazine and its staff - thanks).

Maybe consciousness isn't dependent on a physical body. However a physical anaesthetic when applied to a physical body can certainly "un" it! (albeit temporarily).

Can computers become conscious? How would you anesthetise a conscious computer?

Today octopodes, tomorrow computers. See - relevant!

Ho hum. Some actual data:

Mean Central England Temperature Annual Anomalies, 1772 to 8th November 2014

Global-average temperature records (Global average temperature anomaly 1850 - 2012) One data set from a part of the UK, and one a global data set. The last few years are interesting in the UK set, and the trend in the global set is clear. By the way, note the ".gov.uk" moniker. This is an official UK government organisation, independent of party politics.

Thank you

I wasn't accusing you of lying. What I wanted was some examples. (I've no particular agenda).

May I be permitted to make some observations?

Firstly making an incorrect prediction isn't lying as such, especially if the mistake is admitted.

Secondly, I'm not sure Al Gore is a scientist (I believe him to be a politician), so I'm not sure I would take his prediction seriously. (Now if he was quoting a scientist or scientists, that would be different. Was he?) (I should add that I'm not a US citizen, so forgive me if I have a tendency to disregard what politicians on either side of your political divide say. I don't particularly trust what my politicians say either, whatever their politics).

Thirdly, I'm curious as to where they say that you would face numerous hurricanes more powerful than Katrina. I would expect a scientist (as opposed to a politician) to make a statistical statement. Not to say that you are wrong - it just sounds like a peculiar statement for a scientist to make.

Fourthly, whenever I see predictions on ocean level rise, the timescale is usually hundreds of years (i.e. "by 2100 ..."), so I'm intrigued as to where the statement that beach houses in Florida should be under water comes from. When is this meant to be by?

Finally, as to "NO WARMING", there is a difference between climate and weather. As to weather, we've just had the driest (and one of the warmest) Septembers in the UK on record, and have just had the warmest Halloween on record. As this is weather rather than climate, I am happy to leave it to the climate experts (i.e. scientists, and not politicians) to come to conclusions.

One thing I can predict, when we find out for certain whether our current activities cause climate change (i.e. in a couple of hundred years or so, when all the fossil fuels have been used up and the consequences of using them as we have are better understood, not just by scientists but by politicians and the population at large), it won't affect me. I'll be long gone. As I don't have (and now won't have) children, it's not going to affect any of my descendents either.

Unlike us, those who are around however will know (experience) the truth. You are certain of your position on this matter. As I don't think humanity will change it's behaviour, I hope for their sake you are right.

If there are undeniable lies, then you should be able to list a few of them (without us needing to buy the book). Indeed, please do.

Thanks.

If I was tasked with coming up with ideas for a Data Warehouse Server System, and given that I know almost nothing about such systems, my first port of call would probably be Apache. What about Cassandra, Hadoop, Hive, Mahout or Pig (or combinations thereof)? All of these are downloadable and playable-with (and being Apache, FLOSS).

As a previous poster pointed out, there is also PostgreSQL, again FLOSS. Again downloadable and playable-with.

Maybe. However I would also be interested in any answer (especially any answer involving FLOSS software). Interested not because it's my job or my company is looking to use such software, but because I'm curious and like to expand my knowledge.

In general I don't mind such questions on Slashdot, as they're usually interesting and informative to the rest of us. And if they're not, then I (we) don't read the article!

Actually, this comment hits on an interesting issue. The problem with Greece et al is not the EU, it is the Euro, i.e. a shared currency. The UK is in the EU, but not the Euro (we've still got Sterling).

One of the claims of the Yes proponents in the Scottish Referendum was that Scotland could share a currency with the rest of the UK, despite being a separate country, i.e. Scotland and the UK could have a currency union without a political union. This was firmly rejected by the Westminster parties, and this rejection may have influenced the No vote. The reason for the rejection of sharing Sterling is precisely because of what is happening within the Euro zone of the EU - without some form of political union, a currency union will not work.

(I should add that I think the Euro zone shouldn't abandon the Euro to get it to work, but should engage in greater political union! I would like the UK to be there as well, but currently the idea of the UK joining the Euro - currency and political union - is as likely as a viable chocolate teapot, more's the pity)

As an Englishman observing this from outside Scotland (but from within the UK), I find the geographical breakdown interesting. The overall result was 55.30% No and 44.70 % Yes, but looking at the results from the 32 councils only four had majorities for the Yes vote. 28 had a majority for No (albeit very slim in one instance).

The councils where the Yes vote was in the majority were all urban. In all the rural (and some urban) councils the No vote had the majority. OK, some of these are a lot smaller (in population) than the councils where the Yes vote had the majority, but they were a lot larger geographically.

What was very interesting was that some areas which voted No are SNP strongholds, including Alex Salmon's own constituency.

I think there is enough here to keep the pundits going for months!