If my system gets rooted, I take backups of whatever data I need that hasn't been backed up already, wipe the machine, and reinstall.

With this, I now have to throw the entire mainboard out and replace it. Pretty significant change.

'Non-system disk or disk error? What the f**k does that mean?'

This is the sort of thing I like about Apple's 'Grand Central'. The idea behind is that instead of assigning a task to a processor, it breaks up a task into discrete compute units that can be assigned wherever. When doing processing in a loop, for example, if each iteration is independent, you could make each iteration a separate 'unit', like a packet of computation.

The end result is that the system can then more efficiently dole out these 'packets' without the programmer having to know about the target machine or vice-versa. For some computation, you could use all manner of different hardware - two dual-core CPUs and your programmable GPU, for example - because again, you don't need to know what it's running on. The system routes computation packets to wherever they can go, and then receives the results.

Instead of looking at a program as a series of discrete threads, each representing a concurrent task, it breaks up a program's computation into discrete chunks, and manages them accordingly. Some might have a higher priority and thus get processed first (think QoS in networking), without having to prioritize or deprioritize an entire process. If a specific packet needs to wait on I/O, then it can be put on hold until the I/O is done, and the CPU can be put back to work on another packet in the meantime.

What you get in the end is a far more granular, more practical way of thinking about computation that would scale far better as the number of processing units and tasks increases.

Ignoring the fact that the article from AppleInsider was reporting on the actual story (adding their own spin on it)? AppleInsider posted it because it was relevant, and is biased towards Apple, but they didn't write the analysis, they just reported on it. The original article (also linked from the summary) says the exact same thing.

Couple that with the fact that the more 'pious' people that I've met are generally the worst Christians. They're judgmental, opinionated, closed-minded, bigoted, and full of hate. The most laid-back Christians I know are more liberal and open-minded, and follow the teachings of Christ a lot better.

Perhaps when faced with their impending death, some of them realize just how much of assholes they've been, and how badly that's going to look come judgement.

Yes, it's accounting rules. The iPhone is accounted for differently (subscription) vs. the iPod Touch (sale). Because of the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting rules, Apple is able to provide updates to the iPhone as part of the subscription, but not the iPod touch.

Essentially, if Apple shipped an update to the iPod Touch, then it would have to record all the revenue from the sale of that iPod Touch in the quarter in which the update was applied. If you buy one in Q1 and then eight months later in Q3 update it to 3.0, then Apple has to record the sale in Q3... Until next time you update. And so on.

This is the same accounting practice that requires that Apple record the sales of the iPhone over a year, so of all the money they made by selling iPhones in July, they can only record 1/4 of it in that quarter, 1/4 in the next quarter, and so on. This is why in analyses of Apple's financials and revenue lately, there's been a lot of talk of the numbers Apple is providing vs. the actual amount of money they have.

Is this a real TV show? Please link to torrent, thanks.

This is definitely true. As someone who was around making websites (not especially professionally, mind you) on a 14.4 modem, I can vouch for this. This is the reasoning behind the LOWSRC attribute. <IMG SRC="image.jpeg" LOWSRC="image.gif"> would load the (presumably low-res) GIF, then load the high-res JPEG. People on 14.4 kbaud modems would get to load the 'whole' page sooner, then load the 'enhanced' bits extra. It was a compromise that allowed pages to use images, yet still be usable for modem users.

I suspect someone did something naughty, because now the entire site is down. I guess whoever designed it doesn't know that much about security after all.

I've always thought of evolution as the furtherance of a species through gradual genetic mutations over time. What is described here I've always thought of more as 'natural selection', whereby a specific trait produces an advantage in nature that leads to a higher rate of survival for those that possess the trait.

The difference being that natural selection is one aspect of how evolution occurs, but it's not required; a specific mutation may not directly provide a benefit in the environment; it may take several different mutations to interact before there's a tangible benefit to organisms possessing it, but each one is a part of the organism's evolution as a whole.

That said, maybe I've been thinking of them wrong, but that's how they make the most sense to me.

And they don't get nearly as much use as all the other alternatives out there.

Interesting, I didn't know that VMWare was one of those companies that was afraid to have their product compared to those of others. Do they have something to hide?

I wasn't a VMWare user already, but hearing this kind of thing, if true, makes me even less inclined to try their product. If they're going to tell me I can't talk about a product I've paid for, well, I'm not going to pay for it.

You forgot DisplayPort, DVI, and VGA connectors, an ExpressCard slot, Firewire, and an integrated colour calibrator.

I'm surprised they don't have serial and parallel ports on this thing as well, but I guess they needed to make room for the four exhaust ports for the cooling fans. Something tells me that this 11 lbs behemoth moves a lot of air. I wonder what the battery life is, an hour maybe?

Not to nitpick, but the Thinkpad line was sold to Lenovo ages ago. IBM isn't shipping this notebook at all.

In Montreal at least, you can go with Colbanet's ADSL2+ service. They've got their own equipment, separate DSLAMs and pipes, and don't rely on Bell for anything.

A previous roommate worked for them on their ADSL2+ rollout. Turns out it was cheaper for them to move the customers they had on Bell's equipment (where they didn't pay for bandwidth) over to their own (where they did). Pretty crazy.

If you're in Montreal, give them a call and see if they cover your area. If they do, they might be worth the switch.