That is just something guilty people say ;-) It is usually preferable to be seen as a stupid free man as opposed to a smart, but imprisoned, felon.

I was wondering the same thing. However, it appears (based on other comments) that the FOIA request was not directly related to the defamation case. I would assume Steyn will still be able to use the discovery process for this.

If I were betting on this, I would say Steyn's lawyers may have put up the FOIA so that Mann's legal team would have to fight a fire on another front and possible redirect some resources to that request. The FOIA is probably much easier to file than it is to fight against it. But that is just my speculation.

And my opinion on the matter... If you research with public dollars, your source code, research, etc, should be open and free to use. We all payed for it, so why does only the one getting paid get to use it. If you want to keep your data private, research through a privately funded organization.

As someone who works on Linux on ARM projects, I would have to disagree. There are good reasons to bring devices into the tree.

It really does make sense to have a single ARM kernel source with a device tree. This is not a single binary for all, but a single source tree. When you compile, it is not like you are getting all the bloat of a hundred different board packages. You use a different make script that pulls in the appropriate files. What it does give us is great templates to use when porting to similar sources.

If you ever take a look at board manufacturers' kernel source, each distribution is often very different from another. It takes a while to reconcile it with mainline kernel source. And it is even more of a pain to upgrade to a new kernel when a board maker had some whacky code placed in there. By at least placing it in the device tree, it gives them the incentive to use a template of code that already exists. Then hopefully some of us have an easier time porting when we want to upgrade Kernels and such.

I know it does not seem like it makes a lot of sense to some, but there really are good reasons for the change.

P.S. The unified Kernel is a Linux issue as a whole, not just an Ubuntu thing.

I actually was in the same boat as you. I wasn't a fan early on, but now I actually like it. I mainly use Eclipse or the terminal, so the UI is not super important as long as it does not eat resources. 14.04 seems to be better in this realm. It seems resource use has been getting better. In regards to the interface, I just setup my preschooler with an account on my Ubuntu laptop and Unity was easy enough for her (obviously I did some setup ahead of time). They have really started making the interface intuitive and I give them some serious credit for that.

As a developer, I can see the usefulness of this. This makes me consider developing Chrome apps where previously I had not considered it. Usually, we have to choose our platforms based on our projected return and our limited time. This usually means that only Android and IOS are supported. Given that one could kill two birds with one stone, and have a bonus of Chrome apps, it may be worth checking out.

You are right on. Tech is about innovation, not litigation.

P.S. Nice "moral". If I had mod points, I would be scoring you as 'funny'.

Blackberry could come back as a semi successful phone manufacturer if they adopted an open platform for their hardware (i.e. Android) and build premium business apps that would be included with their phones. There simply is not enough room for another OS when so many have IOS and Android.

Meanwhile, no one has a problem with the National Football League being considered "non-profit" by IRS standards ( http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2013/05/29/nfl-sports-leagues-irs-tax-exemption/2370945/ ). I am not saying that X.org did not screw things up, but we certainly have some strange qualifications to benefit from non-profit status. X.org sounds like they had some trouble filing, but I am sympathetic to non-profits in general having difficulty filing. Oftentimes, they really are run by people who are passionate about their cause, but not necessarily familiar with the accounting standards needed to remain in good standing with the IRS. Compliance with reporting requirements can cost you a lot in accounting fees and time.

We pay for it, why should some private party reap the rewards?

This is just an exercise in futility. Most software gets abandoned at some point. One usually owns a cell phone for two years. If it works for that time period, who cares if it is abandoned later? This is not an attack on open source solutions (I'm all for them), I just feel that restricting yourself to only open source for fear of abandonment is a little bit like a single guy staying away from all girls because one dumped him once.

Civilians, by nature should be valued as equally as possible. Obviously, a state's military has a duty to their own citizens, but I think we should find a way to avoid civilian deaths on each side. It is not their fight. Their children didn't ask for this. As decent human beings, it is our duty to prevent harm to civilians on either side.

Nothing like the pot calling the kettle black!

As often as we need. We push based on features. Although we sometimes slip into batching up production moves. I find it is much easier to push often when you work with people that are unafraid of branching based on feature requests.

I'm just glad we don't do the "quarterly push" like some do. It sure saves us a lot of troubleshooting in the chance that the push introduces a production error.

Meh...

If you are not smart enough to install non-market Android apps, you have no problem.

If you are smart enough to install non-market Android apps, you know what you are getting into.

With great power comes great responsibility. I think these pieces keep surfacing because the Anti-Virus companies desperately need to get into this market. They see it is the future and they want a piece of it.