You said something unpopular about AI. It's a good job there's no -1 sceptic modpoint, or I wouldn't even have seen your comment.

As far as I can see, AI has reached the point of being as smart as a snail that's really, really good at chess.

...if I've offended any snail slashdot readers, I apologise profusely.

...yeah, like the experience of hypo- and hyper-thermia.

I worked for one of the UK's largest software companies once, during which time they moved into a refurbished mill building. The ceiling was more than ten metres up, and corrugated steel. It was February, and there were lots of projects approaching deadlines. They bought us duvets, sleeping bags and fingerless mitts. You get into the sleeping bag, then sit on your chair - the wheels are complete bastards, when you're in a mummy-style sleeping bag - then throw the duvet on top and 'start clicking'. If you didn't drink your tea as soon as it came, it froze in the cup. They did eventually fit an insulated false ceiling. I think I bought a new car with my overtime payments. They tried heating the space, but they spent a small fortune on heaters and people got sick from having one side of their body toasted while the other side froze.

Now I live in a 3-bed house in Malaysia, only a stone's throw from the equator. The thermometer by my desk tells me it's 31C, but there are no clouds today, so the humidity is low enough that sweating works. It's not lunchtime yet, so the house is still comparatively cool. After lunch, I'll put the aircon on in the study (where me and my wife work) on. It's set for 27C, which with a slow ceiling fan is good enough. Any cooler, and we lose all enthusiasm for walking the kids to school, or doing household chores in the rest of the house (which isn't air-conditioned - aside from the bedrooms).

A few months ago I had a search engine running on several servers in the study, and we used about a GW hour per month. Since it was moved out, we use about 600 kW hours per month - mostly aircon, instant water heaters for showers (no hot water plumbing), and boiling water for drinking / cooking. We have one server that runs full-time. We bought the previous one new from "Lucky Fortune Computer Supplies" and it was noisy and hot, so I put it on a power meter and it used 200W. I took the power meter new server shopping and got something cheap from Dell that uses 50W - that's a 100kW hours per month better off. Electric supply is dirt cheap here, but less power is always cheaper.

How about...

PC and Mac, between them, a bucket. "I'm a PC", "I'm a Mac". Voice says "what's in the bucket". PC says nothing. Mac says quietly "...it's Linux". Voice says "is that it? Is that all Linux does?" Camera shakes, gopher runs on and throws something into the bucket. "Iyum GNU" says the bucket, over a ghostly voice saying "Linux". "We can't make an ad out of this people!" - gopher runs on again, empties pockets, bits of string, bogeys, blu-tack, nails, gaffer tape into bucket. Bucket says "Ahhhh... I am open source and we are legion" in a scary voice. PC and Mac look scared. Pat Volkerding appears (as if by magic) and taps the bucket with a wand. Swirl! A tron light cycle with the Slackware logo on the side appears out of the bucket, Pat jumps on and Pyoon - disappears on a band of light. A guy in a Space suit comes in and taps the bucket with his wand and Swirl, and a beautiful (maybe with a deep tan?) blonde with an Ubuntu sash and a promising look in her eye should appear, and they skip off arm in arm. PC stares, agape, and Mac looks on disapprovingly. Gopher guy rushes on again and shouts into the bucket "Hey Linux, gimme an Ubuntu!". Nothing happens. PC taps him on the shoulder and says "you don't want her, try me, only 500 bucks". Gopher guy backs away in disgust. Mac says "you could always 'go large', amigo, only a kilo". Gopher guy cringes. Bucket swirls with light. Some red headwear appears, with a handsome, if slightly effeminate guy underneath. "I could sssave you sssome sscentsss'. Gopher guys shows some lower teeth. Bucket swirls some more and lots of attractive people, wearing sashes and t-shirts with distro names on, appear out of the bucket, chorusing "we're all free - where are we going?". Gopher guy does the Wizard of Oz dance off set, arm-in-arm with the distros, laughing his head off, to some Mardi Gras-style music.

It's a first cut, let me know, ok?

I learned something from slashdot today! I would have assumed the tail lights were unmodulated DC too, so thanks all for posting.

A long, long time ago I went to see a secretary at a large company who complained her very expensive 20+ inch monitor kept flickering. Every component in it had been replaced 2 or 3 times, and the field engineers all complained they never actually saw it flicker. The problem was quite apparent. I asked if I could have one of the POLO mints from the packet she always had on her desk, started crunching away like she did, and I could see the flicker too! I struggled to explain that she needed to suck instead of chew, but the problem was solved.

If you'd like to test this but don't have access to boiled sweets, you could ask some of your colleagues to stand behind you rapping you on the skull with hard objects (not quite in synchrony) while you stare at a CRT. I'd be interested to know how you get on.

It's not just the subs. You have to use Microsoft Internet Explorer if you want to become a citizen of the UK, too:

Life in the UK - Accessibility