The big difference between American and the rest of the first world is twofold actually. First, that american corporations and industries have an unprecedented amount of influence over government policy. Second, that in general, american corporations care more about return to shareholders than anything else, including the treatment of their employees and corporate citizenship. The only time the latter two get any funding is usually for PR reasons, not altruism.

Don't believe me? Americans tend to work longer hours, get less vacation time, maternity/paternity leave, worse working conditions, and as a consequence, have higher stress levels than any other first world nation. Why? Because most corporations will only do what the government REQUIRES them to do, and given the corporations sway over the government here, it is less and less likely that initiatives to improve working conditions would ever be made law, because it would hurt the bottom lines of companies (which would mean less lobbying dollars going to Washington!)

How does this affect health care? Well, most people in positions to make any difference to policy (either politicians, or the corporations backing them) can already afford health care. They really don't care about those who can't afford it. The only reason it is actually gaining traction now is because finally there are people in enough key positions (like the presidency) who don't just care about themselves and their financial backers to actually try and get something that benefits ALL Americans passed into the law - even if it means taking on a very powerful lobbying group (the insurance companies).

America may have many proud traditions. Hell, it was probably founded on the best and most LIBERAL ideals (for the time) ever attempted at governmental level since the Romans (pre-emperor). But those ideals and principles have been slowly eroded with the rise of corporate power, and America just isn't the shining beacon of a government 'for the people' that it once was. So why not look at how other countries who ARE looking after their people for inspiration? To ignore good ideas because they are foreign is both arrogant and just plain stupid.

Having met some of the Adobe guys involved in the above rift between Adobe and Apple, I heard the Adobe side of the story.

Basically Apple came to adobe and say they were only going to support Objective C, and Adobe had to re-write all their products in Objective C to support the Apple platform, and Adobe more or less said "I don't think so."

There was more to it than that, and the rift went to the highest levels (big egos involved), an interesting tale. But basically Adobe was one company big enough with popular enough products to teach Apple a bit about eating humble pie. This of course was before OSX, the iPod, and basically the recent rise of Apple again, who is once again on a firmer footing to dictate any terms they like (thus ITMS).

For the record, I don't boycott books that are higher than $9.99. I boycott books that have DRM on them. Because I have several different platforms (my desktop PC, my laptop, other portable reader, etc) - and most DRM stops me copying the stuff freely between them. The reason I buy an ebook is for convenience - and if it's no more convenient than a regular paperback or hardback (ie. I am REQUIRED to carry around the one and only container it works in - even if it's lighter than the paperback and can hold many more books) then I don't see the point in it, after all, I still find paper much easier to read from.

Not to mention, after the debacle a little while back with the publishers being able to force amazon to hit the kill switch on purchased content, I just don't trust DRM, especially when it is in the hands of publishers to decide the fate of any content that has already been sold!

My biggest problem with IE is not speed, resource usage, the tabs system, or anything like that.

I use firefox for one reason and one reason only. It has some excellent addons for it because there is a very well-defined place to GET addons, and anyone can submit one easily.

Not to mention that FireFox isn't worrying about trying to ensure people don't compete with them on their other products.

My five essential addons for FireFox are:
- AdBlock Plus (of which the more important part is the filters that are auto-updated)
- NoScript
- FoxyProxy (specifically for selecting a proxy by the URL automatically)
- User Agent Switcher
- Download Helper

I've not personally seen a nice central site like FF's addons page to manage addons - and without something like this, upgrading has to be done manually for each, and you are responsible for checking for updates and such. A pain in the arse.

The problem with all this is you need a good piping and plumbing system in place, complete with quick release valves to ensure you can disconnect or connect hardware without having to do a whole bunch piping and water routing in the process. Part of the beauty of racks is you just slide in the computer, screw it in, and plug in the plugs at the back and you're done.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but just building a new case, or blade, or whatever isn't going to do it - you need a new rack system with built in pipes and pumps, and probably a data center with even more plumbing with outlets at the appropriate places to supply each rack with water. This is no small task for trying to retrofit an existing data center.

Not to mention that you have to make sure you have enough pressure to ensure each server is supplied water from the 'source', you cannot just daisy chain computers because the water would get hotter and hotter the further down the chain you go. This means a dual piping system (one for 'cool or room temperature' water and one for 'hot' water). And it means adjusting the pressure to each rack depending on how many computers are in it and such.

The issues of water cooling a data center go WAY beyond the case, which is why nobody has really done it yet - sure, the cost savings are potentially huge, but it's a LOT more complicated that sticking a bunch of servers with fans in racks that can move around and such, and then turning on the A/C. And there is a lot less room for error (as someone else mentioned, what if a leak occurs? or a plumbing joint fails, or whatever. Hell, if a pump fails you could be out a whole rack!).

They do - why do you think big companies use their patent portfolios as a THREAT rather than use them? If the examiner had done their job I am betting nowhere NEAR as many software patents would be granted as have been.

ala. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/11/11/2055226

I don't know, but I know who to ask. Darl? where are you? What were we supposed to get for our $699 again?

We need a new moderation ... 'Groan'.

Why bother when they just need 1 mod. TO change the faces on all zombies to those of the members of the ratings board.

They already glow with the batteries they have now! But at least that is a pink/red glow, I'm pretty sure an iPod glowing green would be a Bad Thing (tm).

That said, having the black/white iPod commercials change to black/green would be interesting. Kind of bring back the black/green monochrome monitor nostalga.

Funnily enough, 50 years is half a century in ... you know, the ENGLISH LANGUAGE (and I'm sure it's also half of the foreign equivalents to the word century. Except in Russia, of course).

This is typical protectionist crap. Sorry, but you may be right about businesses thinking short term, but if America starts banning foreign nationals from its schools, and slapping tariffs on foreign imports, how does that make America any better than China?

And for the record, America DOES still slap tariffs on foreign imports into this country. Usually at the behest of the powerful lobbies. Ever look at things like sugar and wheat imports? Both have either rather large tariffs, or just subsidies for the domestic industry. Why? Because the industry lobbies for those products demanded it. And it has caused a lot of friction with America's trading partners.

Hell, I remember a 'free trade' agreement a few years ago with Australia where not only did America put tariffs on Australian wheat imports (because of pressure from the US wheat lobby), they also insisted as part of their free trade deal that Australia adopt something similar to the DMCA as part of the deal - at the behest of the RIAA/MPAA. So if you really believe America has been doing other countries a favor in it's trading practices (Food for Oil anyone? Or how about withholding aid money, which is supposed to be completely unrelated to trade), then you're deluded.

In short, protectionism is bad no matter what. Now whether China is banning these exports because it truly doesn't have enough to satisfy domestic demand, and thus can't afford to supply foreign demand, or they're trying to use this threat to gain more concessions from the international community is irrelevant. Instituting protectionist policies won't help Sino-American relations, and considering, as you have said, America relies so heavily on China for it's manufacturing of almost everything we buy, America just can't afford to ruin it's relationship with yet another country, especially one it relies so heavily on.

America used to be able to take the high moral ground, and used to be viewed in a generally favorable light in the world. It's America's own greed and arrogance (not to mention going around the world like a bull in a china shop sticking it's nose in everyone else's business) that has tarnished this reputation. The election of Obama has actually started to repair this a little, but only when America starts playing fair with the rest of the world again (ie. treating other countries as equals, as opposed to approaching each trade deal as a "we want this, give it to us or else you're not our friend anymore!" deal) will it actually gain respect again. You seem quick to cry 'foul!' when another country starts using the same tactics America has been using for decades against America. You (ie. America) wrote these new trading rules, don't be surprised when someone else plays by them.

Even that's wrong. Quite a number of fortune 500 companies rely on Linux heavily. Almost every investment bank certainly, but I'd wager a number of others too. Maybe not on the desktops of the employees, but still, Linux is certainly a viable and well-used platform in fortune 500s.

You forget, Apathy/Procrastination is a virtue. Just look at some common idioms such as "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it" and "Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow". Or my personal favorite ... "Fuck it!"

Tell me, how did you fix your shift of caps lock key for a single word? Or are you just making a statement against the imperialistic capital .. uhh .. letters.