Debian Wheezy - Linux kernel, GNU tools, 100% of software compiled for i386/64.
Debian GNU/Hurd 2013 - Hurd kernel, GNU tools, 75% of software compiled for i386/64 (I'm ready to assume it doesn't have support for other platforms but might be wrong).

Hurd has been conceptual official kernel of GNU project for years (But then Linux came and put Hurd on backburner). Thanks to renewed interest it's development has picked up and therefore we have some actual distribution running with it.

Main problem for Hurd would be support for hardware who needs closed parts (firmware, binary drivers) as Hurd propably is GPL3 which essentially forbids usage of such things without disclosure to user, essentially killing any chances of having binary Nvidia driver supported. Still, most of open source stuff can be ported to be used with it.

"Which highlights another good reason to be a plumber. Everyone understands why the job is necessary but nobody wants to do it. Which is pretty much the exact opposite of IT."

Not exactly true. I am about to finish my very late (in age of 33) BSc in CS. Guess how many students (in percentage) choose to learn high level sysadmining or hardware engineering? Yeah, maybe 10% to each (or even less). Sysadmins sometimes have it worst than plumbers. In result, there are very few of them. Hardware engineering is fun, but also much harder than software engineering.

It's getting boring you know?

"Short version: It does not matter how many or what percentage of a given group agrees with a politically-charged position. What does matter is who is actually right. Anyone trying to make an argument based on majorities is doing so from a failing position. Don't just agree with each other - prove it irrefutably, else the first scientist to come along with better proof than yours will knock the whole house of cards down."

I should remind you what your position for last 4 years have been about GW?

"There are lot of scientists (almost half) who disagree with this notion that this is global climate change is somehow related to man actions, so suck it, we won't change our life style."

So this is now invalidated.

For actual truth - you *don't* care. Because you have already made up your mind. You have to justify arguing against it, therefore you look to find more and more even laughable arguments against it. For me - I can accept that we can discover that situation is much more complex than we thought. Man made gases sure make impact, but how it plays out in atmosphere - we don't know fully.

And there's problem. For such large scale things you can't get full 100% understanding of things - or you can, when it's already too late to change anything. You have to make a chance. Now, you can do it solely on the faith like you guys like to do it. It rarely ends up right, but people tend to do that, so I can relate with that. People don't like idea that their current way of living can cause serious backslash. Because hey, living good is great, right? In fact, no scientist, no environmentalist are saying wishing to have good life is bad. However it really depends what that means. Can we do better with power waste? Yes, we can. Power resources? There's tons of them, and some of them are much cleaner than fossil fuels. Why avoid unpleasant truth?

You know that even Fox News pundits have admitted that global climate change could be caused by humans? They have this "But what we can do about it? China, Inda, etc." line, but still, they at least out of denial line. That's start - for changing things and attitude.

When SCO attacked first I was furious. I knew they lied, but really didn't know any additional details how these guys can be beaten. IBM decided to charge back. And then when PJ with Groklaw appeared, it was like we saw the light. At the beginning there were some nervous times, but everything turned out well. Then she started to blog about software patents and other legalese related to open source - and it was clear for me that it's not just PJ, it's community project, and it's here to stay. She also made us geeks not to be afraid from courts and lawyers and understand our rights and how system works.

So, thanks PJ. Thanks community. IMHO without Groklaw idea of open source would be in much different place than it is now.

No one is extorted. It's power play of lawyers. Otherwise sentencing would be done solely by court, and it's usually can't offer less sentencing or dropping charges by any subjective means.

Sometimes people aren't ready for this. Sometimes people feel crushed. That's why you need good lawyer, and you follow everything he/she says.

AP guys weren't hacked or eavesdropped. State Department secretly required massive amount of call logs (who whom called in what time and how long) in seemingly fishing expedition. Heck, it had even legal oversight and it was properly done. Problem is, there's unwritten rule that you request such information only as last resort - and you inform subject media after the fact.

As for hacking - it really depends how good they tweak this system. If it's really separated and rebooted from live usb/cd-rom, then it's doable. They should have a specialist who check it regularly for newest exploits for such systems and upgrade system accordingly.

You must be living in cave, because literary *everybody* talking about it last 2 days. Check news.google.com for example.

I really don't see how Facebook can go but down. It's not cool new thing. Everyone capable enough to use it from phone already does it. How many people are there without smartphones and with active Facebook account?

Really interesting - Have done this for 4 years, and never my edits have gone without trace. Also when changes get reversed, user are usually informed why - and that usually means that sources with restricted licensing has been used - or worse, just thirty party copyrighted material without any permission. You *do* know that you can't draw from local maps or Google Maps satellite view, don't you?

If you have really read articles about it, no, you really can't. 3D printing is tool here, not magic wand which will make reliable and fully functional weapon.

While 3D printing looks cool and interesting in general, this is really far fetched. You already can make assassination weapons from schematics from Internet - if you have skills and good understanding of physics involved.

And no, you can't really use this are argument against gun control laws.

Not really. All they need is to fix voting districts which Republicans created to win House despite popular vote going to Democrats and then it's over for gun lovers. Or not game over, because 99% of them current breed of laws won't impact any way at all. Just their pride will be hurt - and arm manufacturers profit.

Sorry, but no, Waze is completely proprietary, they tried to use OSM, but they understood that anyone with half a brain will be capable to capitalize on their improvements on OSM when creating competitor for their service and retreated. So please stop spread misinformation.

Petition signing (done amazingly well by Avaaz as always) kicked in when industry moved in heavy weights to kill the bill, despite the fact that a) ban is temporary to verify scientific findings b) usually corp-friendly EC weighted all opinions and decided that this can't be delayed. Seeing EC doing something against whishes of Germany is rare sight - so those people are convinced and they never take their decisions lightly.

So petition signing was to support countries and EC who where openly in favor of this temporary ban. And when Avaaz usually does these signing drives, they do amazingly much better job of explaining situation in as much as neutral as they can way than any media these days would so.

So while I understand that thanks to lot of stupid people on Internet petition signing seems to be some kind of joke, trust me, Avaaz does it very very well - and they have resources to deliver those signatures, take a little PR, etc.

"(never heard of anyone being allergic to honey - I just threw that out there)"

I, unfortunately, am (worst thing in my life, because it wasn't so in several years of my childhood - I know how honey tastes like, but can't even taste a bit). Still supporting ban and would like to see return of some sanity in farming in EU in general. Currently they just deplete soil just because they get bigger kickbacks for that. Screwed up big time. Some sort of support would make sense in territories where farming is struggling to survive as industry, but in rest of Europe - hardly doubt it. Of course farmers who are already heavily depend on subsides won't agree with me.