How shall we handle nominations? I've got a few people in mind.

Gnome shell does work great... if you install all the user extensions to actually make use bearable. With a few silly warts it's the best desktop experience I've had on linux in the last decade or so. Unfortunately out of the box it is a lot like opening a new toy on christmas and not having any batteries for it. It looks nice, and you can see the potential... but it's useless without the batteries.

Batteries to make gnome3 useful;:
install gnome-tweak-tools to get user extension support
install applications menu extension
install shutdown menu extension
install native window placement extension
install bottom panel extension for taskbar (to taste, I prefer the alt-tab)
add back the minimize/maximize buttons via obsure gconf settings

After all that, it starts looking pretty good. The multi monitor support could be better (Why don't new windows open on the screen with the mouse?, Why virtual desktop only works on one screen?)

It may not be possible. At the home where my grandmother is (just had her 105th b-day) there is no wifi access for residents. A few years/decades ago I would have loved to have had access to an ipad for her, but unfortunately it would be beyond her at this point. On the other hand I know a lady in her nineties who spends many hours a day playing online bridge/poker and would probably wilt away without the net.

Nothing wrong with a comfortable chair, it's the extremes either way that get you. My 'super-comfortable' chair was essentially build like a fluffy recliner. Sitting in it felt like perching on a cloud. Did you ever see the Tick episode with the most comfortable chair, built as a super weapon my the Ottoman empire trying to take over the world? This was that chair. I could spend 4-5 hours at a time in that chair working and not even realize it until my stomach started growling.

Some cheap office chair is equally bad for the reasons you describe. You want something with good support and reasonable comfort.... just not so damn good you forget to move and exercise 5-10 minutes out of every hour.

Seriously. I had the most comfortable chair in the world I think, and after several years I find it partially to blame for several years of back problems. Long hours in relatively the same position == BAD, no matter how painless it feels at the time. I've been adjusting my work-style and recovering.

I think it's best to get a chair that encourages motion of any kind. Swivel, moving back, etc. Comfortable enough that you can focus, but uncomfortable enough to remind you to shift and move around frequently. A little self-disciple would work too, but I find myself getting focused and forgetting easily. Two different types of chairs is also handy.

Good habits will really help. I find that 'thinking' time is best spend walking/pacing and working on a wall mounted whiteboard as much as possible. Your body really thrives on variety.

I also suggest a raising/standing desk. I found a hydraulic hospital table (the kind they put by hospital beds that raise and extend over the bed). Using that as my computer desk has been great. It's simple to lower it and use from a chair, or raise it and use standing. They also make real standing desks, but they are fairly expensive (the used hospital table was $20).

Other things I've found helpful:

Ergo keyboards. Not the common kind, but those that you can split and have several inches between the two halves. I use a goldtouch, which has been partially disassembed to allow for more separation. I miss my model M, but the goldtouch is easier on the wrists

Alternate mouse, or switching right/left sides occasionally. Personally I have a trackball on the right and an apple touchpad on the left for scrolling and gestures. Adding the touchpad solved some ulnar nerve pain I had been fighting in my right hand/wrist.

The last thing isn't ergo specifically, but multiple monitors are a big plus for development work.

Django. I'm pretty sure there is more documention than code. There are a lot of open source projects with excellent documentation. Not all or even most, but a lot.

Everyone should pay taxes. If they can't make enough money to live on and still afford to pay those taxes, then we need to fix the root problem of "can't make enough money". Increase the minimum wage, get rid of the subsidies. And to those CEOs who cry about increasing the minimum wage while 10x, 100x or even 1000x more per year than their lowest paid employee... sorry, you aren't getting any sympathy from me. If you are making that kind of money you've exploited someone somewhere... customers, employees.

The typical democrat crys about disproportionate weath, corporate tax breaks, and how the common man is being exploited by the weathly. And they are right. The typical republican crys about taxes, excess regulations, and how jobs are created by businesses and not government. And they are right. The solution needs to come from common sense and self control on both ends of the spectrum, before those stuck in the middle wake up and decide we don't need either end of the spectrum any more.

That is true for me as well. I gave the trial an attempt once and canceled when I found out it wouldn't work on linux. Then a friend reminded me the ps3 was an option... and I subscribed for a month only to fire up the ps3 and find out they'd been hacked and I couldn't install netflix so I cancelled again. It's just not worth a third time, especially after the recent changes.

It applies to computer science too. Premature optimization may be the root of all evil, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't write code without a high regard for how well it performs in whatever environment you have. A decent understanding of the resource limitations (whether they be ram, io, time, or something else entirely) and a -very- little bit of effort can go a long way.

It's all about balancing coding effort vs the reward in doing so. It's also worth considering your users time. Shaving 10 seconds off the load time on an application may seem silly to a coder if it takes 4 hours to do it... with say a minimal example of 10 people in your office starting your app several times a day, it would take months to break even on productivity. However if you are developing a widespread application, saving 1000 people 10 seconds twice a day is a whole different story. 100,000 and you've just wasted 23 user-days per day to save yourself a one-time half days work. Great job dude!

Use common sense. Balance cost vs benefit. It's not that hard.

I can't help but be completely and utterly appalled at how anyone could consider what you describe as acceptable for an elected official at that level.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure your perception is quite valid - I just can't accept that we should shrug off ignorance so easily, especially when it has the potential to affect so many.

It may be unreasonable to expect one person know everything about every subject, but it is reasonable to expect someone to not push forward in an area where they have knowledge. It's the sit down and STFU and listen if you don't know what you are talking about rule.

If I'm feeling generous I might be able to forgive an ignorant legislator that votes for such an absurd bill - but for one to introduce such a thing there should be no forgiveness. Wait. I take that back. I couldn't even forgive the yes-voter. There is no place in a sane government for a legislator to approve a measure they don't have a reasonable understanding of. Ever.

That it is commonplace (I'm guessing the majority of legislation, spurred on by legislators who trust the lobyists as experts in field) leaves me with a feeling of disgust and hopelessness.

I think Douglas Adams had the right idea - no person who wants to be in power/politician should ever actually be allowed to be (liberally paraphrased).

I had a similar experience with an LG flip phone a few years ago. Poor phone was only a couple of weeks old. Accidently ran it through the laundry. Washed, dried. Let it air dry for a week without the battery. Killed the outer lcd, but everything else worked fine. Used it for another couple of years after that.

No, it's not that hardware that is the problem. My netbook with FF under windows spanks the interative performance of FF under linux on my main laptop most of the time. 1G Atom vs 4G Core2 2.5. I'm not talking about render time necessarily, I'm referring to responsiveness when I click a button, or try to type in a field, etc.

I'm ok with it as long as I can pay the taxes in virtual money.

This is the approach that my college took, and I have to say I find it a horrifyingly bad one. One or two courses could easily extend education to cover actual use of tools, and common practices in industry at the time.

Having personally graduated from a 4 year college with a CS degree with very little real experience is something I found extremely frustrating. I finally came to the conclusion that the lack was primarily due to the educators themselves lacking real-world experience, and happily living in their own little world of academia.

I do believe strongly in the approach of teaching students how to learn over teaching them specifics and the benifits of a broad education. What irks me, is that it should be possible to do both - but where I went they didn't even offer electives that I could have optionally taken to expand my horizons.

I couldn't agree more, but it's probably too late to reverse the trend. Our original Federalism has been eroding steadily since the end of the civil war and doesn't appear to be stopping any time soon. I for one hate having all of my political and economic 'eggs' in one basket.