Why is T-Mobile trying to merge with the FCC?

Unity was supposed to be a user interface for all devices (hence the name). But I don't want an interface that is the lowest common denominator between my dual-screen laptop and my touchscreen mobile. They're not the same, I don't want them to be the same. I want to customise my PC. I want these icons to be right there, and not here, and I want this panel to be at the bottom, with the clock on this corner. I don't care if Mark Shuttleworth thinks it looks prettier in the middle.

I had been really happy with Ubuntu right until the arrival of Unity. The previous version at least allowed you to stick to "classic Gnome", but now even that has been f'ed up to make it look more like Unity (who was the brains behind that idea?).

Unity is the best thing going for Linux Mint right now - it's driving loads of people from Ubuntu to their distro.

You should say "NOT discarding the moral teachings that have been handed down over thousands of years is equally ridiculous."

According to the moral teachings of thousands of years ago, slavery (of others) is great, stoning people to death for worshipping the wrong god is ok, and if you're short of cash, selling your daughter is perfectly reasonable. The only reason that most modern religions manage to come up with a decent code of morality is if they discard all the so-called morality in their holy books and come up with a new code of morality, then ascribe it to the same god.

Actually yes, they do have very strict parameters on things like sports shoes, bats etc. Without such parameters you could end up with competitors (even those with perfectly good legs) racing with http://www.air-trekkers.com/

Even if it is determined on this occasion that they do not, every minor modification or newer and better model of the blades will reignite the debate: "Do they now constitute an advantage?" This risks changing the sport into a competition of who has the best technology.

"I'm reading life-signs captain. Approximately 350,000 inhabitants, all humanoid."

Why is it that we still get films in which the computer screen projects words and images onto the face of the user? Talk about screen burnout! You'd have the Windows/Linux/Mac desktop permanently burned into your face.

Another common theme is when there's a computer plotting to take over the world or some other dastardly plan, the hero battles incredible odds to arrive at the computer room, then takes out his biggest, baddest shotgun..... and blasts the screen, occasionally also taking out the keyboard, while the actual computer sniggers quietly under the desk.

Finally, what kind of encryption allows you to guess a password one character at a time? You always get these huge screens showing you 5 or 6 characters changing rapidly, and then the characters start falling into place one by one, usually with a cute pling! sound to tell you it's been guessed. Never mind the idea that the world's nuclear arsenal would be protected by a 6-character password.

Seriously, you'd think that film directors or script writers would familiarise themselves with the basics of computing when producing a film in which computers are a major element.

Free tans that glow in the dark!

The Geological Society requests all profits from photos featuring the Earth (or part thereof) to be forwarded to its bank account. This claim however is being contested by the Astronomical Society which contends that the earth is just another planet and since it is the sole beneficiary of IP rights related to stars, planets and other cosmic objects, it automatically has rights over photos of Earth and the moon and sun. In addition, any photos made using unauthorised light from the sun are strictly forbidden.

...situated in your chair seat. Each failed test increases the voltage exponentially.

With waistlines constantly expanding, it's not just the budget airlines that have decided to charge more for fatter people. Now the Russians are doing it too :D

Well since we can no longer use "the name, image, and any symbols of the Pope", the sensible solution would be for the rest of the world to make up a new name, image and symbol for use when referring to the person formerly known as Pope. The competition for the new name, image and symbol will remain open until end December 2009, and the winner will get free permission to visit the city-state formerly known as Vatican. All entries must be open sourced.

1. ISPs use traffic shaping to slow down P2P downloads
2. Users find ways to disguise P2P traffic via SSH etc, to prevent traffic shaping
3. P2P traffic goes up.
4. ISPs can't see it as P2P traffic, so they think that P2P traffic has gone down.

I've lost count of the genuine websites run by respectable organisations that used an "invalid" certificate - either because the certificate was for www.someone.com instead of yyy.someone.com, or because it expired last week, or something like that. In most cases they're not a site I need too much security for. So I shrug and add an exception. Unless it's ebay or paypal or my bank, I don't really care about encryption OR authentication for the site.