but isn't this a very stupid thing to do? I mean, one of the reasons MS can get away with windows is by hiding the actual cost to the consumer, since it's mostly bundled with the brand desktop or laptop you buy. At the end, most regular users really see windows as being free. Then in comes MS and starts waving invoices in front of their faces? People are going to start wondering if there's an actually-free alternative...

This is of course anecdotal, but on my computer every time I install win7 I need to go looking for video, sound and modem drivers to even make it behave like a modern computer (and I still can't believe Windows asks me if I want to search the internet for those modem drivers). Then I have to install a bunch of other minor drivers to get all the functions back. And this with a dell laptop that came with win7.

Not everywhere, though. I worked at technical service for a US cellphone carrier and I was instructed during training to refuse being recorded. If a customber told me that he was recording the call, I was to insist they turn it off, or I would have to end the call. Curiously, it was one of the very few reasons I was actually allowed to hang up the phone.

Wouldn't the same logic apply to banks? You let a bank keep your money for you, and yet still consider it to be yours.

I believe it was Sony who submitted the 150 patches to the video driver for ATI cards a few weeks ago and I, like you, was very happy that they included DPM. Without it, my laptop would overheat playing solitaire and it was quite loud all the time. Since I could never get the Low Profile to work properly, I always had to switch to the propietary ATI drivers, which are quite retarded. Hell, it wants me to restart X every time I change my (dual) screen configuration!

I'm surprised the patches were accepted into this version of the kernel, though. I thought I'd have to wait until the next one.

It's 3 spatial dimensions + Size and Orientation of the molecules, all of which they can measure. They could have avoided ambiguity by using "Degrees of Freedom" instead of "dimensions" but 5D is quite catchy.

I wonder if there'd be a profitable market for chunks of Mars. Perhaps it could help fund further exploration.

These parents blaming the games for this is like people blaming mcdonnalds for their kids' obesity... Whatever happened to parents actually parenting?

What? I wish Microsoft was as forthcoming with their faults as these guys. At least you know they're trying to fix the crashes.

But we are being paid for it. With google's services, for instance. Our product is our information and I think Google pays us handsomely for it with their search engine alone.

Well, I had never heard of Charles Lindbergh before. I'm in no way a cross section of everything except myself, but as for google results, Amelia Earhart has 52,000,000 while Charles Lindbergh has 700,000.

Using quotes (which should reduce the results for both), google yields 5.8 million for Amelia Earhart, 2.6 million for Charles Lindbergh.

Let me add a couple of names who get lower results than Amelia Earhart (using quotes): Chuck Yeager and the freaking Wright Brothers.