Voted for "ordered a new HDD"; should probably have voted for "Something else". Bought a new 2-TB drive on Tuesday at the local hardware emporium, to replace a 32-month old drive that is starting to show bad spots. Prices had gone up slightly since Saturday, but the same drive (bare drive, rather than the retail package I bought) is $30 higher from NewEgg today.

I picked "11-20", but I suspect I low-balled the count by ignoring, among other things, the car (!), the programmable thermostats, the pocket calculators, the digital clocks, the CRT monitor and TVs, and probably a few miscellaneous bits that I simply forgot. "Too many" would only apply if some of the processors would be better replaced with simpler controls or simply eliminated altogether, and I can't point to any that fit that criterion at the moment. Well, with a few exceptions that are only being retained for sentimental (read "hoarder") value -- I could probably live without the Z-80 in the Exidy Sorcerer that hasn't been out of its box for at least twenty years!

+5 Insightful? Only on Slashdot...

"The only sure defense against rape is the willingness to fight, and even this may be no protection against gang assault. In many prisons a small, unaggressive white is sure to be raped, probably by blacks or Hispanics. As one prison guard explains, a young white has “almost zero” chance of escaping rape “unless he’s willing to stick someone with a knife and fortunate enough to have one.” Some of the tougher inmates may even fight each other for the chance to rape an effeminate young white." link

Have you never, ever committed a crime? Really? Because if you have, maybe you would like to reconsider your views.

"I hate to say this, but if you weren't racist when you came to prison more than likely you will be when you leave."

Sounds like a great way to rehabilitate criminals and build a better society. Not.

Especially since 4 months after 9/11 scanners at Boston's Logan airport, let me take 6" barbers shears in my ditty bag onto a flight to Norfolk.

They didn't really appreciate the 4" kbar mule, though. Or the swiss army knife.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1597631/no-firefox-windows-mobile

"Parmenter ['head honcho of mobile software development' for Firefox] laments at the lack of a native development kit that's available to developers, meaning that they are unable to create native applications for Windows Phone 7 Series."

True Microsoft doesn't "limit" you to a specific language, but in reality does it really matter if no matter what language you program in, it's just a front end for IL? I'd much rather be able to develop truly native apps

That's irrelevant. If you hack the Pentagon in the UK, you should stay in the UK, whether you believe in aliens or allahs.

Exactly! Wery well said.

My problem is the people who always strive for some divine "elegance". If someone (especially an academic) calls something "elegant" you can be 99% sure that it is pain in the ass in practice.

  - Elegant theorems are usually oversimplified -- therefore unusable in practice (at least in the original form)
  - Elegant proofs are too compressed -- you are not able to learn from them, because the original ideas and failures of the prover got weeded out. They need a mental reverse engineering without "source code" or "documentation"
  - Elegant programming languages are too opinionated and constrained -- pure OO, pure FP, pure whatever. Static vs Dynamic typing.

etc.

Microsoft has every right to do the same.

I see the real reason behind this hubbub being 2 fold.

1. There are a lot of formerly non-Apple programmers who are coming to terms with the mercurial nature of the CEO and the company itself. They are infamous for sudden changes in direction without a backward glance. Blessing or Curse? I'm sure this thread will be filled with hundreds of examples of each.

2. The uniqueness of this move. Yes, we all know that game consoles have this kind of "we control all" development structure to varying degrees. However, I am not aware of a console originally allowing something (by not explicitly denying it) and then taking that option away after developers had put time into it. That's got to sting.

As I said at the start MS could do this if they chose. However, MS has never been overly concerned with the user experience or the quality of 3rd party software. (I'm of the opinion that they prefer mediocre 3rd party software because it makes it easier to "Embrace and Extinguish" when they move into that market themselves, but that's speculation). They've also never been very comfortable with angering their developers, which is not something Apple has ever had an issue with. In the end, it's the culture at MS that prevents them from making this kind of move, not legal or moral. And we all know that the culture at MS and Apple are as different as their CEO's

There's nothing wrong with that. The patient thinks that he has 10^100 inflammations or irritations.

According to Dungeons & Dragons mythology, your reward or punishment in the afterlife is to be blessed/cursed with being with/having to put up with a bunch of like-minded people. That's actually a pretty clever concept.

Because they are too busy laughing their asses off.

Perhaps the same thing that happened to the Islamdom?

Google is your friend: Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change

They also replaced the word “capitalism” throughout their texts with the “free-enterprise system.”

“Let’s face it, capitalism does have a negative connotation,” said one conservative member, Terri Leo. “You know, ‘capitalist pig!’ ”

There is one last chance: the Board of Education will make a final vote on Friday, May 21.

    Actually, those were suppose to be separate statements. Sorry. :)

    A lot of cars (regardless of their transmission) couldn't navigate the hill due to lack of power.

    4wd vehicles usually have an advantage of a 4L gear (4 wheel output, lower gear ratio).

    Of vehicles of equal rear wheel horsepower (including overall gear ratio), they are equally drivable, if the driver of each knows how to operate his vehicle.

    A slipping torque converter can be a significant cause of transmission overheating, so although it may seem like a momentary advantage, it's a long term (and expensive) disadvantage.

I don't perceive any true elements to that statement. Are middle Americans driving over exotic flora and fauna in their SUV's by shortcutting through the 'glades to get their groceries quicker? Or are acres of rain forest being burned and cut down every day by subsistence farmers in financial straits where they have no other options?

Only a small portion of the world can really argue from the position of having comfort to sacrifice things over, and those are in virtually all cases not the portions of the population on the front lines of our encroachment against nature.

I am not trying to tell you that reversing this trend is impossible, but we should not kid ourselves what socially deep roots would need to be cut or rearranged in order to affect change. So why don't you start by illustrating what comfort you could conceivably give up that would give Brazilian farmers an alternative to deforestation? Hint: it's not buying a hybrid.