Comment Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation (Score 0, Flamebait) 174
It's sort of clear now why BO backed down on this early.
Comment Re:VX Nano (Score 1) 519
I agree. I need small wireless mouse that would work with both my MacBook and my little AcerAspire netbook and the VX Nano fit the bill perfectly. I absolutely love this little mouse.
Judge In Pirate Bay Trial Biased 415
maglo writes "The judge who handed down the harsh sentence to the four accused in the The Pirate Bay trial was biased, writes Sveriges Radio (Sweden Public Radio): sr.se (swedish). Google translation. The judge is member of two copyright lobby organizations, something he shares with several of the prosecutor attorneys (Monique Wadsted, Henrik Pontén and Peter Danowsky). The organizations in question are Svenska Föreningen för Upphovsrätt (SFU) and Svenska föreningen för industriellt rättsskydd (SFIR)."
Comment No so fast (Score 1) 1385
What about the high cost? The additional taxes? The new massive government bureaucracy? Public transportation is a huge money loser.
I would instead prefer tax incentives be use to spur the private sector.
Comment What about cost? (Score 1) 1385
Public transportation in the US is a huge money loser - so I'm guessing this is going to be as well. How much is this going to cost? Are the additional taxes going to be worth it? Do we need another, massive government bureaucracy?
Comment Re:Linux netbooks perfect for schools (Score 1) 833
I also just picked up one of these D150 Acers and I love it. Ubuntu makes a distro with very good hardware support as well as Atom optimizations called Ubuntu Netbook Remix and it's great. http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr
Comment Re:Performance (Score 1) 833
I've been playing with the nightly build of Ubuntu Netbook Remix (a distro that's optimized for netbooks with the Intel Atom processors, and based on Ubuntu 9.04) and I have to say that it's great if you are a Linux user. All of the hardware is supported at the moment except for the built in mic (the mic jack works). http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr
Comment Re:RTFS?? (Score 1) 904
You mean worse than the old boss.
Comment Re:Biggest problems (Score 1) 205
Actually, a "live upgrade" is the preferred method for Ubuntu upgrades - and it's perfectly safe to do either over the net or from a cd.
Another benefit to Ubuntu is that they have an LTS version - which is absolutely necessary if you plan on setting up a production machine.
In the end however, if you're a decent admin, Linux is Linux and the distro you pick doesn't make that much difference (in general of course).
Comment We watched it last night (Score 1) 464
My girlfriend and I watched it last night and sadly, the movie is not very good at all. Besides the unfinished effects, which make the film look like a Saturday morning kids production - or something the BBC would make (Dr. Who production quality) - the acting is dull, the plot is weak and the character development is very poor.
I'm sure the film will look much better in it's finished form - but I doubt cgi will make up for the rest of the movies problems.
The Global Warming Heretic 1190
theodp writes "In The Civil Heretic, the NYT Magazine takes a look at how world-renowned scientist Freeman Dyson wound up opposing those who care most about global warming. Since coming out of the closet on global warming, Dyson has found himself described as 'a pompous twit,' 'a blowhard,' and 'a mad scientist.' He argues that climate change has become an obsession for 'a worldwide secular religion' known as environmentalism. Dyson has been particularly dismissive of Al Gore, calling him climate change's chief propagandist and accusing him of relying too heavily on computer-generated climate models and promoting 'lousy science' that's distracting attention from more serious and more immediate dangers to the planet."
Dyson himself wrote about the need for heretics in science not long ago.
Comment Re:Welcome to the Nanny State (Score 1) 685
What I'm say is he's not governing like a Republican. He can call himself whatever he likes.
Comment Re:W-T-F (Score 1) 685
Don't give them any ideas!!!
Comment Welcome to the Nanny State (Score 2, Insightful) 685
California is cursed with the worse nanny-state politicians in the country. It's destroying the economy too - the state is nearly bankrupt, businesses are leaving, taxes are on the rise. It's a total disaster. If you want an example of what happens to an economy when Democrats have complete power, just look to California for an example.
And for the record, Arnold is NO republican!
Orson Scott Card Blasts J.K. Rowling's Lawsuit 525
Wanker writes "In the wake of a lawsuit by J.K. Rowling against the author of a Harry Potter encyclopedia, the Greensboro Rhino Times has an article by Orson Scott Card blasting J.K. Rowling for 'letting herself be talked into being outraged over a perfectly normal publishing activity.' Orson Scott Card has hit the nail on the head. He understands that authors re-use each others' ideas all the time, and certainly Ender's Game gets its share of re-use. Did Rowling's success go to her head?"
Card lays out (something like tongue-in-cheek) some of the similarities between the story in Ender's Game and in the Potter series: "A young kid growing up in an oppressive family situation suddenly learns that he is one of a special class of children with special abilities, who are to be educated in a remote training facility where student life is dominated by an intense game played by teams flying in midair, at which this kid turns out to be exceptionally talented and a natural leader." (And that's just to get started.)
