This happens all the time. Not so much selling the info to competitors but sales people taking their client's info when they leave the company, often to go work for a competitor. There is also people losing their phones along with corporate data. Best that data never leave the premises.

I was being facetious - every government wants to control whatever they can. While I would rather no one controls the Internet, and having Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran guiding matters would be disastrous, it is probably only a matter of time when the game will be over, the Internet becomes just another tool of governments and corporations, and we'll all have to go home. I do despair....

The only thing they are worried about is that the US would not control it.

They have some really good ideas for rack/server design - eg they reckon they are getting 34% power saving by supplying 12V DC to buses in the racks so servers don't need individual power supplies and with improved cooling paths.

Manufacturers won't standardise unless they are pushed like rackspace is doing. This is a big advance.

Really? You think all these pro-*AA comments are genuinely held views? And knowing the pathetic efforts the *AAs make to twist the debate? It makes a lot of sense to me astroturfing would be their next attack point. Though I agree, /. is an unlikely venue, but they are so clueless, they could easily waste effort here. Though not money, apparently. ;-)

Funds dried up since Microsoft has pulled out of the astroturf market? Want penalty rates for having to endorse such appalling subjects? Join the AWU, the Astroturf Workers Union, and at least get decent pay for your perfidy. Our charter: "We're not doing it for the money, we're doing it for a shitload of money!" (apologies to Mel Brooks)

Yeah, great, "Reay Linux drivers" - are just binary blobs. No source code. DId you look at the license? All the usual can't modify distributed code, etc. And a specific clause (under 2.iii) that excludes inclusion with GPL'd code.

This is an insult to all inter-ocularly hirsute techs everywhere. We who sport the unibrow (or monobrow as it is known in Australia) - all look up to Mr Vixie, and I myself am proud to have been compared to Mr Twit of Roald Dahl's inspiring book, "The Twits" fame.

Such comments are just jealousy, I suppose.

It would be chaos if natural laws or facts were patentable. Imagine a researcher discovers some new natural law governing a particular biochemical transformation occurring in white blood cells. They patent the discovery, then demand payment from each person having white blood cells that exhibit this law for a license to use the law. Preposterous.

Are those european goldfish or american goldfish?

So many animals play, looks like humour to me.

How can the cerebral dissection of humour in this research be applied to beings that don't have concepts? Absurd. Humourous even...

Why does it have such a long tail?

um, because they are?

ConcisionMan = {
      v > speeding bullet;
      F > locomotive;
      1 leap > tall building;
      ! bird;
      ! plane;
}

But nothing was proven either way - Tom Tom settled. A pity because the vfat patents are weak and will no doubt be ruled invalid, both through previous art and non-inventiveness. MS could have (and still could) sue anyone using FAT but they pick their victims carefully so there is less likelihood of an actual trial. Extortion works best behind closed doors.