Though this is 3rd Quarter 2009 I am sure this is an accurate picture of how much Apple makes from each product. Notice the difference between software and even Desktops. Desktops represent roughly double software sales.

So Wired knows who the sue for copyright infringement multiple times. You loaded the page, offense #1, you explicitly copied it to the clipboard, offense #2 and by selecting the text you agreed to some tiny print terms that you fully intended to send this text to tynt there by making content available, offense #3. Prepare to hear from their lawyers who will want hefty damages you dirty pirate.

Then uninstall the cunt of a program and use something else like Abiword. Staroffice, Open Office, or even Wordpad. Sure you can block the ads but my question is why even go through that trouble. I mean if you are willing to block the ads why not just pirate the damn full version then. I think it's just ridiculous to block the ads when you have so many other alternatives, legal or otherwise, that will get you a full complete product with none of the bullshit you do not want.

Best tools for the job work best. There are situations when you don't want the overhead of a garbage collector and you want to keep track of all your allocations. Embedded programming comes to mind here as well as other low level uses. Sure you may not want to use it for high level stuff but C/C++ can be used for that. I am a java developer by trade myself and I know all the shit Java gets on this site but it works best for what I do. Oh and yes I agree the higher level languages that "hide" all the pointer stuff and does the allocation for you does take away a lot of headaches usually at the tradeoff of a performance hit. If that performance hit is negligible, roll with it.

Just something to point out, necessary applications aside, it is fully possible to move to Linux with a minimalistic desktop. On an Ubuntu system (the flagship desktop distribution), one can either install XFCE or just grab Xubuntu and run with that.

With that said, I don't see it entirely as a bad thing that Windows, Max OSX, and modern linux distributions bundle eye candy into their newer offerings. Something that is easier on the eyes, or gives the user a bit of shiny will create an overall positive experience. I mean we all could have gotten along very well with our current GUI looking like Windows 3.1 in term of style but part of the user experience is how sleek and nice an interface is. It's why some people buy Macs, others install Compiz, and many XP users will go to Windows 7 even if all their previous applications work perfectly well in XP.

I would probably send that suggestion to the noscript guy. (I know,I know everytime the OTHER n word is mentioned here there is a thread of people echoing what a total of 3 angry guys who had their feelings hurt when that plugin did something stupid.)

Google won't be the sole company running a wave server. When wave gets released you will be able to run your own wave server. Hell it is open source so you can even make enhancements (though I think that's that the plugins really are for). If facebook really wanted to, they could implement wave on their site but I doubt Microsoft will look kindly upon that. I can't speak for their other online APIs but reading Google's terms of use, I think facebook could use Google maps if they wanted. The site IS free for consumers and it doesn't say anything about paying them if you make money off your site. I could be wrong.

Point is, wave is meant to be used like XMPP and similar to email. My wave server should be able to talk to your wave server by default.

Well, remember the utility of Flash 10 years ago? It was basically a 400MB flash applet that loaded to play some crappy downloaded metal song while spinning some text 360 degrees. No doubt this will be abused to high hell before it gets some pretty useful utility. I prefer this demo rather than those stupid angelfire sites that crippled my computer because someone had a hardon for spinning text and Fear Factory.

Well actually what makes wave so awesome is the decentralization that it offers. Google is working on wave with the intent that other people put up their own wave servers and then can usurp the whole walled garden that facebook pretty much has. So instead of having Google running a facebook type service solely competing on a 1 to 1 basis. Google could be one of many services where, no matter what non-Google wave service you are using, you can still communicate with a Google wave user and vice versa.

Google wave is a platform, they aren't planning on making money directly on the platform so much as offering premium services and integrating all their previous offerings with it. Right now Google is in the web advertising game and the more people who use google the more people who are on the web, looking at ads. Google also makes money off of their google apps service and I am sure for those customers there will be a premium wave service just as there is a premium google email setup. Just like many of google's services, the app itself isn't the money maker but what they can do with it and by any indication of google over the past decade, they are doing pretty well for themselves with this strategy.

Slashdot is one of the main reasons I use noscript. I don't know what the hell the devs are doing but on certain machines and portables using javascript the site becomes unbearable. Keep in mind i've written very complicated ajaxy websites (some using GWT producing tons of JS) and it doesn't compare to the BS slashdot seems to do for a simple news web forum. Noscript has been excellent and using other web browsers is contingent on there being a noscript type function. I makes the web a lot more faster in general. Javascript and AJAX are really great technologies but just like Flash it gets abused and way overused where it really doesn't belong.

Unless you buy an Ubuntu support package. I mean there are people you can pay to yell at when things go wrong. Then again how many users outside of Corporate IT and XP activation actually calls Microsoft for real support? People just see Windows crapping out as a fact of life and when people advocate something else, that something else is judged by a higher standard.

That was nokia's own fault. It seemed like they were afraid to market it or even get any sort of word out there. I own a Nokia N800 and I think the only reason I found out about it was through amazon. There is and has been virtually a non-existent marketing budget for those product lines so of course no one is going to buy it compared to the iphone which gets advertised every 20 minutes etc. As far as the apps go for the N800, most of them were really just ports of common linux apps like pidgin and shell utilities and a few native programs written in python.

And what is wrong with Canonical? They support their offerings, and they have a ton of software in their repositories that they keep periodically provide downstream updates for. I am pretty sure that the hardware makers can do what they do with other business relationships...WORK WITH THEM. For example, Acer could talk with ubuntu and provide some sort of support deal that gets factored into the cost of netbooks in exchange for a partnership with helping make sure hardware X works or recommending using component Y. There is no reason why these netbooks can't provide an OSX like experience where everything works and the operating system, hardware, and support are all integrated and just works.

I find that a lot of hardware vendors are lazy and just install a random distribution, put in about 5 minutes of work with almost no quality control and say "Take it or leave it". It is the old business thinking of "it's free so its inferior and if the user opts for it, they are foolish". I mean we are at the point with distributions where no hardware vendor needs to release their own, but rather use a popular one and possibly brand it like they do on windows if they must. Striking a deal with Canonical for providing support for users at a big discount over what they usually charge in exchange for a guaranteed userbase would work out nicely. If the hardcore linux geeks don't like ubuntu they are smart and competent enough to install whatever the hell they want at their own leisure.

They do help socially unless you plan on only socializing with Engineers. You are going to meet people from other fields and some of them will probably know a little something about literature, art, etc. Who knows, you might like it, and it may be a good conversation spark.

Speaking for myself, I went to Brooklyn Polytech University and there was a requirement for Humanities classes each semester to complement your concentration classes. You know what? I actually enjoyed those classes for a few reasons. It gave me insight and actually interested me, and it actually gave my mind a little bit of time to unwind, not to say Humanities classes are bullshit or anything, but there is a different gear shift going from Computer and Electrical Engineering classes to something like Art History. I would say being well rounded in things you aren't really majoring in does help you in the real world, especially if it is something like history or the arts.