Sounds like you're proposing that we don't bother trying to develop more flexible and capable signs because what's existed for years is good enough (despite advances in technology). Sure, we can sit back and let things stagnate because it's "how we've always done it", but you're hardly going to find new and interesting ways to put a modern spin on old tech just by keeping things as they were.

Just because electronic signs have disadvantages does not mean that static signs don't have their own disadvantages.

A lot of people here know a hell of a lot about Linux but don't know much about Windows (or don't know as much as they think they know about Windows), hence there's a lot of misinformation about how things are done in Windows and what Windows is capable of these days. Often due to ignorance, but sometimes malicious - Linux zealots don't like it being pointed out that their system of choice can sometimes (sometimes!) be inferior to the most widely used and supported desktop/laptop OS on the planet.

(Visio if nothing else)

I don't want to be "that guy", but can LibreOffice Draw act as a reasonable substitute to Visio? Apart from the benefit of being a native app, it seems to load up Visio documents fine and has all the same functionality, at least from my own uses of it. If it's not suitable yet, are you trying to learn it at least so you can transition from Visio to Draw? I only ask because Wine is best used as a transition tool to help in the meantime while one learns to use equivalent native apps; relying on it long-erm is asking for trouble given its nature for regressions in each new version (among other problems).

In my experience, what keeps me off Linux is if I feel I need to use certain Windows-only tools. Given there's nothing in Linux that's Linux-only which I can't find an equivalent for in Windows, I end up staying with Windows because it supports everything including the edge cases, whereas Linux doesn't. I've been working towards cross-platform independence though for many years (even with games) for this very reason, so I guess I just humble recommend giving LO Draw another go if you haven't already. If you have and think it sucks, please disregard everything I've said. :)

Alexander Shulgin was a genius, and the way society is developing there will probably never be a man like him again.

Can you be more specific about that last bit? I know cynacism runs deep within the Slashdot community (a lot of it justified) but it's not as if we won't have geniuses in the future able to make contributions to the world. Maybe the US will have some problems but not everyone is bound to America's way of doing things (or being prevented from doing).

Indeed. It's also not really realistic to change colleges mid-degree when new policies are implemented after you've made a thorough analysis of the policies that existed when you started.

But the world is full of cunts - the Internet just provides them a platform to say what they'd be too cowardly to say in the flesh.

Not only that, but the trolling poster also made the assumption that you're not important, which is bullshit for the simple reason that we're ALL important to the people who love and care about us. We're important to someone - I'm important to my wife for example, and soon I'll be important to my newborn. Just because I'm not a politician or celebrity and hence known to thousands/millions of people doesn't mean I'm not important. It's all about spheres of influence - some are larger than others, but they still all matter.

If the trolling poster honestly believes with such passion that you aren't important, it stands to reason they probably don't feel they are important either. If they can't find at least one person in their life who considers them important in some way... then I find that truly sad for the AC.

I prefer to stay away on principle but its hard.

I really don't understand this. Gaming is a luxury item, it's just entertainment. I agree that entertainment is wonderful and we all need it to remain sane, and gaming is a great example of entertainment, but the other great thing about it is that there's just so MUCH of it available now. If you really don't like the company, couldn't you just have, I dunno, played something else made by someone else? It's not like you have options.

Shit, EA's just announced you can get Battlefield 3 for free (permanently) if you add it to your Origin account (or make a new account and then add it) before June 3. It's tempting, but given EA's shittastic behavior as a company it's not too hard to resist giving in. Plenty of other stuff to play.

If we just decide that it's all too hard to resist, there's no motive for companies to improve is there? You might argue that there's too gamers who don't care if EA uses babies as fuel to run their servers so long as the games are good, and hence EA wouldn't change despite your own reservations. Sure, that might be true. But at least you'd be consistent with your own personal value system.

You wear ear-buds while driving? Things that have the ability to muffle outside noises such as horns and emergency vehicle sirens?

Your funeral.

Let's be very careful here. It's dangerous territory to believe you know better than others to the point where you think everyone else is deluded. That reasoning is enough for people to then take actions that they believe will help "correct" matters to align people to match their own way of thinking. This could range from something as simple as wiping someone's Windows laptop and replacing it with Linux with the thought that open-source/free software is superior in some way (and hence blowing away their data in the process because they were too passionate to thinking clearly), all the way up to the cleansing of an entire race because they seem to be "unpure" for some reason.

I do understand what you're saying, believe me. It's horrible how much religious zealots in positions of power can ruin a country. But for the vast majority of people, well-meaning people just trying to get through their lives, if said people are believers in a religion, I'm not really willing to try to force them to atheism.

The Wayback Machine honors a site's robots.txt file, and it's quite possible (and perfectly allowed by archive.org if you read their FAQ) to prevent an entire site from being archived. Given it has no history it stands to assume the site was being excluded from the beginning.

Remember - the people/person who made TrueCrypt is still anonymous. Perhaps that paranoia also meant they wanted greater control over how the site is run, which includes preventing it from being archived automatically.

I admit I haven't used MATE on a multi-display system (yet), but from what I can tell (plus my experiences with GNOME 2 which is what MATE's based off of) the multi monitor support should be fine. It has some nice extra polishes that go with multi monitor displays - you can choose which monitor to show notifications on for example.

You didn't literally press Backspace 100 times in a row. As if it would have taken more than three presses before it was obvious it wouldn't do anything.

In Linux the backspace key in Firefox is by default set to do nothing. In Windows it goes back a page. I don't know why the defaults are difference, but whenever I try Linux out (before inevitability going back to Windows), I always dip into about:config and change the backspace behavior in Firefox to make backspace go back just like it does in Windows. Keeps things consistent.

I just did a test in Firefox with this very post. I typed up to this point, clicked backspace outside the text pane to go back a page, then clicked forward. Whatdayaknow... the text was retained. Maybe that's the reason I never investigated about changing the behavior - because it's far more useful than it is annoying (and the annoyance is temporary because the text buffer won't disappear).

Windows 7 is definitely nicer to use than XP, once you know and use the features that actually exist in Win 7 (e.g. Windows key search functionality, Aero snap/peek, etc).

If you just use Windows 7 the same way you use XP without learning how to use the new features, you'll not only miss out on the benefits of the newer UI but also have an assumption that it's all glitz and bling, which it isn't entirely.

One thing I really like about MATE is that its developers do listen to their userbase and address concerns and bugs and actually incorporate new features into each release, as opposed to the GNOME crew who seem obsessed with eliminating features for some reason. I like MATE because it's one of the few DEs which I can still use Compiz with and retain a traditional GUI with as opposed to GNOME/Unity who seem to prefer changing things with every release and have some God complex in thinking they're the equivalent of OSX designers or something.