If you can include your own certificate to be trusted, a lot of the problems would disappear but it would still be a huge step backwards from where we are now: instead of being able to just download a Linux image you'd be back to compiling everything yourself.

There's also the problem of small software companies or invidivuals that write software for a living. Software developers would need to become licenced to receive a key-pair that allows them to sign software so it will actually run. I can see how it would be attractive to governments to be able to trace back any piece of software to the author by means of the key with which it was signed, but it would be a huge blow to personal freedom.

This defintely sounds like yet another attempt to force both the internet and computing in general back into a 20th century world-view with tighter government control. I know I'll be keeping an eye out with my next hardware purchase to make sure my hardware is still mine.

I was a surprised to see this article, since I also dislike page flipping.

I read a lot of books on my tablet, but one of the first things I looked for was an e-book reader that would allow me to just seamlessly scroll through the book instead of emulating page-turns.

To me having to turn pages was an artifact of paper books... a useful one because it allowed for fast indexing, but since e-books are searchable and support links it's no longer needed. I find it's less straining to my eyes if I don't have to keep jumping from the bottom of the page back to the top, but can just move the text into the 'sweet spot'.

I second this... working on my MSc thesis, and figured I'd give my 2c since it took me some time to find a setup that worked for me. Right now I use: Archos 10 inch tablet with repligo for reading and an Ubuntu netbook with LyX for actual writing.

Repligo handles 2-column document really well: tap the column to bring it up to full screen size, drag your finger over text to colour it... it's like having a virtual bag of magic markers. You can also add annotation text to marked sections.

I sync between my tablet and my netbook through dropbox. It automatically notices when I changed a PDF and uploads the changes. All annotations and markings show up in the PDF reader on my netbook and I can copy-paste the marked sections for easy quoting.

The last tool in my chest is Referencer which I use to save short summaries, thoughts, etc about the papers I've read so I can quickly find a paper again.

OK, can't resist chiming in here...

I'm a very happy owner of an Archos 101... it's a great device, if you're a geek. :)

I'll agree that the built-in browser is only so-so, but Dolphin HD has made browsing a complete pleasure. And of course you need to spend a few minutes hunting around for the Market installer. It also really pays off to set the performance setting to 'overdrive' AKA to disable the normal underclocking.

Archos has been doing a great job in bringing out new firmware versions, and each one has been consistently better than the last.

So, I wouldn't give one to my grandmother, but for all my geek friends I've been warmly recommending it... it's only 300 euros, and you get a huge amount of functionality in exchange.

Well, you've made it very clear that you're one of the people that came along later after Linux became more accessible, and prefer it that way. That's completely fine, we're glad to have you on board. But please respect the fact that some people DO like to tinker with things, and DO like a challenge.

In fact, the fact that these people were there at the start is what makes it possible to be where we are now.

I'm also an Ubuntu user these days since I can no longer afford to spend long evenings tinkering on my machine. But I remember the time that I was compiling kernels on Slackware rather fondly. I watched an OS grow up, and I wouldn't have liked to miss that.

I so remember that moment... a flatmate had helped me set up my first Linux box (I think RH5.1), and I was looking at that blinking cursor.

I very vividly remember thinking "OK, now what? Guess I'll have learn to use computers all over again."

I still benefit daily from that moment though, and from the time I invested in learning how things work.

jBPM is open source and free software, as pretty much all of the JBoss stuff is.

That being said, I would not use jBPM for a new project anymore. It uses it's own proprietary modeling language as opposed to the more standard BPMN2.0 notation, and a lot of the original developers left the project to start Activiti.

Activiti does use BPMN2.0 for it's notation, meaning you have much more choices in editing software.

As to the whole concept of BPM itself: it's very specialized software in that it allows you to do 1 thing: model business processes, and specifically those that require one or more human steps. Typical scenarios are where you call a company with some kind of request (say you want to upgrade your internet line speed), which will take them some time to complete. BPM software will handle the information transfer between the various people involved in the process, and also allow for easy tracking of the status of your request (e.g. our credit office is waiting for the results of your background check).

Not sure if it's available in the US yet, but I have the Archos 70 Internet tablet, and it was also around 250 euros... installing the market is a matter of finding the right .apk from the Archos forums, and you have a full-featured Android tablet.

Even before that they were able to do UDP hole punching.

In fact, Skype has a whole mechanism of graceful degradation, starting at direct TCP connections all the way down to routing all data through a supernode.

So yes, in some cases the supernodes work as go-betweens, but this is really a last resort. In most cases they only serve to set up a connection.

Sounds like you want an Archos 101.

Has all the things you mentioned, plus a hdmi Port.
It runs Froyo. I have the 70 myself, which is the 7 inch version. That one only has micro usb though whereas the 101 has a full size port.

Oh, and though it officially does not have the market, anyone with some google skill can install it.

Actually, by that logic giving a book a bad review would also be stealing, since you're costing the author lost sales as well....

Lost sales are a very sticky matter, and personally I've always found it a bad argument to base legal action on.

OK, replying to myself because I obviously didn't have enough coffee yet:

They list as the benefits over Scala
  - Extensible type system
  - Easy transition from Java
  - Reified Generics

From those 3 points, only the last one sounds useful...

From a quick glance it looks like Scala with a more Java-like syntax... I wonder what added benefit they hope to bring.

I'd be very interested to see an in-depth comparison of the two.

I agree: I've been running an EEEBox with an ion chipset for some months now, and the performance is excellent. I run mine with Ubuntu and XBMC, but I'm sure it would work equally well on Windows 7.

XBMC is one of the best interfaces out there IMHO, especially when combined with Lirc and an IR receiver (I use an ancient Irman with an USB converter).

Also, the EEEBox is quiet and is small, shiny and black... helping a lot with the wife-acceptance-factor :)