It is far, far more than just a "reimplementation".

  Sorry, I don't buy for a second the idea that code innovation somehow stopped after the 80s ;-)

SB

Spot. On.

  What I find hilarious about this whole thing is this Media assumption that "Anonymous" is some sort of organized group. What, there aren't a lot of pissed off, unemployed (yet intelligent) people about who have nothing to do but play crusader in front of their computers? (I envy them to the time and resources to do so, I'm busy just working to survive).

  IMO it's the same sort of institutional paranoia that gave the human race wonderful parts of history such as the "cold war" (of which I grew up into) and still seems endemic amongst certain social climber types.

  If that offends any of the corporate fanatical types out there, I'm afraid I have no sympathy for you. Fuck Off.

SB

The explosion was the 70s and 80s. Today's software is really just the same 70s/80s inventions (word processors, spreadsheets, hyperlinks) going through minor changes in an attempt to convince people they MUST upgrade (and hopefully spend money).

  Really? Where would you place linux in this world of yours, then?

  (My first "non-hobby" computer was an Atari 400)

SB

  Windows Update syndrome? ;-)

And bugfixes don't require jumping from 4 to 5 to 6 to 7. All it requires is moving from 4.0 to 4.01 to 4.02 et cetera.

  Whatever. As at least one other poster said, who the hell cares what version numbers they use, as long as it works? Personally, I find it rather interesting to be living during the time when computer software is undergoing an evolutionary explosion...

  Playboy.com sucks. Now maybe it's just "get off my lawn" syndrome, but I remember when Playboy had a really good magazine...

SB

I don't want my browser going through a bunch of revisions so that I'm always fucking with my computer software/updates, instead of doing actual work (or play).

  This has to be one of the more ridiculous statements I've seen lately. You are getting a Free, easily customizable, relatively fast, stable and very secure browser, and you don't want them to do bugfixes, improvements and overall making it even better, because you dislike keeping your OS up to date?

  WTF?

SB

  Ditto here - made the switch after Thanksgiving and have had very few problems - certainly nothing I couldn't deal with with a little googling or forum digging. All my extensions (with the exception of Fox Lingo) work fine - I hacked all the rdf files months ago.

  This last release is fantastic, pages are rendered noticeably faster. I switched over my other computers (Ubuntu, Mint, Win XP and Win 7) around beta 9 and have had even fewer minor issues on them, probably because they don't have the plugin/extension load this computer (Mint) does.

  I suspect that the issues that others are reporting have more to do with plugin/extension problems.

SB

    Sure, but make sure to buy the extended warranty with your purchase.

SB

  What if it saves all your data to the cloud (best encryption), uninstalls your broken OS, installs a better OS, ports all your settings and themes over (as close as possible, given proprietary format angst) and then presents you with a better deal overall?

  What sort of definition would one give to that sort of virus, Vir.Benev.BashScript? ;-)

SB

  A helicopter can technically loop the loop, too, but that's not the same thing as full sustained pitch control like hummingbirds can do (they can fly head-down)

  Still pretty neat kit tho.

SB

Excellent citation, thanks.

  Just judging from watching the video in hi-res, it's more like a helicopter with individually variable prop angles than a hummingbird - it looks like it's limited to "body straight up" flight.

  Still pretty astounding work for a prototype - but I'd be willing to bet a few dollars that something similar to this but with much more maneuverability - yaw and pitch - is on sale in department stores in maybe 5-7 years :-)

  If anyone has any more decent info on this, I would love to see it.

SB

Anonymous is attacking Phelps' right to freely express his views, no matter how noxious. Anonymous is wrong on this one, and should be ashamed of themselves, if they weren't, of course, a bunch of halfwitted scriptkiddies with as much of a hard-on for getting attention from the press as Phelps and Co.

  I agree with you for the most part about Anonmymous, although it seems to me this is probably just some members making noise, rather than any sort of consensus of "Anonymous" (is there such thing? )

  However, I am wondering how else they should have responded other than with publicity to something that is carefully borderline public hate speech?

SB

I have no idea what could possibly get a tech to do a hack like this, but I wouldn't deem it completely impossible without knowing the whole story behind it.

  Quotas.

SB

  If the boss thinks that the product has the potential to be good enough that the company will become profitable, he ought to giving the people who are actually producing that product an incentive to make it something worth purchasing...

SB

This has nothing to do with free speech.

  It has everything to do lazy, greedy stupidity. Some idiots at a company figuring they can get rich from selling a cheap plastic replication of Jobs (I don't know what drugs they were on when they dreamed it up, and I don't want to know) and then part of Apple's legal division - apparently with nothing better to do - figuring they might make some money in suing said idiots into the ground and, just possibly, buying the dead company in the future; in order to make money on it ala Lucas? WTF?

  Stupidity: Meet Stupidity. May the off of the bottom dwellers feed on each other until nothing is left but the rubber soles of their shoes and a few expensive, indigestible tie clips.

  Both sides of this fracas disgust me. I could express a wish that they'd go find something useful to do with their lives, but I know it would not make a damned bit of difference.

  SB

  That the authorities there did not immediately confiscate it is also news for nerds - very good news.

  There will be another endless court fight coming, however - the right of private citizens to fly cameras over other people's backyards.

  Sigh.

  IMO if the government wants to spy on it's citizens, then it should also grant the right for citizens to spy on citizens, including citizens who are government employees. It's only fair, right?

  Yeah, it's pretty fucked, either way. But I'd rather have the right for citizens to spy on citizens, than have corporations or government have that right exclusively. The tech is already there. The genie is out of the bottle. Short of complete suppression of garage/basement tech entrepreneurs there is no way to stop it from becoming ubiquitous.

  Of course if I wanted my backyard to be really private, I could employ tech (such as lasers or other things not invented yet) to spoof or blind the surveillance - and such would be my right, yes?

  Nod to William Gibson.

  SB