Microsoft R&D is really firing on all cylinders again, or should I say "on all photocopiers"... But then again, what would you expect from a company that made it's money (and a lot of it) from marketing other's ideas as their own.

not really anything that new: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/20/helsinki-data-centre-heat-homes

> I think the answer lies in the DisplayPort connector -- why do some computers have DisplayPort and not HDMI?

Personally I'm very happy that my laptop has a "mini display port" instead of HDMI, VGA and DVI ports. Also I like the fact that the computer has standard "general" USB-connectors that can connect printers, hard drives, cameras and the lot, instead of separate ports for all of them. I do realize that this requires me to have a separate dongle for each use, but I still prefer taking a connector with me when I need one over to having 20 specific connectors on my laptop. If for nothing else there just isn't space on this laptop to have all of them and I would have to choose. Currently I use all three types of video connectors on occasion.

> BluRay has to use HDCP for HD video, which pretty much mandates HDMI

That is one reason I hate the whole HDMI (at least when HDCP comes into play). I made the mistake of buying a Sony stereo set. I already owned a projector and a couple of video sources. All was great until I wanted to connect the cable box through the stereo (as a video switch) to the projector. The stupid sony stereo only gave me a blue screen with text saying the video had been blocked for "my own protection", as the source (cable box with DVI out) did not give copyright protection signal!!! - WHAT!!! I pay for that box and I own the projector and am watching legal content! Needles to say connecting the box to projector directly worked fine.

Turns out that sony in their infinite wisdom know better.

Also turns out that I returned that sony unit and bought competing brand that didn't apparently have the copyright issue...

When I was living in US, I was happily using T-Mobile (2G) with my (and wife's) iPhone 3G. It wasn't slow at all for maps (most common use), emails, weather.com or the occasional safari. I bought our iPhones couple years ago in Belgium where law states that operator has to unlock all phones for free if requested so by the customer. But then again, they got this thing called freedom in their country...

Anyhow. I first signed up with AT&T prepaid, but it turned out that after a week or two the data stopped working. They blocked iPhone data on prepaid!!! And because I'd never lived in US before, I didn't have local credit history. And even when I had statements from three major credit card companies of having been a long time customer with no issues at all and statement from my employer about my employment in US, AT&T still wanted a $1000 deposit to any other contract!!! Screw them!

So, I asked T-Mobile for a connection and all they required was that I pay each month in advance for a family plan. Guess who I signed up with...

Only catch was that iPhone on T-Mobile is limited to 2G speeds. Well, that turned out to be no issue at all as the connection was reliable and more coverage than AT&T 3G anyway. Also the price was way lower as the sales clerk actually gave us cheaper data plans, as he knew that we could only use 2G anyway. And as an added bonus my iPhone's battery life went up a notch as I could turn off the 3G altogether!

So, yes. Living with T-Mobile 2G can be a blessing, compared to AT&T 3G...

Now that GSM operators in US are finally under one roof, it can only mean improved service and lower prices due to leaner structure. No more time and money wasted competing with other operators, but now AT&T can finally concentrate on selfless giving to it's customers. Monopoly is always in the best interests of The Citizen.

All hail The Corporation, The Corporation is good for you!

Bad joke? - Not really when you think about it. In China the party threatened to "close out" Google, if it would not censor "dangerous" (ie. damaging to the party) content. In US the MPAA is threatening to "close out" Google, if it would not censor "dangerous" (ie. damaging to the MPAA) content...

This is absolutely great news, if this will finally enable me to buy a dongle that will remove the "protection" from HDMI signal! Here's a real life scenario that happened to me last spring:

I bought a Sony (yes, should have known better) surround sound system to my home. I already had a HD-cable box and a HD-projector. They worked great together! Only my sound was from old stereo (no surround) system. So, I wanted to have a sound system that would not only play the sound from my cable box, but computer and DVD player. I also wanted the picture to be selected with the sound, as now I had to use two remotes (projector & stereo) when changing source.

So, I got to connect my stuff. HDMI from cable box to the new stereo. HDMI from computer to stereo. Component from DVD player/game console to stereo. And single HDMI from stereo to projector. All this supported (according to the manual) by the Sony sound system (the "stereo").

Computer worked, as well as component from DVD/console. 1st downside was though that the Sony couldn't handle optical sound when video was coming through HDMI. Only stereo or HDMI. BUMMER!

But what really blew me off, was when I tried to watch TV. Instead I only got a blue screen with warning that "for my protection" the video was not working because of copyright violation!!!

I mean, am I violating a copyright by watching a show on cable? - Of course not. The stupid Sony was just incompatible with the cable box's HDMI signal! - Call to Sony just confirmed that they don't give a shit about their customers. The best solution they offered me was to use component video for from my cable box instead of HDMI. Why on earth would I convert a digital broadcast to analog just to transfer it to a digital projector? Just because Sony decided to "protect" me from copyright violations!

Well, I decided to protect myself from Sony. - Took the system back to their store and went to competitor to buy a system that worked...

So, yes. This is indeed good news if it will finally brake the "protection" from HDMI signal!

Personally I own a iPhone 3G and have been happy with it. I was considering to upgrade to 4G a bit later.

Now, I'm waiting much later, until Apple actually fixes the issue. I haven't used a case for my iPhone and it's held together well for the 20 months. Likely will continue to do so for months to come, like any phone should without additional cases and overtly careful handling. No, I don't use the phone as a hammer, but I don't caress it to sleep either. And because I don't want a case for a phone (to make it bulkier), I'm not buying the 4G until it can be used without.

Second reason why I won't be buying a 4G any time soon is that I made the mistake of installing iOS4 to my 3G. BAD mistake. The iOS4 is unstable and veerryyy slllooooww on the 3G. I don't know about the 4G, if it is as unstable but I wouldn't risk it. Luckily I found out how to downgrade my 3G back to 3.1.3 with help of: http://www.macworld.com/article/152428/2010/06/roll_back_iphone_3g.html

I still lost the backup and it took hours to get the phone back up to speed again...

I find it extremely hilarious to even compare these two devices.

Owners of either one feacly defend they're product and highlight the points they want. This is just like the two 4-year olds in the park fighting whos father is a tougher man... The two devices are so far apart that comparing them is equally intelligent. But I guess that is what /. has become...

So, lets brake it down, so even the 4-year olds may understand.

Kindle (or it's competetors) are ebook readers. They are designed to do just that. Even if some of them may have features that try to mimic a tablet computer, they are still ebook readers. And excellent at that! They have extremely good battery life that is essential for an ebook reader. You do not want to be dependable on chargers when reading a book. The e-ink display is as close to paper as possible (for the price) at the moment. It is much more confortable for the eye to read for extended periods, than any CRT/LCD/LED-display. This is because it reflects light instead of emitting it. Our eyes were "designed" to work best on reflected light, not ligh emitting objects. Slow refresh has no relevance when reading a book. Very few people are able to read over a page in a second. =) These ebook readers may also play MP3s for you when reading, which is a nice addition. But they are not designed to be good email clients, web browsers or game consoles.

The iPad is a tablet. Only thing in common it has with an ebook reader is its size and form factor. But just as apples and oranges share the size and form, they still are apples and oranges. The iPad is designed for exactly the things an ebook reader is not. Email, web browsing and gaming, while the only fuctional thing it shares with an ebook reader is a MP3 player. And for these functions, people are willing to pay more, thus it costs more. Yes, you can buy and read ibooks on the iPad, but it is not its primary function. The light emitting screen is not as confortable to read books for extended periods of time. The battery life, while excellent for a tablet, still is too dependable on external power sources to compete with a book, or even an ebook reader.

They both are excellent devices, but just not comparable. But hey, if you've bought one or the other and are happy with it, great! Just don't think it is the ultimate culmitnation of technological achievement and the end of the road.

It's interesting to read the comments here in /.

Most are expecting the patents in question to be some technical gadgets being patented, and seem to be thinking UI is just BS. Hardware is where the beef is!

That is understandable, as most /. readers are geeks, and nerds do usually prefer the engineering side of the human aspect. And that is just fine. Without hardware there is no software, and without software there is no UI. But what most /.ers seem to be missing is what floats a product. Why iPhone is still selling well.

When iPhone came out, the only unique thing about it's hardware was the touch screen. And actually even that wasn't technically anything new, only the combining software made it something new. Everything else about the phone was just average. And still is. When the latest iPhone 3Gs came out, it didn't have anything we hadn't seen before. But it's not the hardware that sells the iPhone. It's not only the marketing either. While marketing will sell a product, it will not float it for three years. There is more to iPhone's success than marketing, and it certainly isn't the hardware.

The something is not the software (as features go) either. iPhone doesn't have anything that you couldn't get to any other smart phone either. Maybe there are more apps for it yes, but essentially they do not offer any killer app that you wouldn't be able to get (feature wise) for the competing products.

The only thing that set's iPhone apart from it's competitors is it's UI. The fact that there is no manual, and even a 1 year old knows how to use it. My now 18 months old son figured out how to unlock and open picture viewer and how to browse them, all by himself. Hell, he even sent email from the phone last summer, although it wasn't as he understood what he was doing then. =) Anyway, the UI is the single piece of iPhone that sets it apart, and the largest reason for it's continuing success. To repeat myself, yes marketing sold the phone, but it's the UI that keeps on selling it.

Actually this is not capitalism that this lobby group is supporting. They are actually fiercly against capitalism and free markets. They are promoting corporatism which is actually closer to Russian-communism and far from capitalism.

Russian-communism as opposed to real communism. The communism that we all know from TV is the Russian-communism, where you have/had a small elite of the Party that control the whole country, sucking off the blood of the average Igor until he's dry. The corporatism is exactly the same, except instead of the Party, you have the Corporation, or more precisely a small number of Corporate elite sucking the blood of average Joe until he's dry.

In capitalism you have a choise of selling your goods or services. You have the choise of giving your goods or services for free too, if you so wish. There is nothing in capitalism that prevents you doing that. Actually it can be an excellent business model too. Give an oil lamp for free and make profit selling oil for it. - Give your software free and make profit by selling training, customisation and support for it.

OSS is very capitalistic, and in it's most pure and working sense. You are doing something for free with the hope of profiting from it in the future. That is the core and heart of any entrepreneur, ie. capitalist.

As for morality I agree; Russian-communism and Corporatism inherently have none. Capitalism may or may not be moral, that depends on the capitalist's own values.

Talk for your self, son!

My life is The action movie, I do have The Girl, and I do look better and am tougher than Bradd Pitt and Vin Diesle put together!

You can have the soap though...

...and an other thing. My name is Chuck Norris!

Newsflash, the number is up from 32% to 34%! - I just switched...

But seriously. My netbook is counted into the Windows XP, because it wasn't available with Linux when I bought it a year ago. And until a week ago it was correct to count it to the Windows pile. I had been looking for a distro that would support my netbook (Asus S101) out of the box. I don't want to do work at home, that's why I didn't want to play the hunt-for-the-red-driver-game at home. I just wanted a Linux that would work out of the box on my rather rare netbook.

I got fed up with Windows freezing up every now and then. And lately more now than then. It would just freeze the UI to do Something Important, and then continue. A fresh reinstall didn't help it, so I started the hunt for a working Linux distro again. And now it seems I've finally found it, the Easy Peasy.

Sure, it's not a "real Linux", neither is my netbook a "real laptop". It's a netbook. I use it for web browsing, Skype, email and occational word processing when travelling. At home it's the surfboard that you use when lying on couch, or I admit, in bed when I actually should be reading a book instead. And for this I don't want a "real operating system". I want something that just works for these tasks. Something that doesn't freeze and doesn't require configuring.

Well, I think I've found it, and I'm happy now!

On the subject of the article, though. I was wondering how many other netbook users are out there that have ditched the preinstalled Windows in favour of Linux, thus contributing to the numbers of Windows netbooks instead of Linux?

Naturally there will always be energy loss when you tranport energy.

But this system is pretty well suited for cities. And naturally the pipes are well insulated and laid under ground to keep ambient temperature constant.

The water is heated at the plant (or the data center in this case) then pumped to the system. The system consists of main lines usually running under streets. These have smaller lines going to a connected building. Inside the building the pipes go to a "boiler room" or heat center or what-ever you want to call it. There the heat is transferred from the system to buildings own heating system. Usually the heating system consists of hot water running in pipes as well. Although for safety the temperature is much lower on the building's own system. Also the heat from the system may be used to heat your tap water.

In Finland gas furnaces are almost non existent and only used for camper vans or trailers used for vacations during colder seasons. In the cities this kind of centralised heating is popular due to the efficiency. Both economic and energy. In rural areas oil and electricity are most popular, but heat-exchangers are catching up. Wether it be pumping heat out of outside air or the ground, both work well and give free energy to the house owner. Solar or wind are not harnessed in Finland due more to political reasons than anything else.