Earplugs are a great idea! Most earplugs on the market today don't quite drown out the noise enough though. I decided I needed those earplugs to generate a little noise to counteract the ambient noise. I went on a search for a type of noise that would effectively drown out the ambient noise, and yet not be bothersome. I found a small battery-powered device which can generate that noise, and in fact, is programmable to allow me to change the noise at my discretion. I then hooked up this device to my earplugs, and now I am very happy with my new earplugs.

The point is that I often want to view something from one window and use that information in another unrelated window. Copy/paste of 25 different items, or mental manipulation of results on one screen as input to another. Tabs don't work for that scenario -- I need both windows on the screen(s) at the same time.

Could ldd run the untrusted loader in a sandbox?

"Classless action lawsuit," I believe.

Not sure I grok the legal details, but the article you refer to is the original case, and the current article is about a hearing on how to proceed:

The two-hour hearing, in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle, was in response to motions for summary judgement filed by both sides. The judge can now rule for Vernor or for Autodesk or send the case to trial.

That is why GUIs in Linux are horrible. Not just bad, but horrible.

I call BS. My Linux GUI, GNOME, is prettier and easier for me to use than my XP GUI.

With Windows, as well as with most proprietary software, ... what you get is a GUI that is so easy to use nobody even thinks about it.

More BS.

"So, in other words, you're completely fucking wrong, you idiot retard. God bless." - ShakaUVM

What is the matter with you people? You call yourself nerds? You have no imagination!

Somebody has come up with cool tech which could let you do things with FaceBook (or any other site) that you couldn't before.

Imagine posting secret documents in a public place and only letting some people see it. This person has made that easier with an @@ plug-in. I think it's cool.

(I'll go read the article now.)

I knew squat about how badly my AT&T cell phone was locked down. Until the day when I installed Google maps and got annoyed that it 1) did not use the built-in GPS on the phone, and 2) continually asked me if it could access the internet. How crippled is that? I looked up how to fix these problem (hooray internet!) and I found some kind person's instructions on how to debrand my W760 phone. I realized that this would also fix several other problems with the phone, such at the limit that ring tones be less than 30 seconds long.

The bottom line is that I had *no clue* that my phone was so crippled by AT&T! My ignorance was stunning. I had avoided buying an iPod because I thought Apple was "insanely controlling," but now realize that AT&T is just as bad.

Here are some of the things that AT&T did:

1. They restrict access to the built-in GPS so that you can only use applications that AT&T sanctions and makes you pay a monthly service fee for.
2. They do not allow ring tones of MP3 files longer than 30 seconds. (33, actually?)
3. They do not allow you to delete the ugly trialware applications that come installed on the phone.
4. They do not let you run more than 1 application at a time + the media player.
5. They do not let you configure an application as trusted to access the internet without asking *every* access. (This ruins many applications.)
6. They force the browser's home page to their spammy advertising site.

I'm sure there are other evil things. I'm *much* happier with my phone now, and it will become a much bigger part of my life now that I have "debranded" it. I am still a customer, but I now have no loyalty to a company that would pull that crap on me.

(I am not affiliated in any way with this site which seems to have lots of good information on cell/mobile phone debranding.)

When I see a term or acronym on Slashdot that don't know about, I go look up the item and learn something. I am often glad that I do. Except that goatse thing.

Context, dude!

Sotomayor's statement was speaking quite explicitly about "decisions in race and sex discrimination cases". She is *not* commenting on any other type of case. [http://vtsl.blogspot.com/2009/05/rachel-maddow-stating-facts-about.html]

Wouldn't you hope that, given two judges of otherwise equal caliber, one who has more experience in a certain area is going to reach a better conclusion on cases in that area than one who has less experience? If I hire a lawyer to represent me in a patent law case, you can bet your sweet bippy that I'm hiring someone who has experience in that area, and if they have patents themselves, so much the better.

...Widenius will just steal the improvements and fork it again....

Steal? Do you understand with GPL means? It means that if anyone wishes to start with the original code, and make improvements and distribute them, then they are obligated to freely give those improvements to everyone. That is the purpose of the GPL. There is nothing to steal here!

You are caught in the trap of thinking that "MySQL" is a product. The trademarked name MySQL is what Oracle bought. The code is free, thanks to the freedom-loving license. Improvements to the "MySQL" code will be made by all sorts of people and companies with all sorts of agendas. When you say "MySQL is pariah, it's poisoned." I might agree, if what you are talking about is the trademarked name "MySQL". If you are talking about the very useful database server code which is currently being distributed by Oracle under the name "MySQL," but which is owned by the world, then you are blithering and spewing your own claptrap.

Alright. That was a bit venemous. I apologize. But I hope you get the point. The code and all distributed improvements has been rescued by the fact that it is under a free license. The only companies that would avoid contributing to that codebase are those whose purpose is to make money by selling the code itself. Obviously that was not the case when MySQL AB owned the name "MySQL"--lots of companies and people contributed to the code. If you are arguing that that will change now that Oracle owns that name or Monty is creating a fork, then you have not made your point.

Well, a reporter already asked him what a bad person can do:

I'm all for online mapping, but knowing where the air ducts are in an air shaft is not necessary for me to navigate in the city. Who wants to know that level of detail? Bad people do. ... With a [paper] map, you can't count the number of bricks in a building, or see the elevator shafts. With this level of detail [afforded by online maps] you can. I hear the argument that, "Yeah, I want to also ban cars because cars are used in robberies." Look, cars have other commercial uses. There are no other uses for knowing on a map where there are air shafts.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/03/11/google.earth.censor.california/index.html

Silly person. Doesn't he realize that NYC already is growing food? Hasn't he seen Soylent Green? Doesn't he watch Monty Python?

Will you please not be so prejudiced? Why are you saying that this is "the Dems"? It is John Conyers. He happens to be a Democrat. I'm sure many other Democrats (you and I included?) think this is a blitheringly stupid and/or evil bill.

I got better.