They are not controlling anything. They are two of the organizations who have analyzed the proxy data. There are many more.

Eh, the proxy data is showing historical data. It shows what the other guy said: "People suggested it, so they checked a millennium's worth of proxy data, and they showed a marked disconnect between the trends in solar and climate activity that appears in the last 100 years."

Don't try to run away by derailing the discussion.

Scientists controlling interpretation of proxy data? The data is free for anyone to interpret. Of course, it's been done properly and correctly, and the results speak for themselves. See above.

Except that isn't how science works. Science tries to falsify itself not prove itself, so your analogy fails on a very basic level. Furthermore, this is not just about one piece of scientific research, but about thousands of them by thousands of independent scientists. Denying that science is indeed being a denialist.

It is false that there has been no warming the last 15 years. However, much of the warming is currently going into the oceans. If the sun was responsible it would have been getting colder for 40 years since that's what's happened to the sun.

Actually, it does mean it exists. When multiple sources of proxy data show the same thing it's pretty clear what the picture looks like. Only if one insists on denying reality will one come up with stuff like "proxy data sucks."

So in other words, 16:9 displays don't even make sense for movies (consuming content). It's even less understandable why they are trying to force 16:9 on everyone.

Do movies really fit on a 16:9 display? Don't most of them get a black bar at the top and bottom?

Bill Hicks and George Carlin were both heavily plug-resistant yet magnetic personalities, but are sadly no longer with us :(

It may not have been designed for audio files, but it's pretty damn good at them anyway - the hydrogen audio chaps rate is as equivalent to AAC and vorbis at the same bitrate, as well as having excellent quality at low bitrates along with low algorithmic delay. It appears to be a "cake and eat it" codec at present.

See here for their take on this very promising codec: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Opus

Now the problem that#s always plagued vorbis... will we see widespread hardware support for it? If it's already being deployed for Skype and WebRTC usage then I hope a few SoC manufacturers are going to support it.

As a history teacher, I'm sure your friend sadly understands how most people don't appreciate the freedoms they have until they've been lost, and then the cycle repeats itself. Most people of the current generation haven't this seen first, second or even third hand and don't understand what typically happens when those in power exceed their authority. Hell, most people don't even understand that everyone has something to hide, they just think that if their head is down low enough no-one will care. And then, sooner or late, cue Niemoller.

I don't think so. Most consumers who might be in the market for a new computer now have the option of either a regular PC or a tablet PC, and many are jumping on the tablet PC bandwagon - something that's even more locked down than even Windows 8.

People simply do not seem to care about lockdown, general computing or indeed almost anything that much of the /. community holds dear; most just want to watch youtube and twittle their facebook and think nothing of their device requiring an account to function that will happily upload your favourite websites to your advertising overlo... I mean, The Cloud.

The traditional PC industry isn't going to die, but it will become increasingly marginalised, especially if like me you don't like "commoditised" machines that have been intentionally gimped.

I think you mean Gothenburg, Finland.

Well last I checked, android shipped with FAT support anyway but I'm not sure if the onus would be on Google or the OEM itself to pay the MS tax (although most of them do anyway so suspect it's billed against the people shipping the devices). Even then, I think the patents only covered storing both forms of the filename so IIRC if you store only the long form and don't bother creating an 8.3 filename then I don't think you're technically in violation. Need to check up on that one...

exFAT I'm not very sure about since I inevitably end up formatting them FAT32 anyway, but yes, I long for the day when we can all just use UDF or somesuch on an SD card.

However, I do still think that the removal of SD cards by most manufacturers is mostly a result of trying to push people to using remote storage for everything simply because there's so much money to be made out of it. But then I'm cynical :)

I mean, really.. Are we re-inventing the dumb terminal here?

Yes. It's much easier to secure revenue when you've got a guaranteed monthly income from people whose data you're holding hosta... I mean, from people whose data you're protecting. I mean, it takes money to look after this stuff, and you wouldn't want anything to happen to it would you?

Witness the extremely aggressive push to even remove things like (micro)SD slots from mobile phones and tablets under the guise that it's a "design compromise", despite the fact they're miniscule. Surprisingly enough, the people who make android and iOS and windows and what have you and provision the "cloud" (aka Someone Elses Computer) behind them think it would be a really good idea for you to use their cloud.

I bought one of the original Nexus 7's and was shocked by how utterly unusable it was as a "computer to do things". Even finding applications that aren't in the google store is tricky.

It isn't a one-click method to install the CM firmware though - just a method of making the installation via PC less painless. All the app does is basically enable USB debug and help with the ADB setup.

Ars did a pretty decent writeup of the installation process here; http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/11/android-roms-the-easy-way-testing-the-new-cyanogenmod-installer/ - it's certainly not a one-step job.