No Clue indeed. No clue from almost anyone reporting on this piece of news. (it is dissapointing that the BBC headline is so wrong)

Have a read of the Euro Parliament's Press release or (unbelievably better than the BBC) Tech Crunch.

Its a general resolution about online search engines bundling services & about the need to enforce European Competitions laws in the online space.

There's a second question that has to be asked as well. In some neighbouhoods, the electrical service is run through the back yards, rather than the front. This was done for obvious aesthetic purposes, but the side-effect is that it is exceptionally difficult to keep those lines maintained.

Then there's a third question: what is the level of the local infrastructure? 2400V? 7200V? 13.2kV? Single-phase or three-phase? While a 2400V single-phase neighbourhood can have more stable power than a 13.2kV three-phase one, the likelihood is the other way around because the 2400V wiring is probably older.

For the record, my neighbourhood is 13.2kV single-phase, above ground. It is not 100% problem free, but I would estimate it to be well over 99%, based on my desktop computer without a UPS rarely being found in a powered-down state.

Kilobyte-quantities of EEPROM are cheap enough that the package is probably a non-trivial part of the cost. The die cost is not the only lower bound on the price of a memory IC.

It's obvious to me he is talking about GPL and not Linux itself.

Its obvious to me that he is deliberately conflating GPL & Linux to scare companies. That's the way MS operates.

"The soldiers most likely to take their own lives were men with past suicidal behavior and a history of psychiatric disorders and criminal offenses, including weapons possession and verbal assaults."

Thanks, Watson.

Hang a long conductor down towards Earth, and harvest the voltage potential.

Or GRAIL.

Or the Orbcomm OG2 constellation that went up in July...

Launching multiple payloads on a single launch isn't exactly new. It sounds like the innovation here is using the satellites themselves as load structures for each other during launch rather than something like an ESPA ring to save weight and payload volume, but launching more than one satellite per mission is pretty common.

Buy a VPS for $2 a month and relay to it over a VPN tunnel; Comcast won't be able to get their grubby paws on it.

Seriously, linking to a PDF article?

You are twisting his words. Ballmer was not talking about Linux, but about the GPL and it's 'viral' nature.

No. You are totally incorrect. Here's the quote, from it source in the Chicago Sun-Times (via the internet archive):

Then what do you do when it starts throwing errors? The ISP won't help you.

Think about it (if you can):
Wanting something is enough to make it happen.
Wisdom of crowds.
Scientists don't know everything.
You'll be famous.

Sounds like the recipe for external validation that every GenY and Millenial are craving.

Suddenly this is the new thing. You could simply say "the thief" or "the bad guy" or "the spy", but then you wouldn't sound all Matrix.

Lighten up, Slashdot.

Except its kickstarter, so some douchebeard will keep all or most of your money while mailing you a Debian CD in return.

Alright, fair enough.