> Seriously, though, it seems to me that infrastructure spending is one of those no-brainer things that shouldn't even be a question.

Of course it's a question; why should it be any different just because it's "infrastructure?" If there is demand for it, let the free-market provide it... nothing dictates that "infrastructure" be provided by some entity that maintains a monopoly on the use of force. Note too that "free market" includes voluntarily assembled co-operatives and communes. Communal activity for common good is one thing... forced participation in some initiative, at the point of a gun barrel, is something quite different.

Nobody wants to use some proprietary shit anyway. F/OSS continues to displace Microsoft's shitty, inferior proprietary garbage with every passing day, and that's a trend they won't be stopping anytime soon.

I just switched to KDE about 3 weeks ago. My old laptop had finally decayed to the point that I felt justified in buying a new one, and
so I bought a new Toshiba, and slapped Fedora 16 on it. After about 15 minutes of Gnome 3, I had had enough, and switched my default environment
to KDE. It took me less than a day to feel pretty comfortable with KDE, and I couldn't be happier with it as things stand.

Sadly, the only *real* reason I stuck with Gnome as long as I did, was because it had always been the default on RH based distros, and I was just too lazy
to invest the energy to switch and learn a different environment. Well, that and at one time there was sort of a perception that KDE was less "mainstream" somehow because their libraries were GPL licensed. But since KDE went LGPL and as the new versions have improved since the 4.0 release (as I understand it), I don't see any reason to favor Gnome any more.

Label me a convert. KDE all the way.

I'm running OS/2 Warp on mine!

Dear government:

Don't waste your time. We will crack your codes, root your servers, publish your secret documents, and ensure the transparency that is prerequisite to a free and open society.

No matter what steps you take to attempt to hide the corruption and cronyism that dominate this country, we will defeat you. We, the cyberpunks, cypherpunks, crypto-anarchists, techno-libertarians and hackers, will not only evade and defeat any technological measure that you attempt to use against us, but we will actively subvert any such mechanism and use it to further the cause of freedom and liberty.

If you listen to us, we will listen to you. if you track our whereabouts, we will track yours. If you attempt to destroy our systems, we will destroy yours. We will not allow you to control the free flow of information and use secrecy and fear as tools to oppress the people.

#cryptoanarchism #technolibertarian #cyberpunk #cypherpunk #fuckthepolice

That begs of the question of whether or not somebody else has the authority to make that decision for the patient. I contend that the answer is no, and that the original question is moot. An individual can choose whatever treatment they want, and if they die, well... they die. As long as no force or coercion is involved, it's fine.

> The only thing that leaving a computer on will do is get you a massive electricity bill.

So you're telling me that the sentient AI that I've been growing in my basement for the past 15 years.. isn't?

Well, f%!# me.... :-(

Indeed.

Please hope the Brits don't make first contact with ET, their track record isn't so hot when it comes to handling these things...

Why type a URL? We all have copy and paste. In all my years on the internet I've never used a URL shortening service or seen the need.

QFT.

Cool. Just don't drink the water.

> The only thing that would probably appease the EU is if a fork of MySQL was established that would allow an easy transition or as others have mentioned that MySQL is spun off.

Aren't there about a dozen forks of MySQL already?

> Do people not understand the concept of what identification is and why we need it?

I'm wondering if *you* understand the concept of identification and why we need it, to be frank. But more to the point...

> Your drivers licence has become so much more than just a "drivers licence."

Why should a government issued "drivers license" be the gold standard for identification, and why should anybody be bound to require the presence of such an ID for a private transaction (like opening a bank account, purchasing alcohol, buying a gun, boarding an airplane, etc.)? The government can't do anything else right, why would we trust them with our identities? And even more to the point still is this.. it's just not a proper role for government to mandate anything about how we identify ourselves. The only proper roles of government are to provide rule-of-law, protect private property rights, and - arguably - to enforce contracts.

Now if the government wants to say "fine, if you expect us to enforce your contract, then identify yourself to our standards" then ok... but they have no basis to tell another private person/entity that they must - in turn - require a government sanctioned ID in order to conduct business with me.