The unity interface turns every computer into a netbook interface that just isn't appropriate for regular computer use or users ....

You say it over and over again in your response but apparently you don't get it FOSS means FREE/Open Source Software. It was never something that companies were meant to be built around providing ... it is the anti-establishment but it also happens to have become the establishment. It was meant to replace the need for big, bloated, EXPENSIVE proprietary operating systems AND the ridiculously expensive support contract model by the likes of IBM AIX, SUN Solaris etc .... GETTING RID OF THE ANUAL MAINTENANCE COST of running unix systems was have the point of linux for most people to begin with .... then comes this company who's sole financial model was built on building that maintenance cost back in ... and that's great for people who need it but for companies that have significant mindshare in using/maintaining linux systems it's just stupid to pay.

I was rebuilding my firewall this evening, converting it to new software and re-setting up all the static dhcp mappings ... uggh ... It really blew me away how many devices there were between ipods, ipads, phones, tv's, dvd/bluray players, internet media players, video game systems, iphones and finally ... computers. When I was done I posted this on facebook "t's eye opening when you audit and realize how many internet connected devices you actually have in your home ... between wireless and wired = 42 (it really is the answer to everything)" And then a friend that read it pointed me to this poll that showed up the same night!!!

The agreement did not say that we couldn't withdraw any time that we want .... just that we could only stay so long .... the agreement says we cannot stay beyond dec 31 2011 in a combat roll without their expressed permission ... which our president has been asking for for 6 months.

It bothers me that all of the "announcements" that I am reading make this look like a decision made for the good of the country by the Obama administration. This is just not the case. As much as I am not a GWB fan the truth of the matter is that the Dec 31 2011 date for removing combat troops from Iraq was set by a a strategic framework and security agreement between the Bush administration white house and the Iraqi's in November of 2008. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/11/20081127-2.html Pentagon officials under the Obama administration have actually been trying to get the Iraqi's to extend this date since may/june of last year but they (Iraqi government) will not ALLOW us to stay any longer in combat capacity.

You get to give something away for free instead of paying for books and amazon gets a little advertisement .... big deal. And if this spins out of control and people follow these links and BUY BOOKS then it keeps their lust for reading alive and keeps people interested in even having libraries at all. As for keeping lists of books that were checked out ... my county library does this unless you specifically check a box on your account that you want them not to. I think you'll find that this is common practice in many libraries today.

I would go with Ubuntu, linuxmint or some such desktop distro today. Not so much because it's a better OS or will be supported longer than XP but because when you're donating computers you have to expect that they will end up in the hands of people who can't necessarily afford to buy software to do a lot of things and by default XP comes with 0 extras and won't necessarily know how/where to fine open source options for windows. In this light your typical linux distribution comes with software that will do a little bit of everything from office/word processing/whatever to editing graphics and even a few fun games for kids with plenty more for free in the repositories. I did this for several years in central Nebraska. In all I gathered up several hundred PC's from local businesses that were going to discard them and refurbished them and installed a user friendly linux distribution (at the time I was using Lindows/Linspire) and never had a complaint or even a call back with anything other than a thank you. Most distros like ubuntu, mint, fedora etc today are just as easy to use as windows out of the box even for a new user poking around trying to figure things out.

So I have a mid2010 macbook pro and I've been running lion since preview 2 and have never experienced a kernel panic ......

As someone who has been responsible for the architecture, design and security of many of the IT products and services that you consume every single day of your life AND a U.S. Air force veteran I can tell you first hand that you are absolutely ignorant and know nothing of which you speak.

There are several reasons for building in Las Vegas - -Electricity is very, very cheap and being consumed so steadily by so many entities that it's easy to look "green" in this environment because the datacenter electric consumption is dwarfed by the use of all of those mega casinos, hotels, attractions, etc by so much that the IT use just looks like a blip on the radar. -It really does require less energy to condition/cool air in the desert than it does in most of the rest of the country. This is actually for a couple of reasons 1.The facilities are effectively big caves .. they are several feet thick cement walls that are light colored on the outside. They are so well insulated that the outdoor heat doesn't have a chance of making it inside. 2. The humidity in this area is naturally so low that no additional energy is required when cooling the air to dehumidify it. Imagine being in virginia or pennsylvania where the humidity is 60-80% outdoors. Half of that humidity has to be pulled from the air and siphoned off 3. they use strict hot/cold aisle separation where the whole facility becomes a plenum and duct system and the super-heated air is just ducted directly outside. The racks sit on cool cement floors and cold air pours directly into the front of the equipment and the air that runs through the equipment goes directly up through the roof duct system where it is contained and exhausted. 4. with the addition and application of simple evaporative cooling that is greatly accelerated in ultra arid climates you can save nearly 30% of the cost of using gas compression cooling only.

1. It sounds like you have some problems with the military in this country and people exercising their constitutional rights? 2. I think your perception is a little off. I worked their for a while and none of them openly carry real guns. They are strapped with and walk around carrying tasers not actual guns. Actual guns are available but they are not carried on patrol by the security staff. 3. I worked there as a customer for half a decade under sun microsystems and then an employee for a while after that and the staff was never anything less than helpful and willing to bend over backwards to help any of the customers. The security staff are cordial but firm as it should be. They are all (every single one of them) are nice guys and not one of them are "alpha male psychopaths" They simply have rules and directives that are imposed on the facility as a matter of policy and it is their job to make sure that everyone and everyones property stays safe and secure. 4. They have a big responsibility as every cage in almost every part of all of their facilities across the valley is filled mostly with what would be considered the most high profile targets for any data thief

This part of the story is actually true. (I worked there for a short while after the sun microsystems buyout by oracle was finalized and most of the grid/cloud business unit staff was cut) They have a very extensive network of dark fiber as well as on-premise peering available in their data centers with most of the tier 1 isp's in this country

Sorry but you are very, very wrong. The las vegas valley is completely full of huge high tech data centers collocating it services for companies all over the country (including the US federal government) Not even counting any of the external colo that's happening there where do you think the IT infrastructure is that supports all of those mega-casinos? These Datacenters! Sun microsystems had "Sun Cloud" facilities in three separate NAP data centers including the supernap and nearly every large it org that you've ever heard of has a presence in their facilities as well. I moved to las vegas because I traveled so much to and from there working on these projects that I never saw my family.

http://switchnap.com/pages/tech-specs/thermal-scif.php for several years they have been using what they call "T-scif" (thermal separate compartment in facility) to do what google is showing here for us (sun/oracle) for many years.