I have a 21" CRT secondary and a 46" LCD-TV primary. Used to be a pair of 21's, but I lucked into an upgrade. Now I just have to sit reeeealllllyyy far back.

However, my highest monitor count (not counting kvm's, xwindows, virtual desktops, vnc sessions, etc etc blah) was 4. 21/21/17/14. Two for browsing, one for coding, one for MUDding. Ah, those were the days.

Of course, I had to buy a second desk to have room to do anything, but that's a different story...

The surface of the earth could very well feed everyone, if it wasn't for profit hungry empires trying to prop up their inefficient business models along with their inefficient farming methods.

And I hope your troll mod wasn't for pointing out that the ethanol regulations drove up food prices, because you're right, it did. The problem with ethanol is it's based on corn, which is just about the most inefficient source of it. But a profit hungry empire is trying to prop up their inefficient business model, so here we are, suddenly having rising food prices because all the corn is going into ethanol. Base it on something better (hemp/algae/prairie grass), all of which can be grown on less desirable land, and watch prices fall while still maintaining the biofuel component.

Oh, wait, can't have that, those products don't have an empire yet...

Bah, humbug.
Does this mean we can PLEASE break up/ditch/ignore the Corn Cartel... sorry, lobbying group... which is probably the single biggest reason that biofuel is expensive and inefficient and such a bad idea?
Although I'm unhappy to see Shells move, I can't blame them... they aren't really a R&D outfit, and other startups are taking over the role of expanding wind/hydro/solar and making it profitable. Now, if they would just dump all that money into deciding that algae (or, gasp, hemp!) is a much more efficient biofuel, and help get rid of Big Corn, then everyone could win...

48 hours plus? Pft. I'm running that right now.
Chronic insomnia, and pills just screw with my head too much. So I frequently skip a night or two of sleep. I'm used to it. I can go up to 3 days before I start to feel any effects or need caffeine. Back in my university days, I figured out the admin code to the coffee machine, since I was told "if you can hack it, you can have it". 2 litre bottles of cafe mocha = no sleep for a week.
In other news, my fiance can fall asleep in less than 5 minutes, and I hate her for it with a fiery, burning passion.

We do. It's called the sun. We're just too impatient to wait for the energy to collect, and too impractical to put serious effort into collecting it.

I thought I'd seen it all. OMGPonies... a front page filled with nothing but XP bashing... etc etc etc...

But, seriously. A front page story complaining that you could /download/ something? Sweet zombie jesus on a stick, WTF is wrong with you guys??? "I could download this thing... I think I'll write to /. about it!".

Articles like this make me firmly believe that we should start allowing natural selection again.

On a similar and yet much cooler note, I encourage everyone to visit www.Expedition360.com , a most awesome site about a brits attempt to circumnavigate the globe only via unsuplemented human power. Read through the entire diary and you'll feel like you've read a great and fufilling book. Highly, highly recommended.

I know the point you're trying to make, I just think it's a load of shit. For many reasons, the foremost of which being that software is a different beast than other normal products for which one could validly consider bundling to be an antitrust action. The bottom line of an OS is that you NEED a browser in order to get online to get your choice of browser. Simply not bundling a browser is not the answer, because 50% of the populace is too dumb, or somehow not easily able, to get a browser loaded onto their system on their own. And it creates a ridiculous overhead too. You think the Mozilla Foundation can afford to print and send CDs all over the globe? Or are you just going to trust the guy at the Quik-E-Mart who burned you a copy of Firefox when he says he didn't put a trojan in there?

Yes, IE may suck, but a new computer needs a starting point, and IE is it. And as long as MS doesn't do something to stop you from loading any browser of your choice, there's really no reason to bitch.

And if you want Firefox/Safari/every other browser in existance loaded on to Windows, does that mean you're in favour of the same thing being done to *nix? I wonder how big those distro downloads will be with 50 browsers preloaded. And I wonder how confused all the noobs and old folks will be when they go to open the internet and there's 50 different icons there staring at them, and every one behaves differently.

Forced browser bundling is a retarded idea. Everyone has choice now, and that's what counts.

I'd like to live in your fictional universe. That would be great.

MS in NO WAY stops Mozilla, or Apple, or anyone else, from loading their browser onto Windows. Anyone can go and load up any browser they damn well feel like. Ergo, MS is not using their position to harm anyones ability to sell (or give away) browsers.

Seriously... should we next force Coke to include a can of Pepsi in every 6-pack?

I know, let's just remove IE from Windows entirely... oh, wait, how would people go download Firefox or Safari or Chrome then?

This crap just drives me nuts... an OS needs to have a browser included. The fact that so many people stay with IE isn't a result of evil dominance, it's a result of people being to lazy to install something new. MS is in no way stopping people from using FF or GC or AS or anything else, and until they are, I really wish people would STFU and stop this pointless whining.

I really hope MS does start shipping a EU version of Windows, sans browser, and with a little note coming up to say "thank you for trying to access the internet. The EU has prohibited us from helping you with this. Please go find a CD of Firefox and then install it. Hope you don't live in a rural area!"

Reading through others' comments, I remembered:
- In NYC at least, there's a city-wide censorware blacklist run by the Board of Ed. If that's the case where you are, find a way to bypass it, immediately. There were constant mishaps. For example, one teacher had a curriculum based around students' use of Goodreads. One day early in the term, goodreads.com got blacklisted as a social networking site. Many phone calls to the censors were needed.

- It's much easier to troubleshoot issues if the students all use one login - "student" works well.

- Students shouldn't be able to save files to their local desktop. That said, sometimes the network will be down and they need a way to save their work. Flash drives aren't an option in that environment.

- Having a way to update to the most recent version of Flash is often a surprisingly necessary thing to do. Most of the content at www.pbs.org, for instance, is Flash-based.

I worked for a program that brought computers into inner-city schools in NYC. I was responsible for overseeing two computer labs that received after-school use, and a dozen laptops that went in a rolling media cart. The laptops were running Edubuntu. I was on a six-month contract and so I don't have as many answers as I'd like, but here's a few lessons learned.

MOST IMPORTANT:
- You can't give the school computers, particularly running Linux, and walk off - even if the teachers are tech-savvy (most will not be). Your project will die off quickly if you don't make a long-term commitment to support it.

Edubuntu-specific:
- Linux support for wireless drivers is less than perfect. Skip wireless, or test thoroughly. Flaky wireless gave our Edubuntu project a poor reputation very quickly.
- Also test the printer drivers.
- Many schools have inane requirements that you'll need to support. For instance, our program required that the students be tested using software from Scholastic that was Windows-only and made of fail. The school neglected to tell us that this was a requirement at the time we decided to go with Edubuntu. We also weren't told that they'd want them for a comics-making course - there's no comic-making software for Linux.

More generically:
- Everything not nailed down will walk off. Not just mice and power cables, but even stupid things like monitor-to-PC VGA cables walk. Make laptops get checked in and out. The cables connecting peripherals to desktops should be inaccessible to users.
- 3 out of your 4 non-ruggedized laptops will need replacing after a year.