Innate talent can easily be squandered when it is not focused in the right direction. Someone had once said (and I mean a famous person) -- "Success is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration"
In other words, intelligent hard-work is the key to success in any field.

Based on Murdoch's track-record, it seems like none of what he would define as "News outlet" would actually qualify as being bona-fide Journalistic entities. Take Fox News for that matter...they don't report news, they manufacture it. I am certain all of Murdoch's "News outlets" are manufacturers of News. I guess that does qualify them as "News outlets" sans the Journalism.

So it is not very clear why he is mad at Search engines for distributing. Isn't the fact that one is able to distribute one's propaganda for free a dream-come-true for a Propagandist? What else does he expect now? Google should pay him $$$ for the garbage that his "News Outlets" produce?!? :o

Maybe this is not such a bad thing afterall. The Linux kernel seemed to do well without any corporate tinkering. Why can't OpenSolaris simply carry on into whichever direction things take it, independent of Oracle.

Projects like Crossbow, NPIV etc are integral parts of OpenSolaris, stuff that is missing from stock Solaris afaik, so what is to prevent the community from building on this solid base and reaching new heights?

One major component of mathematics is Set Theory and database programming uses Set Theory for unions, joins, etc. So yeah, Math knowledge is needed. On the other hand, mundane programming doesn't really need too much Math background, especially of the formulaic/formula-driven part of Math. What is needed is a sound understanding of Boolean algebra (which is what Digital Electronics --> Building blocks of Electronic computing needs), and thereby Logic. Do you need too much math background to do bubble-sorting, etc? Perhaps not.

Applications that are calculation intensive (statistical programs, scientific applications etc) do need Math background, but not necessarily beyond basic University level (provided there are statisticians, scientists who provide the underlying Math to the developer).

Would that then qualify Security patches as being "enhancements" or would they still be "bug-fixes" (irrespective of whether the bugs were hitherto known or unknown)?

Since we live in a Global marketplace and all major players are playing at the global level, the playing field is automatically leveled! Companies have to follow and adhere by a common set of rules (moral & ethical first, eventually legal)...which would remove the gray area vis-a-vis ethics and their subjectivity.

There are far better avenues of revenue-generation/augmentation than nickel&diming the user community for security patches.

This is the most absurd piece of news I've come across this year! Why on earth should I pay to have Oracle/Sun fix their own bugs?
Obviously Security flaws are bugs. If any security vulnerabilities are identified, they should be ethically and morally obligated (ie assuming that the legal angle is unenforceable) to fix these and distribute the patches for free.

Isn't there anything called accountability/responsibility left any more?!? We are a huge Sun shop and one of the reasons we loved Sun so much is the fact that it was not a blood-sucker when it came to things like patches, software, etc. Unlike a company like HP, who charged for everything from multipathing software to UNIX resource mgt tools (which should be defacto standard of any mature OS).

Indeed. There is in fact an entire industry revolving filtration of water in India, using various technologies such as reverse osmosis filtration and UV radiation, made affordable to most of India's urban and well-to-do rural sections.

There are indigenous and traditional techniques being used today (as sort of a revival movement) in Rainwater harvesting etc to offset the effects of Global Warming. In India's case specifically global warming is a modern phenomenon. The British rule of India resulted in massive restructuring of India's native infrastructure systems. One such case is the destruction of a very elaborate and intricate irrigation network (using canals and small dams) to introduce the Railway system. A direct result of this was the death of millions in the Famines of Bengal in the 19th century (a holocaust-proportion extermination due to "Globalization") that no one talks about these days.

What does this have to do with Global Warming? It is simply an example to demonstrate that "Industrial" activity has been very detrimental to climate since early 19th Century (won't mass-scale Famines qualify) and is not really that new a phenomenon. What's new is that there is awareness among the victims of Global warming, which naturally draws the line between them and the culprits (and their representatives).

In my current shop, we manage close to 400 os images, about 200+ servers, > .5 Petabytes of Storage, > 20TB of backups/day and have only 5 FTEs and 2 contractors.

A lot of the FTE to Server/User ratio depends on how organized your shop is. If you have managed to automate most of your SA activities, it's not unusual for 3-4 FTEs to manage a 1000 server shop.

The key words are:

1) Standardization of platform (have at the most 2 or 3 platforms, chosen for specific roles)
2) Standardization of OS/Build (have 2 or 3 OSes you can manage well, eg: Solaris, Linux)
3) Standardized Architecture (define your architecture and stick to it -- SAN, TAN, etc)
4) Automation tools (such as a good monitoring solution, Fault Management system, etc)
5) A good analytics tool (such as splunk, which will simplify your life with automatic log indexing, parsing).

In an organization with centralized resources (trends have been gravitating towards centralized infrastructure, datacenter consolidation etc), this becomes easier. In a distributed IT shop it is harder.

one of the most profound discoveries I made in course of studying philosophy was the concept of Categorical Frameworks. A categorical framework is that which provides a primer for translating subjective experience into objective syntax. In other words, everything that we use to communicate in this world depends on a categorical framework.

The next more profound thing to be realized is that this categorical framework is not shared across the globe (or across various species). As a result, any one culture or civilization's world-view and philosophy will be significantly different from that of another. For eg the Categorical Framework of the Native Americans was vastly different from that of the European Settlers. The fact that the Europeans won doesn't automatically mean that their framework was better or more accurate than that of the Natives'.

This is the basis of the movie Avatar, and if you apply the concept of Categorical Frameworks to the story, you will see that what it's trying to do is emphasize that it is not a good idea to force one's ideas (Categorical Framework) down another's throat. And in intercultural interactions, sensitivity to the fact that there IS NO Universal common ground is very important.

We can learn from this in our interactions with the rest of the world (including the natural world) and then perhaps we will have a more respectful attitude towards those that seem different from us.

Er...that's because it was an UGO (Unconfirmed Ground Orifice)

Wonder what'll happen after 2012... :o