"while Google's search engine 'prevents them from making decent money online — by massively fragmenting traffic, by undermining brand power, and by turning news stories into fungible commodities.'"

- How about offering accidental readers incentive to visit your main page more often?
- How about leveraging Google's search results to boost your own brand power?

If you wait on Google to boost your own brand then you're doing it wrong.
And it's the newspapers that treat news as commodities, not Google.

Let's not lay the blame for mainstream newspapers' failure to grasp the 21st century.

So, it would be the Kool Desktop Environment Plasma Desktop.
Thank you department of redundancy department.

Welcome to the rest of the world.
It's often that us non US-people only get a sparse page with a few fields to enter your data in, only to find out that the service you thought you were registering for doesn't work yet in your country.

Call it phishing if you like, but it's par for the course. It's just that you US-ians don't notice it as often.

And the """funny""" thing is, that downloading music and movies isn't even illegal in The Netherlands. It's the act of uploading that is.

But so far no one else decided to patent "giant searchbox with two buttons beneath it, and some tiny lettering at the bottom and a menu system at the top". And if someone did, you could easily say "Prior Art".
So why do so now? It doesn't make any sense.

In the Netherlands carrying personal ID is mandatory. So I can't keep my passport in a safe deposit box. Sadly.

Also, check the driver before get in the car. Is it still the same person as when you entered the bank? Is it even the same car?

You know, you could get charged with carjacking too, while you only attempted to rob a bank.

I cracked the screen, am I now also an outlaw?

yes, but does it run on Linux?

What a shocker, Microsoft releases something using that dangerous viral license GPL. Well at least, dangerous and viral according to Microsoft.

you can't take the sky from me.

fact (plural facts)

      1. An honest observation.
      2. Something actual as opposed to invented.
                    In this story, the Gettysburg Address is a fact, but the rest is fiction.
      3. Something which has become real.
                    The promise of television became a fact in the 1920s.
      4. Something concrete used as a basis for further interpretation.
                    Let's look at the facts of the case before deciding.
      5. An objective consensus on a fundamental reality that has been agreed upon by a substantial number of people.
                    There is no doubting the fact that the Earth orbits the Sun.
      6. Information about a particular subject.
                    The facts about space travel.

Microsoft adds this to the list:
      7. Something Microsoft pulls out of their asses.
                    "Get the facts".

They have given bogus 'facts' about their software offerings with regards to Linux, and now to Firefox. Do they think we're idiots? Are they really that scared about competition? That they need to resort to outright lying? How can you build a trust-relationship with them, if you can't trust them when they come out with 'facts'? What happened to ethics?

It's genuine, alright. Both the ad I was talking about and this website.
Yes it's a horrible looking site, but it is linked from Asus' own website. So it's legit in my eyes.

From ASUS's website:
http://www.asus.co.uk/eeepc/1008HA/features.html
"It's better with Windows

The Eee PC 1008HA comes pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows XP Home and Microsoft Works. With Windows XP, you can be sure that your Eee PC will be compatible with your existing Windows applications and devices. Windows XP is also easy to use and delivers a dependable experience that Microsoft and a worldwide community of partners stand behind. Visit www.ItsBetterwithWindows.com to find out more."

And this slogan on their site:
"ASUS recommends Windows for everyday computing "

Money has changed hands here. Big money.

I have a Linux magazine at home, with an ASUS ad for their laptops on the back of it, saying "ASUS recommends Windows Vista".

But they are going to lose my patronage with this slap in the face of the people that helped make the new netbook segment a success.

Which Bono?
U2 Bono?
Or Sonny Bono?