Either this one slipped by passed the majority of mods, or I have a warped sense of humour. If I had any mod-points, this would definately get +5 Funny.

I guess that the original post really doesn't understand what TPM is, and has subscribed to the 'conspiracy theory' brigade. What would be the reason for avoiding the chip altogether, when it is quite possible to disable the functionality.

As a self-confessed privacy freak, I'd love a TPM module in my home machine - sadly I have not located a source of the module at a sensible price. I did, however, have it on an old laptop, and (under linux at least) found its functionality very positive. Then again, it was under a non-commercial OS, and I had full control over it.

What I *don't* understand is UEFI - mainly because I have no hardware to hack with. However, that appears at first glance to be more problematic for me to hack, since it seems only MS are able to sign the bootloader. Not a problem with TPM.

In short, it is not the presence or absence of the chip that the OP needs to think about - it is the software that is installed and used.

Stop this - RIGHT NOW.

Mitochondria do not have DNA, therefore the UK is not creating babies using the DNA from three people.

Mitochondria are being transferred whole, and contain RNA.

I know this is slashdot, and we must expect inaccurate reporting of scientific and technical subjects - but really...

Another very happy user of Zotero here. I have tried Jabref, which I like for it's simplicity, but I find it lacks functionality. There was another on-line collaborative site (beginning with 'C'?) that I tried briefly, and abandoned. I have probably tried several others also - though this is the first time that I have heard of Mendeley...

To be honest, the only downside that I can think of about using Zotero is that it is a Firefox plugin, and we are (supposed to) have a purely MSIE environment on the workstations here due to IT policy. This is easily fixed using Portable Apps.

Other than that, there is nothing that I would want any bibliography organiser to to that Zotero cannot. No - on second thoughts, as I think it only comes with pluging for MS Word and Open Office, it could probably do with some 'magic glue' to integrate it with LyX...

Sorry - but I think you are missing a major point here.

This is all about how media content is delivered to the consumer. DRM is *supposed* to be about Rights Management. The problem is that the media companies consider this to be achievable through copy protection. CDs, DVD/Blueray are fast becoming extinct - which annoys me greatly. From their point of view, copy protection doesn't work. For a consumer to hire a disc, then rip it before returning the product back to the store, is piracy - and shouldn't be condoned. For anyone owning the disc, however, the copy process is legitimate, and (in my experience) essential.

The media companies have lost this battle - so the tactics have changed. The new battle lines are to do with streaming media. If you subscribe to Netflix, iTunes and the like, then you own nothing. You are renting the service, not the media, and are locked into their T&C - which will probably prohibit downloading and converting to a different format if you subsequently buy a non-supported device.

Therefore, by default (and whether you like it or not), by subscribing to any of these streaming services you are supporter of DRM. You are also contributing to the demise of the physical product.

Firstly, because the D.P.A. 1998 is *UK* law, which (as far as I can see) has no relevance to FB (usual IANAL applies). Try looking at the D.P.A. 1988 & the Amendment Act 2003. If you're interested, keep your eyes posted on the outcome of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner's report into FB.

Secondly, if you believe that the Data Protection Act has anything at all to do with the *Protection* of your personal data, in regard to it's distribution to other parties, then you are a complete and utter naive fool. At least as far as the UK Act is concerned, it serves to

• legalise the practice of data retention and distribution;
• Allow recourse for you to correct inaccurate data; and
• allow the Government to make money by "registering" any company that needs to store data.

Forgive my cynicism, but it is simply another method of extracting 'Tax' from companies who need to store client details, and does almost nothing about protecting the availability of data that you may consider to be personal.

Although I can't comment on the iRiver Story, I do have the Cover Story. For anyone interested, these are my thoughts on it:

The technical specs were (for me) pretty much perfect. It was most definitely a purchase made on specs, rather than having the product in my hand prior to buying it. But I have a lot of niggles - which renders the device somewhat less than perfect...

First, the good stuff. DRM is not an issue - for me, at least. That is an Adobe thing, and I don't have any DRM'd PDFs. The device should handle most of the (normal) formats you can throw at it. It is touch screen, with WiFi.

But that's all. Forget the "Open Source" crap. Sure, it's linux. But the download link is an odd .jpg of the GNU preamble, with an iframe for the actual license text. The links to sources are odd javascript, pointing to old versions hosted god-knows where. I can't see the tool-chain and anything else required to actually compile a working binary. Not that that would help, because I haven't worked out how to gain root access - which you need to. The fonts installed are useless for anything other than standard US English (major complaint).

What else? Crap battery life. Turn off the WiFi, and you might get 24 hours of reading time (but I can't). I know some people complain about the touch screen, but I can live with that, just.

All in all, the average user should avoid this device like the plague. Hell, I'd even recommend the kindle above this, at least for usability (despite the kindle/1984 intrusion). *If* someone manages to write a HOWTO about jailbreaking it, and compiling user software (or iRiver have a more helpful attitude), then it *might* be an interesting toy. DRM on this device is so insignificant a problem that you can ignore it - I suspect that Google would not really want to promote this ability, anyway. It's the encrypted kernel firmware that gets my goat.

... of what format *should* be used in its place.

It is all very well claiming one format is not particularly good, but overall rather pointless if you don't argue an alternative.

So the question any .ogg user will have (since they probably chose this slightly obscure format over the more 'normal' .mp3 alternative due to the reputation of being better to listen to from an audiophile POV) is what to use instead? FLAC is fine if you have the space, but sometimes you want to compromise in order to save storage space...

Let me see, now...

"Armed Robot Drones to Join UK Police Force"

Since most of the current ones seem to be mindless automatons who shoot to kill innocent civilians, I fail to see how this will be a change to the current situation... With the possible exception that, of course, it would be ludicrous to put a machine in the dock before declaring that there was no case to answer...

You either have not read the article, or have no concept of pharmacology (or, possibly, both).

The quantity of 240mg per day is meaningless. What we are interested in is: 240mg *of what*? Try taking a daily dose of 240mg of Foxglove extract; or Ergot infected wheat. I think you'll find quite a profound effect!

This particular study used "Ginko Biloba Extract". All well and good - but what, precisely, was extracted (and what was, therefore, thrown away)? From the manufacturers website:

Therefore, by my maths, this study used an extract equivalent to 12 gram of dried leaf per day; a pretty reasonable dose - certainly considering that the same company sells 40mg capsules of EGb 761®. More importantly, patients received a *standardised* extract; We're not talking about Holland & Barrett bargain cheapo tea-leaves here!

It's a rather interesting article. Rather less surprisingly, the manufacturer of the product used in the study has not updated their "latest News" section to include these results!