A significant portion of that $1.13 billion is actually coming from Nfld. and Lab. as a result of a really stupid set of deals negotiated around Churchill Falls back in the 1960's. Quebec never seems to remember that they are screwing Nfld. and Lab. out of millions every year. So, really, those electrons should be speaking Newfy.

The most common thing that I see in chemistry is that online resources are used to post powerpoint slides for first year courses. This is mostly done as a concession to placate students who complain that they can't follow the lecture if they don't have something to follow. Fair enough I suppose. The problem comes when students then go to study for exams and think that a few collections of what amounts to flash-cards are sufficient to study from and are shocked when not a single question on the exam ever appeared in lecture (though all of the concepts were there, and all of the concepts were explained in even more detail in the textbook).

An alternative perspective is that the research faculty want the hopeless cases to realize as soon as possible that their niche is not in the subject that the professor teaches, and are teaching primarily to the better students. Why do you think med. schools in North America still want students to jump through the hoop of first year chemistry? Is it because every MD out there needs to know how to titrate? Or is it because if you can't even learn something as trivial as titration, the med. schools know that your chances of safely learning about surgery, anaesthetics, and prescription medication (including doses) are almost zero.

Just to clarify for the AC, system 76 sells/ships laptops, desktops, and servers with Ubuntu. If you are a linux user or feel like you might be ready to take the plunge, this is a good place to start. At least their systems are fully linux compatible. Even if you don't like ubuntu and have some other pet distribution, it has a better chance of working on one of these than if you get a windows laptop and flush the hard drive to install linux. Bonus: no windows tax, and no money to MS (except for possible hidden patent trolling on hardware or firmware).

So, can this also bust DRM schemes like the system in bd+?

Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll was kind of a fun read ... compares to Cryptonomicon the way The Hobbit compares to LOTR.

You seem to be suggesting that there is some sort of double standard. So tell me, when was the last time that you heard of Google sending their armed law enforcement agents to a private residence to arrest someone? We hold corporations and governments to different standards because they have different powers and different duties. Part of the duties of a government are to protect the rights of citizens and individuals (often from corporations). This sort of legislation betrays the trust that we are supposed to be able to have for our government.

In some cases (like my dad or old boss) it would have to morph into one giant key positioned under the index finger of the right hand and magically map to the correct letter for each key press.

Will it stay on after the zombie apocalypse? Stupid context, but seriously, if the smart grid is going to be able to talk to my fridge and potentially let some hacker melt my icecream, that means it will have a lot of complexity to it. With that level of complexity (and invested time/money) it damn well better stay on for a bit if it has to be left unattended.

yes, but Basil is faulty

Yeah ... Star Control 2 was an awesome game.

A bit like the hype that comes out for months (or years in the case of "longhorn") BEFORE the release of any new version of windows. I guess consumer computing likes to have a bit of balance.

Just in case anyone was wondering. It would be nice if editors would get into the habit of making sure that the front page summaries had a definition of these TLA's in at least 10% of the posted articles. TLS == three letter acronym, by the way.

Why was this comment labeled offtopic? "ping" is one of the most basic commands on Unix-like systems. It even works on a Mac. It's the first thing that came to mind when I read the title. It also has uses in online gaming. At the very least I could see some concern for potential trademark confusion (even if you'd have to be some sort of SCO to try an sue Apple over it.) Currently, if you plug "ping" into wikipedia search, it's the Unix command that comes up by default (though that will probably change soon).

Anyway "ping" already has some well established (and very specific) meaning in the computer world. I'm surprised Apple would choose that specific word for their newest gimmick. Especially since it is already loaded with such uncool, geeky history.