I agree with you. Donations are BY FAR cheaper than any contract with a corporation. Of course, support service has its price, one has to pay for the services received.
Besides, those contracts between the State and corporations ALMOST ALWAYS lead to corruption, which in turn leads to more and more money spent on bureaucracy.
This is, indeed, the biggest problem open source has: there is no fee for politicians, which means there is less possibility of corruption in between due to the lack of corporations willing to contribute in exchange of contracts.

Nevertheless, I think open source software will continue its growth as these last years. I'm on favor of open source software and its way of doing business.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126145280820801177.html
They wouldn't find an elephant in a two-meter square room.
It seems they're hiding info, self interests implicated maybe?

Apparently those tens of millions of dollars would have been on holiday somewhere around Cayman Islands, hehehe!

On the other hand, I've found no mention in WSJ article to child pornography. Where did that come from? It only rests to say these thieves are terrorists and are supposed to be linked to al-qaeda.

At least is much less than the amount that was paid to rescue US banks during the last crisis by US people.

It's quite straightforward, man. They discover a mathematical pattern that can be used to kill more enemies(a.k.a. people)

Now, THAT'S USEFUL! (if you can't see the irony you're blind)

I think the instantaneous question after this report was published would be: Why in hell money is spent in such a pointless research? (pointless for people who pay the research, of course). Aren't there more important or necessary thing to spend the money?
Anyway, more of the same..

I agree!
I've been working for about 6 years in the IT market, and have seen many companies. I really don't think there exist gender issues in the IT market, apart from specific cases.

I think someone is looking for problems where there there are none!!
Besides, WHY has to be as many women as men in the IT industry? It's completely pointless. If you are a woman/man and want to work in the IT business I think you have equal chances.
Using the criteria this article proposes, one could say Kindergarden industry discriminates men, because it's proven that more than 99% of kindergarden teachers are women (at least in my country). In fact, it's rare to find a kindergarden teacher man. We (men) can say the same about:
* Hairdresser's shop
* Manicures/pedicures
* Baby sitters
* Clothes Stores
* Perfume Stores
* House keeping and other employment services
* Secretaries / Executive Secretaries
* Human Resources

..among many others, which is in fact stupid.
If you cannot develop yourself in the industry you want then complain, otherwise "GET-A-LIFE"! In my humble opinion, IT industry does not discriminate genders.

You're right, man! Maybe if an embargo takes place over them and they're isolated from the world for, let say, 50 years they'd finally understand that the US are the good boys.. (because they're evil and therefore they deserve it like all other evil countries). Oops, I am a bit late.. embargo already took place XD

Shakrai, I don't know if I'm right, but I think you definitively are not correct. You're suggesting that the US should """help""" other countries because those countries would not be able to overthrow their dictatorships.. as usual: how kind of them.
Of course, let forget some MINOR issues such as Honduras, where everything is ok with the "new government". And, of course don't ever mention the chaos that the US has contributed to in Latin America during last 100 years.
In my humble opinion, things would be a bit better if the US takes its hands off Cuba and let them work on their own country. But that's just me..

I fully and strongly agree with you!
WHO would be the head of such an organization? WHO/Which country will decide what to do and which are the rules? (of course the answer to that is implicit nowadays..)

Such an organization could be the first step, being the second to suppress the rights to privacy (of course, in order to find who are breaking the law among many other things..). Because if that organization is created, WHO will be able to stand against them if they decide to override the right to privacy? The answer is quite straightforward: NO-BO-DY.
It's simply UNACCEPTABLE!
A Global Cyber Police Force would be a Dictatorship.

I agree.
There's nothing like and old-fashion kick in the ass to show them the way. =P
I think instead of doing a research on why are virtual worlds bad for minors they should put the money on finding why are minors allowed to do so.

A couple of years ago it was used to give money to children, so they could go to the cibercafe and bother someone else. Now happens the same at home, some parents give their children whatever they want not to be bothered (not to take their responsibilities, I'd rather say..).
Then, when that child does something wrong they just find someone to blame (government, school, bad friends, anybody but them)

Education is the key, for both parents and children; specially for parents, who should educate their children.

Hey, young fellow! Don't worry about Windows 7 problems! M$ is now working on Windows 8 to solve older Windows problems. Just wait for Windows 8! =P

Despite the serious failures Windows has, it's a bit naive to believe ALL malware would be neutralized on Windows 7 (or any other OS, to be fair), considering ALL previous Windows releases.

On the other hand, this kind of problems (black/blue screens, and stuff) have always been characteristic of Windows. If you don't like it use another OS, or stop complaining about this on each Windows release.

In summary, this problem is more of the same..

suprnova -> mininova -> ultranova
XD

Come oon!! They're preparing a Christmas party! XD

You seem very funny!
But if you think a couple of minutes you'd realize what I say is not so crazy at all, specially because it'd be on them whether or not you can access your data (I mean on Google or another company, for me there's no difference unless the company is mine)
Giving them your data creates a dependency, therefore you would be relying on the "good will" of a corporation, which main purpose is to get as much money as possible (as every corporation/company in the world).

Again, I think the idea is pretty cool at some point and can be a suitable solution for some people. It's not for me nowadays.

I agree with you that Google for sure has better backup policies than most users, but in the end is YOUR data and it's on YOU to take care of it. The key point I'm trying to emphasize is that Google IS-A-PRIVATE-COMPANY. We all like its services and the way they treat their employees (personally I would like very much to work in Google), but in the end Google is ruled by money as every company does, which means in the end they will take decisions for THEIR benefit.
In my opinion, private data of users must remain as such as long as they want.

Call me paranoiac! Call me antique! Tell me whatever you want, but THEY MUST BE OUT OF THEIR MINDS if they think I would leave ALL my stuff on THEIR SERVERS.
It might be faster than blinking, but I simply DO-NOT-LIKE the paradigm they're trying to spread.

It reminds me the "old" ATM machines, when a mainframe did all the processing. I guess I don't have to recall it was a bank who owned the mainframe and that you must pay them periodically.

I think the idea of avoiding the startup delay is really cool, but has a SMALL detail.. data is stored on GOOGLE servers, which means if Google powers down their servers you cannot access your data.
Tomorrow Google could say, "ok, since now you must pay to use our services.." And that's when you regret your decisions. I haven't mentioned the fact they can do whatever they want with the data in their servers (yeah.. yeah.. the data confidentiality agreement - i don't think so).

Nevertheless, I think it might be suitable for some people in some cases. Computers would require less hardware, which is a pro.

In summary, I like the idea of speed up the OS, but I think some stuff is private property and must remain as such (at least for my stuff).