...stuff was worse than the anti-tech stuff. Dances With Wolves in space. Bah. Hollywood hates the culture and technology that allow it to exist. Don't waste your money, go see Sherlock Holmes.

will be my first. I have seen some entertaining ads (for example during the Super Bowl), but never one I considered useful.

"Also, rumors about similar tanks are in the works... that are so overengineered that they tried to break it and couldn't (experimental model)." I for one welcome the arrival of the Bolos.

...let God sort 'em out. At least that's my policy.

...built in, in line spell check, now that every other frikin' browser on the planet has one. And how about the ability to make permanent exceptions for sites with mismatching SSL certs so I don't get a warning message every time I access webmin on my linux server on my home network? Seriously, most of the time I'm on the web I'm in Gmail or on a forum. Spell check is not a luxury, its a necessity. Speed and Acid 3 compliance do not keep me using Firefox, spell check, and adblock do.

...tell you how much electricity your TV set can use or how much water your toilet can use per flush, has the power to do anything.

What is it about Mersenne Primes that makes finding a new one worth $100k? Is there an intrinsic value to the number or is it just one of those things that are so hard to do, like running a world's record hundred meters, that the effort and talent to do it merits a rewarded?

ATT offered users an unlimited data plan, no wait, they required one with an iPhone. Now the problems with ATT's network are the fault of those selfish users who took ATT's offer seriously. Give me a break. ATT is rolling in money from iPhone, they should use it to build out their network.

For $36/head you get 1gig of data storage vs. Google at $50/head gets you 25gig of storage. I have no idea how Notes has survived as long as it has. Crap hardly begins to either the notes client or server.

...=! Indian. ==Russian. That is all.

...is it s diffuse and decentralized nature, a network of networks, not a single network. An organization or individual with the power to "fix" the internet would have the power to destroy it or lock it down.

Downloaded the latest Chrome Beta (3.0.195.4), installed AdSweep, failed to be impressed. AdSweep loads ads the first time you visit a page in a session then erases them, highly annoying. The biggest problem I had was that I failed to notice any speed difference between Chrome and Firefox 3.5.2 on the sites I visit. If anything my non-scientific observation was that with AdSweep loaded, Chrome was significantly slower than Firefox.

Some of you are saying: so don't use it, media monkey or some other program manages it just as well. That may be true, but its not the whole story. I'm talking about syncing with other apps not just with the iPod functionality in iPhone. What about syncing my calendar, or my contacts? Or syncing an application that reads and writes office documents? And look I've tried a bunch of stuff Media Monkey, Double Twist etc, and all of them either require some other BS (DT requires an account with them, it won't just run locally, MM actually requires an install of iTunes for the driver, DT may too). And I still have to have iTunes to back up my apps and data.

Additionally, nothing is seamless because APL tries to lock everything out, everything is going through some back door, its a kludge. Instead of one application to worry about I have two. APL needs to publish an interface and let people write to it for syncing, tune management, even sales of apps. Why couldn't the iTunes store let other apps access their content?

I love my iPhone, I wouldn't trade it. But my biggest problem is not the software the phone runs (or doesn't run), its being locked in to using iTunes. I hate it, I want to use something else, but Apple has locked me out. Don't want me to run stuff on the phone because the network (ATT) does not want to support it? I almost understand that. Don't want me to run software you haven't checked to make sure the user experience it up to par? Really? Don't want me to use software of my choice to allow two pieces of hardware I own to interact with each other (PC to iPhone)? That's pretty evil.

That was only the first of many companies that will vote with its feet. You can't propose enormous increases in taxation without consequences. Besides, businesses don't pay tax. Never have and never will, its just a pass through. Oh I know about all the demand curve arguments, quantity demanded is simply lower (because price is higher) and the tax companies actually pay is a function of how inelastic the demand curve is. The more inelastic the more of the tax they can pass through.

But think about it. 1) Every dollar in tax paid by a company came from a consumer ultimately. 2) If the company is unable to fully pass through the price increase necessary to compensate for the tax increase and quantity demand decreases, who takes it in the neck? That's right, costs must be cut and that usually means layoffs. So a large group of consumers are going to bear the tax in the form of price increases or a small group will bear the tax in the form of layoffs.

So to this case, either Ballmer finds a way to avoid what is effectively a tax increase, or his customers and employees will pay it.