Just FYI, the political calls are not restricted by the Do Not Call lists.

From the FTC website ( http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt107.shtm ):

Q&A # 28
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"If I register my number on the National Do Not Call Registry, will it stop all telemarketing calls?

No. Placing your number on the National Do Not Call Registry will stop most telemarketing calls, but not all. Because of limitations in the jurisdiction of the FTC and FCC, calls from or on behalf of political organizations, charities, and telephone surveyors would still be permitted, as would calls from companies with which you have an existing business relationship, or those to whom you’ve provided express agreement in writing to receive their calls. However, if you ask a company with which you have an existing business relationship to place your number on its own do-not-call list, it must honor your request. You should keep a record of the date you make the request."
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Couldn't you just use Outlook's web interface instead? Otherwise you could use RDP or Citrix or any number of other methods for remote access to a Win server that has Outlook on it.

APT still asks, just the default answer is "Yes" where with Yum its "No". So if you don't enter anything and just hit "Enter" it will do what ever the default was. I actually think having "No" as a default is better. After all, you can just run the command again if you accidentally hit Enter with out entering "y" first.

I get 42 MPG average with my 2002 VW Golf TDI. It is very responsive and I have only ever seen the black smoke once or twice a year when starting in very cold conditions, and then only for the first few (~5 - 8) seconds. It is a bit louder but not bad, and even with diesel costing more then gas these days it is still much more economical then our other vehicle. My biggest complaint is a VW specific thing, ok two complaints. The first is that VW over engineered so many things that could have been done much simpler and would have been cheaper to fix, the second is the lack of cup holders. Though I have noticed that the newer models have, what appear to be, decent cup holders in them.

I get your point. But I think the comparison to printer tech is a little bit too different to make a lot of impact. For example, the printers improved in other ways that were very important, size, noise, quality of print, etc. That is not the case for lamps or light fixtures for the most part, so you lack the real improvements that made the move from the dot matrix impact printers (which are still used and even sold) to inkjets and then lasers so worthwhile. That being said you have seen some improvements in lighting though its usually in specialized lighting fixtures, track lights with tiny high power xenon light bulbs for example. One other thing to consider is that the standard bulb socket is exactly that, standard. To really move things on to the next generation the companies that create the lamps and light fixtures will need to agree with the companies that create the bulbs/light emitting devices on a new standard. Coming from the IT world I think we both know how quickly and easily _that_ process goes.

Your right about the round fluorescent here in the US, but that doesn't apply everywhere. You see the round, and every other shape, fluorescent bulbs all over in Japan. Actually you can still find the round fluorescent bulbs in specialty lamps here too, my dad has one in his lab that has a magnifying glass in the middle, but that IS a specialty item.

Also, one of the reasons those haven't changed is because of the cost of changing perfectly good fixtures out just to fit a new bulb in them. If you haven't bought a fixture recently you may not have realized that they aren't cheap (with the exception of the junky ones you find on sale).

It also depends on the language, and if you were actually talking about Niger, Africa (even though this should be pronounced ny-jer) or the river in Africa by the same name. Note that in speech you wont be able to tell there was one less g in the word/name. In language niger/negro can also just mean black (as in the color) and isn't at all offensive when speaking in those languages. From Wikipedia (Negro): "The word negro means 'black' in Spanish and Portuguese, from the Latin niger, 'black', probably from a Proto-Indo-European root *nekw-, 'to be dark', akin to *nokw- 'night'."

This isn't any excuse for not thinking when you speak though. For example, there are English words that are not offensive at all in English but if you go to another country they may be very offensive. The same is true for many languages.

All this being said, I have GIMP installed in a pK-12 public school district and no one has ever complained about the name. Its been installed for the last 6 years at least and it does get used.

The pricing for 1TB on is interesting. ;)

It works out to be $1 for 4GB, a decent price but still amusing. :)

There is no tipping in Japan either, but the service is certainly not poor. I know you were talking about Europe, but it doesn't have to be that way. I think its just used as an excuse to not have to pay the wait staff minimum wage. I would rather have to pay more for my meal then to have to pay a tip. I don't begrudge the wait staff on this, just the establishment.

So we will go from the porn industry furthering the multimedia industry to the the porn industry furthering the space program? :P

You were probably at the Attachmate company website and not the Attachmate Group website. Attachmate is one of four companies owned by the Attachmate Group, the other three are NetIQ, Novell, and SuSE. You can find the Attachmate Group website here: http://www.attachmategroup.com/

While I agree with your notion that people need to come here legally I think we can both agree the system is fairly broken. Like you, my wife is an immigrant and I found the process to be full of red tape, have no accountability (on USCIS's part), expensive (your paying ~$2000 for them to process your forms and more to get other documents and notarizations that you need), and leaves you wondering for months on end what is happening with your application and that's only if your lucky enough not to get stuck in some queue for extra background checks where it can disappear for months on end. They do have a website that gives your very basic info about what stage your application is in but I found that it was not updated very often. They also send your notices in the mail for some things but other then that your just left wondering what is happening. Calling for information is almost pointless and like calling the IRS, if you call three times and ask the same question you will likely get three very different answers. The process needs to be streamlined, made more transparent (at least to the applicants and their specific application), and have the time to process and the fees reduced.

As an aside, for anyone currently going through the immigration process the website visajourney.com was very very helpful! Its free and it can help answer many questions and guide you through the process and give tips for filing the paperwork.

According to the description from the Youtube video its Earth's ionoshpere.

"Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy."

There actually was for a while. Not sure if it still exists but there was Quicken Family Lawyer available somewhere in the mid to late 90's and maybe the early 2000's.

SpaceX probably has far less bureaucracy and politics to deal with when designing a spacecraft or rocket. They are also not required to use specific contractors, or even to use contractors in the first place. I am really hoping that SpaceX can provide the human transportation to the ISS in the not too distant future. They already have a contract with NASA for re-supply missions.