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Comment Typematrix (Score 1) 523

I have found typematrix a very nice keyboard for Dvorak lovers. I use it for coding and everything else. I have the PS/2 version, not the newer USB version, which has a few changed keys. I like it for its big Shifts, central Enter/Backspace, its small size, its matrix layout, and its built-in Dvorak/Qwerty support (so no OS modification is needed). The latter is important in case you type English in Dvorak and another language in Qwerty, if you share the keyboard with Qwertyers or you are just learning Dvorak.

Comment technology-specific laws are bound to deprecate (Score 1) 206

I really wonder how they define a blog. So if the law restricts these discussions in blogs, does it mean that you can discuss these issues in a simple webpage, in a wiki, in a gopher server, in a file on an FTP server, in an email, over an IRC server, over VoIP, on a normal weblog operating on a port other than 80, on a password-protected blog, or through a technology not yet invented? Blogs could be obsolete in 10 years just as gopher is obsolete now (but still alive). Does it mean they are going to continue making new laws for every new technology? Good luck to them keeping current with a drive towards technological singularity that accelerates every year.

Comment Learn from the Greeks (Score 1) 1117

Do not give/rent/sell school-owned laptops to the students. Just let the students use their own laptops, bought by them or by their families/carers. You can help everyone have a laptop by giving the students gift cards/coupons, or making a special deal with a local computer shop and issuing a prepaid coupon that is valid only for laptops. You can get ideas on the specific implementation by studying how the Greek Government ran its own laptops-for-students programme (which is a special programme for good university students): the student can choose any laptop they want and are the owner of their laptops from the day of purchase; this works easily with the student just visiting a computer shop, saying they want to buy a laptop under the government's programme, the government issues a unique ID number to them which is then given to the shop (if I remember well), and the student gets any laptop they want with a 80% (up to 500 EUR) discount. In this way the student can get any laptop, even with GNU/Linux, with no strings attached, and it is their property. I do not know all the details of the programme, but at least that's what I remember when I happened to read about it.

Comment How to stop worrying and learn to love Delete (Score 1) 669

Just ask yourself what destruction is going to happen to your life if you lose the data. If the answer is "no problem", then hit Delete or just let the data to rot in an old RAID-1 setup until both disks crash and then just stop worrying.

If, however, you have some data that you think are particularly important, you can rent a safe deposit box in a bank for about 30 EUR per year (for an A4-sized box) and put copies of your data in there, paying attention to choose a bank that is too big to let fail :)

Comment Re:Question 33... (Score 1) 334

only makes sense in a situation where there's no progressive tax

Or when you do the following: let A be the total tax income the government had from all of its tax-payers, and let B be the total population of tax payers, then divide the two. Progressive tax, flat tax, fair tax, unfair tax, or whatnot it doesn't matter: that division always gives the same result.

United States

Submission + - Is 2008 the time for digital gold currency? (smh.com.au)

wikinerd writes: "Gold as an investment is frequently used when investors are worried about the economy, the geopolitical situation, and inflation. Generally, the higher the price, the more desirable gold is by investors. Gold just now made the jump to a new all-time high price, at the time of writing being 856.70 USD (see recent charts). While this does not signify anything about the value of gold as a short-term investment, as the price often drops after the holidays, the fact that it reached such a record and has been generally upward for the last 10 years should make us think of the reasons investors prefer tangible commodities to papers (currency or stock).

One possible reason is the currency situation: A softer US dollar is often cited as a driver for rocketing gold prices, but alternative currencies, such as digital gold currency, time-based money or similar schemes are sometimes viewed with suspicion, but not by everyone. According to Wikipedia, in response to a recent FBI raid in the offices of Liberty Dollar, a firm circulating private alternative currency, presidential candidate Dr Ron Paul said: "We stand on the precipice of an unprecedented monetary collapse, and as a result many people have begun to look for alternatives to the dollar...I believe that the American people should be free to choose the type of currency they prefer to use. The ability of consumers to adopt alternative currencies can help to keep the government and the Federal Reserve honest, as the threat that further inflation will cause more and more people to opt out of using the dollar may restrain the government from debasing the currency".

As it is recognised by economists that there is profit in the issuing of currency, wouldn't it be a reasonable to encourage the establishment of alternative parallel currencies, particularly digital gold money or time-based schemes, in a free market system controlled by the laws of competition in order to avoid a monopoly in currency? Such an environment could, in theory, help keep a nation's main currency in stability, thus solving one of the prime reasons that make investors worry and seek safety in gold."

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