Keep at it, Stallman. I'm sure one day the forces of the Perfect will finally defeat the Very Good.

This protest may be peaceful, but it's far from civil. It's a protest against free speech rights for non-Muslims. It deserves all the mockery we can heap upon it.

I read this summary three times and I'm still struggling to figure it out.

Most importantly, how do we post cute pictures of it on the Internet?

And this, kids, is why it's important to get your units right. 1) It f*cks up your math, and 2) it opens you up to mockery.

Frankly, it was the manufacturers that insisted on making all phone interfaces high-res touch screens. If you're going to do that, the public needs them to be large, in order to actually be able to use the screen and the interface.

You don't define precisely what you mean by these things.

* If we're talking about switches, forget it. Cisco does it better and faster, easier to manage, with more robust hardware and a better service plan (limited lifetime warranty on all fixed configuration switches!). A non-Cisco switch doing anything of value on your network is a surefire way to convince me that you are bush league.

* Routers - it really depends. What are you going to do? Just route traffic between LAN interfaces? A Cisco L3-capable switch will probably be the fastest for this job, considering that many of its traffic routing tasks can be done in hardware which has been made to spec. But if you're looking to stick with Linux, you can configure a Linux server with the hardware you require and load it up with a network protocol you need it to run. A Linux server can certainly run OSPF or BGP. However, what else are you need? Do you also need a firewall, a VPN concentrator, an intrusion detector, a WAN optimizer, a small phone system? Because if you need those things as well, a hardware router will do these things at once in addition to its routing tasks, with a better performance:price ratio. Configuring it is not hard to learn to do. If you don't have time, you can always phone someone else who's contractually obligated to fix it.

* Firewall - this is wide open. Every single piece of firewall software seems to approach things in a totally different way, especially in terms of management interfaces. I would look around for the one that communicates to you in the way you find most intuitive, and then buy the gear that runs that. While I know Linux on a server will have some powerful firewalling capabilities, I simply can't use most of the Linux-based management packages because they just don't seem to think the way I do. Hopefully this is remedied soon, because most firewall vendors are incredibly overpriced and, in the case of Cisco especially, occasionally hard to even obtain at all.

I'm no Cisco fanboy, although I do rely on them for my income (full disclosure). I also don't want to be a Negative Nancy, as I understand that not everyone warms up to the whole "you should be grateful to have our logo in your rack" attitude you get from Cisco...I certainly don't. But there is a reason beyond simple groupthink that causes people to buy their stuff - frankly, there just is no serious alternative when it comes to switches or multi-function routers.

I think the point you're making is covered pretty comprehensively in this article:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=valve_linux_dampfnudeln&num=1

This is not a brag - more like my secret shame - but it's safe to say I have driven probably more miles than any of you ever will. Somewhere along the way, I stopped caring about where my hands were on the wheel. I'd say most of the time it's my left hand at about 7:00 and my right hand on a cup of coffee, and I'd guess that most people whose jobs entail driving end up the same way.

Also, all of us pro drivers have post-traumatic stress disorder. 2 solid hours of driving in Chicago or L.A. traffic will do that. I'm not proud of it, but it is what it is. So use your turn signal or the cup of coffee is going straight on to your windshield. Which is just going to piss me off more, because I was really looking forward to the coffee. And now my hands are positioned at your shirt and your neck. Asshole.

Under normal circumstances, sure, the guy has a right to believe and say what he wants. But if your job depends upon understanding how science works, and you're publicly making an ass of the organization that employs you, you kind of have it coming.

Sorry, entertainment industry dicks, but until your releases meet the following criteria:

* Available digitally on day 1 of release
* Reasonable compromise between file size and quality
* Can play the media without your buggy piece of crap software
* No oppressive DRM such as rootkits
* Transportable to different players and locations
* No imaginary or irrelevant services or features bundled into the cost (I'm not paying you for anything but the content) ...I will continue to torrent. But the minute you do meet these requirements, I have no problem paying you for your product. Unfortunately, by the time you figure it out you will probably not be around anymore. :(

H.L. Mencken was a delightful troll, but he did always have something fun to say about democracy. Let's try this one:

"If X is the population of the United States and Y is the degree of imbecility of the average American, then democracy is the theory that X times Y is less than Y."

And yet Seth MacFarlane's life and work seem to confirm it.