Have they found some type of middle ground of the IT landscape that makes them immune to bubbles and fluctuations in the market?

Well, they're certainly immune to bubbles and fluctuations in the consumer market--IBM mostly sells to corporations now. Microsoft is doing its darndest to target the "hip" consumer crowd (think Zune, Kin).

Obligatory QDB quote. http://qdb.us/303821

<Arang> fax, have you heard about the whole brain size-herd size primate theory?
<Arang> basically, the size of primates' brains corresponds directly to the size of their social group
<Fax> yea
<Fax> don't humans come out to be 50ish?
<Gral_Work> Oh, the monkeysphere?
<Arang> the tiny little gibbons and whatever have like two friends
<Arang> I thought it was 150
<Fax> it's been a while since I saw that article
<Fax> so i dunno
<Arang> wiki says 150
<Gral_Work> 150!??! Well, you people are almost taking up a 3rd of it. I'll have to make some reductions.
<Gral_Work> Arang! You are no longer people.

A giant underground cave, built for longevity, and permanently sealed? Sounds like something from a video game...

So Linux 3.0 is on its way... Which makes me wonder--given that it's a major increment for something that has traditionally been very stable (in terms of API/ABI, etc.), is Linus going to allow breakage or incompatability with 3.0? Or is it just a "yeah, it's been too long, let's just bump it for numbers' sake"?

None that I can think of off the top of my head.
What I would do is label it CC-BY-NC-ND, then make it explicit you make an exemption for using your characters or whatever.
Or, you could go the usual route, and say "copyright 2011 Sasayaki, all rights reserved", and then just ignore/support people when they're all right with you.

(Of course, if you really expect your project to go anywhere, you'd be best off with a real lawyer.

Yes, the vote was 74-13.
It took more digging than it should have (neither Slashdot nor Bloomberg gave links or dates; good going, guys), but here's some pertinent info:
The bill is S.1038, passed May 24, 2011. It was sponsored by Harry Reid, and cosponsored by Mitch McConnell.
I can't see a way to see the actual vote on either the Senate or Library of Congress pages, so here it is from the Washington Post. Votes for: 40 Republicans, 34 Democrats. Against: 3 Republicans, 9 Democrats (and Bernie Sanders, Independent).

As always, please contact your Senator and tell them how you feel about how they voted. Find their information through here. (Remember, a written letter carries a hell of a lot more weight than an email. A hand-written letter will probably go right to the Congressman's desk, rather than their staff.)

And FYI: The House version, H.R.67 is still in subcommittee. The House and Senate versions will have to be reconciled before they're passed. You should probably write your Representative too.

EvilHom3r over on Reddit seems to have mirrored the paper (as images) here.

My verdict: Yeah, it looks all nice and smooth, but with all upscaling, it's basically interpolating data. The original just didn't have that much detail, so you can only get so much out of it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
(Oh, and it makes all text look pretty bad. Kinda Comic Sans-y, if I can say that without invoking instant hate.)

Linux has had good package management and delivery for a long long time, all it's been missing is a good, navigable and appealing front end for it.

I like using apt-get. Fast, accurate, and simple. >_>

Well, I can tell you it's not Aperture Science. They're in Michigan or Cleveland, depending on who (and when) you ask.

It's called a "shotgun".

Nuclear power, when done properly, is safe.
Of course, there's always the human element, and that's the source of the problem in every nuclear event I can think of.
"This sort of thing has cropped up before... And it has always been due to human error."

...which is what he's saying. Unless tolls fund the majority of roads (I'm ignoring state vs. city roads here), then it's just like rail. The government funds the infrastructure to keep things moving.

Or, seeing the XP-styled attempts on Windows 7... that's nice too.

Yeah, that one's timeless. There's also a variant in which you set the desktop to a broken-LCD image (i.e. corruption, garbage) and hide the icons and taskbar.
Of course, the fact that the cursor still works would be a giveaway. (Unless you change that too--but that's a bit too much.)

With what? Fake credit card numbers? They'll immediately be rejected by the system.