I think if you do computations, these things should help as well. As far as I know, they should be on Java roadmap somewhere already...

--Coder

Java itself is open-source already- OpenJDK.

There are several JavaEE servers that are open source, Jboss and Glassfish are the biggest two. As far as I remember, Glassfish is the reference implementation. It's as open-source as it can be.

Or are you talking about Technology Compatibility Kits? Or Java trademark? Development model itself? Or what?

--Coder

Radeon performance increases by ~20% in each new Mesa release. I think it should be ~60-80% Windows performance with Mesa 10 and Linux 3.12. It still doesn't support OpenGL 4.x, but it's getting quite good. Latest Mesa also has VDPAU video decoding acceleration (still a bit buggy), better power management, PRIME switching between integrated/discrete GPU also works. Unfortunatelly no crossfire yet.

Given that I don't play latest and greatest games (there are plenty of good 3 year old games), performance is sufficient for me.

--Coder

1. Email is not encrypted unless you use GPG/PGP.
2. Email is transferred not encrypted, so it's vulnerable to interception by 3rd party during transmission.
3. Any 3rd party service provider has your information, so it can be passed to marketers/NSA/RIAA/IRS/blackmailers/whatever.

The only way to get security with email is to encrypt everything with GPG. Most of the time that means using a proper email client with GPG support. However, there are javascript GPG implementations, like openpgpjs.org. I haven't heard about anyone using them to provide an integrated web-mail solution. On top of that, if you are using webmail + openpgpjs, where do you store your keys?

--Coder

AFAIK authors had to fork and rename it to "Jenkins" after Oracle filed for trademark for original name "Hudson".

I hate Oracle with passion, although they seem to be doing OK job with Java.

--Coder

While I've seen exceptional incompetence in Government officials, I've seen things not much better in big corporations. They are a bit better since they kinda need to support themselves, but not by much.

Management is ncompetent- check
Feuds between departments- check
Covery your arse attitude to everything- check
Lots of red tape and internal regulations- check
Endless meetings- check

And I can definitely use "frustration" as a word describing my experience in one of the places where I tried to "cut through the rubbish" and get things done. Right now I don't think there is much difference between government and big corporations- both are big organizations with way too much power to screw with people's lives.

--Coder

While the world watches the researchers and tourists being "rescued", these guys stay to save the ship if that is at all possible. These are the guys who are doing all the work and should be getting all of the attention and respect they deserve.

--Coder

Before you start reading anything, do read Sagan's Demon-Haunted World first. It's a good introduction into telling lies and bullshit apart from stuff you can believe. I think scepticism and logic and scientific method are very lacking from today's education and peoples minds. This book takes a small step in fixing that.

As for other books worth reading- other comments have plenty of good suggestions.

--Coder

They are great on the wrist and I'm still using them and I love them. However, I had a couple that failed within a year. First one died due to some strange software/USB controller issue- OS would not recognize it, and it would show up as an unknown USB device with a random USB ID. Another had a broken wire after 1 year of normal office use.

Both of them were promply replaced for free (still under warranty which is 2 years) after a nice email exchange with Evoluent. I'm quite happy with their service as well.

--Coder

If you store passwords on your machine, either they have to be strongly encrypted in something like KeePass or Kwallet and password/key protected, or else they are as secure as plain text.

Some pieces of software "encrypt" passwords with base64 or XOR and make them look garbled and that gives you false sense of security. But in reality these passwords can be decrypted in milliseconds by anyone.

--Coder

How about Iceweasel (Debian build of Firefox, 64 bit).

Or other option- Chromium (Chrome with most of the Evil removed).

Should they count as separate browsers?

--Coder

Hmm, TOR is a nice project and all, but it has its benefits and drawbacks. I think IETF need to give quite a bit of thought before adopting some technology as a standard.

I'm all for anonymous communication with encryption though. I hate what corporations and governments are doing to the internet. I do believe internet is the most important human discovery since fire, and its freedoms need to be preserved...

--Coder