That's what I was thinking too. Doesn't the law in the U.S. read such that attempting to bypass ANY security in place on a computer system, no matter how weak, is a crime? If Wikimedia could show that the same edit pattern was being done by the same computers (or possibly even users, I don't know) by proxying around the blacklist, wouldn't that be proof of an attempt at security circumvention?

Software As Punishment

I don't want to specify which portion of management, because I really don't know. My best guess would be a scenario such as follows:

Astronaut: Hey, I want to bring some DVDs
Item Allowance Person: That should be fine.
Astronaut: Is there anything that can play it?
Item Allowance Person: Well, the laptops have DVD drives...

So I completely agree that WHOSE failure of management it was is undetermined, but it seems sloppy to me. To clear the air, I'd like to point out that the rantishness evident in my post was actually inspired by the people posting (like the poster threaded 2 above my original post) who seem to be of the opinion that there are more important things to be doing up there than watching a movie. I find that short sighted and unempathetic in the extreme.

And on a personal note, nice sig.

You're assuming an "average", but that is an incorrect assumption. The way I view news is via multiple sources, a "weighting function" (I trust some sources more than others, due to past accuracy rates), and google (to find out more about the relevant subjects that I don't already know). I certainly don't count how many sources are saying one thing and how many are saying another, then letting the winner define reality; equally silly is the notion that the truth is someone in the "center" of the news opinion columns.

Multiple sources add to the information available (unless they are all just AP copies) for me, as an intelligent being, to contemplate. Even if the information is noise I'm able to add to my knowledge of the subject at hand and/or my future weighting of sources.

Mmmm, I dunno, to complete a comic book collection maybe?

I'm not advocating child abuse in any way, just pointing out the obvious.

So what about the International Telecommunication Union? Has the ITU ever had any political disputes that were leveraged over a certain party?

It seems to me (though my perspective is limited) that the telephone network is pretty well internationally compatible. And on the topic of politicization, what ever happened to the .sex or .xxx domain? I thought that was a great example of politic butting its nose into the internet.

The way I see it is NASA is sending a small workforce out to a completely desolate location on a days-long mentally exhausting assignment, being in full control of what they can and cannot take. To not provide adequate provisions for the crew to relax properly and gain some enjoyment is a failure of management. These aren't robots in a factory we're talking about, they are people in a very small place they cannot leave for any reason (under penalty of horrible, horrible death), they NEED to be able to relax (by their own standards, not yours or mine) in order to do their job properly (and not die).

Apollo 1 and the shuttle disasters prove just how right you are. This absolutely should have been checked as soon as the DVDs were cleared to go up. I think it is very fortunate that the problem caused by missing this detail wasn't actually a crisis, this time.

Why? Because DVDs are a recreational activity or because the DVD format is suboptimal?

I was born and raised in Monroe, MI, and my recollections of the 5 seasons are cold&dry, cold&pretty (2 days), cold&wet, mayflies, and so-humid-I-can't-breathe.

Road repair there was like having a birthday that is evenly divisible by 10. You think it's going to lead to new exciting places and remove the humdrum little ups-and-downs out of your life, only to realize that in actuality you're just moving a little slower now and paying more for maintenance.

neomunk@laptop:~$ units
2445 units, 71 prefixes, 33 nonlinear units

You have: horsepower
You want:
        Definition: ushorsepower = 550 foot pound force / sec = 745.69987 kg m^2 / s^3
You have: watt
You want:
        Definition: J/s = 1 kg m^2 / s^3
You have: horsepower
You want: watt
        * 745.69987
        / 0.0013410221

You're not comparing newtons to horsepower, wherever did you get that idea in the first place? You forgot the meters and seconds parts of the equation.

Taken from units.dat

# The horsepower is supposedly the power of one horse pulling. Obviously different people had different horses.

ushorsepower 550 foot pound force / sec # Invented by James Watt
metrichorsepower 75 kilogram force meter / sec # PS=Pferdestaerke in Germany
electrichorsepower 746 W
boilerhorsepower 9809.50 W
fwaterhorsepower 746.043 W
brhorsepower 745.70 W
donkeypower 250 W
chevalvapeur metrichorsepower

Seems pretty well defined to me.

That man stopped the most dangerous coup attempt the U.S. had ever seen to that point.

Put the Lexmark down and step away from 1998. Your 4 paragraphs detailing one area where Windows is better than Linux (and only due to market considerations, not technical considerations) is amusing but overall pointless. I've personally set up about 50 desktop linux installations for friends and family who want to use me as their "computer guy". You have a (very small) point in that you can't just pick up ANY hardware and have it work in Linux, only about 90% of it works immediately. You're completely wrong about people being too stupid to realize that they have to buy something that works with their computer in order to, ya know, use it with their computer. By your logic Macs wouldn't exist simply due to not being 100% compatible with your pet OS.

You keep on spreading that FUD, but in the meantime I'm going to enjoy the ease of maintenance on my household's 2 linux desktops, 3 linux laptops and my linux server. Hell, I've even completely replaced cable TV with internet video.

A quick re-read of your post basically comes down to this bit of logic: Linux is not ready for the desktop because a few hardware companies have not yet blessed it as ready for the desktop. Linux is inferior to Windows because Lexmark says so, and that's the bottom line, nothing you can do about it but not be good enough.

See how goofy that sounds? As it turns out, it's just as silly in practice, as none of the few vendors that are actually Linux hostile have a monopoly in their market, thus any part you need is available at a reasonable (for the item) cost.

I'm an American and I've figured out the solution to this problem.

Today, Memorial Day and Towel Day, I will carry a towel imprinted with the design of the Stars and Stripes. This will have the effect of adding to the already incredible versatility of a towel, as in a pinch its status can be upgraded to flag (in case I have to claim some land from invaders... or Canada (muhahahaha)). I'm PREPARED. The only problem is is that my BBQ attire has this damned ball of apron fluff that I can't seem to properly get rid of.

Seriously though, both holidays exist, and should be celebrated as is appropriate by local culture. Seems simple enough to me.