OK That will teach me to read the article.

You are dead right, why a keyboard and possibly a PS/2 keyboard (do modern laptops support this connector any-more? Some other things that don't make sense is the tower PC power supply and the huge fans (I would love to see how they got them in a laptop). Also while we are at it how did they get a standard PC motherboard in a laptop.

As for grinding the boards well words fail me. I suppose that is a bit like destroying RAM especially when we all know those sneaky little bits can hide in the IC's (grin). I especially liked the reply the editor made when he said "po...." and changed his mind. Actually if you wish to destroy a PC (laptop or otherwise) then pack it full of "thermite", light it and the result would be much more interesting, good grief you could even sell tickets.

Actually this is quite correct since the executioner using an axe had to have a very good aim and on top that you have to consider that even a sharp heavy executioners axe had to cleave through bone which requires considerable force and if it was not done properly the axeman may require more than one swing This is why the guillotine was considered the most efficient method for beheading.

No matter which method was used there was a huge amount of blood gushing out afterwards. Was this cruel? I think the witnesses did have some sort of emotional trauma from elation to downright horror and revulsion since they could express their views to other living people, however the person who was executed could not.

If that is not cruel and unusual I don't know what is.

Making an execution completely painless is IMHO impossible. Sure once the person is dead they are dead but up to the time they are executed the person would go though some sort of trauma be it emotional acceptance to abject terror. What the person feels during the execution process is a matter conjecture be it learned or otherwise since the person being executed is the only one that can truly describe the process.

The problem with this is the person who is being executed can't come back and give an account of their execution. This is no more different than during the French revolution when people had their heads cut off such that the following question can be asked "Did the person who was executed feel pain". Sure there were some spasms of the head and body and a huge amount of spurting blood but basically the person died and could not give an account of what they felt, although the witnesses could only give an account of what they felt but could only guess (be it informed or otherwise) as to what the person being executed felt.

The only people who were affected by an execution (no matter what type be it rope, firing squad, lethal injection, gas, electric chair etc) were the living witnesses who can state what they heard, felt and saw, not the person who was executed who is effectively dead and cannot give testimony (key the zombie jokes here).

I think the question that should be asked is should the state condemn a person to death for a serious crime that normally results in the premeditated death or deaths of other people (obviously there would be laws governing this)? if the death penalty is abolished then what is a fair sentence for the criminal? Do you even treat the criminal as a human being (this can be interpreted many ways too)?

There will always be people for and against the death penalty and the debate is probably going to continue until the end of our species.

On my machine (Fedora 20):

13:15:29 > file /opt/google/chrome/chrome
/opt/google/chrome/chrome: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.24, BuildID[sha1]=74ebd85bfc06b9bb44a2dac8f221edef5b09dbcc, stripped

Been running 64 bit Chrome and Firefox for some years now. As for a 64bit Google Chrome running on a 64 bit Microsoft OS (you can't expect 64 bit binaries to run on a 32 bit OS) I can't say and really don't care.

You do know you can convert those formats to ones that VLC supports although why you would want a video player to play music is beyond me. A good search engine is your friend here :)

As far as hardware goes you may want to buy an extra controller but the main-on going cost of a console is the purchase of games which if anything I have found actually goes down in price over time (i am aware that PC software does as well) and there is a thriving second hand market as well as the ability to give/lend or borrow the game to/from a friend. So tell me how am I paying through the nose.

Of course you can do something similar for a PC or the Steambox however the cost for top of the line (ie AAA) games is not that much different than what you would pay for the same console game. Still it really is a matter of choice since that choice is up to the person making the purchase.

Terrific! a "dual core" processor (admittedly at 3GHz) and 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 memory compared to 8 CPU's and 8 GB memory of the latest consoles. Oh great the PC does have a DVD RW drive compared to a BD/DVD read only drive. Sorry this is not the same as the latest consoles and you have not even added in the cost of a keyboard, mouse and possibly a controller which if you are a serious gamer is not going to be under a $80. Also I am quite sure which device I would prefer next to my HDTV and it is not that.

Of course this site is in the USA and is no help for people in other countries who would normally pay 10% to 40% more. In Australia we would pay AU$549 for the PS4 (if you can get one, since it is out of stock at the moment) and AU$599 for the XBOne. AU$1.00 = US$0.90 as of the time of this posting..

Still to be fair the PC you have the link to is quite acceptable for general use although you would have to install you own OS which in the case of a Microsoft OS is also going to cost unless you are one of the "Green Parrot Brigade" :).

I normally accept the SELinux default settings which seem quite reasonable (ie. don't trust anyone), however I do check the SELinux Alerts on my machine and most of them come from Adobe Flash.

A machine that can run Microsoft Windows 8.1 and Android? Yes I am quite sure that will upset Microsoft especially since you are still paying the Microsoft tax. Now if you as the customer were given the choice of a Linux Distro (please no flame wars), Android or MS Windows 8.1 and pay the OEM cost of the installed OS then that may upset Microsoft.

Of course in the case of a Linux Distro the customer would want a demo of an Office suite, Browser (lots of games can be played in a browser), Video player, TV display (if the hardware supports this), Music player and pretty well everything most people want except MS Games for Windows (you can but you may have issues).

Linux distros as do Android and MS Windows do have app stores called "repos" although they normally aren't as big but like Android if software makers see the market for Linux distributions take off (after-all Android has a Linux kernel and similar Linux/Unix file-system layout) then the number of commercial apps being written for Linux Distributions will increase.

Ok what about commercial software running on Linux? Well you can (it's been around since the 1990's) and in the majority of cases you can easily sandbox a commercial product from the the actual system software. Of course that is not going to stop some idiot from downloading software from an untrusted site and installing it without thinking.

Why upgrade when it is very easy and usually much quicker to do a fresh install in your system file-systems. For me to do two machines it usually takes about 6 to 8 hours and that includes downloading the DVD, checking the download, creating the boot-able USB key, installing the new OS in the appropriate system file-systems making sure you don't clobber your personal data (ie /home) followed by customization and updates. Actually most of my time is spent surfing the web or playing a game rather than actually doing any work.

Well that proves the article wrong in stating you can only share to Facebook. In fact you can share to an "Online Service" see here although at the moment (it is coming) you can't upload to Youtube. Still I do agree with the first poster that games are more important and for those who need to share they have to realize that this feature is only available if the game actually permits it.

In the interim I will stick with my PS3 since I am not interested in the initial games for the PS4. Of course later on that will change.

In Australia if you run from the cops you stand a very good chance of going to jail under the following legislation , unless you have a very good defense lawyer and even then you are not going to get out of it cheaply. I would assume that many other countries have some sort of legislation like this in place. Of course the method of perusing and capturing a freeing person varies country to country and the police.

One of the points of the article is how people like their coffee at 140 deg F (60 deg C). I would love to know how he arrived at the stats for that since people who like drinking coffee like it at varying temperatures, from "iced" coffee to hot which can be over 80 deg C (which I prefer by the way). It really depends on the drinkers preference. To me 60 deg C is insipid, still that is a personal opinion.

To me the very idea of paying US$40 for a cup that will keep coffee at an "insipid" temperature is not appealing. In addition to that I do like tea as well and for the so called tea connoisseur (there are coffee ones as well) the temperature of the beverage is very important, which in the case of Green tea is between 70 and 80 deg C. For black tea the temperature is normally over 80 deg C.

Usually I find a normal thermal cup/mug will keep the temperature of the beverage for a longer time than a standard ceramic cup/mug although you can buy dual walled ceramic cups/mugs for much less than US$40.00 and they do hold the temperature of the beverage for a reasonable time, of course you do have to be careful you don't burn your self. A bit of common sense applies here, however it is unfortunate that a few people don't take responsibility for their actions usually claiming that the cup/mug did not come with a warning stating that the contents of this could be hot enough to burn you :). Still I suppose 60 deg C (140 deg F) is not really going to burn people.

Try this site (thanks Desler) then the second paragraph down. I''ll even save you the bother of looking by quoting the second paragraph: