http://www.gimp.org/ explains the situation well enough. As far as SF is concerned, they are just joining the same crowd like CNET etc. Sure it's a downer and maybe we can't do much about it except READ, understand and opt-out of the installer routines. There was one free ogg converter that forced me to download and run an installer, which installed another installer before I could actually download the program. I think I had to opt-out of 6 BHOs and other crapware. Turns out it wasn't worth the effort in the end. Fortunately I found this: http://www.boxoft.com/ogg-to-m... with no adware and an excellent piece of software. I'm happy to recommend it. So with eyes open you can wade through the crap but a lot of the installers attempt different forms of trickery that would fool a lot of people. The fact that SF has gone down that path must hurt though.

Partially DARPA funded according to the FA with no mention of Boston Dynamics. That means the world will have jumping robotic military units in the near future. Looks like a pack animal though, so I envision it to be support or scouting. What it needs is a head and jaws with sharp fangs to be scary.

Naah... he was expecting a comment like "Wow! Wouldn't it be wonderful to have robot hurdle games" etc but I'm not going to do it.

Ummm... maybe posting special characters in Slashdot is disabled?

I was part of a small group of teachers that formed in the 80s. We started putting Apple II computers in the classroom from K-12. We developed our own teaching programs and computer programs. We connected world wide with other groups (snail mail, later with modems). Distinguishing C.A.I. (computer aided instruction) and C.A.L. (computer aided learning) was breakthrough work. This was truly ground floor. Did we program? Hell yes. Did we teach programming? Obviously. Not just the kids but the parents, local business and other teachers as well. By the time I voluntarily retired, Education had gone through Logo (Turtle), Hypercard (Mac) and even BASIC. All of this exposure was for children from K-6 but by the time they got to high school there wasn't much support for them as computers were not networked. Those kids who got the bug eventually bought their own or made HS clubs and the first computer generation was born.
That was then but now, I don't know the extent of programming that is done in grade school. Maybe none. I do know that Certificate I and II (Years 11 and 12) does have a programming component but that's not what Abbott's comments refers to.
Hats off to Canada and Canadians btw. Personally I don't know how you guys have managed to remain as sovereign and independent as you have been considering the proximity of the USA. As far as Harper is concerned, do the majority of Canadians hold similar views to your own? Or are they too blind to see what is going on?

He is an idiot. Total numbskull. He's a great leader since everything he says can be guaranteed to be stupid. You know where you are with Abbott and so does the rest of the world. No worries Tony. You can be titular head of whatever you want to be, just ignore all the stuff going around you and everything will be ok.

So much for the inheritance eh?
But yes. It would be awesome.

Soylent green is the answer

My experiences date from 1978. Athens was a different place to what I imagine it is today. Greek coffee with cold water, hardboiled eggs and olives? Beautiful and very civilized.
Strangely, it reminded me of Sydney when I lived there as a child. There were a lot of Greek immigrants at the time and they left in me a lasting impression.
I am all too aware of the Ottoman (Ozman) scourge. My birth country (Hungary) was split into 3 by the Turks who occupied it for 150 years. They destroyed the churches and people fled away. The Poles helped drive them out back to Istanbul by 1715.
Before, Hungary and Byzantine were good friends. The Emperor gave our first king his crown http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...
Even before that time, the Hungarians (Magyars) fought as mercenaries with Byzantine. So the history goes a long way back.

My school studies in ancient Greek history made me want to visit as soon as I could. I spent a month there in autumn, mainly on the mainland. I only went to Corfu and Chios. Why Chios? For the mastika! No one who chews mastika has bad breath. I also think that they burn the mastika (or something very similar) in certain RC church sacraments.

I always had the opinion that I would retire on a Greek island one day... maybe not in this lifetime though :)

I've been to Chios. I have a long story to tell of my adventures there. Suffice to say that after 1 week of trying to find transport for a Swiss friend of mine to Turkey, did I realise that there was a Turkish faction on the island and no Greek wanted to help him. Eventually he got on board a fishing vessel after his papers were stamped and left for a small coastal town.
On the trip to Chios, almost everyone on the boat was military. Some spoke English. They were on a training mission but I didn't see them again.
Yes I loved Greece. Amazing place. I even liked Athens!

That's not hard to do. FTL is not only possible but exists as anyone who discounts Einstein's theory would attest.

They should have thrown in a few Monaros....

Move to Chios. At least they grow their own mastika there. The lamb souvlaki is delicious.
Only a few km swim to Turkey if things get too bad for you.

For me, I had to find $350-$400/month for electricity, every month. I was lucky and got $10k inheritance. Various subsidies allowed me to install a $20k 3kw system (practical input about 2.3 kwh about 5 years ago. Legislature subsidy gave me 64c/kwh, dropping to 60c/kwh presently. As soon as my contract expires (any time now), I'll be paid 20c/kwh which is almost retail where I am (Australia). For the first few years it knocked 65% off my usage. Then when I got rid of the kids (sold for scientific experiments), I started to achieve credit in the summer months, almost evening out my winter usage, so I can say that I almost get a net 0 cost/year. It won't last though. When I get forced onto the reduced rate of 20c, my power bills will increase, but nowhere near what it was originally.

Now I didn't care too much *wasting* the $10k on the system because I didn't have to find $400/month, every month. That means that I had money for other things and much reduced stress on the family. After 5 years I worked out that I have almost paid the $10k back (there were 4 failures* in that time).
Doesn't matter about the capital expense! The long term savings in money and more importantly stress has paid for the system.

Failures:
The street voltage was too high for the inverter, so the inverter couldn't pump the power to the grid (2x). This was fixed by choking the street's line transformer.
The Inverter (cheap chinese shit) broke.
Birds ripped off the cover of a buss box on the roof and it filled with water.
Total cost to repair after insurance was about $500.
Loss of income from downtimes: $500 estimated.

lol Slashdot cognoscenti
That explains it all.