And Apple copied the Crunchpad. The reason tablets look like the Crunchpad is because that is what tablets fraking look like. http://nikcub.appspot.com/posts/crunchpad-proof-obviousness-in-ipad-design

What country are you from? I'm curious.

I just finished installing Windows 8 Dev Preview on a test machine, and I'm a Fedora guy all the way through. The interface is startling. My one complaint after using it for about 15 minutes is that the interface presents screen items such as the word "Start" but doesn't give the user any indication on how to interact with the screen element. My instinct was to mouse-over "Start" and try to click it. I was surprised when there was no response from the OS. It's just decoration. Another example might be the scroll wheel. You don't see the progress bar at the bottom until you actually move the wheel a considerable distance. Contrast that to Gnome3 and it makes the Gnome guys look like geniuses. I rather think that if you're going to present something to the user make that thing helpful. I'm not bashing 8, I rather like some of the ideas.

I completely agree with you. You're spot on IMHO.

It isn't industrialization but affluence. The average upper middle class parents could easily afford one, possibly two children going to Yale, but not four or five. Raising children in a middle-to-upper-middle class lifestyle is prohibitively expensive. Those economic groups that have affluence self-regulate procreation simply to preserve their lifestyles for the most part.

This will do nothing to curb the population. Economic growth typically doesn't happen in the third world primarily because those countries tend not to have stable legal systems. It is impossible to conduct business with someone when you can't enforce things like contract law. Even those of modest education are capable of self sustaining enterprise. Many corporations have started, and small businesses run by individuals who lack a formal education. The pattern is that those business concerns again rely on a sound framework (legal and financial) to act as a foundation for trade.

You seem rather short-sighted in your analysis. There is a bell curve and most of the time you are teaching a class that is dead smack in the middle. Average students from average backgrounds and average economic capacities. Average of course being relative to a region served. You're right, who doesn't want graduates capable of meaningful work? Better yet, why even bother with teaching a work ethic? We do train students because the alternative is can be as severe as trying to make a silk purse out of a cows ear. It wouldn't work. You help them try to see their potential while simultaneously trying to give them something that is practical. What is really elitist is your attitude. You're obviously bright, and probably smarter than I am but I'd also bet that you're not given a random group of kids and 180 days to try to get them a little further down the road of life skills. Now consider what you'd do if those kids couldn't even speak English. It must be nice to be so judgmental, and if you're qualified to fix the problem then why don't you? As for your other comment about education and school, I think you're correct. There are absolutely zero substitutes for experience but let's not pretend that experience (read: wisdom) can be hurried. The only way to get wisdom is to live long enough. You might have been smart as a school aged child but I guarantee you weren't wise because no child can be.

Apple has certainly made some claims regarding its virus free nature. For evidence I present. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Z386vXrt4

OBL received all of the trial he deserved. As far as I am concerned the SEALS showed amazing restraint, they had far more bullets with them than they used.

Pakistan isn't a primitive country but it is a divided country, and it has a large population of residents that are not loyal to the sitting government. The last thing Pakistan needs is recognition for publicly assisting the United States in the effort to knock off bin laden. Of course they new bin laden was there, and they probably new the U.S. was moving in country to get him. None of that can be stated publicly, because at least for Pakistan, acknowledging cooperation with the U.S. carries a potentially substantial burden. Most of what we're being told about Pakistan's involvement is misdirection and poppy cock aimed at helping the current government avoid problems.

You're very welcome.

You can't actually put anything on the desktop by default. You can install the "gnome-tweak-tool" and have Nautilus draw your desktop. After selecting that you can then put icons on the desktop.

http://osdir.com/ml/general/2011-03/msg20339.html

I tried using Unity while Natty was in beta and it caused me to jump to Fedora 15. Unity has always struck me as a train wreck of usability. Global menus that are always present... unless they're not, because it depends on the application. A dock that is always there on the left, unless it isn't in order to get out of the way. It's a little too busy, a little to buggy, and a little too inconsistent with itself. I know I'm in a minority right now but I think Gnome-Shell is a better approach. I'm not starting a flame war here, I know GS isn't readily configurable, has issues with network manager, and has countless other things that need to mature. I can't help but think Canonicals reach has exceeded their grasp.

You have a point, but I think we should probably examine the fact that the 11 years of life XP had was not only an anomaly but a direct consequence of Microsoft being unable to ship Longhorn. The original plan was to ship Longhorn in 2003 and Microsoft couldn't get it out the door until over three years later (retail version). If one purchased XP in its last days of retail in 2008 you'd only have gotten 3 to 4 years of support. Let's also point out that while waiting for those 11 years of support, the volume of security problems in XP pre service pack 2 was enough to justify killing a puppy. Post service pack 2 security problems were only mildly better by the way. Meanwhile on the open source front, you're right I don't get support for 11 years. Supporting an 11 year old OS is great on one hand, but a featureless wasteland on the other. Also when the distributions provide an upgrade path that is without charge that IS support, and it is support that includes new shiny things. To each their own but please don't go around touting 11 years of support as if Microsoft intended that to happen. They didn't.

I don't know that it's always that black and white. There's ample evidence that piracy, in some examples, does promote sales, concert attendance and other related items. People sometimes can and do pay. Admittedly I've done the All-of-MP3 thing in the past, and for a nickel a piece downloaded a few albums that are (still btw) not distributed online through normal channels. I've even grabbed an album from the interwebs when I already owned the vinyl, or cassette.