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Yes dictatorships and their like tends to be much better at misappropriating funds for personal interest but US is a democracy and thus subject to higher standards on matters like these.

Modern dictatorships usually exists to enrich the dictator but democracies claims that they exist to protect the general population and hence your comparison is not very fitting.

The way the constitution and the amendments was designed was supposed to protect individuals against the majority rule of government. Mistaking that for "protect you, for your safety" is the single largest misconception that the USA has, and it's killing the once fine form of government we had.

Anonymous Coward writes "Ever called a big company to ask a little question only to have your call answered by a recording that prompts you to more recordings — none of which leads to an answer or allows you to speak to a real person?

This situation frustrated Boston entrepreneur and consumer advocate Paul English. English, who already headed a successful online travel business called Kayak.com and had his own blog, first noted his findings on his blog for each company's phone system that he managed to beat. The list grew longer as visitors to his site offered their horror stories and revealed their secrets to reaching a live person. The response was so great, it grew to where he created GetHuman.com. It features an alphabetized list of company names, a letter grade reflecting their level of customer service, their phone number and directions on how to get to a human being as soon as possible."

alanhaggai writes "A BASH tutorial for newbies. Updating constantly. Link: http://alanhaggai.cvjcorp.com/?p=4"

eldavojohn writes "Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been talking smack about DRM and has recently issued a verbal offer to major music lables stating that if they are willing to loose the DRM, he'd be willing to raise his 99 cent price for those iTunes songs. These tracks (such as the recent EMI deal) would also have better sound quality & cost about 30 cents more."

I am considering getting a second computer to use at school to take notes and compose reports and other articles. My primary computer is a desktop running Ubuntu Linux which I update often. I am looking to spend no more than $500 to $750 USD. I want something that is easy to carry, and reasonably rugged given school life is often less than optimal for keeping computer equipment in good shape. Besides typing I would also like the ability to handle pdfs, and internet wi-fi capability. Just because I run Linux on my home machine does not mean that I have to run Linux on this new machine. Any suggestions as to what I might get?

ps My handwriting is very poor and slow compared to my typing speed thus a pen and paper are not reasonable alternatives.

Organizers of the festival decide to put their money and energy where their mouth is and promote environmental responsibility.
Images: Celebrating clean tech at Burning Man
http://news.com.com/2100-11392_3-6181680.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news

Jack Schitt writes "$15,000 and 9 months of designing/building get you your very own Spider Car.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4f5_1177816318"

nobody writes "This article is pretty on the point. It's scary to think how Apple and Steve Jobs are synonymous with each other. "What's so scary about Apple's continued success is the intermingling of Apple and Steve Jobs as interconnected brands that need each other to define the other's existence. It goes without saying that Jobs has done an exceptional job at leading Apple, and the company is out of control. It's the new Google of consumer electronics that has and will continue to take a lot of other companies by surprise; however, you have to wonder how long the success will last. To be more precise, you have to wonder how long will Apple keep up its success factor without Jobs."

tomsHH writes "OSWeekly.com author Brandon Watts claims that end users are to be really blamed for many OS flaws. Is that true? "Believe it or not, as users, we also have a large role to play in the evolution of an operating system. We use what's been created, and this means that we're the best people to turn to for judging what works and what doesn't. Passionate communities that are supportive aid development, and when users join their efforts to make their voices heard, this benefits everyone. Have you ever thought that if you wanted something to be improved, then maybe you should just speak up and offer a solution instead of quietly or publicly venting without offering any input? Nothing changes by staying the same. Companies are listening, and as taboo as it may seem, most of them want to make their users happy, so if you shout loud enough, you're bound to be heard. If you need proof of this, then just look at how Linux has progressed in its development."

techie writes "MadPenguin.org writes to highlight the lack of competition between open and closed source applications. The author writes, "Is there really the level of competition in the open source world that we see in the closed source world? This is something that has been stuck in my mind lately as I have been told so many times by closed source developers that by opening the code you are creating your own competition. Today, I'm here to explore this theory and hopefully prove why it's false."

SlinkySausage writes "APC Magazine in Australia has posted an 8,000 word interview with Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker about where Firefox came from and where it's going. Baker talks about putting Firefox on mobile phones; how Firefox will take on Flash and Silverlight with open source animation and video rendering; where the $55million a year Firefox earns comes from; the struggle with patents in the software industry; how businesses are recontemplating moving to Firefox rather than dealing with the upgrade to IE7, and why Mozilla hasn't yet built an ad-blocker into Firefox. She also talks about how Firefox 3.0 will have a lot more capability around "branding" — will it be the corporate visual theming disaster that was IE4? And how Mozilla's small development office in New Zealand is developing the ability to run web abbs in Firefox without an internet connection. Mozilla Japan's cartoon character, "Foxkeh" makes an appearance too."

Monday, April 30th, I was hired at Sergeants Pet Supply, in training to be a Unifill machine maintenance technician. Thursday morning, May 3rd, at the end of my shift, I was fired.

The reason?

Because I wanted to move to California eventually in my life.

Now, I live in Tennessee, which is a will to work state. However, this is an act, not a law, and there should be some sort of room or leeway to fight this. Firing me because I wish to live elsewhere does not seem like a valid reason to terminate anyone's employment, will to work state or not!

Can anyone out in Slashdot land help me out with this situation, or am I just hosed?

The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow: An Instant Message with Excitable Music is a play written by Rolin Jones that features an agoraphobic, obsessive-compulsive (perhaps also mildly autistic) girl genius who decides to seek out her birth mother in China by creating a robot to go on the journey for her. She's also a secret subcontractor for the Department of Defense and relies on the help of a horny Mormon (who's on a conversion mission in China) and a malcontent Russian professor of artificial intelligence, and tries to deal with her adoptive parents along the way. It's funny, compelling, well-acted and, dare I say, touching without being too mushy. It's been extended until June 3 at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, so if you're in Chicago you should definitely check it out.