Well, I guess it would add a threatening element to the game that if you start to beat the guy on steroids, he might beat you... literally.

The point here is that with the wampserver executable installer I had to simply double click the exe and bingo everything installed, no dependencies to worry about and it was set up and running in 15 minutes from a base install of windows. I did have a windows admin handy and all we had to do was make sure that port 80 was free by killing and making manual any webserver service that might have been running in a base install of XP (I don't know if IIs is installed by default in a base install of XP professional) and the wampserver installation came with a tray piece for admin, phpmyinfo pre-installed and the mysql administration tools pre-installed. copy my web site files to www directory, edit the httpd.conf file from the pull out in the tray menu. run the phpforum installer and bingo done and going home. I had hoped that the Linux install would have gone similarly (it usually does when I'm dealing with a web host provider) but I was frustrated.

I would concur with that from most Windows user's point of view, but it doesn't always hold.

I have had enough successes upgrading Debian based servers from woody to sarge to etch to lenny to consider it a fairly safe operation (by "fairly safe" I mean I'm happy to do it remotely, but only on machines that are not currently doing anything important - live services are moved elsewhere for a while until the new environment is considered ready and stable). I've only done a desktop upgrade twice, and while both occasions went well that is not many data points so I can't call it statistically relevant.

BUT, in every case the vast majority of the software on those machines came from the official repositories, with only a few odds and ends coming from the semi-official "backports" repos and a sprinkling of small things hand compile into /usr/whatever (or just living in /home/*). You average Windows home machine is in a state that is *nothing* like this because MS do not maintain the repo for all that software the users have installed, so you can't simply expect it all to go smoothly.

Having said all that, I still generally recommend an OS reinstall for a major upgrade even for home systems (for server use the new install option is a no-brainer anyway, as you will be wanting the new environment fully built and tested alongside the old one before migrating over) running Debian. If all your irreplaceable data is away from the system drives/partitions and properly backed up and you have all your install sets and product keys to hand you are not going to lose anything except a little time, and you get a much cleaner system (less all the collected cruft you forgot was even there on the old setup) out of it.

I'd agree with the tediousness, but that may be something that can be "programmed out". Like a sort of cruise control, or maybe a sensitivity adjustment.

As to the use of a particular hand: I cannot remember where I saw it, i think it was some kind of Toyota concept drawing, but it was a car with joystick steering, and the joystick was designed to allow for either either side to drive. This could be useful. Another alternative i'd suggest would be two joysticks, left and right hand, with only one active at a time, but easily switched. Perhaps by sensing the hand being there. (First one sensed stays active until released, for the case of both hands on the sticks)

libavcodec currently has decoders for 242 audio and video codecs, encoders for 100, demuxers for 129 container formats and muxers for 89.
The resulting DLL is about 7 MB.

If their goal is outright legalization, then their stated goal should also be outright legalization.

Suggesting that pot should be something that you get from a pharmacy and with a prescription when, in reality, you believe that you should be able to grow and use it yourself is disingenuous and counterproductive.

Indeed there is. You can find it here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

"world wide web" isn't synonymous with "internet"

my internet is netscape where do i get world wide web

So in other words paper MCSE's dont understand how to do compatibility testing or XP mode. I love how on slashdot we bash the business class and pointy haired managers until they say something anti-MS then they are the wisest people in the world.

A manual transmission is far cheaper than a conventional auto or new double-clutch systems. That's a pretty big driver. I don't know what it's like in the US, but most automatics in New Zealand carry a price premium of around 10% vs the manual version.

Personally I dislike automatics purely because of the torque converter. I like my revs to directly correspond to wheel speed. Not some vague relationship where it feels like my pedal position is merely a suggestion.