Some of the Europeans I've run into say that Amtrak's on-board experience compares favorably to what they get in their countries, even if the trains are slower.

As someone who's travelled on more than his fair share of trains in Europeland - at least on the west coast, Amtrak trains are super-comfy. Big seats, loads of legroom, decent food (on the last trip - previous trip a few years ago involved a fossilised, tepid space-burger).

Best of all, there's often a carriage specifically for viewing the scenery going past. Of which there is a lot. Possibly including someone describing the scenery going past. I learned a lot about Mount Saint Helens that way. (Main reason for choosing trains - I fly a fair amount also.) Way better views than, say, the Eurostar - where you never even glimpse the sea you've been under.

I vaguely recall the WiFi working when I went from Seattle to Vancouver BC. Not terribly fast, but enough to email friends and family about the delays. (A swing-bridge had got stuck in the 'open' position, and the train had to wait for half an hour or so. The driver had then disappeared somewhere to get a sandwich, causing another ten minutes delay.)

Amtrak is great fun (some of the announcements on that Vancouver trip were gloriously surreal) but it's hardly an efficient means of transportation. I got the train from Seattle to Portland once, and realised it's a similar distance between the two cities as it is from Brussels to Paris. I used to catch the Thalys between Brussels and Paris - in the time it took to go from Seattle to Portland (including a freight-train-induced pause in sidings), I could have gone from Brussels to Paris to Brussels then back to Paris again.

Instead of "using the content ID match system", how about they use the "DMCA notification" so that everyone has their fair claim and response under the law and, if needed, in a court rather than letting Google just turn it into both a heavy-handed big-guy-versus-little-guy squashing and "monetizing" opportunity?

That's the entire point of all of this. They just want to be sure that the government is the only one Google is invading the privacy of citizens on behalf of.

Don't worry, the idiots keep pushing for european style "high speed rail" in America, too. They're somehow convinced it's the economical solution to pollution and traffic while they put their heads in the sand about the actual corruption and incredible expenses it will actually have (not to mention, it own't be high-speed at all, if they ever get around to it... you know.. you do have to actually stop and let people on and off after all).

WQNA or does the guy repeat the show elsewhere? That one was in the block, too, you must have heard it.

If Microsoft positioned themselves as not only critics of Google's disregard for privacy (see countless statements by Schmidt, for example) but as actual champions of lobbying, legislation, standards, and technologies that always favored the consumer's right to privacy, security, and choice/notification, they could really win me and a few other people over.

Merely pointing out how someone else is super shitty and shady, alone, isn't enough.

Like any government agency, police departments don't exist with the main priority of protecting and serving. Their primarily purpose is to generate revenue.

Well, yes, I'm not saying Windows is completely useless; if you're a professional image designer you're going to need a $700 copy of photoshop and an OS that will run it. Hardcore gamers will need Windows. But nobody but a professional needs (and few can easily afford) photoshop.

If I was still into gaming I'd have a dual-boot setup that defaulted to Linux, but the game companies lost my business years ago; I think the last game I bought was Quake III. DRM killed gaming for me.

I presume you meant evade, yes? :)

Yeah, I have no idea how that happened. I must have had what my mom calls a "senior moment". Getting old sucks.

The misspelling of Koch's name was deliberate, though.

of course only for the conservative definition of waste - which of course is only applicable when discussing spending that they are philosophically opposed to.

Very true. Giving me the money I put in social security for the last forty years back is waste to them, as is feeding the hungry, spending on scientific research, etc. But they're fine with the money being so usefully invested in war and fighting drugs and pornography and prostitution and gambling.

If so, they are epically slow learners then when it comes down to the greenhouse effect.

Nice, even though I was referring to the fictional future terraformed Venus in "Nobots."

Odd how every Republican President since Hoover presided over a recession or even worse economic disaster, isn't it? Or how every Republican President in almost the last half century has started a war. Even odder is how nobody seems to notice that.

That said, if the pictures he has linked to that he tells us are of himself at various political rallies are accurate, then he certainly does not outwardly appear to be rich.

Or very intelligent. The only three kinds of conservatives are rich ones, stupid ones, and brainwashed ones.

Sounds like you heard the same show, that was the song that followed "Beam Me Up"!

Those are good points, and I don't hate Gates, but he'll have to do a LOT of good to even begin to make up for the misery he's caused so many.

The same goes for Rockefeller, whose money is still doing good a century later. He was worse than Gates; his evil killed people.

So educate me, what functionality and features does Windows have that Linux lacks?