My son recently worked as a supervisor at Kroger. He says that the system knows how many people are entering, exiting, and shopping in the store at any time. It knows how long the typical customer shops, and uses this to estimate when the next surge at the registers will occur. Before the surge happens, a display tells the supervisor when he needs to open another register, or two.

It also watches each line, to determine how long people are waiting for a cashier. The goal is a maximum of two minutes. If it sees that customers are waiting longer than that, the display notifies the supervisor to open another lane.

My own experience as a regular shopper at Kroger confirms that the system works very well, and it does indeed keep me coming back. I'm especially ready to go back to Kroger right after shopping at Wal-Mart, where their system apparently tells the supervisor to CLOSE lanes just as shoppers arrive at the registers!

What is the difference? Please please please tell me which one I am! ;-)

It's just a matter of time. There are already quite a few Android laptops. And that's the only way Linux will ever get to the desktop in any significant numbers: when it's promoted by major corporations--like Google in this case.

"Classic" Linux--the free-for-all jumble of distros with varying levels of sophistication--needs a champion to succeed. In the case of Android, Google says what goes in, and what doesn't. They, and device manufacturers, spend lots of time and money making sure that it actually works. Google uses its immense marketing clout to push the products. The formula has been wildly successful. "Pure" Linux has no shepherd, without which it will never become a common sight on a desktop.

But if you count Android, then yes, Linux is coming to a desktop near you, soon!

They aren't storing the entire DNA sequence. Just 13 data markers. Those 13 data markers are not able to identify probability of conditions, or life expectancy, or do anything else, except to positively identify you. It really can't serve any other use than as a more accurate fingerprint.

What dark past? The linked article doesn't elaborate, nor does Wikipedia. I've been a customer of ThePlanet / Softlayer for years; it always seemed like a good company to me!

Yes, I've already been called on that. Of course. What I should have said was, it doesn't require any runtime beyond what is included in the operating system.

You are, of course, correct. WTL, however, does not require any runtime library beyond what is included in the OS.

How about zero!

WTL is an open-source C++ framework for creating Windows applications that typically require no installation, no runtime whatsoever, and generally compile to an exe less than 100K in size!

Why would someone want to use this language instead of an established language? So there is a feature list. Is there something there that is compelling enough to leave an established language community?

A language alone has little value. It's the community / ecosystem that makes it worthwhile.

C:\>

Good bye, Lotus. You deserve a lot of credit for helping computers catch on with businesses back in the early 80's. A lot of us owe our jobs to you.

It's not the free drinks or candy, although those things are nice. What developers want is to feel like they matter to the company. One of the ways a company can do that is to provide some small freebies. But freebies alone don't cut it.

I don't get it.

I've been watching the LibreOffice posts on slashdot since it began in 2010. To me, it looks like a political move driven by dislike of Oracle (however well-deserved that dislike might be). Why does my mother-in-law care about that? OpenOffice is good enough for her, and it's the name everybody remembers.

It seems to me that the only people who care about LibraOffice are motivated by ideology. The rest of us don't really care.

Windows 8 tablets have, what, 2% of the market? It might be a while before Google even notices!

Exactly. T-Mobile's new "standard" plan with no contract is $50, the old subsidized plan was $45 per month.

So they pass a law saying cable companies have to let you get your channels a-la-carte. So what? Cable companies will offer customers the "package" for, say, $100, or individual channels for $25 each. Who would go for that kind of-la-carte price?