Some restaurants have taken the step of banning cameras, or at least have established a 'no flash' rule.

Here was I thinking it was because they fear nobody's going to go to a restaurant serving a tiny portion size. The more the cook fancies himself as a great chef, the less you'll get on your plate.

A true capitalist would not have started such a company off a government grant [...]

A true capitalist takes seed money from whoever is willing to offering it at the lowest price. Only a nitwit ideologue lets their personal prejudices get in the way of making money.

anonieuweling (536832) wrote:

`Sanctions` are acts of WAR

Uh, no, they are not.

Quite true. They're not an act of war of themselves, just the last non-combat stage before an American war against whichever third world nation they've opted to target during this Presidential term, usually for resources or strategic advantage.

Sanctions by non-US groups tend to be more about changing behavior rather than intentionally starving a nation to weaken it prior to an invasion.

The whole point of morality, religion, and by extension laws [...]

Man, I'm so glad I live in a democracy rather than that theocracy you're living in.

Anywhere that would cut out coffee from the budget is quite frankly insane. It's a minuscule expense compared to the HR budget and improves productivity dramatically when people would otherwise be flagging (early mornings for night owls, afternoons for early birds).

The ability to provide free, legal performance enhancing drugs is one of the few negligible-cost productivity boost techniques available. You'd have to be both petty and highly incompetent as a manager to do away with it.

Do the British say, "One April 2010?"

Essentially, yes, they do: "First of April, 2010. Twentythird of July, 2009." As do Australians and AFAIK all the English speaking nations apart from the US. The US really is out on its own when it comes to a lot of this stuff. (Anyone with any sense uses ISO format though because the numbers sort better in a list.)

Oh, the industry is moving to BSD-style licenses? When? What industry?

A fair point to make, that. Very few successful commercial enterprises have ever used a GPL license for their software. For the few that did, their GPL software ended up acting as loss-leaders for other technologies or for generating support contracts.

Speaking subjectively, I can't imagine why a commercial company would want GPL software anyway. BSD license code attracts older, more accomplished and experienced developers with a work ethic they've acquired from working in a professional environment. GPL code attracts young cowboys and ideological zealots -- teenagers and students who don't have bills to pay, or a family to support, and have not had to develop those professional skills.

Did they actually use GPL-style licenses before?

I doubt many companies themselves did, but, most software developers and development managers in those companies would have been exposed to the GPL at various times in their lives -- particularly back when they themselves were students, living cheaply at home.

What the iPod Tells Us About the World Economy

What the linked story really demonstrates is you can work product placement for Apple gear into nearly any article whatsoever, not just the reviews for competing IT products, non-competing IT products and "competing if you squint hard enough and long enough" products.

The news media's always been fairly open to writing positive copy for their advertisers, but, in the current economic climate of falling sales and falling advertising there must be a powerful temptation to go that little bit too far.