Bring the Real Money Auction House to a million new potential customers.

Node.js is an event-driven system utilizing callbacks on a single thread. (So after requesting data from the database Node can continue responding to other events until the database comes back with an answer - it doesn't sit there waiting.) Javascript is particularly suited to this environment due to anonymous functions and closures.

First I used Avast, but after a while it began bugging me to to buy the paid version, and slowed down my PC with ill-timed, intensive scans.

I switched to AVG, but after a while it began bugging me to to buy the paid version, and slowed down my PC with ill-timed, intensive scans.

Now I use Microsoft Security Essentials, which is surprisingly good. So far.

Complement with a Spybot Search and Destroy scan every now and then and you're good to go.

... the excellent A Grey Moon Over China by Thomas A. Day. A tale of the life of a futuristic soldier who escapes Earth in a colony ark to a far away system. There his group attempts to colonize while dealing with their own internal politics and a non-human threat. The mistakes and triumphs of a lifetime really add up, and the ending left me with a sense of sadness that I strongly remember now, a few years later.

Wonderful book.

After the first fatality involving one of these cars there will be a crippling uproar and/or legal battles.

Summary links to page two of the article.

page one

I always tell them my email address is a secret. Works every time. They ask for personal information but don't require any.

I didn't override the page's body background-color. No background-color was specified for me to override in any case.

I set a default color. Since no color was specified in the design my default was used.

You miss my point. I'm not complaining because I see my default background color. I'm pointing out that the CSS in question specifies font colors, faces, and other style elements while omitting body background-color. Yet the elements which are styled rely on a light gray or white body background.

If any background color were to suit the design, this would not be an issue. But that is not the case so this is an omission and mistake.

You haven't defined a background-color for the body element, so it defaults to transparent. That means users will see whatever color they've told their web browser to default to as a background-color. No doubt you meant the site to have a white background, but you need to specify it. Browsing with an off-white color as my default, SlashBI looks pretty bad...

Rookie css mistake that is embarassingly common.

You lost.

Perhaps they could accidentally rename the program to something that isn't offensive...

Languages you inexplicably did not mention:

Python - Less boilerplate code than other languages, easy readable syntax that encourages clean code but more importantly allows a beginner to easily focus on control flow logic, functions, etc. Forget every other language mentioned - Python is where a beginning programmer should start. It's fun, will teach all the concepts, and can do anything.

Javascript - Runs inside any web browser and is the de facto language for web development. Exploding all over the place thanks to node.js and html5 canvas games/apps. Every web browser is a platform, making distribution of code to friends/family a snap.

Torchlight 1 scratched my Diablo itch in such a perfectly and satisfactory way that I now find myself looking forward to its sequel more than Diablo 3. And I'm not the only one. I doubt the makers of Torchlight will require me to have a constant internet connection just to play a single player, offline game.

Agreed.

I expected a neat and tidy order form on raspberrypi.org. Instead, I'm directed to search the homepage of two UK electronics retailers for the Raspberry Pi and follow the normal checkout process. At just a fraction of a second after launch, one retailer is completely down and the other is only showing a form collecting names and addresses of people interested in buying the RP - no actual checkout process. Soon it goes down, too.

Following Twitter, it seems one retailer won't start selling the RP until later this week, and the other won't even ship to many international or non-corporate buyers. The Raspberry Pi people are just as in the dark as the rest of us, and it's up to random folks calling the retailers in question to gather this info.

I really respect what the Raspberry Pi Foundation are doing, but they bungled this launch. Yes, their own site was prepared for the traffic, but when you partner with idiots and fail to guarantee those incompetents can hold to promises you made, it does reflect a bit on your own abilities.