I know I knew the answer to this one. But I forgot.

Pidgin!

Well, if my name were "Everyone" cause my grandma uses it. Well, actually I got my dad to use it, but if my grandma lived and had a computer, I would have hooked her too.

It works with GoogleTalk accounts too.

Anyways, I use it. and THAT should be enough for the world.

Don't forget that the government of Extremadura is not going into this blindly. They've had their own distro (Linex) since the early 2000s, and already converted a number of computers and basically Linuxified their schools. They have a decade of experience to draw on and probably have estimated the cost of migration (or not migrating) based on it.

And I would agree with you, I have old crap hardware running Linux and can still run the latest software on it (slowly). I get the latest security patches, but if the software I need runs on that hardware, Linux is pretty much what lets me use it in an up-to-date way. Windows 98 is incompatible with most current software yet is the latest version of Windows that will run on the old clunkers. One of the high costs of Windows is having to keep upgrading your hardware needlessly if you want to keep up with the security patches (a must on a connected machine).

Just a quick search suggests that SysGobEx is actually the strategic plan to implement opensource in government. Extremadura actually had sponsored a linux distro called Linex (still being maintained as per distrowatch) back in the early 2000s. I think the headline submission text needs a revision.

Actually Extremadura did not need the crisis for this specific endeavour. Maybe only to complete the migration. Extremadura has had its own distro since the early 2000s (called Linex). It was one of the first state sponsored distros out there. I don't know what the state of the migration was before this latest push, but it is certainly not a new initiative. They do seem to have created a new distro though. I'll have to see how it differs from Linex.

The crisis certainly did provide an additional motivation to complete the migration, for sure. But Extremadura was already a pretty poor place even before which had prompted its original plans.

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=linex

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7908

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GnuLinEx

Actually Extremadura did not need the crisis for this. It has had its own distro since about 2001 (called Linex). It was one of the first state sponsored distros out there. I don't know what the state of the migration was, but it is not a new initiative. They do seem to have created a new distro though. I'll have to see how it differs from Linex. It's probably more about completing the migration that had started some time back and would have been delayed by some leftover compatibility issues.

The crisis certainly did provide an additional motivation for sure. But Extremadura was already a pretty poor place even before which had prompted its original plans.

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=linex

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7908

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GnuLinEx

Actually, Coelurosauria are not the only feathered dinos anymore. I think they have found feather evidence on Carnosaurs as well making pretty much all theropods likely to have been feathered.

And let's not forget the "hairy" tail fans of the Psittacosaurus which certainly indicate that even ornithischians had non-scaly skin covering. Actually there is even more evidence of proto feather like structures in both ornithischians and saurischians.

http://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/blah-blah-feathered-ornithischians-yawn/

All in all one can't discount some sort of skin covering. That being said, I seem to recall reading somewhere that many animals that have coloured covering over their skin (scale, feathers, or hair) often have corresponding matching colouring (or at leasat pattern) on the skin itself. It wouldn't be a complete waste of time in any case.

P.S. I am not an expert either, but David Hone (of archosaur musings is) is, so you can find a bit of good info on his website.

Definitely faster than PDF plugin. I've been using the pdf.js plugin since it first appeared. I'd never go back to the plugin.

I completely agree. Prefabricated components are the way to go. Other than the ease of construction, they will allow more material to be used from an earlier construction in a new one, thus reducing the energy and material cost of new constructions. If anything LEEDs will encourage the trend towards modularity.

Actually 3D printed structures are probably a bad idea in general, unless it is meant to be a "national" building that will be maintained and last for ideally hundreds if not thousands of years. A 3D printed building is not likely to be able to use materials from pre-existing structures, and whatever is printed is unlikely to be resuable at the end of the structure's lifespan. There is much more future in the design of Leg-like construction modules that would make it easy to assemble and disassemble structural compnents.

An added disadvanted of the printed building is that I see it being difficult to actually print "reinforced" concrete this way. I'm not sure a two storey building would be safe, let alone a multistorey building. Very short span single storey buildings seems to be as much as you can get out of it. It's good for sheds, but not much else. But really the lack of reusability of components is its greatest Achiles heel going on.

In Canda, the main funding agency gives you points for developing HQP (highly qualified personel). If you don't give the credit to your students you're less likely to get future funding because you're failing in your main task. It's a strong incentive to give credit where credit is due. I imagine it must be similar in other jurisdictions, but of course I don't know that it is.

I would say a government has more incentive than any private entity in maintaining roads. What incentive would a private contractor have in maintining it right? If it gets paid a fixed rate for "operation" then the more skimping on quality means more profit. If it gets paid per "calls" to fix things then the more it gets called the better ensuring poor quality worksmanship. Only government has any incentive in proper maintenance as a well maintained road means less costs in the long term to fix it, and less liability is someone is injured because of improper maintenance.

That's the problem with Apple. You don't buy an Apple device. You buy the right to USE one of THEIR devices. It has always been so, and the reason I was never tempted to buy anything Apple.

Seriously, how does using MS Office not result in performance impairment frustration and aggravation. Most of my students issues stem directly from use of MS Office. That's all they know, but it's still their main source of aggravation and frustration. From very poor iteration procedures (seriously, you can't force recalculation of cells past a certain point once Excel has decided that it's just done, however many times you try to recalculate), to handling in Word of figures, arbitrary variables (for template automation) to little things like an actually usable mail-merge, or compatibility with older .doc formats MS Office just sucks. The article is disengenuous at best. MS Office has nothing (useful) that OpenOffice doesn't have, and lots of things that it's missing.