Unfortunately, the simple fact of having an "alternative voice" does nothing to further understanding or humanity. To be directly beneficial, you must have something worthwhile to add with that voice, and it should be clear of bias and misdirection. As I understand it, Al-Jazeera is as biased and controversial as both the left- and right- leaning institutions already in place, and I fail to see how an additional news network adds anything beneficial to the conversation. Simply having another viewpoint isn't fundamentally more (or less) useful simply because it is different.

Whether or not Al-Jazeera is going to be beneficial remains to be seen - but more is not always better (or worse), and different is not always good (or bad).

The only people this will upset are the talking-heads journalists and folks who are too old (or too uninformed) to realize that the internet "does" TV.

Facebook (unlike many other products) has focused on delivering a scalable platform and pleasing user experience. While the web has been around for awhile, there is no standardized business plan for social media. Each "successful" platform has grown (or not) based on a unique combination.

I'm happy with their attempts to monetize - especially considering the more obnoxious attempts are easily ignored with adblock and/or noscript.

I believe you're lacking adequate data points. I've tried it several times and found that the quality of the call is directly related to the quality of the connection.

While this might be an attempt to troll the canadian population regarding the high price of mobile communications, I'm quite happy with my $40/month unlimited nation-wide calling and data. It's not free, but it's quite reasonable.

Although, why I'd need VoIP when I've already got unlimited minutes and decent coverage, I can't imagine ...

Yes, but this is "Mom" friendly. And (un)fortunately, I already see many 12-and-13 year old kids using cell phones (paid by their parents) before they've learned cell phone etiquette. Now they don't need either a plan or software/VoIP knowhow - just a wifi connection.

This might be news, but I'm not convinced this is progress.

Right, so they can upgrade for a cost far below full price, because they make enough money to have the taxable portion of their income reduced.

Someone making substantially less couldn't do that, since they couldn't deduct from their income tax ... but probably couldn't afford to buy it in the first place.

In other words? I just disproved my initial statement - yes, they CAN upgrade for free, if they didn't depreciate the value of the ram.

Well, it's not a bad idea. The wiring can be done in a way that you can thread other things when ethernet is no longer fast enough.

Though, if you're going to do that - why not send all the cords to a central part in the house, and install a command centre there? You can use it to re-direct connections, spy on internet usage, selectively disable (or re-route) certain wires ...

... Sorry, not since 2004 and the release of the ipod mini. Here, we praise the almighty apple, and their policies of less-than-user-repairable designs.

... so you're suggesting you turn up the power on BOTH ends?

No facts, please. We're all happy complaining about signals, noise, and the general decline of the human race.

Ummm, AC router 1 and 4 are acting up. AC router 3 is posting on slashdot using my account, I believe it is running some 3rd party happyOS...

but ..., this is sgt_doom's post, and so this is his explanation ... so ... do you propose it's signal degradation due to recursivity?

So, you're saying he should just install windowsME or vista?