Installing Slack 1.2 from its 5 or so 3.5" floppies was how I learned linux (and BIND and vi, since they were dedicated DNS servers that I had to install and configure) back in the mid '90s. I too prefer the learn by doing, though I wouldn't turn down a few CS courses if I could afford them.

Currently using Gentoo for my server at home that I play on. Tried a few other flavors in the early '00s, but went back to Slack, then switched to Gentoo when I didn't have time for a non-managed-package setup. Used to have a dual boot desktop as well as the server, but haven't had the time for playing around as much lately, so its been straight Win10 (for those few minutes of gaming I get) since Win7 said "hey, we want you to update!" and the dual boot part broke (never got around to fixing it ... still have the hdd sitting around somewhere, though its been long enough that Gentoo install probably would not update cleanly).

actually, no. the one in the article is a "normal" gridded fusor. he hasn't gotten the magrid for the polywell built yet ...

Actually, NetSol would have to contact their customer and say "We've received a DMCA notice for X ... remove X or we take down your site." I don't know the timeline on what happened, so they may have given Cryptome a couple of days to remove the file, then downed the domain when he didn't, which isn't quite as unreasonable as it at first appears. Of course, they could also have received the DMCA request and just downed the site, which is just as unreasonable as it appears.

Its not global warming it is (political) climate change. ;)

But this is the new version. Lion has already been done, thus the suggestion of puma. ;)

Just because something evolved doesn't mean it got better. Evolution is change, so when your language changes, for whatever reason, then it has evolved. Phreak summed it up pretty well for the Romance languages (as did you, from a slightly different perspective, btw).

As for his use of failure, while I don't think many people think of it the way he does, it doesn't seem to be an unreasonable description of what happened. Rome (the empire) failed, and thus the Roman language (latin) changed -- failure leading to change, as local dialects replaced "official" latin.

You clearly haven't ever worked on a truly good chassis then. There are definitely chassis' that aren't worth the cost of the paper in the packing slip, however, there are also chassis that are well worth every penny you spend on them, and then some. The $200 Antec chassis I've recently set up is extremely easy to get into and work on (and no, I do not feel that screws are a bad thing; I prefer having parts secured to the chassis by metal, not plastic). My only complaint has been the placement of the memory on the motherboard (up "top" where heat would gather when the system is upright) which is a motherboard design problem, not a chassis problem, and that wouldn't have been a problem if my air conditioning had worked correctly and I didn't live in Texas. : /

I'm with the AC on this one. If its named "Orion" it needs to use nukes to get off the ground!

... and that makes it better somehow?

Or efficient bureacracy. :/

weeks? try days ... or even hours.

Dell doesn't keep "an image". It keeps the pieces required to build the required image necessary for the individual computer based on its ordered configuration, which includes what software it was supposed to ship with. That "image" (which is the parts used to build the image) is used to build pre-imaged hard drives for warranty replacements, or software recovery CD sets (boot from disk, load the factory image). I think Dell's complaint is that the injunction means they wouldn't be able to send out recovery CDs or imaged hard drives to customers that purchased the software prior to the injuction but needed the image after it took place. The 120 day time frame they mention sounds suspiciously like the TTL of pieces used to build the image.

Now, do I think the court should listen to Dell and HP about this? I'm not sure.

I do know that I think this kind of patent is crap that shouldn't be enforced. Especially considering, as someone posted above, XML was designed to support the features this patent claims to cover. I know for sure XML has been around longer than the patent has, so prior art means MS should "win" this case (despite my misgivings over letting MS "win" something like this).

I like the idea of Open Office being an option on Dells, but you seem to be unaware that MS Works (my favorite oxymoron, btw) includes MS Word now instead of the upgraded version of Wordpad (or was Wordpad a downgraded version of the Works editor?) it used to use.

So, thats an example of Sneakernet then. :)