Thanks, South Carolina!

Mind the gap, please!... or be SUCKED INTO OUTER SPACE!

You've obviously never had an underpowered media center. HD video, especially compressed video, requires at least decent processing power. You get much more bang for your buck with AMD in that regard.

For example, AMD outperforms Intel pound-for-pound in graphics and video rendering (which would make sense since they acquired ATI). If you're building a media center, get a computer with an AMD processor. It's one of the few things in life where cheaper is better.

But Nova can (and often is) interesting. NASA TV apparently is not if this is a representative sample.

It's also hard to reward. Also, "Paying a developer by the line is like paying an plumber by the pipe."

We'll be about 3 steps away from that if this comes through. I don't know about you, but personally, I'm wary of a computer being able to read my thoughts... Though it would be amazing for disabled people.

I'm all for research and exploration within reason. Satellites, observation of the universe via things like the Hubble telescope, etc. to find out more about the nature of the universe we live in is great stuff.

But doesn't the federal government have more pressing issues at this time than building a Motel 6 on the moon?

P.S. Don't take the last sentence literally, please.

Until supercomputers use SD cards.

...join 'em!

It's just a bit disingenuous to change the definition of a word to meet your own needs. Here's to hoping the FCC sees through it.

Apple, AT&T and other cell phone companies have yet to realize that imposing unreasonable restrictions on your own customers -- on a physical object your customers *bought* -- defies common sense.

People who own a physical piece of equipment should be able to use their equipment in any way that doesn't break the law or hurt others.

Some protections of the manufacturer are understandable, but they must be within reason. The more unreasonable the restrictions, the less legitimate they seem in the eyes of customers. The less legitimate they seem, the less guilt people feel for breaking the restrictions. The less guilty people feel, the more the "undesired" actions become mainstream (hence the jailbroken iPhone App Store). Plus, if they're extremely unreasonable, the FCC might just step in and void them.

In short, when dealing with consumers, being draconian as a company (a.) makes your product less valuable and (b.) reduces or eliminates goodwill customers have towards you. Apple needs to realize that you simply can't force people to do exactly what you want.

Duh.

Exactly. I love the idea of GPL and am glad it exists. I use GPL software whenever possible. This post however, is not about the merits of GPL, but to drive home this point: it's difficult (not impossible, but difficult) to make a living by relying on GPL software. Finding a "balance" between the GPL model and complete closure is something worth pursuing. It's not like GPL couldn't still be used by those who wanted to use it.

The GPL is simply not for every developer. It does not allow for trade sectrets, and trade secrets are legally protected for a legitimate reason: the opportunity to be rewarded for innovation. Without it, there would be *less* incentive to invent and innovate.

Clearly, some are willing to invent and develop technology without this protection, but many such as Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle, the average person with a Computer Science degree, will demand some of this protection when they really want to earn a living from their software.

As someone who's worked for software companies, it's hard to imagine those companies GPLing their products, and easy to imagine the company losing half its profits or going under altogether if any company with an IT department could legally recompile the source code and use the software without payment.

After all, companies do have the right to act in their own self-interest, even if you feel they are misguided.

The incredibly slow, huge and intrusive Adobe Acrobat Reader updates are the main reason I (and I'm sure many others) switched to FoxIt.

That aside, to this day, the innovations created by the Adobe of twenty years ago rivals that of any company of any time: TrueType, PostScript, the PDF standard, Photoshop (which is just as much a verb as "Google")... Adobe in the 1980s almost single-handedly created the desktop publishing industry. They made the software, technologies and tools achievable for individuals and small businesses.

Adobe Updates are Exhibit A of how they've fallen from one of the great software companies ever, to the punchline of a joke.