My previous company provided managed/hosted communications services and we used PoE quite a bit. When deploying 100 or so phones it ends up being cheaper to put in a PoE switch than it is to buy power bricks at $5/pop. In the consumer space you only have, what, maybe 3 devices on a switch? At home I have an Ooma, LinkStation NAS, and my computer. PoE only provides enough power (~25W) for the Ooma (maybe), so as much as I'd like to get rid of three power cords it just isn't possible or cost-effective.

100W USB might work for the NAS and the linkstation, but to eliminate the extra cord it would require support for IP over USB and an upstream USB NAT or bridge device. (It would be neat if the standard evolved to the point where every device could request an IP address from the host and be treated like a network device.)

So this technology might work for:

1. Charging larger devices (netbook, tablet) from a PC / standardizing charger form factor
2. Powering and driving external displays
3. Some kind of smart power standards ... being able to put a powered device into sleep mode from the host or vice versa using signals, and adjusting the power supply/draw accordingly.

So I started with Gnome (Kharmic) and tried KDE 4 on a lark (Kubuntu Kharmic). Loved it, except that it was too buggy. Stuck with it through 4.5.2, and then went back to Gnome in Lucid. I liked Ubuntu's added touches and it seemed more solid, so I stuck with it until Natty. Hated everything about Unity, so I stuck in a FC15 Alpha LiveCD and after about 5 minutes decided it was so much better than Unity I installed it and have been running ever since.

I do Java development, system administration, E-mail, photos, backups, samba shares, PHP/Apache, and make heavy use of VMs. And for every single one of these tasks I find that my workflow has improved significantly. The notifications system, while immature, is a huge step forward over any other desktop environment I've used. With a few shell extensions and the gnome tweak tool I have everything I need: date and time top center, weather icon and details on the panel, places menu with shortcuts to the filesystem, etc.

I'll grant you, it's not perfect. The power options stink. I can't pin certain Java apps (NetBeans) or custom shell commands to the shortcut panel (e.g. VBoxManage --startvm "Foo"). It would be nice if there was first class support for samba configuration and other things. The system configuration menus are anemic and confusing, and a lot of stuff has to be configured via gsettings. But I only deal with those things very infrequently. For my everyday tasks everything is much better. (I make a lot of use of the expose feature and the search tools.)

Now FC15 as a distro, on the other hand, is a complete pain to deal with, and if Ubuntu provided decent support for Gnome 3 then I'd switch back in a heartbeat.

Perhaps a bit off-topic, but relevant to the OP...

In Linux everything I need comes from one or more trusted software repositories, and all of the updates are performed through the same tool in the same way, so I do not need to familiarize myself with the different update systems for different pieces of software.

In iOS everything is downloaded and installed through the app store, updates are similarly pushed through a single (presumably trusted) source. Same with Android and the various marketplaces and presumably with Windows-based smartphones. (Symbian and RIM aren't really in the game anymore, and it is likely related to this.)

So that leaves Mac OS X and Windows as really the only predominant platforms where you grab stuff from every which where and install it. And IIRC, even Mac OS X tries to consolidate the updates into a central tool (I remember Java and Adobe updates coming through the Mac OS X update tool).

I expect that this model will prevail and within 5 years the majority of software for any system (Windows included) will start coming through central repos (or "App Stores"). Linux has been there for over a decade, but hasn't got their act together with respect to branding, ease-of-use, and revenue sharing (Ubuntu is bridging that gap). So if we can get to a point where software is signed, or at least has a verifiable hash, and it all comes from the same trusted place, then a lot of these issues will be moot.

As much as I hate to say it, Kubuntu is the one I've had the least amount of frustration with (I've tried OpenSuSE, Fedora, and Chakra besides). There's a lot more eyes on Kubuntu and a lot more forum posts related specificly to Kubuntu, so it's easy to find answers, and Canonical does a good job of installing the basics by default (codecs, flash, binary drivers, etc.).

If we called PPAs "subscriptions" or "app stores" instead, we'd be fine. That's all it is. If we made it to where the ppa: URL scheme was associated with the software store and automatically launched it when clicked, then viola, problem solved. Prompt the user for their admin credentials, confirm that they want to add the subscription/store/software source, run apt-get update, and then prompt them to install new packages. Not hard. There's probably even a way to monetize PPA subscriptions that way, too.

I was able to update Shotwell ahead of the next release by adding the Yorba PPA. I helped test an Empathy fix by adding the test PPAs. I was able to install VirtualBox and keep it updated by adding the VirtualBox PPA. And for any of these I had the option of downloading the *.DEB install files and double-clicking on them to install. There are also third party RPM repos (RPM Fusion) and standalone RPM packages that can be downloaded and installed.

The only difference between this and Mac OS/Windows is that we actually have the option of using a repository.

The system isn't broken. People who update every six months on release day (like me) should expect to encounter issues. But you're right... distributions (and Ubuntu in particular) should be a lot more forthcoming about the instability of non-LTS releases, especially if they stick with time-based releases come-what-may.

IANAL, but Apple can probably control how their trademark is used. So the bank can say "Free tablet computer!" but could not use the "iPad" trademark in conjunction with words like "free". I say this because most marketing materials I see have little footnotes that say things to the effect of "[X] and [Y] are registered trademarks of [Z] used with permission" or some such. So I imagine there are limits to what they can print if the trademark holder chooses to protect their mark.

I have both. Every motherboard I've purchased has has reset switch pins, and every case (so far) has had the actual switches to hook them to. The power switch is real and it definitely works ... my 2-year old proved that to me this morning as I was working...

For what it's worth, I found Natty to be so incredibly buggy, unstable, and painful to use that I installed FC 15 *beta* and have not looked back. I really like Gnome Shell, and aside from a few issues with Java apps (which Unity also has) it's been ideal: fast, stable, and actually helps me do my work instead of hindering me.

It really depends on where you go. If you're paying around $50/head then the food is pretty decent. Less than that and you get a lot of carbs, meat, cheese, salt, and fat. The wood grilled fish-of-the-day at Red Lobster is not bad, and places like Applebees generally have a simple tilapia-and-broccoli plates (or similar) for the health conscious. Decent food is there if you look for it. It's just not popular among the locals.

It may not be nutritious, but it sure tastes good. I recently worked with some vendors from the UK, and they said their favorite part of America was the food. I imagine that when you only have it occasionally, the ingredients don't really matter that much to you. (Of course, this was food at nicer sit-down restaurants, not fast food.)

I've never seen that pop up on Google news, but thanks for the heads up.

I have google news filtering out the extreme/slanted sources so I can get a balanced view. So I see less Drudge, WSJ, Fox News and Huffpo and more Reuters, Bloomberg, AP, NPR, Christian Science Monitor, Atlantic, Popular Science, Wired, etc. Basically sources that don't gag me with obvious editorlizations. Of course, 50% or more of the "articles" are blog posts, so editorials seems to be the new news.

Anyway, that's the bubble I try to make for myself--not one that excludes opposing views, but one that excludes extremist nonsense. I see no problem with that whatsoever--to me it's just like filtering obnoxious junk mail.

The thing is that as an employee you serve at the pleasure of your employer. If you are in a designer/analyst role, one of your functions is to identify and effectively communicate issues, options for resolving them, and the pros and cons of each, keeping in mind that there is no perfect solution and different parties have different goals and priorities. If the problem is, for example, a conflict between elegant code or elegant UI, and user experience is a top priority, then that's management's call. It helps to have a prioritized list of objectives from the outset that you can reference in these discussions, but usually that's not the case.

If, after you have explained the consequences of each option and given justification for your preference, management decides to stay the course, then all you can do is document the discussion in the issue log and do the best with what you have.

Now, if we're talking scope and release schedules, then that is a slightly different scenario. In that case the best way to make everyone happy is to have management (or the customer) prioritize their wish list, and then either specify a release date or a feature set, but not both. From there you can return a list of guaranteed deliverables in whatever timeframe is agreed upon based upon your professional estimate. But that involves negotiation and compromise, not vetoes or overrides.

Of course, all this is assuming that both sides are rational and reasonable. If that isn't the case then no amount of process or project management is going to make things go smoothly.

Good issue tracking, short iterations, and daily stand-ups to discuss issues. Assign mentors to junior developers that you know need help, and have the mentors spot check the code. Let the more experienced developers choose the stack, define the interfaces, an create prototypes, and then hand those off as a template for other developers to follow.