Should be modded -1 flamebait.

There's two problems with your argument. First of all, it's quite obvious that the environment is windows, and the guy is using a dos batch file to call os-specific things to do stuff. He'd have to re-write the whole script anyways in order to use linux. The other problem is that he really doesn't need to use python. Or perl. Or lua. Or whatever other random scripty bits we'd use in *nix land. Because, get this, it's not *nix land he's working with. It's windows.

I'm not really understanding these people who are trying to get him to complicate his "project" by adding scripting/programming languages, or arguing that he should switch his infrastructure over to linux (debian-based in your particular case, I assume). Just write the damn batch script in a KISS fashion, and as long as it works, he's set.

I'd be saying the same thing if someone wrote a batch script for ubuntu (specifically), and people were saying "Hey, you should use OSX/Windows/SuSe/FreeBSD". Although I'm sure that 3/4 of those I just listed would work with very little if any modification.

The real problem is that the way these grants and such are setup it's very very difficult for small isps that care about the last mile to get them. And the larger incumbent isps don't want them because the margins on such rural systems are so small that the cost of acquiring the government subsidy is more than the profit they'd get for at least 10-15 years.

So who's left? The phone company, maybe the cable co's, and the hughesnet people. Which will develop just enough roll out 256k up/down and call it 'broadband', and stuff the remaining funds into their pockets.

Keep in mind too that the heavily regulated internet providers (Phone, Cable, Satellite) are already accruing the fees that need to happen to get the grants, subsidies, etc. The smaller businesses can't afford to hire people who know the inner workings of the bureaucracies, and can't afford to 'waste' time on learning the maze-like complexity either.

So, I'd "fix" your statement by saying:

I wonder if we'll give away billions to Telephone + Cable ISPs without getting anything in return again.

The real truth is that ANY documentary, news story, or journalistic activity is going to be biased by the person/people creating the production, be it written, audible, or visual.

To really find the truth in any situation, you have to look beyond 'the story', and do your own research.

Hopefully that's what you were getting at.

I wish I had mod points. I also wish you'd posted this as non-AC.

Mod parent +insightful! Go indie games! :)

If this is a chronic problem, you're better off just getting some cheap host and quickly setting up bind or tinydns to serve the requests. Heck, I ran a DNS server that served about 100 domains off of a P2 350 with 128MB of ram for over 10 years. It's really not CPU intensive. And there's plenty of docs out there for typical setups that you could probably set up your own DNS server in the time it takes you to deal with just one of these provider-caused outages.

Let's face it, blocking off large swathes of the 'net isn't going to help. I've noticed over the past 10 years that there's always some new haven for criminal activity, and I highly doubt that's going to change in the next 10.

I mean, isn't the whole point of having an iPod or whatever so you can listen to music wherever you are? I mean, at that point you could just use pandora or any media server (Mediatomb, playon, tversity, etc, etc), or any of the myriad online streaming radio stations.

Sure, this is cool. But not it's not like the guy hacked a 80GB SSD drive into an old iPod.

The PS3 and Wii do the same thing. Four lights which indicate what player you are.

I think one thing that people get confused is that Apple really only cares about OSX being installed on Apple hardware.

They really don't care what software you install on your mac. They also don't care if you wipe out OSX and install Windows or Linux on it. Or what browser you run on it (Firefox is #5 on www.apple.com/downloads/ right now, you'd think if they cared, they'd yank it, right?)

While I agree with most of your post, I have to disagree on the location of internet options.

Just some background: I've been running a BBS, and then converted to an ISP since 1998 (I was active on them, but not running my own from 91-98). In doing so, I've HAD to walk people (Mostly retirees) through setting stuff up. Over the phone. Without instructions.

It's always been (In IE) Tools -> Internet options. Since at least IE 4. It's possible it was the same before then. Maybe it wasn't.

However, it's also ALWAYS been in control panel. It still is in Vista and windows 7.

It's never, ever been under File, Edit, View, or Help. If it has, I call the ultimate internet challenge: Pics (The non-modified kind) or it didn't happen. :)

I'll second this. I'm an avid gamer. Between my Wii, Xbox, PS3, and PC I probably have AT LEAST 500 games. Steam alone has ~150, Impulse ~50, disc-based games (and floppy before) make up the rest. I still have some old SNES (I lost my NES and Atari years ago, somehow only my SNES survived to my adulthood).

That said, I pirate games. Alot. As in, I pirated probably at least 1/2 of my steam collection, and just about every other PC game I own. Why? Because the demos honestly suck. One tutorial level and maybe a random campaign mission? Yea, right.

I pirate it, play it through (If I even get that far, most games don't make it past the 2nd-3rd area/mission), maybe do a skirmish or so to see how well the game balance is, and if I liked it, I buy it. Not just "Oh, I see it's on the bargain bin now for $5" buy it, I mean "Oh, this just came out this week, I pirated and liked it, so here's $50-70, good job guys" buy it. They're not only NOT losing sales due to my piracy, they're GAINING sales.

For instance, I pirated this one RTS game a year or so ago, played a couple campaign missions, did a skirmish. I really liked it, and bought it. At the same time, I gave my friends (Who I regularly game with) copies of the game and told them if they liked it, to buy it and we'd all play together. Not only did I manage to convince them to buy the game, but we all also bought the expansions.

Now, I know that there's only anecdotal evidence here, but what I'm saying is that the game company got $350 ($70 each for game + exp * 5) because I pirated the game, rather than $0 if I hadn't. I just wouldn't have really bothered with it unless it really caught my eye somehow, and I definitely wouldn't have talked a few friends into buying copies.

Conversely, this new DRM stuff (Tages, Starforce, etc) is so obnoxious, I just won't even bother pirating the games, because I won't be buying them. I simply don't have enough time to play ALL the games out there, so I really don't mind too much if I miss out on one or two titles - even if I was looking forward to them, as was the case with anno 1404. TAGES? Blah, not even a pirate from me. Sad that I couldn't play it? Sorta. I've looked at videos and it's just a rehash of the previous games. Nothing really new to see here, moving on.. :)