Was a failure to stop what happened, no doubt about that.

No need to move to a proprietary hosting service like Github.

I wrote about this previously: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/savannah

I don't understand why countries like Ireland or Bermuda or wherever don't all just charge a small tax of some kind (like say 5%) that keeps the companies coming there, but gets them tons of money. What does Bermuda get out of having Apple "based" in Bermuda if they don't get any tax revenue? They get no additional jobs or property taxes (except maybe a mailbox rental).

This argument seems backwards though, somewhat. I guess the underlying factor is self-control. If you have the control to only buy what you need, then having targeted ads can aid in saving money.

In the original example, finding a 2 for 1 deal at a nearby restaurant would save you 50%. If you aren't going to eat out or are eating out alone, then ignoring the ad shouldn't be a problem.

There are something I by regularly and actively seek out sales for. If, through targeted advertising, the sellers could let me know that product XYZ that I've been buying each month for the past year is on sale at store ABC this month, it would save me money and time.

So on a business site, you would require a user to log in with an account from another site/system before they could contact you to show interest, request a quote, etc.?

I understand for web forums, etc, but my issue is contact forms on business sites. Most users don't want to share their facebook or twitter accounts and haven't heard of most of the other options.

I did see another post about combining the hidden form element technique with a short submission timer that looked interesting though.

In all sincerity, can you post some links? I'll even take an insulting "lmgtfy" that end up with some good results.

I hate captchas, but all the other methods I have seen and tried (hidden form elements, javascript checks, etc.) all break down in one place or another.

Is this an attempt to fix the marketing aspect?

I'm from the US and my current plan if my wife gets cancer is to withdraw all money I can from all my accounts, bury it in jars in the backyard and declare bankruptcy.

I think the interesting thing that seems to go somewhat unmentioned is that the main advantage of funding via Kickstarter vs vc or the industry is that with Kickstarter, worst case you just have to give out swag (t-shirts, dvds, etc.) that you can factor the costs into your fund raising.

With vc or industry funding, they are going to expect a percentage of the profits or gross. What I would like to see is a Kickstarter where if you fund above a certain level, you get a certain percentage of profits (even if it is really small).

This actually works really well:

http://how-to.wikia.com/wiki/How_to_watch_Netflix_(Watch_Instantly)_in_Linux It uses WINE, but the ppa sets everything up for you (if you are using Ubuntu). For things like TVs and Rokus, they have special, non-silverlight DRM built in that Netflix has specified. The problem with making truly native Linux client is that, like most things for Linux, the market share isn't there to make it cost effective.

They've done dozens of events at Apple Stores, including the huge Apple store about 100 metres from this Microsoft store.

"free enough to be distributed with the Linux kernel sources"

the firmware files are typically under a license that prohibits modification and even redistribution.

> A desktop os needs a browser (Firefox), text editor (vim), office suite (OpenOffice), PDF reader (evince), window manager (kde), etc

Browser: GNU Icecat, text editor: emacs, office suite: GNOME Office, PDF reader: GNU PDF, window manager: GNOME.

I found its actually hard to get a machine that's decent these days, unless you're prepared to put up with a bit of crap.

The solution is to build your own custom laptop -- http://www.avadirect.com/gaming-laptop-configurator.asp?PRID=25095

If you go for the "VISIONTEK Killer" wireless card, it has an Atheros chipset, so you can distro-hop to your hearts content. They also ship it with no OS if you like.