Second rate is great, when perfection is imaginary! Perfect is an ideal embodied by many, but usually not the same ideal embodied by the individuals in that many. So, yeah, I will take good enough, rather than wait until eternity for perfection.

Single source OSs or anything else. If they manage to get it right, the perfect OS that satisfies every user, meets all of our needs. Then what happens? Does the world stagnate, or do they go ahead and produce something that may be totaly crap, and we are all locked in, so we all adopt the crap. No thanks, I like variety, choice, and options. I like being able to decide what I want, and what I do not want. I hope the patent situation around the world does not kill inovation, and I do not want this, as it would do the same.

I wish my Federal, Provincial, and Municipal governments see what is happening and learn from it. I doubt it, but it sure would be great if...

I would agree with that except for the question of how much more helium would be needed as a result of the parties? Balloon pops, bursts into fire, house burns down, people sent to hospital in need of medical attention... I think we need a study to anaylize just how many additional MRIs would be needed as a result, so we can determine if we would be saving helium in the long run. Anyone have a few hundred million to invest in such a worth study?

Unity - I hate it. Pulled it off my system. Ubuntu with Gnome 2 is ok.

That was my initial thought. So, since I am using 12.04 LTS, I am hoping that I can avoid the Amazon ads for a while. It will give me a chance to see (hopefully) Canonical remove the Ads in favour of the way it has been, or a chance to find a new distro to switch to. I suppose if there was an easy off switch, that might work, but I do so hate the concept in general.

I'm still running a home phone - VOIP, not land line. I haven't seen anything worth switching to in the mobile market. So, I have you beat. I have not spent the money, nor will I, on any iPhone.

Bank employees are not stupid enough to have their software blindly follow/execute QR codes, so I do not think there is a serious concern of bank systems being infected with virii from forged QR codes. But if there was, I would hope the virus programmers would make include code to allow banks to help those that need help, not just the ones that have lots already.

I like the ones that twist, sort of like a roller coaster for your drink!

I have to ask why written consent is going to cost the university $594,000 annually. Surely, one of their law students could draft a consent letter to be reviewed by a practicing lawyer - maybe one already on staff. That should only cost a few hundred dollars - maybe a couple of thousand if the lawyer is famous and expensive. Then there is the cost of a filing cabinet to store the letters. Maybe paper for photocopies. And Say 15 minutes per client in time to print, collect the signature and file the document. Surely that can not cost more than $10,000 a year. If it was run by a government, I could see it a little higher, but not 60 times that amount.

Yes, I realize there is way too much government. I am all for less government. I thought my previous comment was dripping with sarcasm.

For all of you bashing Harper and his politicized government, non-profits and the rest of Canada, all I have to say is we got it right. Eleven or twelve people are working for the government rather than collecting Employment Insurance. Just think how many unemployed could be working in the states if Agencies such as NASA, used the same amount of manpower to answer questions like these. I am sure that would solve the economic slowdown we have been having.

I seem to remember from when I lived in Prague, anything that you develop stays yours. Even when developed on business time, the business cannot take ownership of it. That seemed to be very sensible to me at the time. Now, I may not remember it accurately, but I can always dream... :)

It is not quite that simple. If Joe uploads a photo, and tags a face as belonging to you, and then Mary uploads a photo with a face that matches and also says it belongs to you, it does not take facebook very long to know what you look like, and who you might know even though you do not have a facebook account.