mod this one up!!!

The eBooks are currently too slow to compete with a paper book. I can flip effortlessly between pages in a book, and while with electronic "bookmarks" this would be practical to do in an electronic version, the screen draw is just too darn slow to realistically "flip" pages.

There's potential here ... but more UI work will need to be done before it's ready to compete, especially when reading for entertainment.

But all the stuff that was taken was marked "Free for the Community to use".

I agree, there is a violation of ethics here, and likely a violation of MediaWiki's rules, but no violation of the law itself.

It's more like if you had a little bulletin board in a public area, but then one group started filling the board with their own messages (not related to your intended purpose). "Theft of Bandwidth" is nonsensical if you provide that bandwidth with no restrictions (as most public wikis do).

Where is the option "Out of the Skull of an Anonymous Coward"?

Modern Linux distros run on more laptops, and netbooks than the current MS distribution.

As far as I know, Windows doesn't even have an OS for netbooks ... they have to use an old OEM of XP, which won't be around forever.

Many netbooks are using Ubuntu instead of any MS OS.

Vista (more-have-y) requires such overloaded hardware to achieve the same thing Gnome, KDE and Mac have been achieving for the past five years.

No - the real problem is not hardware, but the software people are expected to use. My wife is in school, where they may have been able to use linux, except one class absolutely required Microsoft Office 2007 (which wouldn't run on many students' old laptops), and most of the "demo" software that comes with the text books also requires Windows to run Flash apps (now how stupid is that?).

Linux is ready for the desktop, has been for years. It's the half-ass software designers that are not ready to think anything beyond MS.

So, I assume Stallman can't use any typical search engine ... maybe he built his own from Lucene. He also must not do any credit transactions online.

He must also be careful that any packets his computer sends turn right around should they encounter a Cisco router (or any other proprietary router).

I suppose in his daily life, using a phone, or a car, or Television would be right out.

I sure hope Mr. Stallman never needs any medical attention.

I DO admire much of what Mr. Stallman stands for, and I'm glad there is a champion for free software ... but I live in the real world, where to buy goods, you need some government's currency, and to do anything electronically, you have to use SOME commercial software somewhere.

I wonder, too ... does Mr. Stallman's PC have a proprietary BIOS, or did he write that code, too?

IRV - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting

If Minnesota used that system for voting, we'd have a legally appointed Senator by now.

If you're handling credit card data at least, you should (better) be familiar with PCI-DSS. Basically, the credit card industry has gone to great lengths to set standards that can simply be followed to help assure that you're NOT handling data (or HTTP) in an insecure manner.

It's amazing what proper due diligence can do for you. It's also amazing how many people think because they CAN take credit card data online, that they automatically should.

Your teacher can ask for your notes - but I can't see how they would have the right to go into your backpack, or any of your private belongings. If it was the police, they would require a search permit. What this teacher did was illegal if they went into your backpack without your consent. I would seriously consider a lawsuit against the school for violating your right to privacy.

Beyond that, they can ask for the notes back, but it's your right to keep them. I don't care what anyone says about their lectures being "copyrighted" - BS! Those were your notes. If you took notes at the recent inauguration, do you really think Obama has the rights to take those notes away from you?

Talk to the dean. Let them know your rights were violated, and see what they have to say. Chances are this flaky teacher will be straitened out.

Remember when schools were about education, not hording of "intellectual property", or selling student information to the highest bidder, or forcing ridiculous, expensive, and useless courses (like an "Intro to Computers" that requires the purchase of Microsoft Office 2007 pro and a useless book from Sams)? Too many schools in the U.S. have been focusing on their bottom line for so long, they have simply forgotten what their original purpose was.

... but the tripe was a hell of a lot more fun!

Who says Helen is a Cylon? Just because Tigh suddenly has more memories, they are automatically true?

So, I had to see "Maelstrom" again after the last BG episode. Didn't learn too much ... but ...

The scene in Maelstrom where Apollo & Starbuck are having a pretty intense talk sitting underneath her viper. The talk gets more intense, and there is a shot where you can see both Apollo and Starbuck's faces - and in that shot, I swear, there are tiny red lights reflecting in the whites of both of Starbuck's eyes. An instant later, their conversation degrades - almost as if something had gone unsaid.

I played it back several times, and because the light is in BOTH of her eyes, I don't think it was just a glitch.

No idea what the hell it would mean, especially with the producers so insistent that Starbuck is NOT a Cylon.

Maybe it's not Starbuck - maybe it's that Cylon raider she came back in several seasons ago, and it THINKS it's Starbuck ...

Whatever, "Notion" was a great episode - a "10" on the WTF scale!

This is actually a pretty slick concept - I was thinking of when my geeky friends go fishing and bring our PDAs - rather than having six different chargers, just bring one - or better yet, it's already installed in the truck!

That drawer full of different-sized chargers for old phones - gone.

You'd also have one less thing to make & ship with a new phone. If chargers were unified, less chargers would need to be built, and fewer would be thrown away.

Hey - for the next trick, why not unify all the credit card processing machines?

(and as far as "wireless power", it's been around since ... ah, how old is the sun?)