Never had to interact with Oracle much, that they're not well regarded is obvious, but if is the one thing they end up doing, then I will thank them and love them for it, in a perverse way. This overheard at OOPSLA during lunch many years ago:

Some Random Guy: "So James, really, what do you think the odds of Java really working are?"

James Gosling: "Of course it'll work, there's not a damn new thing in it!"

Or put better by Jan Steinman: "Java. All the elegance of C++ with all the speed of Smalltalk."

Rant aside, sadly, from what I hear, there's enough Java love fest going on at Google to keep things going for quite a while.

So let's say I did a lot of Linux back in the day, now days, I do it rarely under vmware with OSX. I've been installing (k)Ubuntu now and then again. What's the best KDE friendly distro these days (running under vmware)?

Someone needs to write up a blog article drawing random conclusion from handpicked examples of the success of forked projects, based on their names. Since both project names are retarded, I wonder what effect we can extrapolate that project names have on project success.

Write your article with flair and with, and /. will link to it, driving add dollars^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hmonetization your way. And we the /. community can discuss an even more inane correlation.

And In other news, School Boards continue to be more likely to employ contract construction crews to build new schools, but continue to rely on custodians to keep them running.

I think you've left out an important part of the equation in your rebuttal. There's a real tension between supporting/evolving/migrating existing/legacy IT assets and developing brand new start-from-scratch ones. So while I of course loathe IT departments as much as the next guy, I don't think it's entirely the IT departments fault either. Managers tend to want both the old maintained/improved and the new as well. Whether the domain is IT or sewage control, it's hard to have an entity that does both efficiently simultaneously.

Giving rise to the advent of "countymandering" :)

Given /.'s affinity for Dup's... we can be assured that within 24 hours, this story'll be reposted, but with reference to the DailyBeast article. Ain't redundancy great? :D

Mod Parent Up+

There is no "free". There's pay now, and pay later. Given American consumerist tendencies to _have_ now and worry about paying later... it all actually seems like a pretty much done deal actually.

...
One Hole to rule them all, One Hole to find them,
One Hole to bring them all and in the blackness bind them
Before the Big Bang where the Shadows lie.

You're doing it wrong.

Them: "Are we there yet?"
Me: "10 minutes"
Them: "Are we there yet?"
Me: "10 minutes"
Them: "Are we there yet?"
Me: "20 minutes"
Them: "Are we there yet?"
Me: "30 minutes"
Them: "Are we there yet?"
Me: "50 minutes"
Them: "Are we there yet?"
Me: "80 minutes" ...

Eventually, they get the idea. And it makes it more engaging because you have to remember where you were last time, as well get to enjoy using a different series each time. Fib is one of my favorite.

When it comes to a private university, sure. Let them do what they want. But a "State" University derives much of its operation from tax dollars collected from the citizens of the states. They exist for the same reason that the public K-12 education system does, for the betterment of society and its individuals. Since a state university is really just the next step beyond High School, but where they make you pay some money to make sure you are serious, I struggle with your comment that they are businesses. If they ARE businesses and are going to run like businesses, please remove them from my tax burden.

"You A students, you'll be back soon teaching here with me.
You B students, you'll actually go on to be real engineers.
You C students, you'll go into management and tell the A and B students what to do."

The larger issue, that all of these comments circle around to me, is the continued decay of trust. I don't trust management. They don't trust me. What a surprise that at some point, I'd decide "if you can't beat them, might as well become one of them and get paid like one."

You hear about the zeal for progressive freedoms in the Scandinavian countries from time to time it seems to me. Things like the Pirate party in Sweden. And Iceland wanting to make a free press safehouse out of its country. And DVD Jon in Norway. I was kinda shocked that none of Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, or Finland was in this report. Kind of a stupid report IMO.

Here's what I don't get. When there's an article like this, it's the iphone/ipad (Apple products) that are killing their network. Yet when I go into either of the local AT&T stores here, it's all about 'Droid. From the sales people to the shelf space. So what is it? Is it that:

a) iPhone/iPad refer to specific products, but at the same time have become a synonymous moniker for all like products (kind like "Walkman" in the old days was both a specific product, but also the generic name for any portable tape player)?

or

b) Despite all of the 'Droid push from AT&T, there's a larger iPhone base within the AT&T network than the explosive Droid devices?

or

c) People who buy 'Droids don't like to use the net near as much?

or

d) Droid phones suck at doing net apps relative to iPhones?

or

e) something else?

...

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That's what Google's business is. If Google owned the music industry, music artists might go the same way of the bloggers, news sites, and other media entity. Artists could get promoted more if they mention certain products. Listeners would get free music, if you're willing to watch targeted ads.

Kind of like letting a convict out of prison at the end of his life to enjoy his last few years, at this point.