My question is: what is this guy doing sitting around having access to Facebook? I'm all for innocent-until-proven-guilty, but in most cases involving multiple planned murders, isn't it standard practice to hold them in a prison cell until the trial?

Prisoner 4: "Hey, I missed my turn!"

What I wonder is whether bad economic times are good for open-source software development. Seems to me when there are a bunch of unemployed technical types around, they'd have more time to devote to working on the software, which could have lasting economic benefits all around. At least, I think that's what I'd try to work on if I lost my job. Being employed in other areas full time, I'm just a user, not a contributor to the continuous improvement of available software. Am I just being idealistic?

Do you remember what it was like trying to search for anything before Google? Everything else was useless by comparison. Let us not take for granted how easy Google made it to locate useful and relevant information quickly. Sure, they are now essentially an advertising company, but their positive effect on the productivity of hundreds of millions of people has been huge.

(Said the guy surfing Slashdot).

What have you got against horses?!?

No, there is just too much data. They chose ska because they needed something exactly like reggae except much, much faster.

Not having tried it, I'm not surprised to hear that. Unless they can somehow simulate the centripetal force (jump in, pedants) from turning a corner when you lean, I'd have trouble believing it would be anything more than gimmicky. In fact, sounds downright terrifying. Note: I is a mechanical engineer and cyclist, but could still be wrong.

You don't need to -- they're now welcoming each other without any help from us.

Without engineering this, we'll be evolving towards this based on the college admissions process anyway. It used to be that universities wanted well-rounded people who could take their education and integrate their knowledge into society afterwards. Nowadays, the competitive places want their freshmen to be the best in the world in one narrow area, with little thought given to how they'll function as adults.

Maybe the increased incidence of autism/Asperger's these days is actually... the beginnings of an evolutionary response to this pressure? Nah, too fast...

My thoughts exactly. Personally, when I compare the early pre-Internet part of my career (lots and lots of airline travel on The Man's dime) versus a normal work week now (VOIP calls, Skype sessions, WebEx-type meetings, shared file sessions, TeamViewer remote problem diagnoses, etc.) I'm quite sure I've already avoided enough CO2 production to pay for a lifetime of Internet usage. I still work with clients and far-flung colleagues just as much as before, I just don't burn precious aviation fuel to do it unless they really need to hash something out over a beer.

Anyone who limits himself to LEGO(R) bricks is merely limiting his ideas to what a multinational corporation deems acceptable.

You're kidding, right? He didn't limit himself because LEGO sent thugs and told him it was the only thing he could use. He limited it to those for an interesting intellectual challenge (and perhaps, a better chance of getting Slashdotted).

Of course, but like in all systems, the difficult part is getting the admins to poke around in the logs to figure out what is making them larger...

That's not a bad idea. An e-book publisher no longer has to print and distribute (or if they do, it costs almost nothing). But there is still a place for them in providing services for self-published authors, things like finding a decent editor, setting up readings, perhaps maintaining a web site, etc. I would think many authors would still be willing to give up a small cut for these kinds of services provided by a "corporate umbrella".

On the other, from the consumer/reader point of view, I would be skeptical of the "quality mark" idea. I'm having trouble thinking of anything I get from a quality mark that I don't get more and better of from things like Amazon reviews or your favorite genre book blog. Still, perhaps the label would at least tell people "this book had an editor" which is more than many self-published books full of egregious errors can say...

It's a good question, but there is a reason. If there is an AC link between two different systems, they essentially become one system and they have to stay synchronized with each other. This results in all kinds of complications for the grid operators. Generator outages or power surges in one area affect the other area. The frequency in both areas must remain the same or else you instantly damage all kinds of expensive rotating equipment. If two (unconnected) areas nominally operate at 60 Hz, they still vary slightly from that frequency all the time -- it would be quite common to see one at 59.98 Hz and the other at 60.02 Hz and then the reverse ten minutes later. If you join those up, the laws of physics dictate they become synchronized. If you keep them apart with DC lines, it is much easier to "schedule" how much power flows, and when, without worrying as much about what's going on in the other grid at that microsecond. This is probably why Canada uses them -- you pump through massive amounts of electricity when the dams are generating, and none at all when they aren't, and keeping those small northern grids synchronized to the Toronto grid (or wherever) is more trouble than it's worth when nothing is happening up there.

On the other hand, there are advantages to linking up by AC, since a larger grid has more inertia and more generators that can pick up the slack when one generator goes out. The US has three major AC grids which are quite large and interconnected only with small amounts of DC - the East, the West, and dang ol' Texas. The East and West might never be joined up, due to the vast distances and expense involved. Texas might never be joined up because we still consider ourselves an independent occupied nation and don't want to over-commit to a long-term relationship with the USA. :-)

Damn straight! Please wake up my cryogenically preserved head when it's 3141-05-09 02:06:53.590 GMT and then I'll be prepared to celebrate the arbitrary matching of a date to a mathematical quantity.

Come to think of it, I don't want to wait that long. Wake me up at 2718-02-08 18:28:45.905 GMT for "e" day.