Yea, I installed 64-bit Windows 7 two weeks ago on my MacBook ... running serious apps and serious games (in terms of processor/support requirements) with no issues. Dual monitors with miniDVI, swapping usb keyboards/mice/external hd's in & out while running and not a single problem.

Er, thanks Apple?

I switched to Mac from PC because I grew tired of Windows enforcing its dull, witless paradigms on me, but there are many things I actually miss about Windows/hate in Mac culture:

• With Windows, I could quickly find solutions to problems via forums, where most responses to Mac issues include countless "I refuse to acknowledge your criticism of my Apple product" or more often "but it's shiny" responses ... most often you have to reply multiple times with "yes, it is shiny, but I would really like it to do this ..." before finally giving up and living with the issue (example, I don't need to see my desktop when working in Photoshop ... wtf would I want to see unrelated content of any kind??? ... but too bad live with it)
• Mac has some serious/conflicting usability issues (come on, who builds both a three-control key keyboard and a single-button mouse?) like having the apple key (core to most actions) only on the left side of the keyboard ('suck on it, lefty!' seems to be the message) ... but heaven forbid you ever suggest this in public
• Apple's no-competition-when-playing-in-our-house philosophy (message: Apple, your iPhone email app sucks big time; no marking 'all read', no 'send only' accounts, no .... you get the idea) hints of an arrogance and hubris that is counter-apple-culture
• The intellectual vacuum that exists in fanboyism causes the same sort of negative progress in the Mac arena as the self-entitlement that Windows brought to its own products. If you can't question God, how can you evolve?

Anyway, at least it *is* shiny.

This is precisely why I refuse to host my or my client's websites in the U.S., and now I suppose I'll have to dump GoDaddy and move all my domains to a registrar situated in a "real" freedom-honoring nation (red pill: it actually takes more than flag-waving and rhetoric).

Just sayin'...

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Freedom is in the eye of the upholder.

Your argument is specious, only because it has to be applied unilaterally as well. When in recent history has the U.S. and it citizens practiced unilateralism in recent history (besides gestures and possibilities, Obama is still strictly PR). If you think economic recovery is going to take a long time to recover (thanks again for the guileless leader you let run your country for most of this decade), just wait to see how long it is before the rest of the world forgives his (and by acclamation, your) policies and rhetoric.

Swapping carrot for stick doesn't instantly make the donkey forget the stick (yes, world, in this story you are the donkey).

And I, as a Canadian, cheerily add a big FU to the EU. If their interest was even remotely in the artist's interests I'd side with them, but this is just corporate politics flavoured 1984 (thank's to new copyright law, the artists profits have been increased 30%).

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The only truth is that which you choose to believe.

WTF?

There is a big difference between murder as the sub-plot to a country implementing a selfish and morally ambiguous agenda through force, and individuals who (as part of their job description) protect the general population from people who are trying to kill them, applying as a general rule non-lethal means.

On a more related note, jail is punishment, not redemption. I couldn't give a donkey's dick that they spent time in jail and want to move on with their lives, or that they're going to have trouble finding meaningful employment. You don't want people to point at you and say "yep, that's the dickhead who killed somebody", the path to that life is pretty frickin' obvious!

Just as the vast majority of DRM opponents pretend there is nothing wrong with piracy? Most people don't even have a clue what you're talking about when people yap about DRM, and it's not just because they're ignorant of it, it's because it doesn't impede or impinge upon their lives ... i.e. it is as transparent as it is intended to be.

People who manufacture a "creative" product have the same right to protect this item as somebody who carves figurines out of wood, paints a picture or builds a car. DRM is a tool they use to protect their product against dishonest people, just like car alarms and cops. Sure "regular, honest folk" occasionally get burned when things go pear-shaped, but I defy you to point out one corner in this money-driven little world where that isn't the case.

The fact is, without "reasonable, honest" approaches to protection of intellectual property (i.e. not the MPAA old boys club or American-style patents) we'd live in a world of indie-only bands, fanboy novels and intellectual drudgery if the market didn't fund the creative to produce their works.

You want to stop DRM? Fight the problem (theft) rather than the attempt at a solution.

Pretending is that they are drinking the cool-aid and that you aren't a peripheral minority screaming into the void.

Trademarking ties identification to a product, project or even concept/philosophy. This badge carries with it a culture and legacy of quality control, commitment, customer support, rules, regulations and a roadmap to the future. Those responsible for the product/etc. of course protect that space, wanting to ensure that some little piss-pot (i.e. the article's author) isn't interpreted as speaking with their voice.

Sure, trademarking is tied to marketing controls, access restrictions, and a whole assortment of tools that could be used to stifle innovation, but an invention that can be used for evil doesn't make it an evil invention. Used properly, even these sharper edges help establish source and maintain quality control.

The article was obviously inspired by a nose bent out of shape, and as usual with infotainment it offers opinion without balance, scope or suggestion of resolution. It should be taken as such and relegated to the pop-news section and forgotten.

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"The baby is the bathwater".

Programmers are neither abstractly creative nor socially comfortable by default; in my experience it is usually the reverse. To be blunt, they are the worst spellers, often haven't read a book (not text, paper or graphic novel...'book') since high school, and have the communication skills of, well, that chubby guy sitting in the corner staring at the ceiling.

Besides, you only need *one* guy on a team who doesn't sweat like the proverbial whore in church every time he/she has to speak in front of a crowd. Call him king geek, let him speak on behalf the team, and let the rest of the guys get back to work. This is known as "the way it currently works".

Give a programmer a debugger, a pack of Redbull and some clearly defined goals, and he'll work magic. Put him in a suit and tell him to pitch a few new ideas and he'll show up with a cheetos-stained tie and a stress-induced facial tic.

Plato once suggested that we should all be assigned our jobs at birth, and that philosophers should be the leaders. This is sort of like that, but less realistic.

Lurching from pure melodrama to plain old post-apocalyptic drudgery, I watched for a) the hot Cylons and b) the all too rare space booms. While I usually like Ronald Moore's work, there was so much self-indulgent self-pity and self-loathing for anything but "Tivo on, fast-forward engaged".

And any writer who has to turn to Deus Ex Machina to resolve a story should be spanked severely. Of course the writing was on the walls and in the context of the story from the beginning, but why must it always be God who solves the really big problems? I would have preferred to have seen the external influence turn out to be internalized somehow, even perhaps some new, third factor introduced near the end, like a "gestalt intelligence formed over the cycles between humans and Cylons" that was fighting for its own survival as well. At least that's honest and 'real', and ultimately resolved without resorting to cosmic super-powers.

In the end the message is that we can't survive without God's intervention, which is as dreary a message as I've ever seen in any medium ... and only means it's his fault anyway and we just sat through four seasons of His crappy technical support.

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Anybody who believes in Intelligent Design should stay out of the medical profession.

Integrity ... wha? He's talking about switching from free work to paid work, not becoming a Nazi for a couple of shiny nickles. How about a little perspective here, please.

He's a developer who's work is being appreciated and based upon that has had a company offering him compensation to continue, albeit in a commercial environment. Did you ever consider the possibility that they *need* to make this kind of demand, i.e. they are a corporate entity with rules of their own? Sure it could be a ploy, but I saw nothing about an after-employment perpetual NDA (which some have speculated at, and which I would absolutely recommend against) so if he gets screwed he could just leave and pick up where he left off.

If he's ostracized by the community, it's only going to be from that select group with the cup in their hands who have never contributed to the code base themselves (of course, that's typically 99% of the people running the code) and of course our beloved fanatics.

Besides, if you're so bent out of shape over it you could always step up and take his place.