Given the obesity problem, skipping to the grocery store or doing a goose step to the bus stop is probably a good idea as no doubt it expends more energy and uses more muscles than just slowly plodding along.

Doesn't seem like a good idea though. I'm all for doing your own thing and not worrying TOO much about what society considers "normal" (like I'm sure goes for most of Slashdot's readership) but I think you'd pretty soon be known as "that idiot who goose steps to the bus stop"

That was the joke...

Yeah pretty sure he would.

In an interview with Linux Format (issue 163) he says about Git "I'manegotisticalbastard,andInameallmyprojectsaftermyself.First'Linux',now'Git'."

And about his role in the kernel - "realistically what I maintain these days is not the code but the workflow for people. And that sometimes gets my goat in a big way when somebody does something stupid in a big way, and then I get really excited, and by excited I mean I curse at people."

Definitely detecting a tone of humour (and truth) in those statements.

I always liked his soothing voice on those stargazing programmes on the telly.

From TFA

As your faster-than-light ship sails through the cosmos, it’s not alone. Although we often think of space as empty, there are loads of high-energy particles shooting through the void. The University of Sydney research [PDF] indicates that these particles are liable to get swept up in the craft’s warp field and remain trapped in the stable bubble.

That's why you have a deflector dish! Don't these guys even _watch_ Star Trek? ;)

P.s. we don't mind a few sacrifices. The kind of people who liked this type of Nokia phone (and I think you'll find there are quite a few) held onto their old monochrome 3310s for as long as possible like their lives depended on it so really, it's fine if it's not got a SuperMegaBrite(TM) Retina Display pushing 400ppi. It's okay if it's a bit thick and a bit ugly. Really :)

When I think Nokia, I think "phone that is reliable, built like a brick shithouse and with a battery that lasts all week or more, and can pick up the faintest whiff of a signal and make it work"

Never mind making "yet another smartphone that is only 2 molecules thick and with a battery that lasts a whole 4 hours!"

Do smartphones if you must, but make it the same way you used to make phones. Make it a rugged beastie that the highly destructive creatures known as "sales reps" won't keep handing back to the IT department with shattered screens knackered batteries broken buttons and chunks missing. Make a phone that can connect to Exchange but that our CEO won't brandish angrily at us while shouting about terrible battery life and dropped calls. Trust me, we'll love you for it and we'll buy lots.

Ta.

I've just noticed this (having read up a bit more about how they're really in the belief of everyone involved there *not trying to be evil* but just kind of trying to raise funds, I decided to stop worrying and carry on, and heck, download the latest version)

Lo and behold, before the download it asked whether I'd like to donate something. In what I consider a stroke of sheer genius, they let you allocate it to whatever you consider the biggest concerns (I went for hardware support and upstream co-ordination plus tip) in quite a direct system of voting with your wallet. It's a brilliant idea because indeed it did entice me into donating which I think I last did about 5+ years ago. Money placed where mouth is, and I hope they'll find success with this and maybe not feel the need to stoop further into dodgy advertising territory.

Funny how everyone who wants to stop supporting Canonical ends up using Mint. Mint is derived from Ubuntu! So yes you're getting a desktop that you prefer... but you're still indirectly supporting Ubuntu/Canonical.

Agreed.

Interestingly I'm faced with the same dilemma as when I got into Apple stuff - while Canonical, much like Apple, are getting more and more evil... their OS is by far the most polished. Everything just looks and acts fantastic, from the fonts to the window borders to the dash to the "app store", it's just beautifully done. Other distros are clunky by comparison. So there's always this question of "how much of your freedom and privacy are you willing to give up for all this polish?". Very tricky indeed.

Tempting but the thing is Mint is based on Ubuntu. If you don't want to support Canonical (which I'm starting to wonder myself - they're starting to drift towards Facebook and Apple styles of evilness, pushing at boundaries, seeing what they can get away with) then running something that relies on them probably isn't the best idea. Better off with something Debian based, or Arch, or such like.

Ah right, I sit corrected. No minimum that I was affected by :)

There's also the Farnell-owned CPC, which is a lot more open to consumers (they even have a recently expanded shop now in Preston that you can wander around and browse in) and I note that they're using the "register to express an interest" model for those who prefer that to pre-ordering.

I pre-ordered from Farnell with no issue at all. No minimum amount, no company details (it's geared at that, but I ignored it), and "Home / Hobby" was even an option in the list of job roles.

Indeed.

Got to find it amusing that it takes in-depth research to prove the bleedingly obvious, and quite surprising that it triggered debate IMO

People rarely (if ever) get rich by being fair, honest and following the law to the letter. They get rich by being "go-getters" and not letting anything stand in the way.

It's all in getting away with it. The more someone can get away with trampling on people, breaking laws / morality etc without repercussions ("getting away with it" includes internal sense of guilt/remorse), by nature, the further they will succeed in getting what they want while others who get away with it less hold back.

You could go right the way back to cave men. The one who knocks everyone out and has the meat to himself isn't *nice*, but he's still the one who didn't go hungry.

eBay.

And the reason everyone uses eBay is because everyone uses eBay (biggest audience - can't really get out of it because who wants a smaller audience for the thing they're trying to sell?)

Since eBay own Paypal and receive some nice additional fee payments from it, they tend to ban other payment methods (try even saying you accept Google Checkout - they will block your listing) and so Paypal thrives.

Now, why they don't get bitten by some sort of anti-competitive law of monopoly abuse like MS with IE I don't know, but there you go.