Well, for what it's worth, I settled on Kubuntu 12.04 some time ago. The version of Kdenlive from the repos maddeningly crashed every time on render. I got the PPA version, its now 0.9.6, and have only had a very infrequent lockup. Maybe two or three times in the last several years.

What is your platform and what is your build, (taking software; nothing personal)?

I fully agree with your comments. Perhaps Kdenlive lost some potential admirers with those earlier, unstable builds. I know it was frustrating to get the editing done, only to have the software crash every time you tried to render. Hopefully people will get the word that it is now a stable, capable and accessible alternative to costly proprietary products.

... to the Mars Needs Women campaign.

... Kdenlive doesn't get more love. Although you have to get newer builds to get stability, it's long had a strong feature set and very approachable interface. The video formats it works with constitute a most impressive list.

The virus or the egg?

... does this mean a DDoS attack on Wikileaks would leave the spooks chasing their own tails?

... Microsoft would love this idea, because they could create a "clean" product, while paying the developers less by angling that they don't have Android experience.

... this sparks the question: Do the rats know you created the maze, and just go for the cheese to fool you?

... when you divide by zero.

The structure of the corporation was developed to protect the shareholders from liability for corporate misdeeds. This, unfortunately, has led to shareholders turning a blind eye to, or even tacitly encouraging, nefarious management, just so long as it creates inflated quarterly profits. It's time to rethink this, "I know nothing," defense. When shareholders find themselves directly responsible for the activities of management, a "new world order" will finally find corporations acting responsibly.

There is really only one figure you need to know to realize the speciousness of utopian fantasies: 1 per cent.

As far as I can tell, no one claimed to be the "apex of human progress". Of course making such a straw man argument shows us who the real asshat is.

Perhaps the greatest failing in these utopian scenarios is not the technological illusions, but the fundamental failure to grasp basic human nature. Karl Marx made this mistake, assuming that by elevating the proletariat to power would eliminate all human foibles, in his mind the exclusive domain of the bourgeois. Roddenberry made the same mistake, assuming that the elimination of want would also exterminate bigotry, greed and elitism.

If you want to see how well these utopian visions would work, go to the zoo. Visit the lion cage. There you will see how freedom from want — unlimited food, free health care, a range of amusements — has converted their society to one of pecking-order-free vegans who lovingly lie down with the lambs. Actual humans have far more in common with those lions you will see, than do the humans of these fantasies.

I have seen the future, and it is expensive.