Much of the reason for USB's slow disk performance is the simplistic bulk-only transport protocol used by virtually all USB mass storage class devices on the market today. The problem is bulk-only transport is a synchronous protocol, where every transaction must be fully completed before the next is begun. Even though it's transporting SCSI commands, you don't get important performance enhancing features, like command queuing. It's impossible to make best use of USB scheduling by sending the next command before the previous fully replies with the status code.

There is a new protocol called UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) which aims to fix all this. But who knows when or if Microsoft will ever support it?

"The FCC's rush to takeover the Internet is just the latest example of the need for fundamental reform to protect big cable companies".

There, fixed that for you Jim (Sen. Jim DeMint)

I really wish flash advocates would stop saying "write once, run anywhere" until Adobe actually releases a Linux flash player with quality on par with the Windows version!

Truly, if you're a Flash developer/designer/artist who only tests on Windows, and there obviously MANY out there, you have no idea what a completely buggy piece of shit Abobe's Flash is on Linux. On all but the largest of sites, even trying to play video on many sites other than youtube and vimeo, Flash regularly crashes the entire browser. Yeah, Linux API are a moving target and audio is notoriously messed up, but there's no reason any plugin should ever completely lock up the browser, ever!

In reality, Adobe Flash is "write once, runs well only on Windows".

As a Linux user, I'm glad Apple is causing Adobe so much pain and I hope the horrible code that is non-Windows Flash becomes unnecessary someday. Alternately, Adobe could write a quality Flash player for Linux, but that seems to have a snowball's change in hell, especially with this horribly wrong mindset that Flash actually works well on anything other than Microsoft Windows!

Adobe's Flash player causes Firefox on Linux to regularly lock up. In fact, playing video from pretty much anywhere but Youtube and Vimeo seems to do it. I installed the flashblock extension, so all flash comes up as a blank box and I can click on it if I really want to see what it is. But I cringe every time, because more often than not, my browser is going to lock up either while that flash object is doing whatever it does, or shortly after.

It's pretty clear Adobe only invests serious effort in quality for Windows. People who only experience Flash on Windows just don't have any idea how horribly buggy it is on other platforms.

Would that complaining be about theoretically oppressive licensing restrictions, or about actual harm done to real people due to those conditions being enforced, or even threats of enforcement?

Did anyone else notice how the Q9550 and Q9650 are absent from this article?

Probably the last thing Intel wants is these previous generation (and attractively priced) chips appearing in the "overall performance per dollar" chart on "Page 17 - The value proposition". Instead, we get a graph where only the i5 and i7 chips appear to perform well beyond any of the older options, but it's a carefully crafted illusion because the faster (and attractively priced) versions of those older chips weren't tested.

Without critics Linux can't improve, yet it has improved steadily year after year.

Something just doesn't add up here.