> The Ribbon has been my UI experience from Hell, and now I see what so many
> long-time users hate about UI change: if any particular UI (I suppose I should
> qualify that as "adequately functional") has been assimilated into their work
> habits, do NOT mess with that, and waste their productive time with change,
> unless a Hell of a case can be made for quantum leaps in productivity,
> and only with reasonable effort in a reasonable amount of time - however the
> vict... er, user defines those. And it better not change again for a long time
> - we have work to do, so get off my desktop, kids!

BINGO! I use ICEWM on my linux machines. It does its job and then gets out of the way. Yes, there was a bit of a learning curve the first couple of months, but that was it. I've been productive for years. With Windows, it's every new release. And in the case of KDE/GNOME, it's more often than they change their underwear.

> There is a pretty hard core attitude shift in ipv6 that thou shalt not
> static assign addresses. Dynamic / multicast DNS to the rescue, etc.

Idiot internet hippies... sigh. The way around that is to assign fixed IPV6 link-local addresses in your hosts file. See https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/428331-ipv6-crash-course-for-linux

> Let's say you have three PCs in your little link-local LAN:
> fatfreddy, phineas, and franklin. You can use these fine
> hostnames over IPv6 as easy as pie. You'll make identical
> entries in the /etc/hosts file of each PC, like this:
>
> fe80::20b:6aff:feef:7e8d fatfreddy
> fe80::221:97ff:feed:ef01 phineas
> fe80::3f1:4baf:a7dd:ba4f franklin
>
> Now you can ping6 by hostname:
>
> $ ping6 -I eth0 phineas
> PING phineas(phineas) from fe80::221:97ff:feed:ef01 eth0: 56 data bytes
> 64 bytes from phineas: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=17.3 ms

A few years ago, kids assumed that "what happens on Facebook stays on Facebook". This emboldened kids to post stuff they wouldn't normally say in public. That's no longer true. Moms and dads and grandparents and employers are on FB and demanding to be friended. Hiring managers not only scan public profiles, they demand paswords to see the private stuff. The response is to fake up public profiles http://yro.slashdot.org/story/08/02/01/1618215/online-reputation-management-to-keep-your-nose-clean

Facebook stupidity will filter out the bottom of the barrel out of the job market. But expect to see more and more bland conformist "employment-friendly" profiles that don't really reflect the person. Smart kids will go back to texting/phoning/email for real communications.

For any but the most trivial apps it's write once and run anywhere that you have Java 1.2.3.4.5. Not Java 1.2.3.4.4 or Java 1.2.3.4.6, but only Java 1.2.3.4.5. That's why you see so many machines with Java versions with known exploits. Because so many apps won't run with with newer versions of Java.

Can you imagine the howls of outrage if every 2nd "Microsoft Patch Tuesday", Access or Word or Excel stopped working? And you had to keep the security patch off your machine if you wanted all your expensive software to keep working? That's what's effectively happening in Java.

On the other hand, write code in C/C++ and it'll run on a dozen years worth of Windows machines from Win2K through WinXP through Vista through Win7. Throw in some #ifdef statements, and you can build your C/C++ app for Mac and Linux as well.

> Ford stayed strong throughout the economic recession, did not require any
> bailout, posted record profits, and produces the best selling car in the world.

Correction. Ford was going down to the same hot place in the same handbasket as GM. Bonds of both companies were downgraded to junk-bond status in early May of 2005 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41573-2005May6.html Ford had fewer assets than GM, and suffered a near-death experience with a loss of $12.7 billion in 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6298463.stm They caught a lucky break, in that they ran into their problems before the credit markets froze up in 2008. So they were able to mortgage themselves to the gills and obtain $18 billion in financing http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29921 to execute a turnaround.

> Two specific automakers were poorly managed and operated,
> *AND WHEN THE ECONOMY TANKED*, they couldn't survive.

Correction. when the economy tanked, they couldn't get financing to execute a turnaround, and had to get financing from US and Canadian governments, on those governments' terms. I will grant that Ford did their restructuring right, but they did get lucky in that they were forced to do so before the economy tanked, and it was still possible to borrow $18 billion.

Credit where credit is due; Wkipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company with lots of citations.

"Never write when you can talk. Never talk when you can nod. And never put anything in an e-mail." -- from 2005 by Eliot Spitzer, former Attorney General, New York State.

...is that this could be the "killer app" that makes Fecesbook indispensible. I am their ultimate hater, but I think I see what they're trying to do. Imagine if they made realtime "free" Fecesbook the "new phone". Right now there some people without cellphones, and some without landlines, but almost nobody without at least one phone number (landline or cell). Today you can still call people via their phone number.

Imagine a future where "free" Fecesbook voice service kills off phone companies as we know them. Today's phone companies morph into "mobile broadband ISPs". If you want to call somebody, you have to whip out your mini-tablet (i.e. today's smartphone without a voice plan), click on the Fecesbook phonebook app, select a name/photo, and click on call.
* Want a cute chick to call you back, you have to give her your Fecesbook ID?
* Want to apply for a job? The application form doesn't ask for your phone number; it asks for your Fecesbook ID. The employer can't even call you for an interview without that contact info.
* Being without Fecesbook in the future becomes like being without *ANY* phone (cell or landline) today.

> Why not learn from a 3 year old how to use Windows 8?
>
> Or from a five year old?

As the video stated, tablets are targeted at *CONTENT CONSUMPTION*. You can use them to...
* read ebooks or reports
* view images
* view Youtube videos
* play "Angry Birds", etc, etc.
And so can a 3-year-old.

But what about *CONTENT CREATION*? Try...
* *WRITING* a 5 page report, let alone a 500-page novel, on a tablet
* *EDITING* images (Photoshop, Gimp, MS Paint, etc) on a tablet
* *EDITING* videos, beyond merely changing the simplest settings
* *WRITING* computer games, or any other type of program

Windows 8, being so tablet-oriented, is a bleeping *TOY*. Yes, a 3-year can use it, but they can't do serious work with it. And neither can an adult.

...you know the wifi signal was too strong

> That said, I am regarding the current move by ULD more as a kickstart for something bigger, because if

> a) Facebook abides, which is highly unlikely, everybody wins
> b) Facebook denies and pays 20k, then they are admitting to violate the law
> c) Facebook denies and does not pay, it will go to court possibly to upper instances leading to a general ruling.

d) Facebook says "We will ask ISPs in the state of Schleswig-Holstein to provide us with their IP address blocks, which we will block. When we block access to your locals, we will put put up a webpage explaining that we are blocking access due to your orders. PS, do not bill us for riot police salaries due to disgruntled locals.

> well, i keep getting spammed by facebook to sign up because someone imported
> all his/her contacts and happened to have one of my mails there...
> And i do not want to click any "do not spam^H^H^H^H contact me" link....

Do what I did, simply put them in your spam filters. Actually, I looked at headers from a several "Facebook emails", and quite a few of them are forgeries, trying to get me to click on poisoned links. That's what finally convinced me to block all emails allegedly from Facebook.

> Yeah, but on mobile you must hit "send" after the number, so it's not really an issue.
> The call gets routed by the mobile system digitally, not DTMF'd onto POTS.

That may work for cellphones. But what about landlines? Or do you propose having one emergency number for cellphones and another one for landlines... in the same country?

> # of people using 112
> # of people using 911
> biggest # wins

> next topic on the agenda...

Standardizing on one language.

> "...running the latest version of the company's Linux-based firmware"

> Well, that's your problem right there...

*ANY* internet-facing OS needs regular bug+security fixes, be it Linux, Windows, or Apple's IOS. A note from TFA...

> Currently, the Smart TVs offer no native security features, such
> as a firewall, user authentication or application whitelisting.

That is brain-dead. I do things the other way around. I have a PC hooked up to my 50" plasma TV. I select "HDMI 1" with the TV remote, and it becomes an oversized monitor. My PC has firewall and password, etc.

> Does Linux support ISA/EISA/MCA busses still too?

I'm a "Gentoo Ricer", and I build the kernel, with options manually selected in "make menuconfig". ISA and MCA are listed under
"Bus options (PCI etc.) --->"
But I don't see any mention of EISA.

> Can modern Linux even run in 64MB of ram?

Basic linux kernel can. The real killer is wannabee OS's masquarading as "desktop environments". I'm looking at you KDE and GNOME. Feature bloat has also crept into browsers like Firefox and Chrome. The "modern Linux" you'll see in embedded systems usually has...
* uclibc instead of glibc
* most core utils replaced with symlinks to "busybox"
It's great for routers/firewalls or headless servers. Just don't expect to run KDE or GNOME on them

> Linus silly dismissal of nostalgia is to hide the fact that he should have eliminated it a LONG time ago

It was a question of how many people would be stranded. There are a lot of embedded devices still running 386s.