> I'll probably get flamed for daring to say this, but what the hell

Good thing you added this disclaimer!

I've been working on Linux/laptop for the past eight years. No complaints. In contrary.
When I receive a new laptop, I install Linux before Windows even has a change to boot.
I know, it's your opinion against my opinion. But I'd just wanted you to know that some people do like Linux on laptops.
Your mileage clearly varies.

"Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie win Japan Prize."

Skip useless introductions.

... that when the world is nuked, the survivors can retrieve a copy of Phil Collins' and Tina Turner's CDs.

How do you prove you were running the software?

Funny how economical and driving culture are opposites:

- US economics: liberal; US driving: egalitarian.
- European economics: egalitarian; European driving: liberal.

Seems cultures that are against rules in some field overcompensate by introducing rules in another field. "The Rules" for dating, for example, come to mind as another one of those subjects where the US is ridiculuous in that way.

Here's some brain food for you: The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger, by R. Wilkinson and K. Pickett:

Yes, species have disappeared in the past, too. Only, this time, the pace of extinction is a 1000x faster. Don't know what that will lead to.

Like Tim Etchells' The Broken World

French "droit patrimonial" gives an exclusive right that runs until 70 years after the death of the author. If wikipedia is correct, it says that in the US it's: 70 years after the death, or 95 years after publication, or 120 years after creation.

You see, the French are not that bad. They certainly do not lobby for infinity. And they have changed the limit only twice in over 200 years.

(Sorry for the links to the French pages, but I found them clearer.)

This "small" area is called the US.

Oh common! A lot of people here have a grandfather!

Thanks to the billions invested by the US government to develop computers in the 50's (cfr. the SAGE project), the US has had the upperhand in computer hardware and software until now. The US have been able to develop fantastic new technologies that stimulated economic growth and boosted productivity. Slashdot is a fine example of these new technologies. If the US invests heavily in smart grids, within 10 years we will be able to slashdot distributed nuclear battery networks.