I have not used capitals in over 12 years unless it is some sort of official communication where I want something from somebody more important than I. Capitalizing the first letter of a sentence carries no additional information that is not already conveyed by the period that precedes it. Capitalizing also is an impediment in the free flow of thought because I have to now press the shift button and then press the desired key of the alphabet. Capitalizing using the shift key when desired or a double tap for the caps lock is quite sufficient. I'd prefer a long press over the double tap. Has anybody talked about the scroll lock key? That could go, too. And why are laptops eschewing the use of the numlock LED?

Bitcoin Drops 7 Percent On Allegations By New York Attorney General of $850 Million Fraud By Bitfinex.

the cray-tins may not get that, but a raspberry might tickle them pink.

first time i've seen it in this direction, axe --> ask. it's usually the other way around.

(1) ICANN needs replacement. a private california company MUST NOT control the entire internet and charge what it likes. folks, do people in europe really want to be subject to the laws of california and the US? DNS is a glorified PHONE BOOK. the solution: have multiple independent DNS servers which synchronize with each other and provide the service FREE. if a government shuts down or otherwise influences a DNS server, the others should reconfigure by go by best consensus on what IP the name resolves to. (2) TLDs ARE NOT NEEDED. Just a string-->number mapping is. TLDs are a vestige of the past, just like the middle digit of the US phone area code were limited to "1" or "0" in the past. examples of these are 212 (NY), 312 (chicago), 415 (san francisco), 405 (san jose), the tld and dot notation are the same way -- time to go. why does pepsi need to be pepsi.com, pepsi.co.uk and pepsi.se? "pepsi? should be enough, and this is what many people type into their chrome address bar or into their google search term to go to the website. you can use the IP address to geotag a computer if you want to. also, many .com companies are not located in the US, just like many .tv companies are not tuvalu. does this work? this is what tinyurl does. it doesn't care what your TLD is. it maps a string --> your DNS name. it simply does not matter what hierarchy you belong to. after all, isn't the internet supposed to flatten our world and make it all accessible to everyone?

in addition, in a government department, there will usually be a few major lines of manufacturers/models of computers and printers. this is how IT departments do business. rolling out an _existing_ printer driver isn't a big deal for them, but messing around with a poorly written one is. again, manufacturers have every incentive to write a windows or mac driver and very little to write one for linux. there just isn't enough critical mass.

if it were profitable, they would do it. if one company wrote a printer driver, it would be wasted effort as that wouldn't increase the sales of its printers by much. this is where windows, with microsoft's dictatorship, wins. they have the clout and someone has to step up to the plate and connect linux to hundreds of drivers, update the GUI, make OO easier to use, etc. this is a very, very, very big deal. thsi is also why Apple doesn't work with _everything_. they can't afford to do it. instead they make pretty computers targeted at specific audiences (simple users and graphics workers).

i've always maintained that linux is a poor desktop OS for non-gearheads. if the most gearheaded nation in the world, germany, gave it up, this is the reason. linux gets in the way of getting actual work done. remember those PC vs Mac commercials? they're equivalent to Linux vs. PC. i've seen friends futz around with Linux in the time that it takes me to finish the work at hand. lack of printer drivers was named as one problem. is there a reason that windows printer drivers (of which there are very many) can't be co-opted by writing a bridge to them?

a big issue with google, facebook, craigslist etc. is that they are private companies with near-monopolies in what they do with near 0 accountability. they can kick you off, they can do things without asking for your permission. they do provide valuable services, of that there is no doubt. imagine that facebook kicked you off unfairly. or google blocks your website from searches unfairly. or craigslist does the same (this happens frequently, actually). you can plead your case with them, but you HAVE NO RIGHTS. to some extent, i'd rather take the government with its so-called checks and balances than possible high-handedness of google, facebook or craigslist. i don't have a solution; i don't advocate google, fb to have government monitoring, but there should be a standard code of conduct as to the rights of users and their legal recourse.