I'm not sure why everyone seems to boil things down the false dichotomy of goverment or business. The 'public' can fund non-profit research organizations in ways that don't involve a government middleman. As a society we need long-term non-profit oriented research, but I would think that the goverment should be the last resort. It's a highly political environment full of corruption and self-interest not unlike many businesses, but unlike business it's essentially self-regulated. I'm not saying goverment is evil or incapable of doing wonderful things in the realm of research (internet, and nice fluffy memory foam among others), but I would like to see the 'public' funding the research more directly via contributions and support of non-profit research organizations that they select - that's true democracy - not 51% being able to spend 100% of the dollars. As a society we may not responsible enough for that approach, but I think it would be more effective - and it doesn't a consensus or majority - just enough like minded people to contribute toward making the world a better place.

Is that you Sheldon?

I'm a scientist (with a degree and everything) and find the show to be reasonably funny. It reinforces the universal law of humanity: People are both smart and stupid, often at the same time. I have met some brilliant people I woudn't trust to tie my shoes, and some not-so-seeminly-bright I'd trust with my life in certain circumstances. Those that feel 'persecuted' need to get a grip on the fact that idiocy and genius are not mutually exclusive states. Those 'normal' people out there like you are have just muted their inner idiot through training and 'professionalism'. Too bad that doing so often mutes your inner genius as well.

I recently bought a saw off a fellow via an online ad - about 20 miles of travel from the 'big' town of 25,000 to a house in pretty much the middle of nowhere and accessible only by several miles on gravel roads. Lots of cows, hayfields, dense forest. Out of curiousity I ask him about the internet options - he was on 10mb dsl, as are most of the other people in that area. Similar story from friends who live out in the country about 8 miles from a town of a few thousand people in a different direction. There seems to be at least a few rural options these days, atleast here in Missouri. Don't write rural off completely... atleast due to internet...

As someone with this problem, yes! Surprisingly setting the backlight to 100% pretty much eliminated my eye/migraine issues from upgrading to 3 BENQ 2250s. A SOLUTION to the brightness that worked very well for me was automotive window tint film (nothing special, $10 from O'Reilly) on plexiglass panels. I thought the image quality would be toast, but everything is perfectly clear and easier on the eyes now.

It's a question of balance. Your freedom is the currency on which govermnent operates. Are you getting your 'moneys' worth for what you are giving up? I think the only possible way you can say that is true for something like massive data collection and archival is from a terribly naive viewpoint. Governments rarely give up power. They just don't. Even if you consider what is currently known to be acceptable, it is inevitable that it will expand as time goes on. Considering the possible abuses, and the potential magnitude of damage those abuses could cause to everything that democracy stands for, I cannot imagine any realistic threat worth taking that risk. Make no mistake, these are the -seeds- of a future we do not want. They may seem almost benign now, but have the potential to grow into something far worse than a few people with bombs.

I could be wrong, but to me it reads that they HAVE 500k pledged, of 27k desired. Which essentially means their excess pledges are more like 'preorders' for a the final product. That should allow them to negotiate better quantity deals for manufacturing costs at the least.

When I was with cardservices a few years ago it was part of the agreement. We could offer a cash discount, but not charge fees or even tell the customer about the fees/amounts. All of the gateway processors I looked at had the same requirement. The difference to a small business between a contract violation with bankruptcy inducing fines/fees and a legal violation is largely irrelevant... you're done either way.

They do all kinds of trickery... for example if I wanted to accept a major card (I think it was discover) at x% fee I was forced to also accept minor cards (diner's club) with massively higher fee. I was selling computers at a very small margin, and thank god no one ever used a diner's club because it would have ended up generating a net loss on the sale. If course I wasn't allowed to tell the customer about the differences in fees without violating my contract.

The real problem here is one of transparency and an entire industry being about to set the rules in their favor (not unlike defacto monoplies of cable and internet services in many areas).

I've run nvidia cards on linux since before the turn of the century but recently switched to an ATI for the eyefinity capability. Trying to do triple head (or more) with Nvidia just blows. I picked up a cheap Saphire Flex 6540 for less than $70 and it runs (3) 1920x1080 screens with one card and no real issues. I even get composite support for window previews. I know gaming is out, but that's fine for my purposes. For some more bucks I could run 6 screens off one card. I would prefer nvidia, but short of dropping thousands on a video card they just don't have any offerings that I've found. All in all I have to give ATI credit for putting something on the market at a reasonable price that is exactly what I needed, and something that no other vendors seem to care much about.

I also have an Elf II (nice tablet for the $), but I think you hit on the major point. It can run Ubuntu 12.10 (great!) without the touchscreen (wtf). Having a device with well supported hardware would be very useful. Especially as the hardware gets older and moves from primary tablet to laying around and gathering dust. If we had full support for the hardware it opens up those older tablets to all kinds of interesting uses / repurposing.

  As it is we get stuff that may run linux in a half-assed fashion. Everything works but touch. Everything works but wifi. Everything works but hardware accelerated video. There always seems to be a "but" in there with most tablets that puts it back on the shelf gathering dust. So much useful hardware is abandoned just because we don't have decent driver support for a critical component. I for one would be willing to pay extra to have open drivers, or atleast a company that would work with the community in that regard.

Ainol has been much better with updates/fixes than I expected from an iexpensive tablet, but rather than release a JB update for the Elf II they just renamed the Elf II to Crystal (with a slightly better screen) and started selling a new version with JB keeping the Elf on ICS. There are 3rd party JB roms available, but even those are based upon a lucky leaked rom from Ainol. There is just no profit incentive for these companies to do it themeselves, so maybe a kickstarter based collaboration is the only way we'll ever see it.

All that said, I don't know what these guys are thinking targetting low end hardware like the a8 based A10 and 800x480 resolution for linux geeks. That's just plain silly considering an a8 based A10 costs about $7 and a dual core amlogic A9 like the Elf2 uses costs about $13 and offers a huge boost in performance.

Did you not pay attention in history class? This sort of thing didn't start on 9/11. It's been going on with the same basic political/theocratic base for many decades now, and fundamentally for hundreds of years. A voice of reason has to come from within. It's not something the west or anyone else 'allow'. It can be silenced (violence, fear). It can be discouraged (dogma, poor education, lack of diversity).

The problem boils down to the usual brew of basically good people naively trying to find their place in life, and a few people willing to persuade and exploite the first in order to shape the world to their liking. It's not a muslim thing. It happens in many places, and to varying degrees (just look at the current US elections for a nice modern example). It's human nature. The only things I know of that we can do to fight it are to educate the naive so they are not so easily led. Education. Not schools, but discourse. Free thought, ideas, speech. Of course there is a fine line between education and persuasion, and that is why absolute free speech is so important. Any restrictions on free speech are a step in the direction of persuasion.

I've heard arguments that "people will be offended" if XXXX. I object to that. I think "people may -take offence-". Like the voice of reason, offense comes from within. It's not something we push on others. It's something people choose for themselves.

It's nice to be able to drag things around, and unless I'm remembering incorrectly separate x sessions are just that. If you open a window on display Y it stays on display Y. Back when I was first using dual monitors I had them set that way and things were a bit quirky. Firefox wouldn't open on one dislay if it was already open on another, there were a few other apps that didn't play nice either. I'm currently on two monitors via twinview and a third via synergy on a different machine (which is a bit like a separate x session), and while it is functional - that third screen doesn't get used for much because it's not possible to drag a window over to primary (easier to read) screen for some work and then toss the window back to the side when I'm done with it.

Perfect. That usb dongle and my usb keydrive won't get in the way at all. A much better option than simply adding support for a microsd as big as by pinky fingernail. It's like making a car without a trunk of any sort and telling people they should be happy it comes with a trailer hitch.

Lack of storage is a total deal killer for a lot of us.

Concise? Obamas answers followed the "rarely has so little been said so well" pattern he has damn near perfected. Romney's did ramble a bit, but at least he seemed to throw out some specifics rather than just platitudes. I mean the guy referenced two whitepapers outlining his approach on different issues. On the flip side, the few "attack your opponent answers" left an equally bad taste.

I think this type of thinking is incorrect. You are right in that the green 'revolution' was squashed. Iran is a big country though, with coming up on 100 million people. Anything that doesn't involve double digit millions in active support isn't a revolution - it's somewhere between a protest and a power struggle between the incumbent regime and another group of people who happen think their way is the best way. Just because some groups claim to represent the Iranian people, doesn't actually mean they do. The only people that properly represent the Iranian people, are the Iranian people. They still have a backwards, tyrannical regime. Judging by their actions I think it's pretty clear where they stand as a whole. That is not to say that many, maybe even the vast majority are good and decent people being repressed by their goverment - but it will take more than simply toppling the current regime to bring lasting freedom from oppression - that is something that has to rise up and be sustained from within.

How about "certified". Don't block apps, but those that have passed verification get a rubber stamp of approval. Or even certify smaller snippets of information. Let the user decide if they want to trust information that isn't certifiably correct.