It means that in recent macs the RAM cannot be upgraded.

Texinfo produces very nice paper manuals effortlessly. With Docbook one has to dive into XSL-FO unpleasantness.

I own both an Unicomp and an IBM model M. They have a slightly different feel, but they are both excellent. I tend to use the Unicomp more, though, because it has a more modern layout (windows keys). Unicomp also sells localized versions, e.g. I have the italian layout.

I am a big fan of Unicomp. I am also unlikely to buy again from them soon, since their 'boards are built for eternity. So I give them good reviews when I can, just to support them.

the government has considered taxing SMSs by 0.02€ each. (This is not a joke)

I don't think it is a special case. It is well known among people that study this kind of mechanisms that participation devices are not really meant to produce a result, but mainly to disarm conflict, by giving the participants the impression that they are being heard. (US readers think of the online petitions on the White House site).

You are very naïf if you think that the Parliaments will welcome these brilliant novel ideas from the people and convert them into laws at once.

In Italy, the constitution (since 1948) allows 50'000 citizens to propose laws to the Parliament.

It has been used sometimes, but the Parliament has *always* shelved the proposals immediately. None has even been discussed. Not because they were awful proposals, but because this kind of tool tends to be used when the Parliament is *already* avoiding making laws on a topic. So, it will continue avoiding it.

Consumers in the EU still have a two-years warranty anyway, no matter what the manufacturers say.

Today I've discovered that The Pirate Bay website is blocked in Italy. Previously the italian providers were forced to configure the DNS to resolve it as 127.0.0.1, but that was easy to circumvent. Now, the IP is totally unreacheable from Italy. To look at TPB one has to use a proxy, a tunnel, etc.

A similar measure is in force for unauthorized gambling sites.

I don't gamble and I don't care too much for torrents, but the very idea that my government decides which sites I can visit and which I cannot sends a cold shiver down my spine.

In case of a right-wing government like this one, a partial U-turn is probably a left turn.

Gdata antivirus is a pretty good antivirus for Windows which has a bootable disk (linux-made, btw).
Even if I've bought the online version, they sent me the disk by mail anyway. I was not allowed to refuse it, it seems. For my safety, I suppose :-)

Is it really too much to ask to actually write out the full names of universities? I realize it's a short way into the article, but seriously. I live in Ohio. CSU is Cleveland State, to me. KSU is Kent State. Elsewhere, KSU might be Kansas State (and is, as far as domains go), and CSU is apparently California... but especially as summaries go, I can't psychically know that you mean California. USC is more commonly the University of Southern California... but it's also the University of South Carolina.

Nobody's fingers are at risk of falling off from those few additional letters, are they?

I know, it's not *that* important, but it makes me peevish.

Thank you for the chilvary. And I thought it was dead. The last time I looked I do believe I had all the necessary equipment to be classified as a female. Just because a programmer is a girl should not matter IF she can produce good code. If not, then "she" is just a wanna be wanting the glory and recognition that society has placed on being a "information services" employee.