What is "proprietary" supposed to tell me about hardware?

There is just so much wrong with calling things "proprietary" and thinking it'll make the reader perceive the product as superior.

See: http://lwn.net/Articles/154602/ By using EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL the kernel's linker simply prevents any kernel module NOT marked as GPL, which is using EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL'ed functions, from loading. EXPORT_SYMBOL is not magically allowing non-GPL code, it just means that people can play ignorant and pretend they didn't know better. IANAL

This is making Linux look bad without reason. Before the whole "Linux Power Regression" coming up and being advertised as a problem by Phoronix, I did enjoy reading the occasional article (Benchmarks, etc.) by Phoronix, but after this whole thing I have lost complete respect for Phoronix.

It's not a Linux bug but BIOS misbehaving. Linux is simply playing it safe.

Summary: http://www.fewt.com/2011/09/about-kernel-30-power-regression-myth.html (been posted before in older threads)

LaTex == Typesetting system. If you want to use a "word processing" system, go ahead, but never compare it to typesetting! That goes hand in hand with LaTeX's philosophy of "what you write is what you mean". The one thing I hate most about writing a document (with WYSIWYG "word processors"), is making it look the way it needs to look (imagine trying to change the way headings, references, etc are displayed [all at once] in a "word processor" for a 200 page scientific document).

Point is, word processing != typesetting.

Amen. Mod parent up. Though on the other hand, it's perfect propaganda for PC-BSD/FreeBSD; so well done to that.

A few months ago I installed Windows 3.1 in DosBox. If you can get a hold of the installer, it sure is worth it ... for approx. 5 mins. Does bring back a bunch of memories though.

The furthest I've gone back in time is with this: http://www.hercules-390.org/

System administration 101: Unless you have very good reason to, do not use numbering schemes for server names. Why? Now what happens if I decomission *02*, but not *01* and *03*, and find a replacement for *02*? The temptation to name the replacement *02* as well is high, but ultimately leads to catastrophe. Also, for all I know the next guy or some other guy down the line has OCD.

Just sayin, I'm sure you've good reason to (this wasn't directed at you, more as a general rule of thumb).

His statement might be flawed: Maybe so that many bright minds of our generation work for these companies, but these companies don't just "make people click ads". It might be at their business's core, however, they provide services which many of us embrace while they last and it helps us be more productive (exceptions exist), which in turn contributes to the overall achievements we will see in the following years. That is only that. Many of these companies also have people in employment who work, full time, on open-source software, do research and publish academic papers, etc. If ads fund these, by all means, go ahead. His argument can be somewhat justified if the business's ONLY operations surround "making people click ads".

I think it would be far more effective to educate the people about how to effectively manage or prevent flu right now, than telling people about vaccines, spending millions on them and not even knowing if they are effective. The UK's NHS is running a "wash your hands" campaign, which is a start. General hygiene seems to be misunderstood by many people. Touching a handrail in public and then picking your nose doesn't ring a bell? Seen it too often. One thing that I've seen a lot in most Asian countries is people just wearing face-masks. It would greatly reduce the risk of the flu spreading, if a person being sick is wearing a face-mask. But it seems that in the western world (Europe, North America) wearing a face-mask does not agree with fashion. And who would want to out themselves by wearing a face-mask anyways. But staying home can't be too hard?! Why are there still millions of people leaving their house while sick? Policies at work, at educational institutions, government institutions, etc. should regulate this and not leave it up to the one being sick. Now I also have to add that I'm recovering from a flu (be it H1N1 or not, I don't know). I stayed at home the whole time, and worked from home. It was a nasty bugger that one. If a vaccine would have prevented it, I think I would have gladly received any vaccine.

The only reason I have in the recent past helped the majority of those seeking assistance (for free) is, that if I see I can learn something from it. I.e. hardware I haven't used (I can't afford the latest hardware ALL the time), faults I haven't seen before/too weird to believe and all the other things that potentially expand my knowledge. But no thanks to the repetitive stuff...

I don't see why the EU is worried in the first place. First of all MySQL could never compete with Oracle's DB. They will never compete and never have. Completely different use-cases. Apart from that, I'm still using PostgreSQL and if i had an app specifically designed for MySQL, I'd go with Drizzle(fork).