How about using gold for money? We already know that it can't be faked, and there are simple tests to see if it is real. Plus there that thing about thousands of years of a solid track record as money.

I would like to know how much of Germany's energy needs can be met with just renewables.

Guiness and Boddingtons would be the perfect beer for this. Something rich and thick. Forget the lagers.

Who gets to decide what constitutes terrorism and extremism?

I use Edubuntu. Of course I realize that I'm talking about a classroom with kids, and that probably isn't your situation. But the amount of learning utilities and games with Edubuntu can't be beat anywhere else that I've found.

considering your position with mortgage and kids, but when I got laid off from my job after 20 years as tech support and systems admin, I decided to make a big change in my life. I joined the Peace Corps. It has certainly shaken things up.

privacy almost always loses.

True. It wasn't a konspiracy. Just indifference. We were only interested in the oil. Everything else just flat out didn't matter.

I'm all for exploring the universe. I figure that eventually we are going to f*ck up this planet to the point that we'll need to leave it. However, we aren't going to the Moon. There's nothing there but bare rock and dust.

The WSJ tells us that global warming is nothing to worry about. What's next? That Republicans are superior to Democrats? That Wall Street doesn't need to be regulated? [/snark]

Wall Street CEO's have been stealing much larger amounts from their own banks for years.

My issue with the National Center for Science Education is sort of losing the battle against creationism. It's spreading. Which doesn't make creationism right, only that the NCSE should focus on a battle that is easier to win (and they are losing anyway), before taking on a different opponent.

CCSF is only partly Windows. The old, established part of the computer system is HPUX and Linux.

I never worked there, but I was a student there, so I have some insight. CCSF was like a lot of old educational institutions - departments have their own domains. Thus, some departments might have had good IT support, and some probably had almost none. What is likely is that the main computer labs are fine, but the small, less-used computer labs are the ones with the problems.

As a recent former student of CCSF, I find this very disturbing. Fortunately, I always paid for my classes either in cash or by check. Never by credit card. I've always been paranoid about giving out personal information, especially online. Now it appears that I wasn't paranoid after all. You aren't paranoid when they really are out to get you.