It's already queriable via DNS.

dig +short txt ${1}.wp.dg.cx

Throw this into a script, invoke it as "script TOPIC".

Yeah, I had a few unfortunate websites I was keying in out of muscle memory. I found that the solution ultimately was to add an entry to /etc/hosts until the habit faded. It may come time to do that with Slashdot if this crap keeps up.

Sweden has Bahnhof.

"A fraction of the cost," while technically true, is far from the truism it used to be. Gone are the days where you could spend $800 and get the equivalent of a $3000 prebuilt system. In many cases, you're hard pressed just to break even today.

This is something of a dated way of thinking. In 2012, you don't usually see component failures; while it happens, it doesn't happen nearly as frequently as it used to. Therefore, "knowing what's in the box" is a value add of dubious value to many users. "Seagate, Western Digital, I don't care, I just don't want it to break on me."

Some people just want a computer, not a hobby.

Name one.

Oh wow, it gets worse. Oracle won this with a $88.5 million bid; what the hell took the Air Force so long to pull the plug with that kind of overrun?

Seems that this is a common theme with ERP rollouts-- scope creep tends to get them all in the end. Granted, most organizations seem to wave off long before the $1 billion mark...

Iodizedsalt.

I like FreeMind (mentioned in the DrDobbs article). Of course I knew about mind maps before, but the ability to export a perfectly formated map as Pdf, HTML and in various image formats is great. I think I'll be using this instead of paper in the future. I've tried various UML design tools in the past, but they all require that you have already made some of the decisions beforehand.

I think UML is a great way of describing a system once you have made all major decisions, but whenever I need to think about a new project, I have always prefered pen and paper. I'll seriously give FreeMind a go now.

Well... yes. My employer runs three racks of servers all in; we don't have the bandwidth / R&D budget to investigate better options. The big players (Google, Amazon, etc) need to pioneer research in this area, at which point it will (ideally) trickle down to the masses.

Sure there are. Sweden continues to offer free university education (but no longer to non-EU citizens.)