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Comment Re:Refreshing (Score 3, Informative) 133

And I should point out (since the GP doesn't know about referers, he probably needs more than a one word answer) that the Referer is a field in your HTTP request that's automatically sent by your browser telling it the address of the website that you came from. Since Google (and other search engines) put the query string in the URL of the search results page (like they should), the website can read the results out of the URL and know what your search terms were.

Google didn't invent this as a way to invade your privacy -- it's been a feature of the web since the early days.

Comment Re:Don't you have anything better to do? (Score 1) 393

vi uses your muscle memory much better than the MacOS does. You need hand-eye coordination to click a menu, or select a window, and if you move the window, you lose the ability to take advantage of muscle memory anyway. In vi, the keys are always in the same place. (Unless someone plays a prank on you and remaps your keyboard to AZERTY.)

Comment Russia vs US spaceflight (Score 4, Interesting) 291

Russia has had fewer astronaut fatailities than the United States, and all of the fatalities Russia has had have been less recent than any of the US's fatalities (those occurring in space, not on the ground). Although it would certainly be a tragedy if people died on a Russian spacecraft, please remember that the reason we now rely on Russian spacecraft is because people died on American spacecraft, and NASA responded by retiring all of the spacecraft involved in the human space program (without developing replacements).

Comment Re:Second loss in a week (Score 1) 184

I could think of a worse PR disaster: American astronauts getting killed on an American spacecraft. Russia has had fewer astronaut fatailities than the United States, and all of the fatalities Russia has had have been less recent than any of the US's fatalities (those occurring in space, not on the ground). Although it would certainly be a tragedy if people died on a Russian spacecraft, please remember that the reason we now rely on Russian spacecraft is because people died on American spacecraft, and NASA responded by retiring all of the spacecraft involved in the human space program (without developing replacements).

Comment Re:Bazaar (Score 1) 442

Bazaar allows more different types of workflows than git does (like the Subversion workflow, as you mention). My main problem with bazaar is that when I wanted to convert the SVN repository that holds my whole home directory about 5 years ago to bazaar, bazaar choked and git didn't. Now I'm using git, and even if they fixed my problem (or more likely the problem is moot), I see no reason to change.

Comment Re:learn how to use the command line (Score 1) 341

The truth is that many system administrators prefer the command line, because you can come up with a bunch of repeatable commands that can be put into a script file and replayed on lots of machines, and because you can more efficiently work with a command-line over a remote access protocol like SSH (becuase less data needs to be sent across the network). Of course, the GP's attitude doesn't really help people appreciate the power and utility of the command line, and I certainly admit that crippling or removing the GUI tools could be a hard sell for some of MacOS X's intended audience if they don't have an appreciation of the command line.

Comment Re:Oh, big wow. (Score 1) 478

This is not surprisingly restrained behavior from the Israeli government. Israel has always been much more restrained in this regard then her neighbors (for example Syria and Egypt) are. Do you know why? Because Israel is actually a functioning democracy, not like her totalitarian neighbors (Iran comes to mind) who just put on a democratic front sometimes when it's convenient.

Comment To overturn free speech about sexuality (Score 1) 397

The opinion quoted Ginsberg v. New York because it's prior precedent, and did not overturn Ginsberg because it was an inappropriate case to do so. An appropriate case to overturn Ginsberg would be one that dealt with sexual material (not violent material), and expanding this case to cover sexual material would have been judicial activism in the technical sense of the word.

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