I think this is a good analogy.

I love linux and all- sometimes.

Is it the swiss army knife of OS's? Sure. It *can* do almost anything.

But like that small-ass corkscrew that rarely does anything more than mangle my corks, sometimes there is a better tool for the job. HTPC? Sorry, I have to give that one to Windows, Linux just lacks the audio support in my experience. Design work? OS X takes the cake for professional work, sorry- The Gimp doesn't compete with Photoshop, and Inkscape isn't even in the same ballpark as Illustrator.

But I wouldn't dare host my site on anything else- or rely on anything else for *anything* network critical, for that matter.

Some kids grow up to be scientists, some grow up to be rock stars, some grow up to work 9-5 in an office pushing papers. Linux needs to settle on its major, and stop double or triple majoring. I think we've passed the point of everything-to-everyone operating systems (if not, I think we should), and should let each OS focus on performing its core set of features extremely well. Once that goal is reached, the focus should be on expanding around that same core.

As much as I'd love to be able to use open source software for everything, there are a LOT of barriers in place to prevent many applications from working in an OSS environment (many of them copyright holder-imposed).

I give kudos to those with the will to continue to fight the good fight, but for me (and most of us), I just want to get stuff done. There once was a time when I had no problem hacking away just to get something to work- oftentimes spending hours upon hours to do it- but now I just need stuff to work.*

Just one Mac/Win/Linux user's opinion...

*This is actually a two-sided problem. Yeah, I just need to get stuff to work, but I've also been spoiled by the few bad apples in the otherwise amazing linux community who respond to requests for help with just enough condescension as to make me feel like I'm not part of their little club just because I'm missing something that may or may not be obvious.

I think the key is that's how it's *supposed* to work. Reality will likely go much more like:

"Book me on the next flight to Chicago!"
*returns Amazon results for albums by the band, Chicago*

"Get me a copy of 'The Art of War'"
*Unable to recognize command, "Get me a copy of"*

(while at a party): "Order me a pineapple pizza"
*Unrecognized input. Try again.*

"Smart" tech isn't quite there yet. Voice commands aren't quite there yet. Because of the promises of each (namely, to make our lives easier), when they fail it is exceptionally frustrating. Nothing is more frustrating than doing things a new way only to learn the old way was easier.

Combine these two techs, and I can already hear the cries of agony.

You've finally done it.

I've been a user of your hardware and software for a short time now (about two years), and have thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. You have made sure to be on the cutting edge (of fashion, if nothing else), one step ahead of the curve, as it were. But these latest shenanigans...I don't know.

Beating the war-drum of terrorism (cyber or otherwise) to further your own business agenda? That's so 2008. Kudos for acknowledging that governments are afraid of the T word, and will basically give you anything you want just to avoid having to deal with it, but really- you're not the first to acknowledge this. Just one of the very few sleazy enough to capitalize on it.

However, should your claims be true - which I find doubtful - you should be held accountable for releasing such a dangerous device into the wild. Many harmless chemicals are illegal to sell, as they could be combined to create very lethal substances by someone with the proper motivation and knowledge. Many types of weapons are illegal to sell, as they can be used to kill a large number of people in a relatively short period of time - again, with the proper motivation. If you are claiming to sell a device that has the capability to cripple the nation's cellular network (and you really must be the only one selling such a device, as so many other open platforms haven't caused this catastrophe you speak of), I call "Terrorist!" on you.

Really, Apple. Why do you hate America?

In simple terms, getting fired means losing your job because of something you did (or didn't do).
Getting laid off means losing your job because of something *someone else* did (or didn't do).

If it quacks like a duck, it IS a duck.

But if it hasn't quacked yet, what is it?

Sure, Google/Mozilla COULD be preparing to put themselves in an MS-like position by implementing standards before they're set, and they COULD do what MS did and refuse to change their implementation for the next 10 years, even when the standard is revised.

But will they? Seeing their track record, I would bet against it. In fact, I would bet on them being the early adopters, providing the necessary feedback to bring the standard from the drawing board to reality.

What worries me most isn't what Moz/Goog are doing, but what MS ISN'T doing or WON'T be doing. If HTML5 isn't in IE8, when do you think they will implement? IE9? IE10? Seeing how long it took them to properly support CSS2 (kinda), I would bet on HTML5 being standard for a good 3 years before IE implements it (or some bastardized version of it)...which, if their market share remains even close to what it is, means it is useless in any practical sense. Even once they DO implement HTML5, we have to wait for IE6, IE7 and IE8 to die out.

So yeah, if Moz/Goog implementing HTML5 early helps get that ball rolling, I'm all for it if it means I may actually be able to use it within my lifetime.

Yeah, if a whole bunch of them decided to do something else instead, there would be no dire consequences. If a whole bunch of them were forced to on the other hand...say, because their signal went blank during a switchover...well gee, what could possibly go wrong?

Aside from general anger at the situation, we have:
$116 BILLION (46.3 BIL in the US alone) in revenue generated from Television Advertising in 2007 alone (the most recent report I could get with a quick google search, though you can be sure that number only goes UP each year). I'm sure our economy could handle losing that money without ANY problem whatsoever.

Numerous jobs, all the way from grips to production assistant to program manager to the more illustrious positions of each show on television. Let's not forget maintenance positions, linemen, customer service...I can't find any numbers on this, but I'm sure you could imagine, it ain't a small number.

How about the cultural impact? Say what you will about the value of television as a cultural export, but the fact remains that part of our culture today is the result of shows from yesteryear. Additionally, a decent amount of money changes hands just exporting this cultural medium between countries.

That's only a few examples I could come up with after waking up from 2 hours of sleep- if I were more awake, I'm sure I could come up with more. Either way, it seems you have a very subjective opinion on what is and isn't important.

It's not important that people watch tv for the content, but the world has adapted to television, and relies on it at the very least from an economic standpoint- this is true whether you agree with it or not, whether you think it SHOULD be that way or not, and whether you WANT it to be that way or not.

Yes, in this case the popularity of the medium has has made it important.

Bah. Thought I navigated away before pressing submit. TV made me stupid, I guess ;)

I know it's a joke (Duh, The Onion), but living in Chapel Hill (where the "Area Man" is from) I think I met this guy. At least 5 times per day.

Seriously, the population of "I don't watch TV and am proud of it!" crowd here is a little alarming. And really annoying.

Granted, these are usually the same people who will start fires on Franklin Street just to jump over them every time UNC wins a basketball game, or townies who get wasted at one of the myriad local bars, so everything with a grain of salt, I suppose.

I know it's a joke (duh, The Onion), but being a resident of Chapel Hill, I do believe I met that guy. At least 5 times a day.

Really, the population here is about 60% (obligatory made up percentage) people who don't watch TV and are (a little too) proud of it. As much as I love the people here, this breed is really f-ing annoying.

Granted, some of these people are the same people who will light bonfires just to jump over them whenever UNC wins a basketball game - the others are mostly townies who spend "prime time" tv hours getting wasted at one of the myriad local bars, so everything with a grain of salt, I suppose.

I personally hope the griping about "i don't get reception" or "i wasn't prepared for the switch" stops as well. Hopefully, the self-righteous "I don't even watch TV" crowd will STFU then too.

It's cool that you don't watch TV. But more than 238,000,000 people do...so, yeah. The DTV switch is kinda important.

And, you know, software.

But who needs software when you have an OS!

I still say it was an electromagnetic pocket gone out of control because a Scotsman forgot to push the button.

I have mod points, and was going to mod this down as flamebait for the last line, but found the rest of your post interesting/insightful...but felt it more appropriate to mention each - you don't seem to be at a shortage of modding on this post anyway ;)

Yeah, because when lithium is already found to curb suicide rates, it's much more likely that it's an element OTHER than lithium in the water that is lowering rates in this study...Occam's Razor much?

This wasn't a study on whether or not Lithium lowers suicide rates- it's been known to for decades. Why are you even questioning that? It's simply the published results of one city with varying levels of Lithium in its water supplies. Is it any surprise that as levels of lithium increase, suicide rates decrease? No. It's not the least bit surprising. Because that was never in question- until you brought it into question.

Like the GP said: in this case - as in any other where the subject is already well-known and the outcome can be accurately predicted with reasonable certainty - correlation IS causation. Because the research has already gone into the cause, the effect, and the correlation between the two.

A relatively small reason, but until Wake on LAN works over WiFi, I'll be keeping my ethernet cables, TYVM.