...they don't call it "Colossus" or "Guardian" we should be okay.

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20051121

I'm so glad I'm not using Micro$oft anymore.

I did the upgrade path on both my Dell Latitude D400 and my desktop with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200; I'm having no problems. On the Dell, mobile broadband has gotten easier!

Although I have been noticing that gnome-panel goes a little wonky at times. I just go into System Monitor and end the process. It restarts, and bob's my uncle. Or Bob cries uncle. Something like that.

And Microsoft wonders why people are so frustrated with them.

I finally moved away from Windows in 2003, and haven't looked back. Linux is Teh Awesome!

...to get rid of software patents. This is just plain stupid.

...I don't buy Intel machines anymore. For years now, I have only purchased AMD computers, CPUs, and motherboards.

Sorry, did Microsoft say something helpful?

No?

I didn't think so.

You said, in part, "Now I know it's America, but surely common sense has to kick in somewhere, or on previous experiences, maybe not."

As an American, my response is this: Sadly, common sense no longer seems all that common here. Pray to the Spaghetti Monster and/or Void to save us from ourselves.

I prefer the use of a three-day dead porcupine. Dead, so the porcupine doesn't suffer.

Cheers - there's too many Humans on-planet anyway!

Reality movies.

Gah. Oh, and Feh.

Mine's the one with the Netflix subscription in the pocket.

...who was worried about the BOFH's whereabouts.

I attempted to use the email link to send him a message, and got a bounce saying something about not having anyone to send the email to.

"While staying at a relatives house, he was... " s/b "While staying at a relatives house, she was..."

...is getting awfully full, in'it? Or have they built in a "flush" function?

Mine's the one with the BOFH taser in the pocket.

Off to the store to buy my nice, fat turkey, and fixin's to make dressing. (I don't do stuffing; too uneven cooking and not enough room in the bird!)

Buddha is not a god. He was just an enlightened Human. Buddhism, as such, doesn't have deities.

I'm an American - more precisely, a citizen of the United States of America. I wish, like you, that my fellow citizens would learn and use proper English. British English would be my preference, but even standard American English would do.

A tombstone because English is mutating. Badly.

I was a tad surprised when I first saw the new layout, but as redesigns go, this was one of the cleanest and least disruptive I've seen. I'm comparing this to the Dilbert and GoComics redesigns, which I quit the Dilbert website after trying for a week to like it - or at least get used to it. GoComics I've gotten used to; not my favorite, but tolerable.

ElReg's redesign is far and away better than those other two. I don't really have an opinion - yet - about the fixed-width thing. It's not bugging me.

One question, though, since you brought it up: what is "The Other Place"? This is akin to being told "you will have no other gods before me" and I didn't even realize there *were* other gods - now I want to know who they are and where to find them! =) Not to worry, though; I love the Register and I'm staying.

The Saturn V weighed in at 3,000 short tons, or 2.72 million kgs, while the Ares V weighs in at 8,487.8 short tons.

Guess they'll have to dig out the crawlerway and improve the foundation.

Stop, because the road is under construction. Or should be.

...now I know how to deal with the Mormons when they come calling!

Flames, because I *HATE* it when religous fanatics of any stripe come knocking on my door, on which is a sign that says I'm a day-sleeper and DO NOT DISTURB!

That was my immediate reaction, as well - well done getting the first reply in!

So I'm just watching this from the sideline, fresh popcorn in hand.

Silly Micro$oft - it's not YOUR computer, it's MINE. You don't get to control it, *I* do. To quote a Star Wars line, "the more you tighten your grip, the more we slip through your fingers." Or something like that.

I'm from the United States, and the drivers here can't chew gum and drive at the same time. Yet, they try to read, put on makeup, change clothes, talk on a cellphone... now this. *sigh* I better go increase my insurance limits.

Mine's the motorcycle jacket with the "Log off and drive!" bumper sticker.

...can it beat Colossus? I think not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project

According to Mythbusters (Season 2, Episode 14,) cell phones don't cause explosions at petrol stations. However, a nice static charge from your hand to your car can ignite petrol fumes.

...but not very.

Checking out their website, there's free download buttons all over, but nary a word as to the price for this service. I've always gone with the axiom of "if you have to ask, you can't afford it."

Additionally, I've seen cra... er, offered at New Age convention booths that smelt similarly of a way to fleece the believers.

You want free bible study tools? How about biblegateway.com for starters - it's free, and you can do searches, multiple translations, etc, etc, etc.

If you're really so concerned about getting Teh Evil from the intertubes, maybe you should just give up the net. Everybody knows (*wink* *wink*) that nothing good is out there.

A coat, because I left religion behind some years ago, and find science to be far more pragmatic in the cold.

I believe the answer is yes, they are fucking insane.

Pirate flag because, well, yeah.

How many women have you heard of being arrested for having "simulated sex" in public with an inanimate object? How many women have made the news thusly?

Yeah. I didn't think so. Your strawman doesn't stand.

I have another definition of expert:

A person who knows more and more about less and less, until he knows everything about nothing.

that Yahoo! is courting Fox to take them over, to avoid Microsoft.

Fox!Yahoo!

Microsoft!Yahoo!

I can't tell which compost pile stinks worse.

...that BushCo thinks it can still cry "Wolf!" Don't they realize we don't believe them anymore?

Stupid gits. It only took me about a year after Dumbya took office for me to figure out that I listen to what they say, turn it around 180 degrees, and that'd be the real truth.

If John Edwards hadn't dropped out of the race, I'd be voting for him. Instead I'll vote for... yeah, I'm not tellin'! ;D

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

I feel sorry for Yahoo! even though I never much used them.

1) http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0203/0203hydrogen.htm

2) http://www.dalefield.com/slspartners/hydrogen_fm.html

There are more websites out there that explain all this, but just go read those two to start with. Hydrogen is an energy *carrier*, not an energy *source*. There are energy losses all along the way of getting hydrogen out of water and getting it into a vehicle; there are more losses in using that hydrogen in that vehicle.

It is much wiser to generate the electricity from wind and solar and use a pure electric vehicle to start with. Hybrids are just a good step towards that.

If you do a search for (without the quotes) "prius hummer damage" you find lots of links - all pointing to various postings of that ONE article. ONE article that has ZERO factual links to back up its claims.

Nice try at continuing a myth.

...and my eyes melted at reading that pdf. Someone send support staff around with replacements, please?

Come up with the Predator's light-bending "invisibility shield" and *then* I'll be impressed!

Go to http://healingmagichands.wordpress.com/2007/12/18/some-favorite-cartoons/1019/ to see the original cartoon.

After reading this article, I went home and checked my Netgear router. It does have UPnP, and it was enabled. Nothing else associated with UPnP was turned on, and I quickly turned it off. Thanks, Teh Reg!

...knowing that there are VMS machines out there with uptimes longer than any given M$ Windoze release lifetime.

I can't imagine owning a computer, only to turn its operation over to a company that thinks it knows your needs and desires better than you do. Everything I hear about Vista has been bad from the get-go; why on Earth would anyone subject themselves to such torture?

Thankfully I dumped M$ for Linux on my home PC several years ago.

Can someone please, please, pretty please come and help us get the RIAA and MPAA back under some semblance of control? This was ridiculous several years ago and ceased being funny several years minus one half ago.

...and fondly. Then I switched to the then-superior Netscape. It was fantastic, and I preferred it to IE any day - that is, until AOHELL bought it. As soon as I found out, I went back to IE until I found Firefox. I will never, *ever* willingly or knowingly buy/use an AOHELL product. Even to the point of using a *shudder* Microsoft product instead.

Thank goodness for Linux and Firefox!

I have been using Adblock (and now Adblock Plus) for a few years now. I only have to see ads when I go to work and use Internet Exploder instead of the superior and more secure Firefox.

May I add my good wishes to the others, and thanks again for the entire Rama series. All your books, really - I grew up reading them. Fantastic!

Based on the responses in the thread here, I think "galactic insane asylum" is quite apropos of the situation. Wow.

I mean, radio waves don't travel through space??? How do you think we're getting those pictures and data from the Mars rovers? Or the two Voyager spacecraft, rapidly approaching the edge of the solar system? Or the many manned missions to the Moon? *shakes head sadly*

Screeching about whether or not there are aliens out there is a fantastic waste of time. As someone pointed out, not only are the distances prohibitive, the time scale makes things improbable as well. Still, I think there is Life out there - somewhere. *If* they exist in our timeframe, and *if* they are capable of visiting us, I highly doubt they're going to be aggressive. The level of cooperation needed (as has already been pointed out here) is going to sublimate aggressive tendencies simply because they're counter-productive. Do you really think (using a Star Trek reference myself) that the Klingons could advance far enough to get off-planet, let alone develop a star/warp/FTL drive? I cast serious doubt and aspersions in that direction.

C'mon, people. Use your heads for something besides a hat-rack.

...that they already know about us, and that Earth could simply be the glactic insane asylum?

It wasn't said in the article, but in my experience it's always so-called "christians" who have such delicate ears that upon hearing a cuss word, they begin bleeding from said ears and are teetering upon the precipice of Hell itself.

Frankly, I'm sick and tired of having someone *gasp* or look shocked when I let loose a cuss word, and I'm just waiting for some gobsmacked idiot to ask me to watch my language!

Too right she was acquitted of the charges. She should never have been brought up on charges in the first place.