For years, I've been lugging an aged and heavy Dell around, hoping it would break so I could replace it with something lighter. But they build them tough. And I had a good warranty. The first major collapse came a month before the 3-year warranty lapsed, and they came and fixed it almost as good as new.
Then one of the Alt keys died. But you can't replace a laptop just because one redundant key goes.
But now, finally, I've run into a problem I can't solve, which means I need a new laptop.
Top vendors fail on top Linux notebook support.
Is this because
I'm generally surprised at how few firms sell pre-configured linux machines. Even desktops. And even fewer sell dual boot (Linux & Windows) machines. You'd think there would be a market for those.
Dennis Baron reports on Faculty Behaving Badly. Wow. Either we at the law school are better behaved than that, or I'm seriously missing some great gossip.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Earth put on solar storm alert:
Imminent disruption is predicted for satellites, power systems and even mobile phones because of a solar storm.
It comes from one of the largest groups of sunspots seen for years. On Thursday superhot gas erupted above them.
The event, called a Coronal Mass Ejection, sent 10 billion tonnes of superhot gas speeding towards Earth.
As well as communication blackouts, aurorae – polar lights – may be seen from mid-latitudes as the gas arrives.
“10 billion tonnes of Superhot gas”? Speeding our way? I left the car in the sun yesterday, and when I got into it in the late afternoon, the thermometer said 111 degrees Fahrenheit (ie 43.8 Celsius). Isn't that hot enough already?
The judicial review committee of the House of Lords is the UK's highest court, except that it isn't technically a court. So, technically, that honor belongs to the Court of Appeal of England and Wales , which is why the Master of the Rolls, the head of the Court of Appeal, is the ranking judge in civil cases. The ranking judge in criminal cases is the Lord Chief Justice, which always makes me think of Gilbert and Sullivan. In Scottish criminal cases the highest court is the High Court of Justiciary. The High Court is a lower court than the Court of Appeal, although not the lowest court. And in all cases except those which go to the Judicial Committe of the Privy Council, the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords is, in effect, the UK's Supreme Court. Indeed, Prime Minister Tony Blair intends to take the Judicial Committee out of the upper chamber (the Law Lords are really Lords and they sit in the House of Lords — and even participate in debates relating to some legal matters), and replace it with a separate Supreme Court.
Anyway, whatever you may call it, the amazing thing is that the Judicial Committee/House of Lords/Supreme Court has never had a woman among its members. Until now: 'Incisive judge' becomes first female law lord.
'bout time.
CNN.com – Senate votes to end Cuba travel ban – Oct. 23, 2003. Well, that ought to get the folks in Little Havana excited. But maybe not as excited as it would have a few years ago.
There is a pervasive myth that the US embargo of Cuba weakens the Castro dictatorship. I believe it strengthens it. I wish our Cuba policy were like our Poland policy during the regime of the evil General Wojciech Jaruzelski. At that time, and before, the US policy—spurred by the Polish-American lobby who wished to enrich rather than impoverish their families—was to encourage two-way cultural exchanges, and lend Poland lots of money to buy our goods. The combination was devastating to the Communists. When people saw what life was like on the other side of the Iron curtain they got, well, bolshi. US engagement helped create the conditions for Solidarity's victories. Conversely, embargo entrenches the dictatorship, by creating a foreign scapegoat for the nation's dismal economy. Viewed as an act of neighborly hostility, the embargo is invoked to justify repression.
Thus, I want to scream when I read,
Opponents warned that the provision sent a wrong signal at a time when the Castro regime has escalated its crackdown on dissidents. “Why should we now open up travel to Cuba to give additional cash flow to the Castro regime?” asked Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
No. No. It's not a “signal”. It's a policy. And the reason you live with whatever short run benefits might enure to a Communist regime — even when it's misbehaving — is that 40 years of your policy has produced nothing good. Meanwhile, doing the opposite in Europe brought down the entire Warsaw Pact.
Jotwell Blenderlaw