"aligns more closely with the smaller scales involved..."

Bit of a Hobson's Choice really - I don't think working with 1e-18 kg or 1e-15 g makes too much difference

Re : height

It's not that clocks run at different times - it's time that runs differently.

It's affected by lots of stuff, gravity, velocity, acceleration. That's why the train is usually late

Re : UK and US →

All the scientists do - as well as most engineers etc

@Peter Gathercole

I agree with a lot of this. It's very noticeable that VNC on my home network is perfectly usable for routine stuff but when using VNC by SSH from my holiday home to my home network (final link being ~3Mbit/500kbit ) it's rather a dog and just using X is MUCH smoother.

@AC

Ditto and strongly in agreement

Re : Weather?

Flying above the clouds !

@Al fazed

You have a business - people pay you !?

My experience is that anybody can use a Linux installation that's been set-up for them. Age doesn't come into it.

"In vendor supported companies, it's not possible"

As I have pointed out - wait for the update then. There's no problem unless your existing security is lacking.

I also find it hard to believe that you can't apply the simple workaround or remove the module altogether without the vendors says so - if that's the case why have a sys. manager at all ?

"that's all a power user like me needs"

In "industrial strength" science - hardware stereo, xeons, multi-gigabytes of memory and the stability to run molecular modeling or dynamics for days on end on a workstation whilst still doing other work. So Linux then, esp. if one needs to offload the REALLY big jobs to Linux farms.

Re : Seriously?

As many people have pointed out : if you are REALLY worried about this than it's possible to do something about it now, or more simply use the workaround. Most people don't have to do anything, just wait for their distro updates (unless their system's security is poor - in which case they have other worries)

"No one likes people being as smug and childish as you"

Or indeed as anonymous as you.

"It may have been fixed, but if that fix isn't in the repos"

That is true but at least the fix is ready and anyone who cares to roll their own can incorporate.

As mentioned there is a simple workaround anyway

"only Wankels I heard of are petrol"

I have the feeling that Rolls-Royce developed a wankel diesel for use in tanks (?). The novelty was to use a two rotor engine with the first acting as a supercharger

http://retro-motoring.blogspot.com/2009/03/rolls-royce-make-wankel.html

@demo

3 seconds to start ( including loading home page) on an old celeron laptop for 3.6.10 on OpenSUSE 11.2

"alternative OS is not the be all and end all"

Whilst I agree with you in principle can you quote an example of Linux being compromised by just browsing ?

(I know that if you were mad enough to download and install an executable and then run it you could be in trouble but they'd still not own the machine.)

"you certify and maintain AV...."

Only run Linux on the machines here. There really is no anti-virus software as no Linux virus has managed to spread so no anti-virus infrastructure has developed.

Security here is all down to automatic updates, strong passwords, local and router firewalls, SSH access only to long, unusual account names with VERY long passwords and online banking, again using VERY long passwords. All of this backed-up with a little paranoia and common-sense.

Oh and a system that doesn't run executables just because you click on a link in a email or browser.

Re : Macros!

One thing I spotted during my years with a major pharma was that some people would write a lot of macros, and often got quite good at it but in the vast majority of cases they could have done the same jobs more transparently by just using the spreadsheet functions. Also many people just blindly copied the macros (warts and all) and were oblivious to quite ludicrous results.

"Still, I am using linux now"

I only use Linux and so Open Office is a given. My use is mostly spreadsheets but my wife uses the word processor a lot and really had no trouble adapting, both to Linux and Open Office. She's a mostly-retired teacher who still acts as a consultant to her old school so was moving from Windows/Office. Remote access from the Linux machines to her school's Windows system is notably more robust and quicker BTW

Re : pencil shavings on to a piece of paper with a magnet

Please try and report back. Hint - nothing will happen. Iron fillings, yes

@ Simon Brady

So how is nsLoginManagerPrompter.js modified under Windows - is it only people running as admin ? The article doesn't make it clear. Sorry it's a few years since I messed with Windows.

"What happens if malware figures out how to write that file"

You may as well ask that of ANY file that has your permissions. The global .js files on Linux are protected.

@Adrian Challinor

"Thing is a modern OS should never need reinstalling." But, of course, Windows often does.

One word : sarcasm

RE : "Thing is a modern OS should never need reinstalling."

The forums are FULL of Windows users who seem to need to re-install every few months as their systems grind to a crawl

Re : 45000 feet

Obviously going to refuel at Cloudbase, (an airborne headquarters hovering at a height of 40,000 feet from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons)

"this is a pretty mature technology,"

So it's capable of overtaking on non-dual carriageway roads ? Capable of spotting that the truck crawling in front is doing so because it's in a line of slow traffic so don't overtake. Capable of spotting the emergency signs have suddenly closed off the outside lane. Capable of dealing with mad drivers. I could go on - this will take years to ever be safe if it ever happens.

Re : Yes, Big Deal →

Neither am I, I must point out - I use SUSE

"Open source cars?"

Well I'm a Linux user and I can hack-up a C program with the best (of the amateurs).

But I am really a chemist and I wouldn't like any amateurs playing around with the sort of chemistry necessary for batteries that have any chance of reaching the energy density of petrol.

Re : Sir → #

Unfortunately the experiment you ask for should really be to replace the sun with something similar that has a constant output and then see what all the shenanigans on Earth does to the temp/climate etc

It's not coming out of my research budget by the way !!!

@Chris 3 & AC

Not sure what your points are. Guy was positing that it's correct that almost all warmth on Earth comes from the sun - I agree

You both seem to have missed the simple point and veered off onto other things - in the case of Chris 2 in rather a patronising manner too.

You can't grasp how an increase in incoming intensity (In the right area of the em spectrum, i know overall intensity is down) can cause an overall increase in temperature?"

I can grasp it quite clearly - just don't know what it's got to do with this thread - the article & research yes

By the way "The Greenhouse Effect" is conjectured to increase the amount of HEAT retained by the Earth system. How that happens to relate to temperatures is probably a lot more complex.

RE : Building analogies. →

I think it's the WINDOWS that are as much to blame

Re : Surely ..

Quite correct - would the downvoters care to explain ?

"keep Linux -- with its race conditions..."

I'm sure Amazon, Google and all the others, esp. the supercomputer owners must be desperate to move to this wonderful new Dead Dog - if what you say is true ?

"Goats have been producing silk in their milk for several years"

Indeed they have but the yield is ~~1g/litre of milk and the product needs chromatography to purify it and seems to be used for very high performance (expensive) applications.

Are you sure your carpet isn't mohair - the silky fabric from Angora goats

"a car in sight is so much car company BS"

I take your point but to be fair I travelled down the A26 in France on the 22nd Sept. in the middle of the day and there were no other vehicles for as far as the eye could see for long stretches.

On the other hand I went from Saas-Fee over the Simplon pass last week to Locarno and there were road-works & heavy traffic much of the way.

"Perhaps Netbooks need an OS that does not cost 33% of the price."

Mine's always had one

"With the money you save you could hire a better CEO"

Or TRY and write a better OS

@Renato

I repeat - if you can't get OpenOffice to open documents ~ as quickly as Office then it's not been set-up correctly.

Changing a few settings to save the cost of Office seems a small price ( esp. as I've got it on 6 machines ). In any case Office isn't an option as I'm an all-Linux operation. Whether under Windows OpenOffice is slower I can't test now but I DO know the kind of times that are quoted, if true, don't match my experience or many other peoples either.

Where I have found OpenOffice slow is using large spreadsheets - but in my previous life Excel wasn't up to it either as I used millions of rows so needed JMP.

"Petrol is volatile when it's in a gaseous form, but in a..."

I think you need to look up the meaning of volatile

"setting it up properly?"

Enable systray quickstarter in Options memory

Don't use the Java environment under Options Java

Loads a 70K spreadsheet including starting OpenOfiice over the network via wireless in 10 secs on a Celeron mobile laptop - mind I'm using Linux

"that selectively remove metals from soil"

Don't think so. There is an isotope effect on chemical processes but it is only really significant at large atomic weight ratio differences e.g hydrogen v. deuterium. Separating U235 from the rest is still going to be awkward.

"How fit must you have ....."

Just outside Zermatt is a 'test run' for candidates for climbing the Matterhorn. From memory it goes up very steeply through rough,loose terrain for ~~600m height or about the height of the mast. If you can reach the top in (I think) one hour you might have the stamina for the ~1100m up the Matterhorn from the Hornli hut.

Re : Am I mistaken...

Forget weapons - the contents of the reactor would make a VERY nasty dirty bomb