Cogs can think.

Can someone please tell me why everybody is so lyrical about Groklaw? I absolutely detest Groklaw; however, not for its content, but for its style. Or better yet, lack thereof.

We all get taught in school that when writing an essay, paper, article, or whatever, you have to structure it. You write an introduction in which you explain what you will be talking about, and most often the ‘why’ as well. After the introduction, in the body, you give the meat of the article, in a structured manner, presenting one topic per paragraph. In the conclusion, you give the, well, conclusion, without presenting any new information.

Groklaw rarely uses these basic rules, making it very hard for me to actually grasp all the information they are presenting me with. They are giving a shitload of information without actually structuring it.

People on OSNews sometimes complain why I often do not link to Groklaw; trust me, it has nothing to do with content. It has to do with the form.

Right. So Apple complains that Cisco’s claims on the iPhone trademark are “silly“… Yet Apple today ordered websites to take down links to several iPhone skins for mobile phones, claiming the interface is Apple’s intellectual property.

Does any one else see the hypocrisy in this?

Just like Mercedes, Volvo is a company on the roll.

It all started with the gorgeous Volvo XC90; one of the few SUVs which radiate class and a sense of style (instead of utter vulgarity).

They then stunned the world with the beautiful Volvo C70, the sexiest coupe-cabriolet in the world.

Following the C70, they launched a revision of their top-of-the-line limousine, the Volvo S80. Just as stunning.

And to top it all off, they just released their idea of the ‘hot hatch’; maybe not as crazy as the utterly manic Honda Civic, but I’ll tell you now– the C30’s design will stand the test of time much better than the Civic.

I have no idea why they called OpenSUSE 10.2 a ‘release’.

The installation from DVD kept failing; it appears one specific package was missing from the DVD.

There is something seriously wrong with GRUB on OpenSUSE. It takes well over a minute for GRUB to get from stage 1.5 to stage 2.

Loading the actual kernel again takes ages.

I can only start OpenSUSE 10.2 using the ‘failsafe’ option; using the normal entry results in a complete system lockup (I cannot even press ‘esc’ to get to the debug info, apparently it crashes before the kernel initialises USB).

Once I’m finally in OpenSUSE 10.2, it is slow. I mean, seriously slow.

To make matters worse, X is seriously fcuked because after the screen goes blank (when it is not used for a while) and I get back to my computer, all that is supposed to be white has turned black. I kid you not.

What a disaster. And before anyone starts blaming my hardware, no other Linux distribution has shown this behaviour, ever (not even OpenSUSE 10.1!), so yes, this is OpenSUSE 10.2 specific.

What a mess of an operating system. Seriously.

I bought a new videocard to replace my aging Ati Radeon 9000 with 128MB of RAM; it’s an nVIDIA Geforce 6200 with also 128MB of RAM.

The funny bit: Linux loaded in CLI mode, I modified xorg.conf, and I was ready to go.

Windows XP refuses to load. At all.

Update: Well paint me polka-dot and call me a girly scout, but swapping the old and the new card did the trick. It all works now.

Often I try to explain why the United States (and republics in general) is not a democracy. And last night we have seen yet another prime example of this.

George W. Bush, president of the United States of America (no, really?), presented his new plans to counter the civil war in Iraq. He wants to send more troops to Vietn, err, Iraq, but the Democrats are against– yet there is little they can do. Even though the Democrats now have the majority in Congress, the president has full power in matters like this. Now, how democratic is that?

Another problem is how Bush refuses to cooperate with countries in the regions such as Iran. Does this man not know the number one rule in matters like this? Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer?

Other than the above, in The Netherlands it would be unthinkable that a leader who made such great mistakes stay in power. For instance, after the Srebrenica massacre, which was not even caused by our military, our government resigned– not because they had to, but because they felt it was the least they could do in respect to all the victims there.

That is what Bush should have done. He is singlehandedly responsible for the deaths of more than 3000 American soldiers and well over 50000 Iraqi civilians; a lot more than the 8000 people killed in Srebrenica. It were not the Dutch soldiers that killed those 8000 men and women; still, we failed in our duty to protect them (largely due to the fact that NATO did not give air support to strike the advancing Serb army). Our government resigned over this.

So should Bush. If he were a real man, he would have resigned. What a pathetic excuse of a man.

A little late to the game, but here are my observations concerning the new iPhone, obviously limited in validity due to not having used the phone.

Good:

The interface looks really slick. I’m a little bit worried about consistency though, or better yet, the lack thereof.

Slick exterior. The thing looks pretty decent.

Widescreen is cool.

The SMS application is just beyond awesome. Seriously.

Bad:

It’s fairly large.

I cannot use a device that does not give me tactile feedback. The reason for this is that it is impossible to use devices like this blindly (without looking at the screen). This is annoying. I can send text messages on my Nokia 8800 without looking at the phone even once. This is extremely important in i.e. class, while listening to boring presentations, while riding my bike, while being at the cinema. For the same reason, I detest the iPod. Because of the lack of tactile feedback, you have to look at its screen when browsing through the songs on an album. That just sucks.

Smudgy fingers. You’re gonna need a cleaning cloth with that. Now, my Nokia 8800 is prone to this as well (being an all-metal phone), but that is just on the casing; with the iPhone, it’ll be all over your screen.

Price. This is a very expensive phone (justified or not). USD 499 with a 2 year contract is very expensive for a high end feature phone (no, it is not a smart phone, as Eugenia rightly points out).

The touchscreen is completely exposed. Forget about throwing your iPhone and your keychain in the same pocket; touchscreens are much less sturdy than normal screens.

Lack of sturdiness in general. The phone looks like a prime example of a ‘pretty boy’ phone; I’ll think twice about taking an iPhone with me to the beach, sports, or my job.

The on-screen keyboard has really small keys.

The biggest problem: carriers. Big chance Apple will go with the biggest carrier in Europe when it comes out here, which is Vodafone. I’m on T-Mobile, because their network is just as good, but with better service and lower prices. I will not switch carriers; taking your phone numbers cross-carrier is always a pain in the ass and usually costs money. Other than that, Vodafone offers no extra or better service for the premium price they ask (in The Netherlands at least).

By the way, where is the Leopard information? Where are the new Macs?

GeenStijl/NieuwNieuws commenters are generally not the bright minds of the country, but they sure do have their occiasional moment of genious.

On a story about introducing bus lines on the highway, specially for commuters (anti-traffic jam solution #4967458764967895):

Does my SUV fit on a “bus”?

On a story about how Bindi Irwin (the 8 year old daughter of late Steve Irwin) will promote her new show in the US:

In her show, Bindi will probably annoy salamanders, dwarf hippos, and shetlandpony’s.

Smart.

Another contestant for the Ugliest Car in Human History: the Ssang Yong Actyon.

Whoever “designed” that should be shot. No questions asked.