"There will of course always be some people that want control over their hardware. Some people." My point exactly. To the rest of your reply: So You advocate completely abdicating control over your device because "most people" are too lazy or stoopid to maintain a simple PC? This POV is what got us into this mess in the first place. Like I said, we get what we deserve.

II actually love it, there's something Zen-like about the way the metal flows into the joints in a well heated part, and the wick effect on stranded wires is mesmerizing.
I could happily do it all day. Now I ride a desk :(
I built and repaired Coin Operated Video Games and Pinball Machines for 10 years, so Brother, if you ever need someone to solder something, I'm your guy. Try building wiring harnesses with 2-300 wires on edge connectors, you get good at it. Not to mention good at following confusing looking schematics.

It's starting to become inevitable. Apple is the main culprit. We migrated away from Desktop's and Laptop PC's to "smart" phones and tablets that are all user limited for the sake of being cool. Now the very real threat that the PC revolution of the 70's and 80's will be overthrown by corporate inertia. They and Apple in particular, hate the idea that you may have control over your own hardware and/or software and are doing everything they can to curtail your choices. Don't blame MS, blame yourselves.

Try the Tom Swift series, have no idea if they are still available, but it was like the Hardy Boys in space. Another good book, highly overlooked for years, but was taught in English Class back in the day, The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, same guy that wrote Day of the Triffids and Midwich Cuckoos. Great book, light on the sci- heavy on the -fi, but totally original and refreshing. No idea why that one never made it to the big screen.

I use Opera and the Ghostery extension along with WOT. Then I run CCleaner a few times a day. I ALWAYS log out of any site once I'm done with what I logged in to do, and that goes double for Google. Then run CCleaner. I take a small hit with some occasional unpredictable behavior on some sites with Ghostery running, but screw 'em. If they want my junk, I can find (95% of the time) what i want elsewhere. Strategy seems to work pretty well, low spam incidence in gmail and my "real" email addresses are rarely spammed as well. Recently checked Google's data on me through the privacy page and all clear.

Go ahead if you want to, but wait until your Insurance Company or the Gov't get their hands on the results. Then you'll regret it.
One word - Gattica

Everytime I work myself up to switch to Linux I run into that "One" problem that makes me hesitate. This time its RAID0. I just purchased a new PC (very sweet hardware) and saw the Mint 12 distro announced here on slashdot right around the same time and took a look, downloaded the DVD and ran it on my new hardware from the disc. Very nice, it seemed to think the same way I do. And it ran faster from the DVD than win7 did from disk. Add in my total loathing for Win7 and it all sounds good right? Err... no. When I went to actually install, I got an error that seemed to say that it didn't recognize my RAID0 array, and not being a total geek wizard, I hesitated. It ended up taking me a few days to find a relevant forum, post a question and then sort the snide remarks from the helpful answers. I found the soluton, but by then I had lost the desire to tread in waters that were potentially too deep. So from my perspective, I really would like to switch, but every forum/site I found looking for help assumed that I had some level of basic understanding of Linux, it's file system, and how it's executables work. I don't. I'm a Windows Refugee and have been kept in the dark by big brother for many years. So for total newbies to the OS, there are not too many places to go where you can ask "stupid" questions, which is what all newbies need to do in order to learn. Too bad too, that damn OS was sweet, saw all my hardware(except the RAID0) hooked up to the network/internet with no questions or prompts and ran fantastically on the Dell i7-2600/16GB ram. Someday I'm gonna switch, promise.

Anonymous Coward Post. Nuff said.

IMHO, the more I learn about Particle Physics and Cosmology, the more I believe in Intelligent Design. Read Martin Rees "Just Six Numbers", there is a credible Physicist presenting straight information. I have no problem mixing Religion and Science. Bio-ethics is my problem issue, but again IMHO, those come down to moral issues, informed by my faith, not hard science.