Yeah I had a quick look at your web page since your signature says you're a biologist. You clearly have a very good grasp of the tech, but your web page organization leaves something to be desired. I say this not as an insult but because I see you are intelligent and have potential. Still I gave up trying to decipher your page, pretty and cool as it was, it was also hard work, and there are other things vying for my attention.

Getting back to the point: Do you understand any better why a golfer, tennis player or cricket player might risk strain and injury to play their game? How about exploring the unknown like Marie Curie who found radium and her painful cancerous death. People are willing to take risks for fun or suffer for their hobby or art. Have you ever worked late into the night on one of your pet code projects?

I have to say (at the risk that you'll find it sexist) that it's refreshing to see a female geek that's into hardcore coding. I work in industry and there are women who code and do it well, but those who are actually interested in science and computing - those who "get it" and would spend extra time on it are rare. It's not a competence thing. It's an interest and passion thing. Anyway my point is I'm not trying to belittle or criticize you. Such passion is to be treasured and nurtured in either sex. My point is to try to open your eyes to the fact that others are passionate about other things and someone such as yourself should see that a bit of hand strain (which is all that most people will face) is something a lot of people will put up with to have some fun.

$130/2 = $65. You are quibbling about $15???

I can't see the page from work, but if it's the one I'm thinking of, you need to date more. Get over it, that's probably never happened in the history of humanity - its just immature fantasy for geeks who have trouble finding a partner.

That's nothing. I also have a face, so I am claiming half ownership. Also I have friends. Honest I do. Therefore I claim ownership of FriendFace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rNgCnY1lPg

Also I've been so cold I have shaken before. Therefore I claim Jitter.

Please wait approximately 150 billion years while our galactic survey is completed. Meanwhile, you'll have to clear off, we're building a highway.

Alien invasion!!! Blerg! We come in pieces, shoot to kill! Take me to your ladder!

You realise you just opened yourself up to someone offering to beat the living daylights out of you, right? ;-)

If you don't enjoy the game, it is unsurprising that you fail to understand the attraction. The focus is not the repedative hand movement, it is the pleasure of playing and achieving things within the game. That is true of any hobby.

I love astronomy. When I show someone who knows nothing about it Jupiter or Saturn through a telescope reactions range from "You spent all that money to see that fuzzy thing" to " Wow! You mean I'm seriously honestly looking at a real planet? No tricks? No joke?". Some love spending time and money on the gear - me? That's a pain in the rear, but totally worth it to get to view and understand our universe 1st hand.

I love photography. I will carry a heavy backpack with expensive cameras, lenses and flashes, batteries and gear to clean it all? I often hang 2 cameras off my neck. Think I enjoy that? It's because when I go out I can get a pin sharp picture of an exotic bird or a butteryfly, or just of my kids running around and playing that's better than a snapshot.

I love computers. Others may love installing software and maintaining hardware but for me it's a means to an end. I find what I can do with my laptop absolutely incredible.

I hate building and maintaining my remote control planes. For others that is the best part of the hobby. For me it is fiddling irritating and boring. But when I get to do aerobatics with an r/c plane I am in hog heaven.

You must have hobbies and passions. Please do not be closed minded about them. Even if playing a video game is not a productive one, there are others that are. I've listed my hobbies. Others have dedicated their lives to curing disease, advancing science and technology, teaching others....many noble things. All would have paid for it in various ways - some even with their lives. Without people willing to sacrifice for their passions and persevere the human race would not be where it is today.

That's what coffee is for!!!

You'll be waiting a while for your $3000 1TB swiss army knife to meet the price of your $30 player. Why not just bite the bullet and buy a 1TB drive for $50? With moving parts it will probably develop errors within 5 years but that compromise should get you some way towards your dream while the prices fall.

For me photo storage is important. I have about 2TB of photos (some multiple copies - RAW, converted, and edited) that span almost a decade and a half. I have multiple copies, with a couple off site as I do not wish to lose them!

He has a patent on both.

Paris Hilton probably can't tie her own shoelaces and probably has enough money to hire everyone on slashdot as a personal butler for 1000 years.

Money isn't everything.

Personally I find it very alarming that a group of nuclear scientists can't even make a clock that doesn't work at a consistent rate. Perhaps what they need is to invent an atomic clock ;-)

What would you do with a clock that did that in real life? Put it in the bin. Very apt metaphor.

Ubuntu is an African word for "You'll take what I give you and you'll like it!!!"

it's not the newer gen readers, it's all readers - they've just decided to be combative and don't have a light hearted laugh at anything anymore. And who are you to tell geeks their sense of humour is 'shitty'? You have no right to arbitrarily decide what kind of humour is good and what is bad, nor must everyone on the site conform to your ideas on humour. Replying to a joke that falls flat as if it were an attack and flying off the handle is what's immature.

Also, I am not impressed by how many digits in a user id. Why should I care that someone found this site early on?