Upgrades are a nice idea, but they are asking for problems. Sure, sometimes they work fine, other times they have strange problems, still other times your whole system blows up.

Happened to one of our students running Linux. He runs Ubuntu on one of his systems. The last two times a major update has come out, he's told it to update. In both cases, the system was totally hosed as a result, and required a reinstall.

I always like the full reinstall option for OS upgrades. It is by far the way to the least amount of problems. I also find it serves another useful purpose: Cleaning out of junk. Many of us (like me) are hoarders and collect data we don't really need. A reinstall cleans all that out. You either back it up, or it goes away.

I just don't get the point in upgrading OSes.

Might that have something to do with feature additions in Visual Basic eating up all the gains from your faster CPU? (See Wirth's law.)

What we need is decent paying jobs for scientists in the United States- not popularity.

Clear can't seem to give me coverage from a site 10 blocks away over flat terrain.

Their solution?
Either mount the modem in a box 5-10 feet above my roof or switch to Comcrap.

When they switch off their old network in a few weeks their going to loose yet
another customer.

No, I guess reading the EULA they expressly give no warranty... but if the EULA gives them this right, it must also give them the right to brick the phone. It's my understanding that those "no warranty" sections are bogus, especially when it comes to companies deliberately disabling features that were bought as a part of the original contract. I mean, the contract is a license to use the software, and the stated features are an important part of that contract, whether or not Apple wants to admit it.

As we keep hearing (ad nauseum) that Linux supports more hardware than Windows, I find it amazing that there *is* such a thing as "Linux Compatible Hardware" ?

My wife's Verizon phone gets e-mail just fine, without paying for the data plan, and apparently every verizon phone with a color screen thats web enabled can do the same. My previos Sprint phone (back in 2002) had free e-mail as well, and my Cingular camera phone also got e-mail.

My parents have el-cheapo phones on a local carier network that don't even have cameras, I can can e-mail them photos...

Sure, not EVERY device can do it, and not on every plan, but the vast majority of phones on the market can send/receive e-mail. not all may be able to view the pic, but honestly, how often is it CRUCIAL someone see a pic I just took, or honestly, is simply letting them know there's one in their e-mail to view later good enough...

Honestly, I don't recommend "upgrade" installs at all - ever.

Seems to me that something always goes wrong.

I do believer there are utilities out there to help you migrate your stuff over to a Win7 install though... I don't recall - does it create a little partition for your files & settings when it does a clean install? I know Vista did that...

This is not correct. AT&T offers a data plan for Windows Mobile based smart phones that includes tethering. It's $65/month. I had it for a while when I needed on the road access for a few months.

Additionally, when provided a Windows Mobile based smart phones by my company that used either Verizon or Sprint, tethering was a usable option there as well.

Sounds like it breaks physics, how can a single-frequency transmitted simultaneously from multiple points NOT result in constructive & destructive interference?

There is a difference between "being a mean-spirited asshole that no one likes" and "being a mean-spirited asshole who goes to jail for it." Yeah, sorry, but being a mean asshole should not be a jailable offense. It should be enough that they're ostracised from society.

Please examine the three cases I put forth. I see you did not bother to do any research.

I examined the so-called "sockpuppetteer" they were accused of being reincarnations of. I saw no topic-space collision. I saw no pattern of bad behavior. What I did see, was a group of trollish embedded Wikipedia-controllers with delusions of article ownership, who played the troll game and then proceeded to scream "sockpuppet" in a way that was ridiculous but triggered the expected result - an admin with an axe to grind coming in to ban first and not ever ask questions.

I took a step back and examined the original "sockpuppetteer" as well. In my opinion, the original Arbcom case was a travesty bordering on being a kangaroo court, and the verdict had no basis in fact whatsoever. Of course, anyone who ever bothered to bring this up on Wikipedia is invariably accused of being a "sockpuppet" or something else, and banned themselves.

The system is broken, abusive, and self-perpetuating. The articles on Wikipedia are worth the toilet paper one might print them on, and only for the same purpose.

You forgot Gregor Mendel.