Hulu+ is $8/month. You've got a bit of a wait if you've using that money to pay for a PC.

We're at a point in content rights where not everything is available on set-top boxes. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't use a set-top box for everything else. Car analogy: It's like using a gas-guzzling truck for your everyday commute, because your economy car can't move a piano.

If you have to buy a remote and IR sensor, and configure WMC (or an equivalent), it's not free, and can be a pain in the ass. Not to mention that the UI, speed, noise, and electricity cost in the set-top boxes are all serious considerations when compared to an old computer you might just have hanging around.

Roku (and I assume the other set top boxes) make it amazingly simple and quick to stream media. I have a Windows machine running WMC as an OTA DVR, and while it can stream Netflix and some of the other applications, it's not anywhere near as good at it.

Because they have huge contracts with cable companies that say they won't. This isn't the fault of the set-top boxes.

Yeah, I'm seeing my mistake now. Too much/not enough coffee...

"The 2 dollar plan per month means that the price for a gigabyte gets down to an incredibly low price of only two cents per month."

Translation, please. I must have missed something.

That's only because no one is using it. Maybe your friends post stuff you don't like, but that seems like a problem with your friends, not the medium.

Exactly. The vast majority of internet users (even those that can network their own houses and fix their friend's computers) don't know what a "hop" is or that there are usually a dozen+ computers between them and their internet destination. And if any of these links is slow, for whatever reason, there's going to a general slowdown. That makes it very difficult to determine if you're being throttled, if you're the victim of bad DNS routing, or if there's some random problem that you can't solve from your end.

You could actually upgrade, and as long as the old YouTube channel was tied to your account (and you linked your new Roku to your existing account), it would show up on your new box as well. It's on all three of mine.

That's a known issue with the old YouTube and several other private channels. Company reps on the Roku message boards say they're looking into it.

No wireless/bluetooth keyboard, but the Roku phone/tablet app has a keyboard option on the remote.

There was (and still is) a private YouTube channel, but Roku stopped it from being added to boxes a few years ago. But if you already had that one, you could keep it (I still have it).

Your experience isn't standard - I've got three of them, no wifi problems at all. Like everything, they're subject to interference, so you might want to move it around and see if that solves your problem.

Get a Roku. Cheap and awesome, and it'll go with you if you switch TVs or upgrade.

...isn't a lack of talent, or retaining students, or anything else related to business - it's crime. The once-quaint "beach bums" are actually violent street kids and mentally ill homeless people, and unless you're on campus and removed from the city itself, you can't help but to experience this everywhere you go.

I lived there for four years while at UC Santa Cruz, and while there was a street kid problem then (15 years ago), it's much worse now, crime rates are up, and I don't feel safe there at all, just walking down the street. I've lived in various low-income communities, and for the most part they're "just" poor - there's crime, of course, but you can walk down the street safely. Santa Cruz is absurdly rich for some people, destitute for others, and it attracts a homeless/street population that make it no longer worth visiting. It's sad but true.

Used book stores are generally great for browsing or discovering new things, but when you need a textbook or a specific copy of something, good luck. I love them too, but they don't serve all my needs.