Go to a Microsoft store, if you can find one. All the machines they sell are crapware free, and they have a wide selection of popular hardware. Check it out online if you have to, but I highly recommend it.

I thought it said "Porn'Far" and I was OK with that.

If you live in Seattle, it doesn't matter how old you are.

Debris will be both a weapon and a shield, and combat will devolve into a very tedious, counter-productive affair.

Ahhh, to have never been young and dumb. Sigh. I envy you.

Then why is a pound of lead is so much easier to carry than a pound of feathers?

A better analogy though, is that your water company owns or controls the pipes and taps in your house. They offer "limited use" of water for a particular fee/rate, and at an addtional fee/rate they will install/open a tap in the kitchen for cooking and drinking.

Even then, to keep the analogy tight, "limited use" would have to be confined to uses where it would be impractical for you to collect the water for other uses, i.e. in a closed system like a sealed toliet or dishwasher.

So you could move to a water district that let you own/control your own pipes, but, all other factors being equivalent, basic economics will dictate that your "all use" fee/rate will be similar the combined cost of "limited use" + "Tasting".

In the end, the answer is always "Whatever the market will bear". And people love their water almost as much as their internet. At least Slashdot users would be willing to give up their "bathing" water for it.

Ha ha ha, you won't know what she really wants until the day after you say "I do".

You are correct, but you apparently have no experience in a typical marriage with typical women and children. If you want to live the simple life, you can, but you have to find a wife who also wants to live that way, and raise your children up in that environment from the start.

Linux on the desktop? I suppose it's possible...

True, foregoing a data plan these days usually means foregoing a smart phone.

They will sell their services at the greatest price which the market will bear. In other words, the price will only come down when we stop merely gritting our teeth and forego the data plan or switch to a competitor with a better deal.

I'm just suggesting that we take a hard look at these companies and if they are not providing a net benefit to the U.S. then, yes, let them go, because it's not like they were really "here" anyway. At the very least then congress would have a harder time cozying up to the corporations without the media exposing the "foreign" influences at work.

We need a new standard for what a company has to be like to call itself a U.S. company and be eligible for any the benefits of such title. Multinationals with little U.S. corporate responsibility need not apply. If corporations are people, then let them take a citizenship test.

The consumer in me loves MSE because it is low drag and stays out of my face. I've heard that it may not be the most effective, but that is secondary -- If my AV solution takes over my computer to save it, then it has defeated the purpose.

Perhaps standard AV in Windows would finally force the other AV products to improve the user experience. Maybe this will spell the end of the their current extortionist, upselling, machine-hogging crapware.