> 3: Finding MS SQL expertise is easy.

No. Not really. Microsoft pushes the idea that you don't need to have any clue to use it's products. It helps enable this idea with better novice interfaces. This leads to the problem that you end up with barely trained monkeys having the appearance that they can us Microsoft products.

> 4: MS SQL does work and is decently secure. For 99.99% of tasks, it is just as good as Oracle.

I think Microsoft has the only RDBMS that ever had a genuine viral exploit in the wild. That's quite an accomplishment. SQL Server also has some "subtleties" that make it oddly more user hostile than even Oracle.

...or Iranian democracy could have turned out like Egyptian democracy and all without our help.

I think this service is entirely pointless. If you are worried about interception using a common carrier, then you need to stop using common carriers. Full stop.

You need to use a proper courier. You also need to work on making your gear more tamper resistant.

> Your pirate, sorry "media backup" collection

Someone needs to downmod this jackass into oblivion.

This sort of Apple-centric "if you strayed off the reservation, then you are a criminal" sort of nonsense really has no place here.

If you are really really really dead set on essentially leaving your media server OUTSIDE then the thing has to be beefed up to industrial or military grade specs.

A towed mega boat. Not the most efficient means of travel. Certainly not something you want to wait on when you are trying to get ahead of something quickly.

The only difference here really is completion time.

Unixen are born to do batch jobs. So this apparent aversion to starting something and just letting it run until it finishes seems oddly out of place.

Plus there's development and testing to consider. A private resource is usually more available. That's why PCs became popular to begin with.

Meanwhile, it's likely that the "real hardware" is NOT available on demand. This is likely something that hasn't changed since the original Big Iron machines used punchards.

Finally, laptops are only "dinky" if you have no other options but to use someone else's "dinky" configuration.

Thus the reason why you might want to be free to consider ALL of the available options.

Not enough of the right kinds of ports. No consideration for legacy support.

> Linux can have flakey support for some music files, music players, video, etc ....

Are you on crack? Did you just come in from a 90s wormhole? Linux doesn't have this kind of problem at all anymore. If anything it wipes the floor with the other options and provides the OTHER things with what they need to have decent media support.

If your usage of media is remotely interesting, it's the Mac that will give you problems.

Macs MIGHT have a "usability" advantage in certain very narrowly defined use cases. Beyond that you're on your own on a Mac worse than a 90s version of Slackware.

Of course if the's already bought into the Apple brand then her options are limited. It's that way by design.

That's just an excuse to overlook Apple's obvious limitations.

The point is that with a non-Apple laptop, you don't have to be so limited. HELL, you could even go for something even more exotic like a "lunchbox" style machine. Just about any option you can think of is available in the wider PC market.

There are two proper Linux system vendors you can get laptops from: System76 and ZaReason. See if one of their machines suit out. Both of them have slim and beefy options to choose from.

While it's terrible that there still measles cases out there, they still remain statical NOISE. They are few and far between even when compared to obscure diseases you have never even heard of.

The overall goal of vaccination is still in effect. For the VAST majority of people, anti-vaxxers are IRRELEVANT because pretty much all of the rest of us are vacinated. Those vaccinations don't just innoculate us from the disease but they also innoculate us against the stupidity of the anti-vaxxers.

That's why I see little reason to get so upset about them. The victory of science and common sense with the population at large ensures that this fringe element has little impact.

It's just that the current information age and nature of commercial journalism means that ANY event will be blown way out of proportion.

Really worried about an anti-vaxxer? Make sure you're currents on your shots.

Not "discredit", apply a suitable amount of skepticism.

He's a medicore talent at best in his own chosen field. He is mostly notable for being more business oriented than his rivals and being much more ruthless.

He is by no stretch of the imagination an "expert". He's more of the typical "pointy haired boss" or the PHBs boss.

At best he's a figurehead and real leadership comes from elsewhere.

That's a bit optimistic. Some of them are total schmucks that couldn't find their way out of a wet paper bag. Some of them can't even manage as well as some of the quacks.

I kid you not. The first doc I saw regarding my current condition missed obvious stuff that a genuine quack managed to see.

A lot of people in a similar situation are mired by "professionals" who don't do well enough to understand what's going on even if they do manage to catch the obvious physical symptoms.

Like anything else, Sturgeons law applies. Let the patient beware.

You could be harboring a nasty surprise yourself...

No. We just don't buy the whitewash. It's a really old trick. It's like anything else the guy ever did. He just copies things that other people have already done. He usually does so badly.