Glad to see it back. I loved having DSL on a USB. I've been using Arch for that lately, but I have trouble remembering how to get it setup after long periods without using it. Hopefully this will also work on my old EEE PC netbook. I'm using Arch and E there too, but never did get around to making it autosense wifi and that sort of thing. As I recall DSL did that very well out of the box.

That makes it at least somewhat interesting.

I haven't received my Nexus 7 yet, but it surprises me that it's poorly packaged. My original ASUS eee had a box so nice (a very Apple-like white box with lid inside a slide-off sleeve) I mounted it on the wall and turned it into a cabinet.

One other player that the summary didn't mention is Amazon. Their packaging for Kindle is awesome.

For me the packaging says something about the thought that went into the product from the very top down. Sushi wouldn't be nearly as much fun if it were just slopped on a plate with an ice cream scoop.

"Can a horse drive a car?" Still a fun chatbot though.
Also failed on, "Could you restate my last question in your own words?"

Those are going to continue to be tough for a chatbot for awhile longer, world knowledge and conversation context.

I take your question to mean that you want to program but aren't allowed to add anything to your work machine, including binary files that don't require an installer to run. That's typically how I've seen that sort of rule interpreted.

You mentioned an interest in HTML/CSS and presumably javascript.

You might enjoy JSFiddle

If you would like to try other languages or other approaches, there are online IDEs for that too:

ShiftEdit - Online IDE | ShiftEdit
ECCO -Web-based IDE
Cloud IDE
WIODE
CodeRun
Cloud9 IDE
http://www.codeanywhere.net

And some more lists and reviews:
http://speckyboy.com/2010/07/25/the-most-powerful-and-feature-rich-web-based-code-editors-ides/

Another option would be to look at some of the free shell account vendors online, but you seemed mostly interested in GUI IDEs so that might not be your thing.

If you want a fun, short read about why you might want to reconsider the command line, check out In the Beginning Was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson

They can have my linked-in hash. Based on a similar pattern is should take 11945132084526 centuries to crack according to passfault.

For the lame systems that insist on bad passwords, I just generate something random in keepassX

I bought a treadmill that was designed to handle running slowly all day long and which has a low profile to slide under my engineering workstation.

I run it at about 1.5 mph all day long and it's very easy to type at that speed after a few days of acclimation.
I imagine a job with quite a bit of mouse work would be a little more difficult, but my trackpad/wrist rest works fine.

It's much easier on my body walking all day as opposed to sitting or standing. The first week I wore my usual hiking boots and was in alot of pain, but switching to good running shoes that fit made all the difference.

My whole setup is:
An Anthro cart.
A Treaddesk treadmill.
A unicomp M4 keyboard.
An IOne Libra 35-T wristpad trackpad.
And Asics GT-2170 shoes.

Works great for me.

Oops. I knew better.

On the other hand it would be cool to be able to loose users like trained attack monkeys.

We have a small (tiny) startup with a local community membership, and I'm the sole developer. Members are able to edit their own content. After a couple of rounds of broken IE (even 9) and the hassle of even keeping a Windows test platform usable we dropped IE support for members in favor of Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Safari. So far, no members have complained and we've been able to turn back on features that just didn't work in IE and will soon have removed every special case in the CSS and javascript. Frankly if we are loosing some hypothetical customers who insist on IE, we're better off without them.

Visitors to the site can still use IE, but we'll be working to discourage even that in our small part of the world.

We also support some of our members who are less computer savvy and for the last couple of years when we get a request for help with their local machines, we suggest switching to Linux. So far we've had close to 100% success, with users being really impressed with the live Ubuntu CD demo and having very few questions or issues after switching over. Months later we still hear about how much better their experience has been. I've heard several variations on "I thought I was stupid and didn't understand computers, but this is just easy."

And then Unity came along.... I'll save the rant for another post, but I'm really worried that this is not just annoying for experienced users, but after trying to show people how to use it, it's a real step backward for new users too.

is advertising. Perfect persuasion trumps everything else.

Step 2 == "Infiltrate Washington Post"

Long Answer: Reword you request and the risk becomes a little clearer. "I'm starting a new job soon, and I will be issued equipment which I have agreed not to use for personal use. I am compelled to use it for personal use anyway. How can I do that." You have to first weight the cost and the benefit. Is surfing the web worth losing your new job?

On the other hand, screw Greyface, here's how you do it. Don't try any of the approaches you've mentioned. If they have tracking software installed they may have software keyloggers and remote desktops as well. They MAY have hardware keyloggers. They probably don't, but that's the risk you're taking.

Get an live Linux distro you can boot off of USB, one that allows you to store stuff back to the USB stick. Damn Small Linux is a good one. Do your personal stuff EXCLUSIVELY when booted to the stick. That's about the best you can do. Best of luck. May the Source be with you.

I wish I had mod points. That was awesome.

That's an excellent argument. I suggest we extend the metric to include a modifier for metaphorical purity and measure a man by how many books he has read *while* drinking a beer.

Think of it as the Beer Principle.

Book you have already read are less valuable because at least some of their contents are now in your head. They are empty beer cans.
Unread books contain untapped beer, um, knowledge.