Wow, so Slashdot is trying to be snarky like Fark these days. It's kind of like that one kids dad who picks him up at school wearing baggy pants and a hoodie. It not only doesn't work, it's embarrassing for those who have to see it.

Actually, their enterprise class stuff is outstanding. I don't use any of their "home user" level stuff, but for my money, McAfee beats the pants off of other high-end offerings. Their IDS, mail filtering, etc. (much of it acquired over the years) is outstanding product.

I'm a Charter cable customer in the St. Louis area. As many probably know, Charter recently filed bankruptcy recently. I have read rumors that Charter is preparing a similar move to what is described by the OP, though I have options. ATT recently established decent service where I'm at ($30/mo buys me 3Mb DSL vs $46/mo for my current 6Mb cable) and to my knowledge has no monthly transfer limits. Given that we use our connection for a LOT of Netflix streaming, this is important to me. There are some decent options in St. Louis between ATT and a few others, so I hope that Charter doesn't get stupid with their pricing. I've been pleased with their service thus far, but I would drop them immediately if they start capping.

He discovered her identity fair and square. Would you propose that one must pretend not to know who someone behind a publication is based on some arbitrary set of circumstances. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" and whatnot.

...but couldn't they just make them searchable via Google? Why reinvent the wheel?

The approach is simple: Any time you have a problem watching a Netflix Instant View movie, contrive a grand and complex reason as to how Netflix is secretly (insert devious deed here) your (insert desired activity here). Sprinkle it with important sounding numbers, straw men and kittens and your done.

Even thinking that this is reasonable is amazingly foolish. If you are concerned that Internet snooping is a problem, then the solution isn't to demand that it not take place. The solution is to nullify it. You can only be assured that it won't happen if it cannot (technically) reasonably happen.

I am not being glib, but based on your question you lack a fundamental understanding of *nix computing environments and as such it is probably unwise of you to migrate. The basic premise in the *nix world divests the environment from the desktop hardware. The box on/under your desk is nothing more than an engine which will run anything you throw at it (within reason of course). The idea that your physical computer maintains anything in terms of your desktop environment, settings, policies, etc. is flawed. Just where this is maintained is entirely up to you and to the extent that you can, it should be centralized. While you'll get several opinions as to the most prudent way to accomplish this, none of them, if done properly, should in any way mimic a Windows AD environment. What Windows has in terms of AD, SMS/SCCM and the like is an artifact of a poorly designed network computing environment from the get-go. I speak from experience having the SMS/SCCM division of a very large entity (30K+ desktops and servers) under my organizational purview. Interestingly, the *nix platforms are left alone to be all but self-managed because the entire organization knows only how to manage Windows hosts. *nix (not part of my responsibility) seem to be an enigma to most. The nix sysadmins are happy to be misunderstood in this case as they are well aware that if management gets involved, they'll try to manage in the same way as Windows hosts.

I second that. N810. Hands down. Next.

Caveat: I'm a staunch conservative. Thoughts: Is it acceptable if my logging and retention is at the same level of reliability as the Bush administration? If I secure my WiFi, can I assume that there is no service provided and therefor no retention or logging needed, or is this in fact a requirement to self-monitor and self-incriminate should something 'happen'? If I do choose to monitor and keep logs (which I do, 365 days worth on my IPCop box), should I now assume that the Fed stakes their claim to rights to my historical logs? I have an answer to all of this: Kiss my butt. Everyone, conservative, liberal, moderate, whatever, needs to collectively stand up and tell the government not only to kiss off, but go home. Replace every last one of these morons from Obama and Bush's administrations and everyone in between. Clean house. I WILL NOT under any circumstances provide my log files. Period. Feel free to jail me.

I'm not a Boxee user, but I happily watch Hulu content on my Mac, via Front Row no less, using the Understudy plug-in. It works perfectly well, and gives me Mac remote access to my playlists and the updated RSS streams for my favorite shows. Works great with Netflix too. Boxee? Meh.

...I've always asked those I know who are FB'ers; why? I can see the curiosity factor in looking for people that you know who have put their lives on Facebook for the viewing pleasure (i.e. to get laughed at) of others, but what in God's name goes through a person's mind when they rationalize this being a good idea? We are a very mixed up society where we'll scream bloody murder about our privacy rights being violated only to turn right around and willfully divulge our entire lives on FB and sites like it. I firmly believe that it's only a matter of time until someone writes a FB plug-in for the new Google Maps mobile locator function so that your FB 'friends' can know where you're at every minute of the day. The human condition is apparently hell-bent on suicide.

Might I add, that's 7713.176 of the original Knight Rider series. So that's like 20GB of regular TV viewing when adjusted for cheese-factor.

Not true. We watch several Netflix On Demand per day between my wife, kids and I. My daily average is 1.34GB as measured by Net-traffic. My highest ever was yesterday because both kids and wife were home sick and watched Netflix the entire day non-stop. Total for the 24hr period was 7713.176. Net-traffic is running on my IPCop box through which 100% of Internet bound traffic passes.

Netflix (and every other source that provides competition to Charter or Comcast or whomever). If not for Netflix and Hulu, my usage would be minimal. I do not have cable or satellite TV (or OTA for that matter). I pay charter for Internet only service, and I pay a premium because I only want Internet. Now I am going to pay another premium to actually make full use of that Internet. Perhaps Charter will start capping ports as well. "Ports 1 - 80 are free. With our Super Ports Family Pack, you get 81 - 443 for an additional $50 per month."