are you running there ? .. There are very few positions in most businesses where Internet access is required to perform your job.. This is why I have always thought that web based apps and cloud computing are going to cause more problems than it solves.. Now you have to play babysitter. If you can't trust employees to do the right thing with access it's best that they not have it at all.

in relation to beer.. What is this "can" thing you speak of ?

Really ?.. That's not 79,000 applications for Windows.. That's many vendors selling a lot of the same stuff.. Your post has not convinced me to give up Linux at all.. My numbers are more important than your delusions of grandeur .. Full time Linux user since 2001 = 10 years.. Virus infections = 0 .. Malware = 0.. Time spent reinstalling to fix a corrupted system = 0 .... I have never had a corrupted registry.. I have never had my web browser get borked to the point where I had to "reset it".. I have never had a "missing dll" error on rebooting my system... So you can keep your superior OS, I wouldn't switch to it if it was free.

I liked Fringe too.. but really, the Pandora/Big Bang story was great stuff..

The union world is just as real as the non union.. Here's the thing you forget.. being part of the union, you are required to have that health insurance.. With the higher numbers of employees insured, it becomes a bargaining chip to negotiate with insurance companies (they are very desired customers)... What you and many other non union workers don't understand, is that this benefit is part of the agreement between employees of a union and the employer.. Medical insurance is a cost of doing business, just like any other cost of doing business.. if your power bill increases, you don't tell your employees that they have to share in that increase.. just as an employee when your food bills or gasoline bills are increased you don't tell the employer that they need to share in your increases.. Your salary comment is also narrow minded.. even in unions there are numerous ways you can be compensated. There a fixed salaries, hourly employees, and numerous performance incentives.. Unions are not anti-employer, they want the company to succeed just as much as the CEO does.. You don't see CEO's reducing their salaries to union wages with the same benefits as their employees, and then saying.. well I guess next year I am going to be taking another $100 out of my pocket.. Because they want the same thing the employees do, to just do their job and get paid and let the cost of doing business be whatever it is, and let the business sell their product at a profit beyond that... This whole idea of using employees and their benefits as a cost cutting measure is part of what's wrong with the economy.. it's part of what caused so many millions to be unemployed.. rather than raise prices to make a profit percentage and keep people working and buying goods.. with some inflation, they laid off workers and created debt for the country.. and screwed themselves out of potential customers, and made the economy a self prophesying disaster.. The whole deal with these companies.. Was that we would reduce their taxes, they would keep people employed, and the employed people would pay taxes making up for the reduced tax.. Instead, they have screwed the employees, taken the tax breaks, and now support the candidates who want to keep this viscous "let them eat cake" cycle going..

"Google does dictate the terms by which people run advertisements in a non-negotiable way."
All advertising companies dictate what can, and cannot be done with the media they use to advertise.. Just because it's the Wild Wild Web, doesn't mean that it's a free for all and anything goes.. companies who have done that.. well they are not doing as well as Google.. Googles way is working.

"Google does not have the sole product in the market, but advertisers are not free to use alternatives due to a lack of customer base by the alternatives."
Other companies provide advertising.. They do it their way, Google does it theirs.. that they are not as successful is not Googles fault.. There is no monopoly in providing services that people want to buy.. There are alternatives.

"Google does not have the sole product in the market, but advertisers are not free to use alternatives due to a lack of customer base by the alternatives"
This doesn't make sense.. The customer base, is the same for all the competition.. The competitors have every freedom to go after customers (that's the people who advertise) that Google does.. and they have as much access to media to distribute their ads as Google does.

I'm not sure that applying a background color to a menu that was already there is bloat.. I think many people have ignored the menu.. So now all of a sudden, it's what's this ? change.. oh no.. I've use the "shopping". "maps", and "images" items for I don't know how long.. the others.. not so much.. but really nothing significant has changed at the main page.. doom and gloom it's not.

I've never really understood the whole fixation of making everything a web app.. When they work, everything is dandy.. but every single one I have used.. (and I use about a dozen of them on a daily basis) let's me down every now and then... what's sad is many of them don't need to be served up by the web, a local copy on my machine would do the job.. I don't think it's necessarily a bad coding issue with us.. but just the whole combination of IE and webservers, and databases, and throwing in java here and there to boot, you just have too many points of failure.

The problem is that IE9, and now Firefox, have copied too much of the Chrome interface.. Now there is nothing wrong with the Chrome interface except that it is hard for many people to figure out how to do things they are used to doing... People who upgrade from IE8 to IE9 are often lost.. It is also a pain in the ass for support people, that most of the new browsers seem to search instead of go to a URL that is typed in an address bar.. From a support point of view, I would much rather that it just error out as page not found..(at least then I know it was typed wrong, and don't have to guess which search result might get us where we need to go).. For searches use a separate search bar like it was for years... I realize these are nitpicks, but if the mass majority were not such lame brains and had a least a little understanding of what the heck they are doing, then it would be no problem.. but they don't.

I think more people knock than ring doorbells, even when they are available.. UPS has over the years gotten bad about just dumping the package on the porch.. I think most do attempt a knock (or ring), but they are trying to get on to the next address so they are not going to wait too long before they just leave it.. If you are really concerned and unable to be there to make sure you get you package, Fed Ex has a hold for pickup and you can get your package at the nearest office.

Computer repair.. that ain't workin..
It's a shame that there are so many unscrupulous repair men, ripping people off... Most PC repairs are simple, and require very little knowledge, that can usually be obtained with a few Google searches.. for those that can't grasp lefty loosey, righty tighty, well then bite the bullet and either find a geeky friend you trust, or take it to the big chain stores.. (pay for your lameness).. As to software problems, learn the basic "back up things important to you",and realize that a reinstall is the simplest, and often the best solution..

Here's how to do it without..
on Win 7.. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19494-firefox-3-5-1-download-without-browser.html
on XP & Vista.. http://www.ronsilvoza.com/download-firefox-without-a-web-browser/

If you have ever had a working Internet connection, but a borked up IE that won't repair.. It's kind of like having a full pack of cigs with no lighter or matches.

Nobody is forcing anybody to upgrade are they ?... Time will pass, improvements will be made, bugs squashed, usability improved.. etc.. etc.. and eventually there will either be something you can use.. or something else will develop.. I really didn't care much for Gnome 2 at first, and preferred XFCE over it for a looong time.. it's only recently that I now spend more time using it than XFCE.. This is Linux man.. do what you want.. even if it's not upgrading.

You won't like this.. The war on drugs is a failure because we have not been tough enough.. People should be genuinely scared to cook up, sell or have Meth in their possession.. they are not.. Same with heroine and cocaine, People are MORE AFRAID of drinking and driving.. Sad thing is we can't even follow through on capital punishment for convicted murderers, I can imagine what it would be like if we hung dealers like they do in some countries.. yeah that's where I am at.. war over.. or the lesser punishment of loss of citizenship and deportation to whatever country will take them.. maybe that would be a good thing, to create this "utopia country" of drug dealers and users who can live free.. Your comments on pot, show what I was talking about.. pot was already legalized, but that's not good enough, or freedom enough, and requires too much responsibility.. Your words about creating tax revenue contradict what you really want, which is to get pot wherever you can without controls, which will still come from illegal sources.

Drugs are not outlawed.. they are lawed.. There is legal and illegal drug trade.. and actually there is a need for controlling it.. Besides keeping people who have no self control in check, there are safety concerns.. the "illegal" trade already comes up with concoctions that have things like battery acid and all sorts of other things that are unpleasant and deadly.. The legalized pot industry has already shown what a joke it would be.. The number of people with "prescriptions" that actually have something wrong with them that would benefit from pot is a minuscule number of the overall prescriptions written.. People without real pain, who take pain killers are drug abusers (and pussies).. people who use pot without a legitimate need, are also drug abusers they just can't accept it.