I can see the HQ from my kitchen table. I can order some things and get them delivered the SAME day.

Starbucks, Costco, Adobe and Micro$oft are also locals.

  My web server is in Germany :)

A+ is useless except for getting past those clueless 25 year old HR drones.

I quit my favorite mmo years ago when MS bought it and required a "passport" login. I have refused to create a "live" account or a hotmail account or a windows account of any kind since I live in Seattle and know some of the jerkoffs that have access to that account info.

I will buy one and refuse to register it just like I have since the days of dos 3.

But I suspect win8 will continue the pattern of hiding useful menus and dialog boxes under more and more layers of what I consider obfuscated crap eye candy. My primary goal when using a computer is to get it back to functioning normally or at least how the client thinks is normally.

Each iteration of windows has placed more and more "purty" screens in front of the administrative tools and log files I usually need to fix something.

I will buy Win8 next week but mainly because I need to find where they have hidden the useful stuff before people start to bring the broken/mis-configured/AIO-printer install from hell, POS systems to me to fix or at least save their data/mail file from the only cost effective method of repair left open to the end user ie: (nuke it from orbit and reload)

I saw this demoed by the 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg on the mid 60's at the "Gabriel Demonstration" area (Dedicated to an early SFG member captured and killed in 1962 in VN) They used a dummy and I think a c-130

History of the 5th SFG and SP5 Gabrial: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=77533

Gen. Michael Hayden refused to answer question about spying on political enemies at National Press Club. At a public appearance, Bush's pointman in the Office of National Intelligence was asked if the NSA was wiretapping Bush's political enemies. When Hayden dodged the question, the questioner repeated, "No, I asked, are you targeting us and people who politically oppose the Bush government, the Bush administration? Not a fishing net, but are you targeting specifically political opponents of the Bush administration?" Hayden looked at the questioner, and after a silence called on a different questioner. (Hayden National Press Club remarks, 1/23/06)

---
Landay: "...the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution specifies that you must have probable cause to violate an American's right against unreasonable searches and seizures..."

Gen. Hayden: "No, actually - the Fourth Amendment actually protects all of us against unreasonable search and seizure."

Landay: "But the --"

Gen. Hayden: "That's what it says."

Landay: "The legal measure is probable cause, it says."

Gen. Hayden: "The Amendment says: unreasonable search and seizure."

Landay: "But does it not say 'probable cause'?"

Gen. Hayden [exasperated, scowling]: "No! The Amendment says unreasonable search and seizure."

Landay: "The legal standard is probable cause, General -- "

Gen. Hayden [indignant]: "Just to be very clear ... mmkay... and believe me, if there's any Amendment to the Constitution that employees of the National Security Agency are familiar with, it's the Fourth. Alright? And it is a reasonableness standard in the Fourth Amendment. The constitutional standard is 'reasonable'" ( h/t Dale)
-- Knight-Ridder's Jonathan Landay questioned Gen. Michael Hayden at the National Press Club in January.

----
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

" Statutes authorizing unreasonable searches were the core concern of the framers of the 4th Amendment."

    "It is a measure of the framers' fear that a passing majority might find it expedient to compromise 4th Amendment values that these values were embodied in the Constitution itself."

    --- Justice Sandra Day O'Conner, the first woman on the Supreme Court of the United States of America. 1981-2005 (resigned)

I unblock a few sites I love but even there I will ignore the ads.
  Even if I receive a targeted ad via email or banner, I will go out of my way to buy it from somewhere else.
I always mistrusted marketers, but after spending 7 years supporting them as a tech, I now actively hate them all and hope more people figure out ways to make them suffer from their own lies, half-truths and misdirection.

I even searched the site for "Performance Starter" and got nothing useful. I have not had comcast in 8 years but the web site still implies I am a current customer...

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0022572

There are no conclusions but there are patent apps everywhere in the name of the main author Todd H Rider who is no slouch as a researcher.
If it proves out it could lead to social upheaval if Sci-fi proportions far beyond cheesy movie fearmongering :)

The judge is related to Pat Bucannon and apparently even crazier.

http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/when-war-breaks-out-its-other-peoples-blood-being-spilled/Content?oid=1188929

I am retired/disabled. I have 20 years experience fixing computers and networks.

I fix computers for free for anyone who is on public assistance or on a tight budget from being under employed. Anyone else can donate cash or defunct hardware or to a charity if they are fully employed.

I do it for fun. I miss the puzzles, and most of the computer users out there can no more clean up after a malware infection than they can remove their own tonsils.

Sure the tedious reloading and scanning is not as much fun as chasing down malfunctioning drivers and polymorphic trojans and rootkits but i get the bizarre puzzles the commercial shops can't invest the time to find and fix.

I have always done computer (and appliance, auto and electronic) repair because I love it. I hope some of you get as much enjoyment out of it as I do. Of course I still curse Bill Gates regularly as well as Steve Jobs (whenever I have to completely disassemble a mac laptop to replace the hard drive) but that (and knowing just how brilliant, demented and out of touch some programmers are) is part of the legacy of the industry. (Win 7 still crashes the copy command when it hits a too long filename)

An artist gotta paint even as he starves. I am grateful people bring their PC's to me to play with because ultimately, I win in the exchange.

Can already outlive their creators.

#dead

Now how to make a profit out of it for those of us still temporarily alive...

I have built data centers beginning in the days when 10 meg hubs were current state of the art. The only pre-made cable I have ever used were recent patch panel cables in a customers closet and I have made thousands of them while waiting for the emergency phone to ring or the Cisco courier to show up.

While it is possible to screw up cables and even graybar will happily deliver the wrong connectors in bags of 1000, there are basic testers and most current home office routers will do electrical length and throughput testing while you yank on the crimp.

There are thousands of miles of my cables and fiber splices passing these bits in this message right now. (My ISP is a former employer)

Your boss is a fool but don't think that is something new in the business.