I'm impressed they were able to identify all 4 urban tribes in America and Europe! That's usually a job for anthropologists, and not all of them get it right either.

The rainy, drizzly weather here is bad enough, but what most visitors don't realize is that the days from Halloween through the equinox in March are just long DARK days... in addition to grey. We're above the 47th parallel, and we go to work in the dark, and come home in the dark all winter long. If you are out in the "daytime", the clouds minimize the sunlight. Months of this wear on the soul and drive the depression rates in people not habituated or born into this environment. There's a reason the Aurora Bridge was the 2nd most jumped-off bridge in the country (until they constructed the anti-suicide fence two years ago). Sunny SoCal? Good luck, friend. As to getting an interview: I work at a mid-sized, well-funded non-profit here and we find that it's hard to even *find* good tech people, because they get snapped up by even higher-paying large corpos. We're no slouch outfit, but the good candidates usually have a few other interviews lined up already with Aerospace, MS, Amazon, Isilon, any of the biomed facilities, or biomed startups. Also, Amazon chews through it's tech force rapidly, so ex-Amazonians are constantly re-flooding the market. Lasting 3 years there makes you an 'old timer'. I'm not kidding. It's a tough market here on both sides of the fence. Lower your standards, or raise your skillset. Try getting picked up by Robert Half International, the recruiting/staffing-services group. If they like your resume, skills, ethics and story, they will take you on and "present" you to their list of qualified clients. No cost to you; their corporate clients fund them. If you can't get in with Robert Half, ask them for advice. You may need to do more work to flesh out your experience.

Great suggestions. -- I personally love bicycling to work, and I don't like gyms at all. (except for the eye-candy, fortunately I pass by one every day ;) -- Always taking the stairs especially in a 4+ story building helps. -- If you commute by transit, get off a stop before or after yours and walk the rest of the way. -- If you have a private office, stop and do 20 PUSHUPS five times a day at random times (whenever you need a break), --adding muscle speeds up the metabolism--, then take a quick walk around the office. My coworker has lost 30 lbs doing that, plus: -- He also changed his eating patterns to eat mostly plants -- staying away from grains and meat whenever he could. Made a HUGE difference. -- Drink more water, water helps the metabolism as well as digestion. Green tea is beneficial in similar ways, plus helps reduce the chance of alzheimers... But ultimately, you'll only do it if you have arrived in that place where you feel you truly have no choice but to do it. good luck.

And remember, we are talking about the YELLOW PAGES here... pure advertising and commercial numbers. Not the classic and --imho-- far more useful WHITE PAGES. They have won the right to ensure a captive audience for advertising. Fuck. Them.

I wonder if we'll be able to make Fire Logs out of all the freaking Yellow Pages books we'll be inundated with.

Regardless, cutting welfare is the most appropriate way to balance the budget.

*they're* in a real plane... gah!

That's why the US military has been training their recruits on video game simulations of bomb dropping runs. Once their in a real plane, jacked on amphetamines, dropping bombs via video screen is just like a video game... easy peasy.

Buy Spam stock now.

"Give my people plenty of beer, good beer and cheap beer, and you will have no revolution among them" - Queen Victoria

While clearly not an anti-malware program.... run Firefox with No-Script and let it block all links on any given webpage, with you allowing or temporarily allowing specific sites on an as-needed basis. This should prevent cross-site scripting attacks. Free, easy to manage, etc. But yes, you also want MSE or another active anti-malware program in addition to this.

All these microscopic patents on tiny "innovations" are preventing the positive evolution of excellent devices. Our devices should be getting better (easier to use, more capable, etc) by using the earlier innovations that truly work better. Yet these copyright battles force companies to create clunky workarounds... Windows GUI is a great example. Why can't we find a way to credit the creator, and still make the best and widespread use of the innovation? Gaah!

"Amidst the confusion of the traditional attack, communications could be disrupted, false declarations of war could be issued on both sides, and early warning sensors could be spoofed." -- Shades of the Panther Moderns, only far more catastrophic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer