I figured that I would buy a copy and load it on an unused computer I have sitting around. You know what, they only sell an OEM version with no support or upgrade. There was no clear info on the various packages to be found. In general they even succeeded in breaking their own web site and curtailing sales that way. Well did you ever finally get a copy you ask? NO!!! I got so pissed at the site and the ridiculous complication of trying to find what I was looking for that I gave up. I will stick with Vista and 7 for now and later migrate to some flavor of Linux. Microsoft is a ship without a rudder, no prop, and hell the engine is even seized as well. Nice job Microsoft, I didn't even have to buy a copy of your OS to be dissuaded. Mike

I am a generally calm and easy going person who cares for all my fellow living creatures, human, animal, and plant, but I rage at the thought of these sick fucks and their message of hate. To be completely honest it would be vary unwise for me to say what I would do if I came face to face with these fucking animals. These are by far the most repugnant scum walking the earth at this time and are in the same class as the taliban. I have one simple question. Why is it that one of these nut jobs that are capable of killing innocent children and adults has not gone after these sick F#@ks and killed them all? I am all for letting people live and let live but these are not people, they are pure hatred and need to be expunged from the face of the planet. Their message is nothing but hate! They shit on the memory and honor of every person that gave their life in the defense of freedom of speech and liberty. Weather you agree with the war or not, the families of the lost solders do not deserve to be shit upon like they are by these people and neither do the families of those lost at the school. These sick fucks lack all human decency and deserve no quarter from anyone that comes in contact with them.

And this has relevance to the fact that the United States of America developed the internet how? That DARPA is a US military think tank that funds a vast array of research, not just military I might add, in myriad fields matters not. The USA still developed the internet largely as we use and enjoy it today. Just because the rest of the world jumped on the band wagon after all the major research and ground work was done does not now give them the right to try and take it over. Control of the internet ultimately falls to a question of state security and you can be damn sure the the US government and military are not going to give the likes of china and russia even further control and penetration into the networks running government, military, and American businesses. It is a fact that china is a major power in electronic espionage. The exercise very tight control of the internet in their country. Sounds just like what I want to see happen here! NOT! Tell you what, about 98% of the sites I frequent and enjoy are US based, how about we cut you off and you can enjoy the net under the UN's stewardship. I'm sure that with the likes of the arab nations and states that are protectors of personal freedom and expression like china, russia and saudi arabia that you will not miss a bit of our network. F flitter away now and remember to thank DARPA in your prayers tonight.

The UN didn't develop the internet, the United States of America's DARPA, research colleges, and major corporations did. The UN doesn't support the vast majority of research and development of future technologies aimed at bettering the internet. Like it or not, the United States of America is one of, if not the most, open societies in the world. Few if any other nations protect free speech to the degree that we do. The internet is open and generally unregulated and that is the way it should, has to, stay this way or we end up like iran or another totalitarian state like north korea. The UN thinks that they have a mandate to regulate everything under the sun, they don't. When they pay for their own version of their very own internet then they can. But until that time, FUCK OFF UNITED NATIONS AND ALL YOU COCK KNOCKERS THAT THINK THEY SHOULD!!!

The wise money would go a couple of steps further. Install nothing more than a plain jane out of the box live Linux CD image. Boot the thing and store/work out of a fast USB thumb drive on which all data is encrypted with the latest and greatest super kick ass encryption and a key that is very strong. You take the USB key with you around your neck. For extra points you could have the OS start the camera and record upon boot as well as screen capture every few seconds to the HDD unless a special key combo is used to shut it down.

Hard to argue with one letter from all of the above. The next killer app, an easy to use seamless end to end encryption tool. I may just encrypt all my BS communication for the fun of knowing that they can't read it but think they should. Think of the countless hours that are going to be wasted by the watchers trying to decrypt shopping list and sexting between married couples. The mind boggles...

There is no place more isolated than the arctic. We have had bases there in the past, one even had a sub reactor to power it. Considering the fact that the environment is very much not in tune with the needs of any escaped pathogens I would say that it is just about the best choice. It would be hard to access and harder to enter. Get down under the rock and you are safe and contained with no vectors of escape of the bugs. It is a far better choice than the bread basket of the USA and allot of the world. Mike

I agree that the American consumer is short sighted when it comes to savings on products that are sourced from over seas. I also don't like tariffs but it is a simple thing to deal with. We apply a blanket tariff to all goods coming from china and use it to supplement rare earth material purchases from china. As they drive up the prices so to do the tariffs rise in lock step. Even better we could have the tariff rise as a square of the artificial amount of increase so by the time they have doubled the prices the tariffs are at four times.

I have to disagree with you on this one. Conscientious and educated consumers are not fooled by this BS they use. I don't buy but maybe a couple of dozen soft drinks a year and those are the original formula cane sugar Coco Cola. I eat fast food from the likes of MD, BK, TB, etc. less than 4 times a year. I drink beer and wine that I like for the taste and not the adverts that push the stuff I don't like. The beer I drink in fact is not even well known here and there have never been advertisements for it. I am going on 47 years old and am still the same weight I filled out to 20 years earlier. When I gained weight I reduced my intake and worked harder. I changed my diet and eat more healthy. We need to simply exclude those that engage in unhealthy actions from the public health care system and put the cost on their own pocket book rather then society. Eat like a PIG, you pay for the heart bypass. Smoke, you pay for the cancer surgery. Why is it that rather than make those that are at fault, the stupid sheeple consumer, we legislate laws that harm those that live a self imposed restrained life?

So tired of hearing about sending doomed people to the red planet. This is an engineering task so vast in scope and financial cost that it is going to have to be multiple countries working together in such a way that they never have, and likely never will, to get and stay there, alive. It is laudable that the likes of Branson and Musk are willing to spend vast sums of investors wealth to try and get there but to what end? To say that they did it? So what! Start on the moon, likely Heinlein was rather accurate about how things could unfold in getting there and possible ways of exchanging materials. It would also be a far more accessible local if something were to go wrong with at least a slim chance of rescue or escape. Energy harvesting the whole solar cycle could also be easier since the cold on the dark side is in the area where super conductors start to work. Communication is far simpler as well and does not require a dish the size of a small city. The delay is shorter too.

Does this mean that our political leaders can now be made to remember their promises and lies to us?

My model M is from 87 too. I bought it new in a box in 96 at a swap meet for only $5.00. It is still the very best KB you can get. Find an old Type M and you will never need another KB. There is a good reason that they cost so much surplus. Mike

It is a bit more involved but it is more than worth it. We only drink Kona or some times Jamaican blue mountain that we grind from whole beans. I have tried all the other methods and non get it like a vacuum brewer. I suspect that there are more esoteric brewing methods but I think this one is the best for the limited effort required.

Hard to argue with evilviper on anything he put up in the above. Here in Albany, NY. we are paying $102.00 a month for 50/5 internet. The fine print is that it is 50/5 on their own network. Their connections to the internet are total crap and not up to the task. Since Verizon refuses to build out our area we are stuck with one some what high speed internet provider. I really hope that the Google build out in KC is successful and that they continue to roll in other markets of the country. I keep saying this but we need fibre to each home from one central location in city where all the providers have to live and compete for their customers. When changing providers is as easy as a change in a routing table then the usury practices of government supported sole providers will end. How we get there is the $64,000.00 question. We cut out cable 5 years ago and don't miss it it all. Funny but I actually get pissed when a commercial comes on now.

Funny but not my case. I am simply voting with my dollar. we could easily afford to have top tier cable or satellite service but the issue is that there is really nothing there save maybe a dozen channels that interest us. We do have time warners top internet package and it is $100 a month but there is no cap and we don't have pay to support QVC and jeezoid channels or suffer through exposure to commercials. To us that is worth far more than the little bit we loose. Mike