Actually, the best backpacks (ones for long-distance hiking) tend to have the weight more on the hips than on the waist. Ideally, the shoulder straps should be relatively loose, and the bulk of the weight transferred down to the hip belt. The purpose for the shoulder straps is to to keep it relatively stable.

All it took was for me to suddenly become more self-confident and unafraid of the bullies, and they sensed it as a dog senses you are not afraid, and they went off in search of easier prey.

Therein lines the truth of the matter. I was picked on in elementary school and early Junior High. Once I realized that looking down and not making eye contact with people was telling them that I was a push-over, I started carrying myself with confidence on the outside and inside. Lo and behold, people started to treat me a lot more friendly, and I was able to make a lot more friends in school.

Most bullies are manipulators, and they know how the system works. They will attempt to provoke you in a way that can make their assault seem like they are the ones defending themselves.

Oh so true. I was in 9th grade in a Social Studies class. I was going to my desk when a kid pushed me (deliberately) and tried to pick a fight with me. He wanted me to try and take the first swing at him. I calmly stood up, took off my glasses and crossed my arms over my chest, and replied "I'm not that stupid". Ended up in a sort of a Mexican standoff where I wasn't going to be bullied into swinging at him, and he couldn't back down because he picked the fight. The teacher told me to sit down, and I replied to her that I wasn't the one who started it. She told both of us to stop it and sit down - and at that point he did a quick jab to my face.

I ended up going to the Nurse's office to treat a black eye. He ended up getting suspended and transferred to a relatively poor school along with his brother (who also came by a few days later to threaten me). I found out later that both he and his brother were Golden Glove champions of my city, and if I had been so stupid as to try to hit him first, I would have been plastered.

Remember the good old days when the networks would choose what you could watch, and when? :P

Netflix + MythTv handles 80-90% of my viewing these days.

I guess you're pretty safe from viruses then, as long as you don't load anything from a cassette tape of unknown origin.

I think most people don't notice or care about the speed or plugins. Obnoxiousness, yes, but security is the big point. Either they or their friends have gotten a driveby that pwned them (probably because they were running under an admin account). They hear on the news or from friends that IE is the cause, and they leave it for FF or Opera. In other words, MS's favorite tactic -- Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt -- is working against IE.

I don't get this "It's ok to lie about Microsoft because they suck" attitude. Stating the truth isn't "Defending and making excuses", it's being.. you know.. truthful.. and not exagerating to make a company that is already bad look worse for the sake of what? I don't really know why you feel the need to embellish and exagerate, and spew insults at people that don't do the same.

Is it too much to simply be truthful? The truth is bad enough.

It is just a matter of time for Microsoft's browser monopoly. However, it would have been better when the public sector had intervened earlier to make a difference. Why didn't the government invest in browser diversity?

So you are not allowed to know that law that you will be judged by?? Don't forget ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it!!

Sounds scaring!

No. XKCD is funny, witty and doesn't care if it loses the mainstream audience by being overly geeky. TBBT is the exact opposite.

> If you've only seen hardware issues it is only because you're a newb.

Fair enough, as I said I started with Ubuntu 6 or 7. Or maybe, because I'm just a normal desktop user who like that his system just works and don't get in my way like WindowsXP does it all the time.

You need to charge the insurance company at least five to six times the full retail price or it's not a "real" medical device.

Yes but it is good to see that for the first time since IE4-6, Microsoft will release a competitive browser. It is interesting what IE9 is doing with hardware acceleration, and hopefully it will inspire other browsers to improve which is good for everyone. If the browsers end up being almost complete operating systems, like the Chrome OS, they needs to be much faster than today.

apparently you missed the fact that AMD got its name selling 386dx-40s for teh cheep when Intel was rolling out its 486s for >$2,000. The 386dx-40s outperformed everything but the 486dx-50 and higher.