Maybe they should have thought about an alliance *before* the NSA came knocking at their door...

Yes. We also had tablets before the iPad, they were also "PCs". The gamechanging aspect in both situations is to pack the hardware in a conveninent, atractive and easy package to gain traction. Before the iPad, nobody would give a damn about the "PC tablets". Now everyone wants a cut of a market that was pratically non-existing.
In the present case with the SteamBox and SteamOS, we have both an OS custom tailored to be used with Steam, and a (predictable) large number of hardware alternatives to use that OS, and the Steam service. Instead of jumping the hops to build a "living room PC", lots of people will apreciate the convenience. This might indeed be a gamechanger.

No, no, no! Preemptive strikes are only used against enemies that can't retaliate and that hold valuable goods inside their boundaries.

Oh, no, scratch that, I meant enemies that have "OMD" (real or otherwise)...

It is not very clear yet if NK is a real threat or not (perhaps when they actually fire something at someone, somebody might think about doing a "pre-emptiy")...

My ex-boss had to deal with this problem. Short version: power issues are potentially worse to SSD than to hard disks.
I got an SSD one and half year ago, for my home desktop rig, and "teased" my then-boss into getting one for his work laptop.
My SSD is up and running nicelly (with stable current, very rare power outs), always shutdown, no hibernates or something like that.
My ex-boss had to RMA 3 or 4 diferent SSDs, because he uses hibernate on his laptop and a couple of times after resuming, the SSD simply "reverted" to a previous "disc state". For example, after installing Windows 7, and the software and data, the SSD would "reset" back to the point right after installing Windows. Also, one of the times he completely formatted the SSD and after a reboot, it went back to the time it had Windows and everything else! Really odd and freakish, and usually an hibernate or even a normal shutdown was done before the SSD broke / bricked / froze...
The laptop was not very recent (was probably 2 or 3 years old by the time he got the SSD), so some SATA driver issue combined with different power requirements or improvement over those years might explain such an unlucky streak...
My SSD is still running nice and good, my ex-boss meanwhile replaced his laptop and SSD.

... to see some countries still stuck in the "cold war" mindset. Worse, to see some countries trapped in the "middle ages" mindset...

Just abstracting a bit from the age factor (as I believe some other "comenteers" will address that in much competent ways than I), I would advice you to get your hands on virtualization. It's starting to become ubiquitous in all sorts of companies (big and small) and there is much to be done in terms of management, best practices, designing, troubleshooting, etc.
Your "outside" view on IT can be a good thing, as sometimes the skewed view on this-or-that-operating-system can hinder a bit the work on virtualization. Besides, as anything related to infrastructures (both IT and non-IT), it looks easy to do, but it's hard to master.
With IT, as you might know, the constant wish to learn and evolve is a must. As long as you have it in you, and you keep it during your (hopefully) successful career, you will be fine :)
Good luck!

You have a choice: do your business somewhere else. That's part of the "free market" you talk about. The freedom to do business with whoever you choose. Nobody is forcing you to buy with Amazon. Just "vote with your wallet". You are part of the free market too.

I used to have a 4-year upgrade cycle on my gaming desktop. Last time I've upgraded it was in 2008, with a Core 2 Duo E8400 and mid range GPU (6600GTS).

However, things have changed a bit, and I'm not planing on upgrading my whole system for the near future. I've bought a 128GB SSD a year or so ago, and this was amazing for the overall performance of the system, but as my games are not installed on the SSD itself, it didn't do much for them.

So I'm considering a new GPU, in the 200 € range, to improve my gaming experience, but without breaking the bank... Any ideas? :)

Any word on having the Half Life / Portal / Left 4 Dead games working on Linux? These are part of my "must have installed" games, that I go back to from time to time, so I'll need them working on Linux as well, thank you :)

Humm from my experience with some laptops, usually its not a good idea to have a screen directly over keys (or buttons). I've seen a couple of screens with "marks" from the keys, although this might be due to the quality or age of the laptops in question... Perhaps the SHIELD has the buttons below the level of the screen when closed?
I'm nitpicking, I know, but that was the first thing that crossed my mind while looking at the pictures :)

One word: DRM. I bet that some sort of validation was date-dependent and with the year rollover, it got wrecked :)

Just my two euro-cents :)

ahahah nice! :D damn me and my awesome bilingual capabilities! xD

Anyways, yeah, you will definitely be amazed at the difference an SSD will make :)

Agree! Currently I'm using a Corsair F120 for my SO and main games and apps. The rest of my stuff goes to normal, run of the mill HDD. This SSD was probably the most effective upgrade I've ever done, both in terms of value for money (payed around 120 € more than a year ago) as well as pure performance. I think that having a main SSD drive (a 120 GB one will be enough for having the SO + some stuff), along with one or more additional standard HDD should be next "unofficial" mandatory config any new computer nowadays.

Just my 2 cents, but shouldn't the ILC be built on an area with a reduced earthquake risk?