Seeing as how I ride the curve being in the industry I'm happy that I finally have a board that will go long than 18 months. Well, at least hopefully. The X58 chipset is supposed to have quite a lifespan so my motherboard shouldn't go anywhere for a while. Here's hoping!

Sonos = cheese when you factor in cost, flexibility, freedom. Squeezecenter runs on Windows, Mac, Linux. Web interface. Internet radio. Quite affordable. Very flexible. They're so damn good that most people don't own just one. I have four at home and two at work. One is the BoomBox which is perfect for the kitchen or other small rooms. The newest models have touchscreens which I'd love to get my hands on (literally too!!). You can keep a setup small and the sound big when you pair a Squeezebox with a T-amp and a nice set of bookshelf speakers. You could buy a unit with a speaker built in. You can even get a unit without a display and a pretty remote.

And flexibility in Squeezecenter is unmatched! You can stream FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, AAC, or darn near anything else and choose what to transcode and where to do it, server or client side!

Seriously, Sonos can even come close?

Kid? Get out of your mother's basement would you. I work in the PC industry. My own rig runs Sabayon but has run Gentoo and Arch perfectly well over the years as well. I've bought a number of commercial games for Linux and run a few under WINE. UT2003, 2004, ETQW, X-Plane, Descent 3, to name a few and plenty of free games to boot. I don't run Compiz or any other silly eye candy outside of E17. I like my computer FAST.

My rig is anything but run of the mill. It certainly isn't cream of the crop but it isn't a slouch either. FWIW: Intel DX58SO motherboard, Core i7 940, 6GB DDR3, Nvidia GTS250, 80GB Intel SSD, 146GB 10K Raptor, assorted other drives, DVDRW. And sound? Yeah, most Audigy cards work just fine. Pair with the Klipsch speakers on my desk they sound even better. Oh, and no working installation of Windows outside of Virtualbox.

Am I the only one here wanting that? Seriously!! It's not like linux doesn't run great on high end hardware or anything. So, don't worry about the poor little consoles for a moment and PORT to Linux!!

What? Not fans of the aquarium? The Boston Aquarium rocks eh! So, don't skip it if you're in the great Northeast!! While you're at it, take some downtime and drive up the coast of Maine and spend a day or two in Bar Harbor leaving all the science and tech behind for a moment.
Seriously, highly recommended!!

Seriously, they took a stand microATX case, stuffed in regular desktop components, installed Ubuntu, and said "it's for hobbyists and hackers"? Wow. Gee. Amazing. NOT!!! Why not pick a slicker 17" wide case that matches existing AV components and work with a mini ITX Nivida ION based platform? At least then it would seem to be more than a computer. Throw in XBMC or Boxee if you don't want to deal with setting up MythTV and call it a day.

I'd probably use it more frequenty if it had some Ad blocking capabilities. Speed Dial is a pretty nifty feature. I can't remember how long I've used Opera (since about '99 I think) and it was only ever my primary browser way back then. Used Mozilla for years before the pre 1.0 Firefox browser came about and haven't turned back from Firefox since. I doubt Opera could change that but it could see a larger timeshare with the ability for Extensions to check my mail and block ads. If those exist please correct me if I'm wrong!!

Don't worry, they promised to port it 18 months ago. Can you say "Epic FAIL!!"? Supposedly it works in Cedega but why pay a monthly fee to play a game or even a handful of games. If they can't port I don't play. Oh, and the reason it isn't ported.. some sort of crappy legal mumbo jumbo. Flippin' politics. I want UT3 on Linux LAST YEAR.

Well, you may think it is sad but it is very true and I've already downloaded and used the images. Just an FYI for just buying the drives, the firmware on the drive is printed on the label so you'll know right off the bat if you need to flash it or not. I had to flash one pair I ordered.

My next debacle is dealing with Adaptec who says "we don't support 1.5TB yet so don't buy them". Um, too late! Anyone got a spare 8 port SATA/SAS PCIe or PCI-X controller around?

Seriously, young bears scare easily. Run it off so it doesn't come foraging. The human species can be so dumb at times. While they may be cool to see the harm they can do to you or your belongings won't be funny. Oh, and don't threaten the young ones if mom is around. You'll get an ass beating for that.