The issue is probably not interconnection and peering, it's probably provisioning for peak usage.

Take a neighborhood of 1000 houses. Ten years ago there may have been a few people download mp3s, someone downloading a movie, some people doing web and email, aggregated you probably would've gotten away with a 10Mbps connection, maybe less as the internet wasn't as widely used. These days during peak periods you could expect perhaps 100 people streaming HD Netflix to their TV, some downloading torrents, others browsing images, watching youtube videos, you have people on phones, tablets, smart TVs, devices doing updates, etc - that would probably require more like 1Gbps, 100 times more bandwidth than ten years ago.

Interconnection costs less, but you have to upgrade your huge number of expensive routers and various network equipment, upgrade your back-haul, provide local caches for youtube and netflix, etc, etc. Sure they're making increasing profits every year, but it's not like they're standing still.

http://www.headphonereviews.org/ is non commercial headphone reviews website. There are some editors reviews, but most of the reviews are by users, with reviews by experienced headphone users given more weight than reviews by new members. The site is moderated to keep the review quality high.

Disclaimer: I own and run the website, and the website covers its costs by getting affiliate revenue from amazon.

Naked broadband is available on Telstra Clear cable in New Zealand, see this page.

http://www.telstraclear.co.nz/residential/inhome/internet/cable-broadband/naked-broadband.cfm

This is a nice development, and i'm sure it'll help at least a little. I have a Tegra2 based tablet, the Asus Transformer, and according to my battery stats most of the power is used to run the screen and WiFi, rather than the CPU. More efficient screens and WiFi would make a far bigger difference than a low power core.

My battery stats are: Screen 32%, Tablet Idle 22%, Wifi 19%, Android OS 14%, everything else is below 10%.

I have a dozen IMAP email accounts for my various websites and contract roles. I need to check them regularly but keep the accounts and email separate. Thunderbird or any other email account lets me do this easily.

Forwarding email or using POP and taking email out of those accounts isn't an option.

I think you may have that backward. Supraaural headphones sit on your ears and push them against your head, which can be uncomfortable. Circumaural headphones sit around your ears without touching them, with any pressure on your head, and are generally a lot more comfortable. Take a look at this glossary.

Sound wise I prefer circumaural, and most high end headphones are circumaural, though some Grado has some nice supraaural headphones.

or make it look like a witch HUNT. Doh.

...put a sign in your front window or building lobby asking if anyone else is having the same problem, or uses electrical equipment only between those times. Make it a friendly note, with smiles, rainbows, and unicorns, so you don't offend anyone or make it look like a witch. As a bonus you get to know your neighbours.

Where are "we" drawing the line? We're not. Google is. It'd be nice if they told us where the line is, but I can't see that happening any time soon, since Google is pretty much a black box (though it is a pretty, shiny black box).

I use HostGator to host Headphone Reviews, which gets 1M+ hits a month, 300K+ of those require 2-3 MySQL hits to create the page. I host another dozen or so domains too, total monthly hits 2M+, for about $10. Uptime's great, performance is great, and the technical support is amazing - their tech support knows far far more than me, which is fairly impressive.

Most engineers have some the intelligence and power to change their situation, even if it is by changing jobs to avoid stupid or ignorant managers. You and Dilbert should definitely look elsewhere. Alternately you could educate that pointy haired dude. Good luck.

Without music at work there won't be any more programmers, the issue will be moot

Go for it, having knowledge and qualifications will always benefit you. I haven't done hiring in a while, but maturity and experience counts for something.

I think there's a great opportunity around at the moment - learning mainframes and COBOL. The people who understand them and who are good at it are retiring, and once you're decent at it you could make a shedload of money as a consultant/contractor. It's not sexy, and it's not leading edge, but I think it could be a really good niche and great earner. Legacy systems are definitely not going away.

I have a 10Mbps line running off a Telstra Clear fibre infrastructure in Wellington, New Zealand, using a well seeded torrent I can often saturate my 10Mbps connection on weekday evenings. A friend of mine has Telecom ADSL in a building in central Wellington, she's lucky to get 1% of that - 20KB/sec is good for her. Maybe you just need a better ISP.