That's funny, because no one else at my office wants a MacBook Air because they are too different from what they are used to. I have a MacBook Air and an iMac because I want a stable UNIX desktop with native MS Office without the constant hell of keeping a Linux box updated and dealing with apps that use a different UI toolkits. Like it or not, as far as commercial UNIX desktops go with a decent library of well supported common desktop applications, Apple is really the only game in town unless you just want to run Windows in VirtualBox.

And the Macbook Air isn't exactly poorly specced and it's QUITE well built. Sure you could probably find a cheaper PC laptop with a slightly zippier CPU but it still won't be quite the same machine. Apple does have some things going for it.

So, a quick, light, very thin dual-core mobile UNIX workstation with an SSD that I don't have to dick around with much to get a great productive system.... I'll pay an extra couple hundred for that. Some of us actually have work to do and don't want to have to jump through hoops to exchange data with others at work yet still want a UNIX box. We also want an OS that doesn't feel like a constant beta release with apps using a dozen different UI toolkits. Being able to run X11 apps if needed is nice too but that's usually not necessary.

Basically, Windows is ugly and inadequate for some of my needs, Linux/BSD kinda suck as desktop OS's, Sun is dead, SGI is dead, Oracle is evil..... doesn't leave you much choice if you want a ready-to-roll UNIX box these days that has the backing of any prominent commercial software vendors like MS or Adobe.

You jest but it's happening.... Subway recently dumped them as a POS supplier and will not support any new Micros installs and are hesitant to support older ones. They moved on to HP and Par. We went with Par for what should be obvious reasons for our locations.

Personally, I think Windows-based POS systems are a catastrophe waiting to happen. Doesn't matter who the supplier is, the OS vendor remains the same in most cases.

If Subway ported their POS software to run on top on Linux or BSD I'd be a much happier man and sleep more soundly at night. The Par POS hardware is awesome, various retail chains' choice of OS and lack of sensible security practices is still as much a problem as it was with Micros.

Depends which version of the M-1 you are talking about. The carbine fires .30 Carbine, the Garand fires .30-06/7.62x63. The AR10 and M14 fire .308/7.62x51. Russians typically used 7.62x25 (aka .30 Tok), 7.62x39 and 7.62x54. There's LOTS of .30 cal rounds out there.

As far as 9mm goes there's a TON of different sizes. .357 Mag, .38 special, 9x17/.380ACP, 9x18 Makarov, 9x19 Luger, 9x23, etc, etc. To make matters even worse, some of them are even interchangeable to a degree. 9x18 pistols can fire .380ACP in some cases. .357's can shoot .38 special in a pinch, 7.62x25 pistols can often shoot 7.63 Mauser cartridges, etc.

Basically, if you don't know what you're doing and rely on a stamp on a gun to tell you what it shoots..... you should probably find a different hobby.

MOST of what the NSA does is illegal SOMEWHERE. Violating the laws of other nations still makes you a criminal organization.

Yeah, because every applicant the NSA receives is 100% honest. In fact, I'd assume most that were THAT honest would never be hired. One would also have to assume he successfully beat a polygraph as that's a typical requirement these days.

I'm sure he would have clearly got the job and we would have found this information out had he been completely honest. The NSA are a bunch of traitors and their corporate lapdogs in the US telecom industry deserve everything they are getting for essentially whoring themselves out as NSA thugs. Personally, I'd trust just about ANY individual before I trust a damn thing the NSA says.

No love for WindowMaker anymore?

Agreed. Choosing to ignore mountains of well-researched evidence because you don't believe in observable fact due to conflicts with your "beliefs" handed to you by your mommy and daddy would lead me to believe you have no place in the scientific community.

It's like choosing to not believe in gravity which would also would call any of your work into question.

Religion should be classified as a mental illness. Willful ignorance is not a trait most look for in research.

I didn't see that stated anywhere.... I guess it really depends how much money you throw at the firewall box and what you are using for network interfaces. As with anything, performance ain't cheap if you really need it but you can make it happen.

My environment isn't huge, just fairly complex. I never push more than 10Mbps. There's 28 remote sites, some fairly complex firewall rules, a lot of VPN traffic and proxy server duties it's handling just fine though. Quad PCIe NIC on a dual-core atom board with a couple gigs of RAM and a 128GB SSD.

Obviously if you need 3Gbps, you have more money to throw at higher performance hardware. It's not perfect for every situation but it's far from crap and much more versatile. You'd probably have the cash laying and the need for a hardware crypto accelerator too.

Performance will just get better as pf evolves as well.

Just wait a few months. They will be. Any "secure" product that includes exploitable backdoors is one that "isn't worth buying".

One accidental bug compared to a government scheme to embed backdoors into every US-made OS and piece of equipment..... I'll take my chances with open source.

The reality is that OpenBSD has a better security track record than ALL the commercial vendors and doesn't come with a rootkit installed by default.

DRM may be bad but losing 80% of your user base because they can't watch Netflix or Youtube is a losing proposition. The last thing we want is IE back on top.

Most home users use the internet for a few simple things: Facebook, E-Mail, Youtube and Netflix. If people can't watch some 12-year-old smash his nuts on a skateboard, they will go back to IE and funding to continue FF development will disappear.

I'm sure there will be an option to turn off DRM..... and access to most video sites in the future.

Instead of buying backdoored equipment that's been tampered with by NSA employees, I replaced a $6,000 Cisco AVA box with a 1U dual-core atom box running pfSense for about a grand. I've also reflashed the various WRT-series routers in the field with DD-WRT. ....And now our official new IT policy is "thou shalt not buy Cisco/Linksys gear".

Way to go NSA, you sank what little remains of the US tech industry. And it's not Snowden's fault in the least for revealing the crimes and assault on our liberty at the hands of the NSA. It's the NSA's fault for committing the serious crimes against their own people in the first place. They should be shut down, tarred, feathered and put on trial for becoming domestic terrorists. Don't tread on me.

Really? Mine are cleaned/oiled once a month and checked over to ensure flawless reliable operation with minimal metal wear.

My safety stays on until I drop it with my thumb when I'm ready to fire. I can quite literally field strip and reassemble my pistols blind-folded. If you're going to stake your life on it, it's best to know how every aspect of the weapon functions and what is considered "acceptable" wear.

Generally you should TREAT all weapons as if they were loaded. I keep all of my weapons loaded but I don't keep a round chambered (with hammer down and safety on) unless I'm feeling exceptionally paranoid for some reason which happens from time to time. Most of my pistols are also single-action with a firing pin block making a negligent discharge a little less likely but still possible if I get stupid.

My kids aren't that stupid, and they have been trained to shoot and respect weapons. They also know that showing off weapons is how you lose them. The most effective weapon is one people don't know you have.

True. And the best firearms to own are as mechanically simple as possible with flawless simple operation. Being powerful enough to be truly effective helps too. I'm a big fan of 7.62x25 for handguns personally.

No, it's a way to get your family killed and adds needless complexity to a simple mechanical device impeding its usefulness and reliability. Since the right to bear arms has nothing to do with hunting/sporting and everything to do about defending yourself and/or fighting tyranny..... a gun which can be told not to fire is one I will never own.

Still pretty awesome. My question is who's patents he stepped on and when he can expect a team of lawyers to buttrape him with an 18" prosthetic penis?

In fact Linux is a much more mature product as a server than Windows NT. SysV and BSD UNIX are *FAR* more mature server products that existed long before NT was even a gleam in Microsoft's eye.

Linux/UNIX is not "the alternative". Windows NT was "the alternative" to Novell Netware, OS/2 and UNIX. Most people born before the 90's already know this however.