Thank you for the tip.

Just rebuilt my NAS in a different case, and while I have no qualms about covering the power LED with electrical tape and blocking it out completely, I'd like the hard disk LED to be visible but dimmer so I can still see it to monitor it for heavy disk activity, but not have it bright at night.

They'll run the project to rave reviews for years, then suddenly replace all the 2.4 Ghz access points for 5 Ghz-only ones.
Only a small percentage of people will enjoy the new service, and everyone else will complain about how they can't use their 802.11b and older 802.11n devices on it. Then they will begin running the old routers in tandem. Users will be able to pick them up under with the SSID "Classic".

Eventually the 5 Ghz routers will be decommissioned and no one will speak of them again.

The Walled Garden is OSX itself. Part of what makes Apple machines popular is how well they run compared to infamous versions of Windows like ME and Vista (pre SP1). Having such tight control of both the hardware and the software helps make this possible. They aren't having to tweak their own hardware or drivers to suit the latest change by a third-party (Microsoft).

I was also talking about the iPod "halo effect". Apple's reputation as being a premium brand is also based on how "exclusive" the whole ecosystem of products is. Can you use an iPhone or an Apple iCloud email account on a PC -- yes. But the products are really made to be more seamless on OSX and there are some features that are heavily tied into other products (like Photostream using iDevices). This kind of integration is possible on Windows -- but that's the problem. It becomes a [i]Windows[/i] thing. Not a Dell thing. That doesn't raise Dell's own brand reputation because it's not exclusive to their products. Apple can create that exclusivity, which in turn builds their brand into something more than just a nameplate on another made-in-China computer. It becomes a "club" (or a cult as some say).

Dell wants a larger niche group. Alienware is kids with too much allowance. They want adults with regular income and a large portion of it disposable. Up to this point they have been in the race to the bottom with other PC manufacturers.

Food can sit in a garbage can for a week before they come by.

How do they tell the difference between wasted food and food that was thrown out because it was spoiled and unsafe to eat to start with?

Except Alienware is niche. Even if it is an up-market brand, it's more closely associated with "gamer kid" than "high fashion". It wouldn't attract the yuppie crowd Apple gets.

Dell thinks they can be Apple, but don't have the walled garden that makes it work.

ignore this. accidentally modded it

I actually have one somewhere in my junk in storage. It was an analog modem mated with a hub pretty much. You would connect your devices with Ethernet and the modem would hold it's own dialer setup. When something wanted to connect the modem would call in the provider and it (and any other devices) were online.

In practice it didn't work that good, because once a computer thinks it has an always-on network connection it tends to try making remote connections for all sorts of things unless you lock it down. So the modem was always connected pretty much. This isn't practical when you don't have a dedicated phone line for it and even then many ISPs had systems set up to not allow you to keep connections on constantly like that.

Sorry. Factually wrong.

I just had to reformat my machine a couple weeks ago and, just like the first time I set up the machine from the Windows 8 final retail version, I used a Local account (no Microsoft Account tie in at all). After I installed all the normal Windows 8.0 patches I clicked the store and right there on the left was the huge-ass tile for the 8.1 update. I clicked it the machine started downloading it, and I went out for a couple hours to run some errands. No login prompt at all.

When I got home it was (coincidentally) just finishing the install.

I have a Hotmail account but I never enter the information on Windows 8 Mail (because I've heard it will convert a local user account setup to a Microsoft Account enabled one if you do. I also never use Skype out of the same concern. I access the Hotmail account as IMAP in Thunderbird, same way I do all my other email accounts, and IM with people on the MSN Messenger network using Pidgin to connect to it (news of MSN's death are greatly exaggerated -- by Microsoft to get people to start using Skype).

Amazon has been "helpfully" adding books to people's Kindle devices for months now. They just show up on your library like you purchased them and you didn't.
I haven't heard any big outrage over that.

Oh, that's right. That's not Apple.

That''s how every business operates now, though. Employees are always under surveillance because the management doesn't trust them not to steal from them in one way or another. Either by actual supply/money theft, or by not working hard enough when on the clock.

And funny enough, employers have actually made the situation worse on themselves. If they want to know why they can't trust the employees to be "committed and motivated", look no further than the modern low wage, low appreciation, low potential for advancement employment they offer. When you're not paying people enough to make ends meet, don't be surprised when they look for ways to supplement their income.

So... what's he really doing behind the VPN if he's not torrenting?

*cough*

Except "Surface tablets are the official tablets of the NFL" sounds a bit better in the press for Microsoft than "Microsoft has to give away Surface tablets to get people to use them".

I think you might have hit on why this was an issue to start with...