Your guess is pretty much correct. You and others have suggested MTW, so I'm going to get a hold of that as soon as this damn hurricane passes. Thanks!

That's a little unfair, I think. I'm asking for help in becoming an "armchair physicist" if you will, not a PhD. I want to get through the material and learn it to better my own understanding, not to master it and get into research. It's not as though I didn't google the subject, but if you went with that approach for a complex subject that you didn't already understand, you'd realize it's hard to know which path provides any sort of focus for what you want to understand. For instance, if you have a small company that needs to raise cash and want to know the details of American Securities Law, you might google it and get a little overwhelmed with the overlap of the states' Blue Sky laws, Exchange Act, etc. I, on the other hand, could pare the list down to what you might need to research to understand how to issue stock for your small, closely held corporation. It's a good intermediate step to have an expert filter your reading list, after all.

It's easy to call me lazy if you know the material and I don't, because you can look at what's out there and sort the material into "important," "good to know" and "discard" lists.

The real question is, did you really want me to actually put what I've already read and have queued up to read in the submission? I suppose I could have done that, but I've gotten some succinct responses already that suggest a totally different path than I've already started down. Maybe I wouldn't have received such good information otherwise.

In any case, I do appreciate the folks that have responded constructively. I'm lazy but I'm not that bad. Jeez.

but... but... I googled! I swear. Thanks for the link!

Thanks for responding. It was the order of things that probably confused me the most, so I'l give vector/matrix math a shot and then try to work through Newtonian physics. I've had a course in Newtonian physics, but it wasn't calculus-based, so that probably didn't teach me anything other than an overview of the concepts.

The review for "Shark Sandwich" was merely a two word review which simply read "Shit Sandwich". They cant print that!

Not to nitpick, but if you tell someone in Fauquier County that they're not in "NoVA" they get mad! I went to college in Harrisonburg, and even they self-identify with the Northern bit. So be careful. I'm a NJ native, so nobody likes me anyway.

I don't know that I'd dump FiOS for a wireless ISP. I could do that now - there's a Clear tower like half a mile from my house. FiOS has been 100% reliable over the 2 years that I've had it here. Not an outage (literally, not one).

I'm a Virginia-barred lawyer (although not practicing right now, working for "the man" instead). VA is very business-friendly, but I'd still have a hard time seeing a suit get off the ground against this guy. Then again, I'm pretty ignorant in regulatory/telecom.

It's not like Apple is pursuing DRM and anti-tamper for a blind purpose. Their goal is to create a positive experience for the average user, free of the shit that "Windows People" complain about. Part of that strategy is to reduce malware by certifying software, maintaining quality by screening applications, and so on. They also have minimized the UI into what is commonly used, and either eliminating or burying the rest. It makes sense for people that aren't you or me.

I happen to like my Macbook. The battery life is ridiculous, and the OS is not locked down. I can do whatever the hell I want with it, with everything that's hiding under the hood. But at the same time, I could hand this to my parents, my sister, anyone else and they'd figure out how to use it.

Apple designs products for the majority. Hobbyists, tinkerers and geeks are a small minority. It's been a great business decision if you look at their stock price. I don't get why a lot of people here just don't understand that. Being a geek doesn't excuse you from having an understanding of basic business principles, at least not if you want to engage in some sort of discussion that touches upon that. If you don't want to buy Apple products because you do not wish to pay a premium for a streamlined experience packaged in a shiny wrapper, that's fine, but please don't assert that your way is the right way. Clearly, Apple has carved out a niche in the market for the experience that they market. And I'm not even talking about the "feeling cool because of the Apple logo" experience. I'm talking about the streamlining and ease of use. I'd give this shit to my grandmother. Turns out, Ubuntu might be too complicated for her.