I recently retired from 23 years in US Government service. The federal agency policy forbids the use of open document formats, and nothing produced in OO or LO can be used. So I agree, MS Office would have to run. And not via some emulator that causes everything to slow to a crawl. As for games, I tend to install and uninstall crap constantly. Right now I'm playing Gnomoria and Plants vs Zombies, but neither will keep my attention very long. So I'd say the most important thing is to make installation easy - like point-and-click easy for those of us who don't really like troubleshooting failed dependencies. I can do that, but it isn't my idea of fun.

I should clarify that I use my *NIX boxes as network file servers, not workstations. FreeBSD offers me the best performance and easiest setup in a mixed environment, plus they run reliably unattended for months on end and have good security that is not a pain to manage.

My first was Slackware on a CD that came in a manual called "Using Linux". Then I tried Mandrake, Ubuntu and various "light" distros like Puppy Linux. Then I spent a while switching between FreeBSD and OpenBSD, then went to Debian, and now I'm back to FreeBSD. And I hereby declare FreeBSD the winner for my needs.

I leave my TV on while I'm web surfing because (a) I don't like a silent house, and (b) there will be something I want to see in an hour. So I'm wondering what this thing will do if it detects no one is watching. Probably turn up the sound and play all commercials!

Well, happy Ham Day from WA0YSK. :)

Yes, HMA is good and they have a large selection of proxies in many countries. Changing to a different one is a matter of a few seconds. Plus you don't have to set up anything in your browser like you do to use a socks proxy.

Fine with me. I never had a Netflix account and I don't know whether my DVD player even works - I haven't turned it on in years.

It's time to organize a general boycott of the productions of their member companies. Can't you find some entertainment other than seeing the latest movie? I haven't bought a theater ticket in 10 years, and I do just fine. Most of their stuff these days is garbage anyway. The only way we are EVER going to be free of this tyranny is to deprive the members of the money they need to keep supporting it.

I remember playing that until my wife threatened violence :) Softdisk Publishing? Seems right, but that was a long time ago. It was a DOS game.

When I saw it, it said "Hello Slashdot". Interesting, don't you think?

Provided the claim has any base in reality. I have been using CFLs for years, and so far my luck with them has been uniformly bad. They burn out in 3 to 6 months in my application. Possibly my environment is too hot for the electronics inside.

I know a psychiatrist, and he told me that the test is no longer in general use precisely because it's in the public domain. He said, with perfect logic, that since there's no way of knowing whether the patient has seen the "right" answers, there's no validity to the results.

I mean, well, that classic photo wouldn't impress very many employers....

I've been on the US DNC list since it started. While I do get fewer calls than before, being on the list has never stopped the nuisance.