Very droll :)

> Most all Wall St firm's systems are bloody awful
>
I think that is generally true of all software (and music, and laws, and books, and food, and ...), see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_Law

Personally I have really been enjoying the stories which Big Finish have been doing with the old doctors, they have even got Tom Baker doing some now. They've been exploring some of the different doctors' personalities in some interesting ways. You can find some on BBC Radio 4 Extra from time to time, if you don't want to shell out the cash for them...

Set up a system at home. Have a machine which you can use as a server for various things (music, streaming videos/DVDs, etc). Understand how to make it secure from external attacks (set up firewalls, root-kit hunters, etc.); figure out if/how you might access it remotely and still keep it all secure. Ensure you have a decent backup solution (understand what file systems exist, how they are useful, why "RAID is not a backup solution etc.". Set up crypto partitions for any sensitive data (if case someone walks off with your stuff). Depending on where you live and how likely power outages are, install a UPS and hook it up to your server. Install system monitoring software so you know everything is ship-shape (SMART checkers, Munin, etc.). If you have multiple machines set up NFS (and discover all of its wonderful gotchas).

Basically, build and use at home what you might be doing admin for at work. When you know that inside out you should be in a good position to answer questions thrown at you in an interview. Finding _good_ sys admins is hard, if you know your stuff then that's probably most of the battle IMHO.

Seconded. I have both phones now and have moved to having the N9 as my phone and the N900 just be my pocket/travel *nix box. I've not (touch wood) seen any problems with the USB port but it's something which is a known issue. The N900, while not perfect, is a damn good little machine.

He's still out there and still coding:
    http://itunes.apple.com/app/bill-atkinson-photocard/id333208430?mt=8

As an owner of the N900 I have to disagree. [Puts on fanboi hat] It's really the best phone I've had. Ever.

..and I'd be wrong apparently: http://www.thinq.co.uk/2011/9/7/seagate-ships-4tb-hard-drive/

I'd be willing to bet that this "drive" is actually a pair of 2TB ones...

Seems to highlight locations of reported places (when you search): http://healthmap.org/en/

Once this is in place how long before [insert hacking group of the month] breaks into an ISP and posts this online? The more of this stuff which is collected the more Sonyesque cases we are going to see. The eternal optimist in me says that maybe that will cause a rethink of these types of laws; the pessimist has a quite different opinion...

<minirant>

With the death knell sounding for the N900 a friends I recently decided to buy a Xoom figuring that Android is where things seem to be heading. I have to confess that I've been rather underwhelmed by it. My current list of gripes are:

• 
     
• The marketplace is a massive pain to use and to find anything useful in

•    

• Many apps just don't work (probably because they were never tested on the Xoom)

•    

• A general feeling that the apps are just unpolished or beta-quality

•    

• Lack of hardware consistency leading to confused software (some apps expect there to be some form of h/w keyboard present)

•    

• No video calling with Skype (the main reason I bought to device in the first place, more fool me for not checking)

•    

• ...

Aside from the Android-specific gripes there are also Xoom-specific ones (proprietary charging interface, a pain to root the device, highly reflective screen, ...). I really wanted to like this device but it feels like an uphill battle right now. It feels like the only way it beats my N900 is on screen size and CPU power; that may have been a niche device but it's still a much better user experience IMHO.

</minirant>

Pedant mode / oblig Wilt quote:
Inspector Flint: Are you inferring we're all stupid?
Henry Wilt: No. I'm implying you're all stupid; you're inferring it