It doesn't matter what you get, but use what makes it easiest for you to sit and read, for however long you wish to read.

I have a tablet, and don't see the need to spend more money on an e-book reader, when my tablet works just fine for this purpose, as well as running other apps and accessing internet resources.

I also read slow, and used to find it a chore, until I found books that I enjoyed reading, and now I continue to find books that I enjoy, and prefer e-books over hard print.

So, as I said, regardless of what you put your money towards, find what works for you, and don't take other's opinions, what works for one person, might not be best for another. Make your own choice.

SOPA isn't the problem, it's just a symptom of a larger issue, copyright law, the DMCA to be specific.This whole thing came to a head when the DMCA was passed, and now it's just getting worse, like a festering wound. but if it weren't for the DMCA, SOPA wouldn't have stood a chance on it's own or it's own merits.

Yes, copyrights have been around for a long time, and yes, they've been used in the past as a way to control and in some cases, monopolize, but with the coming of the DMCA, it's taken a whole new turn, and who wrote and pushed for the DMCA, the RIAA and the MPAA and all of their cronies. They lobby congress to handle an issue that's not congress' to handle, this is an issue that should have been left to the copyright owners to deal with through proper legal channels in the first place, or to change their business models so it wouldn't be an issue to begin with. The recording industry has to learn to change with the times, instead of living in the past, but they are incapable, unwilling, and/or too greedy to change.

Along with the overturning of Citizens United, and the passing of DMCA, the playing field has changed in favor of large corporations, like the recording companies and motion picture industry, and the publishers, who can now use the courts as their personal hitmen to go after alleged copyright infringes, with no proof. They can send take down notices on material they don't even own, and have it removed from sites like YouTube, which ends up making the real owner have to work that much harder to have their own material out there, because they didn't go through the recording or motion picture industries to do so. People like photographers who self publish their works on their own websites now have to deal with people stealing their work, and then get blindsided by those very thieves, and accused of stealing their own works, all because the DMCA made it possible.

If people really want to fix the situation, some changes need to be made:
1: Overturn the DMCA, it's bad law and only works in the favor of deep pocket corporations.
2: Overturn the ruling in Citizens United, and put corporations back where they belong, and have them stop meddling in politics.
3: Find a way to get our Congressmen and women to start working for us, the people, again, like it's supposed to be. Let corporations work their things out themselves, and stop using congress and the courts as their personal tools and WMD's.
4: And for the sake of everyone's sanity, the people need to start taking an interest in government, learn how it works, learn the issues, read the proposed bills, and take a stand on issues they don't agree with. Write their congressmen when they want their voices to be heard on issues, make public statements in a clear and concise manner, so others who wish to, can add their voices to that cause.

What was done to stop SOPA was a good example of people making their voices heard and sticking with the same issue, and in that case it worked. It won't always work, especially if 'The People' don't stand up for what's right, and get the government doing what it's supposed to do, work for the people.

Occupy Wall Street had a good idea, but it got out of hand, it wasn't well organized, and too many others, with their own agendas, tried to take it over. Their are ways to do things, and ways not to, this was an example of how not to do something. Once you get something started, keep it going in a positive direction, and don't get sidetracked, don't let others use your cause for their cause, unless they are the same, otherwise, all it'll do is water down your voice and cause, and people will not respect or wish to side with you.

And finally, contact your congressmen and women, and get them to make changes for the better, change the way the courts are used as hitmen for special interests. The government works for us, 'The People', not for the corporations. The corporations are supposed to be non-entities, they are not "people", so why are they allowed to act like "people"?

Stand together for change and for the future, be a part of the solution and not sheep or lemmings. Don't be a part of the problem.

Personally, I would have stood my ground and let the legal system work for me in this.

You were in the right, to protect what's yours, and she used character assassination, and intimidation to get you to do what was in HER best interests, and no one else's. There are laws regarding such things, and what she did appears to be against most of them (think MAFIA tactics).

Stay strong, stand your ground, and make her pay for the wrong she's done.

I'd like to see those statistics.

Use of this also requires an Amateur Radio License from the FCC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio

Unfortunately it' a dying hobby, with all the cellphones out there, no one sees the need for radio communications anymore. One thing people have forgotten though, in a disaster situation, cellular communications either get bogged down, where you can't use it effectively, or it's completely out (depending on the disaster).

Radio communications will always be there, and Amateur Radio operators become the first line in communications, since the primary thing they do is communicate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_emergency_communications

But regardless, this all still requires an Amateur Radio license from the FCC, or from whatever appropriate government agency in your particular country of citizenship.

What you need to understand, no security is absolutely perfect. There is no such thing, unless you disconnect the computer from all outside sources and influences, and allow no access to the computer, what that breaks down to is, unplug the computer, disconnect it from the internet, and lock it in a vault. And even that's not 100% secure.

Bottom Line:

Locks only keep honest people honest.

If you feel you have the qualifications, try to get a contract job through a contract agency.

I'd also recommend, when looking at the jobs requirements, do what you can to meet as many qualifications as possible, that includes getting certificates that they require, like A+, etc.

Once you get one contract, even a short term one, you can put that on your resume and go from there to find others later on down the road.

OK, here's the bottom line:

1) Red Hat includes support, and guaranteed updates, and you can be sure it will be continually updated in a timely manner.
2) You can call Red Hat for assistance
3) You also get content that is not included in any free distro, the Red Hat Value Added content

1) CentOS gives you a remastered version of Red Hat EL which is potentially 2 to 3 versions behind Red Hat.
2) You get the support you pay for, ie: Being told to RTFM before you're entitled to any assistance from the community. Help that's limited to what users of CentOS can give, because the developers won't waste their time helping you, even though it's Community ENTerprise OS, they really only put the distro together for themselves and don't really care about the community.
3) You can't be sure that the updates are up to date. In most cases, the updates you get are lagged significantly behind the Red Hat release, that it could leave a known security hole in your network, in a business environment this is dangerous.

Don't get me wrong, I love FOSS, and I infact use CentOS on my home server, but I also know that I have to rely on myself and those I personally know, when I need to fix something that I'm struggling with.

In a business environment, I would insist on only using a distro that has the backing and support of a company/organization that is capable and willing to support it, like Red Hat is, without saying RTFM before I'll help you. With Red Hat, you are paying for that support, and they step up to the plate to give you what you're paying for, regardless of how elementary or advanced your knowledge level is regarding the product, or the complexity level of the issue you're calling in about.

In other words, you get what you pay for, but in a business environment, you should consider if it's worth it to pay for support or get little to none.

The thing about encryption is, it's the timeliness of data.

Anyone relying on encryption to store any data for any long periods of time are confused. Any encryption system, no matter how complex, can he defeated, given time, resources, and perhaps some skulduggery.

Look at WWII and the German Enigma machine. It was no more than a computer, and very hard to crack, in fact, it couldn't be cracked on the basis of the encrypted information itself. But it did it's job, messages were secure for the length of time that they needed to be, and even if it was decrypted after the fact, it didn't matter. It took the Allied forces stealing an Enigma device and code book to actually crack Enigma encrypted messages.

The same goes for anything, it's timeliness of information. If you encrypt something long term, and someone gets ahold of it, and they want it bad enough, and have the resources at their disposal, they will in time, get at that information.

Bottom line is 2 fold actually, timeliness of information and the fact that locks only keep honest people honest.

Lindens are different than Bitcoins only in the fact that they are centrally controlled, and therefore their value is relatively stable. I can sell 10000 lindens for approx $35 USD today, and tomorrow I'll still sell 10000 lindens for approx $35 USD. Hoarding Linden dollars will not increase their value, and dumping them into the economy will not decrease their value.

Bitcoins value goes up like a commodity, with effects of hoarding contributing to their value. They have no real intrinsic value due to usefulness, just the desire to have them or willingness to accept them in lieu of USD or any other government backed currency. In this regard, absent the potential usefulness, they are more like gold, where their value goes up by people holding onto them as long as there are people out there that desire them.

Bitcoins have value because people are willing to buy/sell them, and there are people/businesses that are accepting them for services/product.

It's people that give anything it's value. Bitcoins are a commodity, just like gold or silver, or steel, or copper, or anything else in the world. Due to the fact that there are a limited number of them, their value is higher, due to the fact that people are willing to pay more for them at the present time, gives them a higher value than yesterday. when people are unwilling to pay for them, or pay more for them, their value will drop.

I agree 100% with this statement.

If you are a professional, you should conduct yourself as one, and be expected by your customers, that you will conduct yourself as one.

A professional adheres to best practices of business. Honesty, discretion and common sense.

Although a professional should also be expected to be law abiding, it does not make them a forensics expert to report to the authorities if they find something on a customer's computer that may or may not be illegal, or morally objectionable. When a professional is working on a customer's computer, they should not be looking through their personal information or data files. And if, during the normal execution of their duties of repair, happen to come across something that is illegal or morally objectionable, they should ignore it and move on. Computer professionals are not duly deputized law enforcement agents and shouldn't be.

If, perchance, law enforcement happens to contact a computer professional asking questions about a customer or the contents of their computer(s), they should use proper discretion and contact their lawyer for advise on how to respond. If they are provided a subpoena or a search warrant, they should also contact their lawyer to aid them in dealing with it in a professional manner.

Because that's all too likely to be true as well in the very near future, don't put it past DHS and the TSA to make someone strip naked in public.

And how is GM supposed to know that their supplier used, a single pirated copy of say Excel? So now it's up to US companies to police their supply chain's business practices? All this will do is cause American companies to move their businesses out of the US, which will hurt the US economy even more than it is now.

No, read the article, it's not just american suppliers, it's any supplier that uses or has used, pirated software, anywhere in their business. What that means is Company A, the maker of the "ThingaMaBob 2000", for sale in the state in which this law is enacted, buys widgets to be used in the manufacture of the "ThingaMaBob 2000" from Company B, it doesn't matter what country they're in, or the fact that they are using or have in the past used even 1 unlicensed copy of excel, for something like the janitor's supplies, totally unrelated to the manufacture or sale of the widgets that Company A is buying, then Microsoft can sue Company A for the damages owed by Company B, and stop Company A from selling the "ThingaMaBob 2000" in that state.