I have the same issue as the GP. The only music that I can use as "background noise" is classical. No lyrics, not even very interesting. I don't particularly like classical music, but it doesn't overtly bother me like jazz does.

If it's music I actually *like*, I'll get distracted from the task at hand and listen to it.

But, different strokes for different folks. I remember one time, my ex walked into the living room to ask me a question while I was sitting and reading a book. While talking, he picked up the TV remote, hit the Power button, surfed to a channel showing something vaguely interesting, put down the remote, concluded the exchange, and left the room. With the TV on. While I, on the other hand, don't turn on the TV unless I intend to watch it, because if it's on, I *will* pay attention to it.

Just because you're city-centric doesn't mean everyone else is too. Lots of folks are willing to move to small towns.

Dangerous to raise kids in the country? Dude, what city do you live in? Violence in schools is much lower in the country due to the lower population density. If you're talking about quality of schools, unless you go private, things are tough all over. Current crop of teachers came from the class promotion culture and things are just going to get worse as time goes on. But rural areas are really the last bastion of the older culture. Yet still the political nature of funding schools, the games educators have to play to get that funding, and the general decline of education in the States means that you're not going to find a good public school very often. City or country.

Personally, I'll live anywhere I can support my lifestyle. Broadband and postal mail at the house and a grocery store within an hour's drive.

The point he was trying to make is that they should have considered this issue within the "big picture" of outsourcing.

You didn't even mention MARS. These guys used to be the main way troops in the field could get messages home. The service still operates, or did at least back in '03 when I knew an operator.

Regarding SW:TOR. It is a fully realized MMO, not just a RPG. Bioware's first. LucasArts is fully behind the project. The graphics look gorgeous, and they're claiming that it will be "fully voiced". They have a really deep background universe to draw on including the movies, novels and prior games (MMO and RPG and action and FPS and flight sims, etc.) Plus they have probably the (most, second most, top 3 most) rabid group of fans in the sci-fi world, and probably the largest.

If Bioware/LucasArts can pull off what they've started to the level of quality and polish that matches what they've released so far, this could be the one that competes with WoW.

"The increase we have seen in our Wall Street Journal subscription proves to me that the market is willing to pay for that quality."

WSJ might as well be the trade journal for stock market investments. There's a lot of content there, a lot of high quality journalism. Yes, this combination of niche and quality means that a subscription service will work.

Good luck with the rest of the stable of newspapers, I do not think any others are 'best in breed' like WSJ. I could be wrong though...

Ad supported with pay to remove ads is one way to survive. Tech websites with good reputations, earned while free, have started charging membership fees. I'm all for both models.

Pay for News? Not while Google is free.

We have a janitorial position available, if you're still looking....

start/shutdown/shutdown is not kernel level request, it's a user level request.

from commandline: shutdown -f -t 0

THAT is a kernel level request and WILL work, put it in a shortcut and you have a guaranteed shutdown button.

Running Windows Vista on my media 'server' computer. Tripped circuit breaker and critical security updates are the only reason I have rebooted it since I turned it on. Since almost 10 months ago, I estimate 12-15 restarts.

one word:

DECAF

I doubt MS legal would let it slip through, but what it could be a subcontractor job (much like the infamous Zune bug was).

I watched the last news video of them. Here is my impression:

* They recreated the feel of the 80's hacker optic mixed with matrix in an endless loop
    (no, that was not a compliment)
* 20 % of the show was advertisement (maybe more)
* The news are mostly a summary on what you read here on security.slashdot.com
* The tone of the show gets boring.. well, immediately

The basic idea is nice, but the actual show is not that impressive. Could get better though..