Let the professor decide what is and is not appropriate. That's their job. We don't need more blanket rules.

I used to hate writing JavaScript until I found jQuery. What used to take me writing a lengthy mess plus patching it with cross-browser hacks has now become elegant one-liners thanks to the wonderful jQuery libraries. I recommend everybody that writes JavaScript take a look at it.

Well, I'll just add this to my list of why I hate HP...

-300 MB printer drivers
-$30 for a ketchup packet of ink
-hardware\software designed to actually lie about ink levels
-scanner and other bundled software that simply does not work
-software takes over your computer as bad as QuickTime and AOL
-And now, advertisements directly sent to your printer!

At what point do we just start referring to HP as malware vendor?

I think of HP as one of the companies that people go to solve a simple problem, printing, and these people have learned to accept the terrible deal as a necessary evil, because they need to print, and HP = printing. It is like all the poor folks paying for the $100 Adobe Acrobat + 1 GB install process when there are other PDF creation tools that are free and better.

HP is making tons of money off of by being a synonym for printing. Everybody that knows better has already left, and the people still around buying will just accept this new thing, ads on their printer, as just another necessary evil. I think it will hurt them though. Even my less tech-savvy friends are pleased with how their new Brother printer or other brands are treating them. Brands not normally found at Wal-Mart because the all-in-ones cost a more reasonable $150 instead of the ludicrous $40.

I had a very bad experience with AT&T DSL.

They botched the installation and then charged me $100 to come back and fix it. Several weekends ago, when my DSL died for a solid 2 days, I couldn't get a hold of a human because they kept transferring me to offices that were *closed*, which would then just hang up on me forcing me to start the automated system from the beginning.

When I finally did reach a human, they wanted to charge me again to come out and fix it. I cancelled my service the next day. During cancellation, when asked why, I said, "Because Comcast has better customer service." I don't think they understood the severity of that statement. I told them their customer service is so bad, I am switching to *COMCAST*: http://consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america. Comcast, the company that sent me a technician when I asked for cablecards, and I had to install the cablecards myself because the tech didn't know how to do it!

AT&T mistreated me so badly that I am selling my iPhone 3GS just to switch to Verizon Wireless after my contract expires. Apple started me down that path by being annoying with developers started me down that path, but AT&T crossed the line for me.

There is no hope where I live. My choice is AT&T or Comcast. It is truly a desperate situation.

This happened Feb, 2004.

2 months after finishing college and starting a new job in a new area, I woke up one morning with an odd stomach pain. I didn't think anything of it, so I went to work. By lunch time, the pain did not relax at all. It didn't get worse... just a steady piercing pain. I told a co-worker I was taking a half day. By 5pm, I was starting to get really worried because this was not a normal feeling stomach pain, and it was still there.

I went to Google and typed in stomach pain, and that's when I was starting to really get worried. Several websites started directing me to Appendicitis. After reading more, I had all the Appendicitis symptoms except "nauseated". I called a friend, and he said, "Nah, man! It's probably just something you ate! You said you aren't feeling nauseated, right? I'd wait until you were nauseated."

I had crappy insurance. I didn't want to go to the hospital unless I needed to, but since everything I read online was pointing to Appendicitis, I eventually decided that peace of mind was worth an out-of-pocket exam, so I jumped in the car and drove myself to the ER.

I went to the front desk, and he asked, "What do you think is wrong?"
I said, "I think I have Appendicitis."
"All right, fill this out and sit over there."

When I got to finally see a nurse, I said, "I think I have Appendicitis."
"Does this hurt?" "Yes."

When I got to finally a doctor, I said, "I think I have Appendicitis."
"We'll run some tests."

They ran a blood test. Came back positive.
They ran some x-ray type test. Came back positive.

By 10pm, the doctor came and said, "You have Appendicitis." By 5am, they were operating on me.

Try http://www.getpaint.net/ as an alternative to Photoshop.

It is very nice and free (as in beer).

At a place I used to work, one of my coworkers reported a simple potential security problem: the username for the admin account on all our machines is the same as the computer's name. This just eliminates one less thing for a hacker to figure out. He was accused of "snooping", whatever that means, and almost lost his job. The only thing that saved him is a higher-up with a brain.

Whenever I hear a story about a person\firm reporting security risks, I am reminded of the story of my coworker, and I have heard too many similiar stories. It has trained to me keep my mouth shut about these problems.

More like an iPod Touch that won't fit in your pocket. There's no phone. I'd've been be much, much more impressed if it ran Mac OS X and not iPhone OS. That decision greatly cripples what the device can do.

I'm not impressed seeing the Facebook iPhone app running on it. I can run the full-version Facebook in Firefox on my $300 netbook. However, I suppose I can't install iFart on my netbook, but I'm sure I could find a worthwhile desktop replacement for that. At least I have that option. I'm not tied to the App store like the iPad. There's no Flash either. That means there is no Hulu on any other flash-based content streaming service.

This is an expensive netbook without software customization and without a keyboard. No thanks.

I've noticed that RequestPolicy...
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9727/

requires much less management. NoScript constantly updates and constantly requires white-listing sites to be able to use them. RequestPolicy defaults to denying just the off-site JavaScript, which is the JavaScript I care the most to deny.