I got the warning about being accessed from China. Unfortunately, it came 2 days after I became aware of my gmail account and World of Warcraft account both being compromised. By that time I had already changed the password, and had Blizzard restore my stuff.

This probably won't happen everywhere. I live in a rural community, and there's really no other options besides satellite or (in town) cable. Many people don't even have high speed internet - DSL became available just 2 of years ago, and our town still has a local dial-up ISP with enough subscribers to turn a profit. The nearest over-the-air TV station is over 60 miles away, so it takes a powerful antenna to get even a single station.

I personally could probably do without a lot of the channels on my Dish Network system. However, I like HIstory, History Inernational, Investigation Discovery, and Tru TV enough to keep it around. And my parents don't know how to use the internet, so they have to have something to watch.

For most things I use the DVR of my Dish Network receiver, however for broadcast TV I usually use a VCR (it's a combination VCR/DVD recorder, but I have tons of old tapes laying around). Mom has to have her Oprah and Dr. Phil.

Agreed. If I could no longer use the complex extensions I have grown attached to (NoScript and DownThemAll among them) I would use something other than Firefox. Extensions are about the only thing that Firefox has that keeps me from switching to another browser.

Is that there isn't anything as awesome as the old MP3.com.

Seriously.

I probably haven't been exposed to one independent song in the past year. When mp3.com was still here, I downloaded a ton, in a variety of genres.

Does anyone know of a (good) site like the old mp3.com that offers the same scope of music AND free downloads?

Someone hack his PC and install the damned purple ape!

Copyright infringement is not theft. Theft implies that the person the item is stolen from no longer has the item. But that's beside the point.

I seldom download movies or tv shows from the internet. I have Netflix and that does ok for most movies I'd care to watch. I often buy CD's as well. However, sometimes I want to download things that I can't get elsewhere. Like missed episodes of TV shows, for instance. (I often buy boxed sets, but sometimes I just want the latest one when I miss it)

While I agree, there's always going to be a number of people who will pirate everything under the sun, there's also people who simply aren't being served effectively who turn to piracy out of desperation, because "legal" alternatives either aren't available or cost far too much. For example, I don't buy MP3's because they're too expensive, it's just as cheap (and often cheaper!) to buy an actual CD.

There's more than one side here. Yes, Microsoft or any other company should fire the foreign workers first when possible. But realistically, it doesn't always work that way.

Say Microsoft has one team working on some craptacular product, say Microsoft Songsmith, that isn't as complex or demanding as another product, say Windows 7. Say they decide to lay off some workers. The Songsmith guys are the obvious choice, as the product royally blows to start with, but wait, we need to fire the foreign workers first. However some of the Songsmith guys aren't foreign workers. Do you take some foreign workers, who are actively involved in the production of Windows 7, and replace them with some of the American geniuses behind Microsoft Songsmith? Or do you just can everyone responsible for that crapfest?

Remember, the companies in question are large. They have many departments and projects, and the skills that make one perfect for one project may not be adequate for another. Thus, they're likely to wipe out all those working on a product, rather than simply removing the foreign workers.

Granted, in the current economic climate, Microsoft should NOT be hiring new foreign workers. However shuffling workers between projects would in order to fire the foreign workers first would be devastating to productivity to say the least.

It may not be that bad, but it still can be somewhat annoying. My whole point is that, having used both Linux and Windows, my experience on both is mixed (though with Vista it's more "pissed beyond belief that I wasted my time on that pile of shit" than mixed). There's really no mythical OS that does everything perfect and right. Unless you believe the Mac fanboys.

I actually like Metallica's music.

Of course the band is full of douches, so my Metallica mp3's are all pirated.