This sounds more like work then "an amusement or pastime" which games usually are. To be honest, even if I had the skill to play at that level I don't think I would want to since I like to play games in spare time. What do these guys do in their spare time if any... code?

Not in countries like Australia. Down here Paypal is pretty much all we have.

That is true; but it's not necessarily a bad thing for individuals to exhibit censorship. It's only a real problem when it's done with the force of law, and therefore when censorship is discussed (as in this case), the topic is really 'state censorship'.

Just because I am against child pornography I can't be against censorship? Just because I'm against Fascism I can't be against Communism? Just because I'm against overreaching copy restriction I can't be against rampart copyright infringments?

The world isn't black and white.

You should check to make sure that any encryption software you use or bring is legal in the areas you will be traveling in. I know that the legal standards are different between, for example, the US and France (or it was last time I read about it). I have no idea about specifics of different countries, but it is something that you should know before you set out. And not just the laws, but also look into what to expect when you go through checkpoints - I have no idea if I am actually required to reveal an encrypted volume on my laptop when going through customs coming into the US. And what do I do if the person checking says that they require all of my passwords? (My only thought here would be to make a set of temporary passwords while going through, and then to change them all back after) Sorry I do not have any helpful links. I figure that the time I could spend looking would be a good bit more than the time spent by the person who knows what country to actually look at. Hope it helps.

hahahha oh I know that feeling. Specially when I call Radio Shack for a customer and ask if they have any NICs. The sales girl replies - 'we have something called an Ethernet card, but no Nics.'

Or they day I show up to fix an adsl line and the customer tells me there has been a mistake. He wants a tech, not sales.

Unless you want to send people into space with a greater than 1% failure rate, sending them into space with LESS than a 1% failure rate seems more sensible. I don't know about you, but I would want the failure rate to be smaller, not larger.

Of course, the masters are "banks" that rose at the end of the 18th century, now based in "The City" and linked by the tradition of their lineage to the black magicians in Babylon, who followed Ezra to capture the second temple.

"You're basically saying A > A since this "anyone" includes "you" too. ;)"

So.. he hates Microsoft so much he does an infinite recursion of Cantor diagonalisation every time he thinks of them?

That's a lot of hate!

Specs are 1.6ghz AMD, 1gb ram, 160gb hd, ATI 3200, so it's barely more than a Acer Aspire One with a second 10" screen, so why the $700 price difference? I imagine we'll see these going for ~$300 to $400 by spring.

Me. I paid $10 for it never planning on playing it either. I do hope this model works out.

I must admit I myself have done the same thing. I realised my reliance on Google a few years ago and tried to use alternatives more most of my search needs, and then in a fix compare against Google results. The problem I found was that Google presents a single view of the web that while it may seem accurate isn't the whole picture. People would say to me "If Google can't find it then it dosn't exist", and then be surprised when I said I found it using Yahoo, Gigablast or Live.

Bring on more competitive search engines. If nothing else it will force Google to innovate because I don't see their current interface being the best view into the web.

I just did this myself. I ended up just shooting for cheap hardware on the theory that if it breaks in 2 years I can just replace it. I have a Quad Core Phernom with 8 gig of RAM and two 750gig drives. Chucked VMWare on it and havent had any issues running about 8 or so VM's on it. It also serves up media using TVersity and is a network share dump as well.

The biggest issue I have had so far, is Disk Driver perfomance. If you are planning on running multiple concurrent VM's then go for as many HDD's as you can. Stick the most load intensive ones on seperate drives and you will really see the benefits.

Please everyone who is not in Australia or an Australian help distribute this list. Conroy (the arsehat behind the whole thing) has said he will hunt down any aussie who helps destribute the list.