So I take it that V2G is bullshit? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_to_grid

What are the long-lat of this crater? I know privacy is an issue, but it would be nice to know if this is in central florida or the adriatic coast for example

The Roku could be an absolute Squeezebox slayer if the thing would only offer playback of more audio formats. As it stands, MainSqueeze channel is available to connect with a Squeezebox Server, but unfortunately ogg, flac, etc are not playable on the Roku. And transcoding doesn't work either. WHAT A HEARTBREAKER! Think about it, the Squeezebox starts at $299....

Excellent point. The university I work at uses UINs, made-up identification numbers rather than SSNs etc. Nothing is kept at the Dept level. If you don't have it, you don't have to worry about losing it.

Well, they're just checking up to see if you're alive.

The Joysystems computers (off-lease refurbs) that are sold at Microcenters actually advertise the fact that they come with a recovery disc. Every Apple computer comes with one, and it's usually a free option for most Dell purchases. In short, I wouldn't purchase a system without one. Doesn't need to be more complicated than that, does it?

I believe that 2.6.34 will natively support TRIM, which will keep most second generation SSDs running clean. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM/

Taxes have no affect on profitability - earning are usually looked at before interest and taxes. Taxes do use up cash, if of course they are paid.

for the vast majority of people buying Apple products today, it is certainly not bullshit. If Apple products weren't so fashionable, they'd still be skirting the fringes with fifty year old academics, windows bashers and other types. Does the teenager buy a Macbook because it's Unix? doubtful. Does the teenager buy a Macbook because it's one sexy computer. Of course, to go online to facebook, play music and video AND impress everyone by doing it on a Mac.

Don't take it personally if you like Apple products. There's a lot of reason to buy them. But in terms of their increased POPULARITY, I agree with the parent, it's all because of fashion.

BTW, most every computer works... I'm actually typing this on a non-Mac right now and I don't have a CS degree.

..change. What's important is that they're moving forward and not afraid at touching sacred cows so to speak. While I've come to equate brown with Ubuntu (got a few hoodies that are brown), I think I can handle the change. I've never really bothered to change the default theme because, it's just not that important to me. At any rate, Windows 7 has a very welcomed - and fresh - look and looking back is greatly improved upon from XP, while Mac OS X 10.6 still has that space vagina splash screen from Leopard... Move on Ubuntu, move forward!

I've probably heard some of the most outrageous exaggerations coming from the Apple store. "Now, the Mac has everything you need for digital photos. Just plug in your camera and they automatically transfer. PCs don't do that". Yeah, right.

Or how about another browser at a minimum? Don't you think there is a reason why IE, Mozilla, Opera, Chrome, etc... all exist? Like I tell everyone at work, do your work in IE and keep the Yahoo, Live, Facebook, Pandora etc in Firefox.

What's new. Every financial institution in the US is bent on screwing customers over with legalese gibberish that no one understands. And our political institutions are just fine with that. In fact, for this we reward them with a Trillion dollar bailout when the pull off the granddaddy fuck-up of the century and bankrupt the country?

The Onion had a great take on there profitability: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/even_ceo_cant_figure_out_how

Why wouldn't you just ship freight collect to the small shop? And charge a handling charge for "small orders"? Mod down parent (hardly insightful).