Lessee now...

Linux (CentOS, Slackware), Solaris, Windows XP, OS X (Lion), Android (Gingerbread), iOS

...laura

Word... Spend half as much and upgrade in half the time. The only reason to spend more than $700 on a laptop is to get a decent video card, which submitty specifically excluded. Unfortunately, the only way to "narrow the field" is to look for a decent video card... that laptop market is still woefully small.

OTOH, the only reason to get a desktop is also to get a decent video card. Besides, it's easier to repurpose an old laptop as a bathroom netflix / social media feed / etc. Even low-end budget computers are fast enough these days. The only activities that take a "long time" such as video transcoding will continue to take a "long time" whether it takes an hour or 15 minutes.

Toshiba seems to have a good reputation for reliability, but don't shy away from a Dell / HP if you have a workplace / source to get replacement parts easily.

The /. article before this was about a new overclocking record. Will 7 GHz be fast enough to run this puppy?

...laura

I'm pretty sure most of my post wasn't passive aggressive, but hey. I assume you didn't read the my tagline either.

    Sending an anonymous email is real easy. I forget sometimes that there are people who read and write on here that actually don't know how to do simple IT things.

    I've had a few different ones. Two were Sony, and one was another name brand that I can't recall right off. I don't go strictly on reviews, most were impulse buys because I knew I'd be flying. One set, I got at the airport magazine shop, because the one I had with me broke.

    Mostly what I've looked for is pricing, something below about $100, and name brand. As far as design, I look for the full headset that goes all the way around the ear, with good padding.

    You'll always hear yourself, like you said via bone conduction. Opening your mouth will also allow sound to get in, shaking the back of your eardrum via your eustachian tube. It seems the air path through your sinuses seems to absorb sound better. I clench my jaw when I sleep, so I don't end up hearing anything except maybe a grinding sound.

    I frequently have problems with my eustachian tubes. They don't always clear, no matter what I do. I could go the surgical route to correct it, but I doubt I'd find a doctor willing to do it, if I can manage fine with pressure relief ear plugs.

    That's why I blew my left eardrum on one flight. If you've never had the pleasure, I suggest that you avoid it at all costs. It's a unique experience, that I'd wish on no one. Thousands of flights, and only one popped eardrum, now I never board a plane without the earplugs.

    I usually did. They'd jump me first thing when I came in, and right after lunch. I set no expectations of doing anything else for those periods. They'd also grab me on my way to/from bathroom breaks, and visit me in the smoking lounge (i.e., outside) for smoke breaks. I didn't mind discussing work during the smoke breaks, even though the final thing I'd always ask for was to send me an email with their request. I'm big into paper trails. They've covered my ass on more than one occasion.

That's like what I do for flying, or going to the shooting range.

When flying, I frequently need the pressure equalizing ear plugs. I have this aversion to having another eardrum blow out because the cabin pressure changed too quickly. I wear noise cancelling headphones over them, and I'm at peace for the whole flight. I'm usually not listening to anything, it's just the silence I appreciate.

When I'm at the shooting range, when I clench my jaw it tends to lift the shooting earmuffs off just enough for me to hear the loud crack of other people's weapons. A lot of ranges don't allow just earplugs any more.. So I wear the foam earplugs under the earmuffs. People have to shout anyways, but with the little bit of sound I can hear, along with lip reading, I do fine.

    Cube spaces are excellent for various things. You can prepare notes that say "shut up", wad them up, and lob them over the wall without anyone noticing who sent it. When they start getting pissy saying "Who threw the note at me that said shut up?" Everyone else would admit to it.

    If they didn't get the clue, a stockpile of "borrowed" desk items (pens, highlighters, staplers, etc) would start following. It only takes a few staplers to the head for them to realize that they're too being too loud.

    That, or transcribing their not-work-related conversations, and anonymously sending them to their supervisor.

    I've been known to do that. I'd wear noise cancelling headphones, so I don't hear idle chatter, doors opening and closing, phones ringing, or all the rest of the nonsense that is associated with an office. Sometimes I'd have music playing, sometimes I wouldn't.

    One thing I was advised about it though was, occasionally I'd talk to myself a little. Usually a "Hmm", or "ah ha", or even quiet rambling about the problem as I was working through it. Since I couldn't hear myself talk, my internal dialogue would sometimes not be internal.

    I usually managed to quell interruptions by explaining to people that there is a startup time for doing any work. Interruptions reset that time. So if it takes 5 minutes to mentally get back into what I was doing, and they stop by to ask me something every 15 minutes, they've delayed the work they want done by 20 minutes per hour, plus as long as they were talking. I was always clear to let people know when their request was done, so they learned not to interrupt to see if I was done yet.

    They'd also see multiple shells open, all doing something different or pending email responses to complete a task, so their interruptions didn't only hurt task, but others too.

You are aware that Interpol regularly handles arrest warrants issued to detain criminals who have committed a crime in only a single country.

Interpol is not an international police organization, it is a framework to allow national police organizations to work together across international boundaries.

If a person were to rob a bank in the US, and flee to Mexico, the US will put out an Interpol warrant (more accurately, the US will issue an arrest warrant, which is then passed on to Interpol, who communicates that warrant to all member nations), and when/if the person shows up in Mexico, Mexico will then arrest them under the Interpol warrant, in order to handle extradition processes. Mexico cannot simply arrest people on a US arrest warrant... that's why they then send it to Interpol who distributes the warrant in an internationally-aware manner that other countries recognize as valid.

So again: Country A cannot legitimately just issue an arrest warrant valid in Country B. Interpol allows Country A to get international recognition of their warrant in such a way that Country B will consider it valid in their borders. There is absolutely no requirement that the crime have occurred in multiple countries, nor that the purported criminal have committed crimes in anything more than just one country.