What's wrong with telecommuting?

Europe's got fast, cheap Internet infrastructure... are they still mired in the 9-5, you-must-be-at-the-office mentality affecting North America? If folks need an 'office' for meetings or whatever, there are shared office space providers in a lot of big cities.

If the hiring/immigration laws are too onerous or whatever, try something completely different, don't keep dorking around with the same immigration trickery.

This sort of stinks of offshoring, but that's something companies already love, isn't it?

Games. All the games.

Yes, yes, I know Linux has some games, and I know Steam is there now, but take a good look at gaming on Mac. Steam's there, and some Cider-based ports of things, but it's still pretty bad, despite the optimism we all had five years ago. The games in the App Store are mostly ports of mobile things, not 'AAA' games. If Mac can't do it, I don't think Linux can.

I think the only other thing I use regularly that doesn't exist on Linux is Unity (the game development platform, not the awful UI).

Pretty much everything else I use is portable and/or has a decent equivalent.

Fido in Canada just started bragging about doubling their data cap... to 400MB/mo. We seriously need some competition up here.

Aren't you describing how iCloud currently works? :-P

Let's see, I've gone:

1. Vic-20
2. C=64
3. Atari 1040STf
4. BeBox
5. Umax s900 (Mac clone, running BeOS)
6. Dual Pentium 2 running BeOS
7. Dual Pentium 3 running BeOS
8. Pentium 4 running Mandrake Linux
9. Pentium 4 running Windows 2000
10. iBook G4 running Mac OS X
11. MacBook Pro running Mac OS X
12. Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 running Windows 8

So I've switched from: No OS > Atari GEM > BeOS > Linux > Windows > Mac OS X > Windows.

Windows 8 is ridiculous, but it works well if you install something like Classic Shell and ignore all the Metro stupidity. I don't like where Apple seems to be taking their hardware (back to closed, unupgradable systems)/software (iOS über alles) so I figured I'd try out a Windows laptop.

IMHO switching platforms every five years or so is a good way to keep learning new things, and to get annoyed at a different set of irritating shortcomings. ;-)

I just bought a laptop (15", 1920x1080) and finding models without awful screens (15" with 1366x768, or 17" with 1600x900) was a chore. Why do laptop manufacturers hate their customers?

• Mac versions are often slow to appear, if they ever do.
• Mac versions have awful performance (is it Cider? is it OpenGL? is it the drivers? who knows).

Hopefully on Linux the second problem won't be such an issue, but I don't see the first problem changing.

I'm going to hold out for an 80x25 character amber VT-220 compatible tablet.

Did I miss a memo about Big Fish Games, or are they evil on Windows? I thought the were a legit game vendor... at least, their Mac client doesn't seem to do anything too stupid/nefarious.

Google me three times and I'm getting a restraining order, you stalker.

Agreed. Keep your filthy fingers (and my filthy fingers) off my screen!

I've been planning on buying a new laptop this summer, but if "everyone" goes touch-screen I'm going to have to wait until "everyone" owns up to Windows 8 (well, touch interfaces in general) being ridiculous on laptops and desktops.

I'm amazed that "everyone" is jumping on the "touch-screen OMG!" bandwagon instead of the high-resolution display bandwagon, which would actually benefit users. I guess it's cheaper to implement touch and they can keep using cheap-assed 1366x768 displays.

As long as telecoms continue selling "up to" services with no minimum, you can get this now, everywhere in North America! Victory!

And don't forget the ridiculously low usage limits.

See also: Canada.

Pretty sure our telecoms oligarchy (Rogers, Bell, Shaw, Telus, Videotron; generally "pick two" depending on where you live) spends more money convincing the CRTC they provide excellent service at a great price than they do on network upgrades and maintenance.

OMG SO ELEGANT! :-O

Been there, done that. Switched from technical writing to programming to escape it.

In other news, you can successfully switch careers in your 40s without getting boned financially.