Thanks for the thoughtful and informative response. I did opt out of most of the stuff; have location tracking off, disabled Google +, Google Play Music, Books, Magazines, Games, Video, Hangouts, etc; use Startpage for most searches, use Firefox not Chrome, have Now turned off. Only occasionally use Gmail but I love Google Maps and Play Store.

In any case, I tend to be a pessimist and skeptic about such things, especially when I have no real proof that "opting out" really does anything. It is nice to hear someone a bit more on the "inside" that relays positive info.

>"they revealed that Google's data is now safely protected from the prying eyes of government organizations. "

That is nonsense. The NSA could probably STILL access the information if they want to (and likely will) or Google can be compelled to reveal it with a super secret demand order, or even a regular warrant.

No information that is ever collected is ever "safe" from prying eyes. And even Google having the information is certainly nothing to be comfortable about. They have ENOUGH information about consumers already... certainly enough to be creepy.

Firefox
LibreOffice
GIMP
Audacity
Pidgin
VirtualBox
Clawsmail
VLC/Mplayer
Audacious
Openssh

Lots of other things, but those seem to be a primary "core" for me (Linux, of course).

I am not trying to be insulting, I am just pointing out why many people don't think of England as a "country" in modern times. I think the examples I provided are actually quite relevant. Between us, the one who is actually throwing insults would be you.

In any case, other international organizational examples that do not recognize England, Wales, or Scotland as "countries" include Interpol, the World Bank Group, CERN, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the World Trade Organization... the list actually goes on and on...

The United Nations and the vast majority of the world define "countries" as sovereign states. England, Wales, and Scotland (and Northern Ireland) are not sovereign, but the UK is. England and Scotland WERE countries up until the Act of Union 1707 when England merged with Scotland to create "The Kingdom of Great Britain" and THAT country grew with the addition of Wales (and later Northern Ireland). As I explained before, the member entities in the UK are are more like states in the USA or provinces in Canada.

You may dismiss this information as "rubbish" but that doesn't make it untrue or invalid. And I assure you, I am not uneducated.

Most of the rest of the world (at least lay people) don't really consider England, Wales, and Scotland as separate real "countries". They are more like associated nations as one country.

Similarly, Virginia, New York, and Texas are all separate areas with separate governments, separate culture, separate constitutions, different laws, different climate, and even different dialects. They are states, not countries.

Wales does not sit on the UN. But the UK does.
England is not a member of the EU. But the UK is.
Scotland is not a country of NATA. But the UK is.

>"The official suggestion from Google as well as OMG! Chrome is to try some New Tab page changing extensions, such as Replace New Tab, Modern New Tab Page, or iChrome." "

My official suggestion would be to switch to using a browser that is designed, supported, and implemented by the COMMUNITY- Firefox. Google is going to do what Google wants to do to further their own goals, not necessarily ours. Over time, this becomes more and more apparent.

Example- although Mozilla might be adding some links in the newpage tab to help support their goals of financing Firefox, you can easily change those tabs, or remove the stupid thing all together by changing browser.newtab.url to "about:blank".

Firefox is the only full-function browser that is:

1) Native multiplatform for all the major desktop platforms (Linux, MS-Win, MacOS).

2) Fully Open Source.

3) Managed by the community.

And on top of that, it has fantastic extension/addon support, performs very well, is very standards based, is actively supported and enhanced, has great site support, and is available for mobile too. So I am shedding no tears over the loss of Opera.... and I did use it many years ago.

To me, a distant second is Chromium, but it is still Chrome... and Chrome contains God-knows-what by Google. It is also not a community project and its Linux support is second-class to the other desktop platforms.

Speaking of barf.. looks like more is needed.

>"There's no disputing that Bill Gates is blessed with a brilliant mind."

I think I shall barf now.

>""The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play," hooks to your iPhone."

Correct wording: "The first guitar that anyone that also owns an iPhone can play". All my small devices are Android and shall remain so....

>"But exam data shows the gap is created much earlier"

"is created" implies that some one or some group is guiding/causing/forcing it to be so. A better wording would be "appears" or "unfolds" or "starts" something.

Wording is important.

What does that really mean? They will PAY the customers to use electricity?? I don't understand.

I have just one tip: Install Linux. Then you don't have to worry about tips 1 through 4. (Well, I guess you could still consider 2, rsync is your friend).

>That's why it's fuzzy. It's screen scraped from a TV.

Well, certainly doesn't look like any "TV" I have been watching for the last many years!

China- the 1950's called and would like their equipment back now, if you are done with it.

>" If you want to see how your computer measures up to playing 4K content in 60 fps "

Not really. My monitor is 1080P, 2D. 4K 3D is about as incompatible as playing a tuna fish sandwich!

But thanks for the offer :)