Once upon a time I worked in some institution that had access to the corporate network only. We bought a new notebook, attached it to the network and did nothing more. It became infected in 15 minutes. Were we the other 0.0001%?

Some 15 years ago I worked in some institution. My policy is:

1) Install the new system on new HDD.
2) Copy all work files to the new HDD.
3) Hide the old HDD.
4) When it's known that everything works then save some critical work files somewhere, test and reuse the HDD.

I asked the management that I need a new HDD. The institution head told my boss to supply me with HDD. My boss left the resolution "You don't need a new HDD". I copied the work files, erased the HDD and reinstalled the system. Then it appeared that some program saves it's work files in c:\Program Files which was not expected. My boss had lots of unpleasant talks both with institution head and operator of this PC.

In the day of half inch 9-track tape the tape format was able to recover multiple single-track errors, be it NRZI or PE. But I have never seen the actual mini computer controller that could do this recovery. No wonder the success rate was near 50 per cent.

Sorry, but would it allow

1) Typing faster than on standard keyboard?
2) Typing with less errors than on standard keyboard?
3) Typing easier and with less health problems than on standard keyboard?
4) Typing at least not so expensively that on specialized ergo keyboards?

No. This keyboard is made for the single segment of market: Consumer, not professional.

And now I should remember the words of (then) education minister of Russia: Communists were not right when they tried to grow a creator-man. Now we should grow a qualified consumer of all the things the mankind has been created.

I have no patience to read all the comments, I have read about 1/4 of them. But:
1) I feel quite sad that the formalized rules are to be applied where it was enough for Ladies and Gentlemen to behave as in a good society.
2) I think it's necessary to be ready to the moment when the FreeBSD project is just closed due to the political correctness. Since FreeBSD is my main OS I think that the mirroring the FreeBSD project for emergency purposes becomes a necessity.

Full Disclosure: I live in Russia, and I have graduated from the University which before 1917 was a School for Noble Girls.

It should be not too difficult to use any cellular modem or modem module and a simple microcontroller that issues the AT-commands to the modem. As a bonus, you should be able to obtain some status info in order to detect the stingrays.

You cannot trust even the open OS. You cannot trust ANYTHING that could be changed without a hardware programmer, but the ability to load some commercial programs is the thing that makes a piece of hardware a smartphone. Either you retain this ability or you should rewrite all the ecosystem from scratch.

You should be worried about at least 3 things: 1) Intel Management Engine that could be present in some Intel-based books, 2) Something inside a BIOS, for instance a theft prevention mark that is automatically recognized by Windows (Have forgotten the exact name). I have such a Thinkpad and just don't care since I don't use Windows and have a proof of purchase, 3) BIOS password which in Thinkpads is NOT erased by CMOS battery removal.

It's exactly how the Russian specialists are educated in Russian universities.

Being a Russian I have seen the tests for exams of "Automatic control theory". And there was a test "There is a satellite with given moment of inertia and given torque from thrusters. Turn the satellite 30 degrees".

The NORMAL technical decision is "Give it some thrust and wait until it turns in position when it's expected to be slightly before the needed target position after braking. Then turn thrusters ON and OFF according to the expected deceleration curve until it's stopped on position". The turn is limited with available fuel and available time.

The "CORRECT" decision expected from the students was "Turn ON the thrusters and accelerate the satellite until it's almost late to brake it. Then turn ON the thrusters backwards". And it does NOT care that the fuel is extremely valuable and that any possible error is NOT to be corrected.

All this is an expected result of our education policy of our former education minister Fursenko: "The Communists were wrong trying to grow a creator. Our task is to grow a qualified consumer of all that has been already created".

But, Americans, if you think that this policy doesn't apply to you...

It was THE problem that caused me to switch to FreeBSD. I have installed some new software to Windows 98 and then Word stopped working just when I was to produce an extremely important and extremely urgent letter.

Also, I have produced the following ironclad principle: The HDD is NOT the computer part. It's a medium. So if you install something you do it on a fresh medium while your work medium remains intact. Then your work medium is replaced with the new one and comes to storage.

It's basically irrelevant from the very moment the Windows is caught with sending your precious data to Redmond and then to all 3-letter agencies that exist. And now we (I work in some Russian defense-related institution that should not be mentioned by name) have only 2 variants: Either conserve the Windows XP environment forever or use LibreOffice.

The Outlook is destined to die ONLY because the SMTP and POP protocols aren't secure anymore. And even if they use the secure transport their providers are obliged to store your correspondence for the Competent Organs.

I think the RetroShare mail subsystem has become operational enough to replace the SMTP.

1. The computer park on my workplace consists of 1 Windows-98 computer, 1 FreeBSD 6.1 computer, 6 computers with last versions of FreeBSD and one Windows XP computer. The only computer that requires maintenance is a Windows XP computer. All other computers just work.

2. The said Windows XP computer could be a FreeBSD one but some 10 years ago there was a management decision to use Windows XP because it's a development system for the client which performs the similar tasks. It appeared that the client just needs no such system: they use their own Windows programs and my FreeBSD programs.

3. 'Vast majority of people". I've written some Fortran program that produces some general scientific calculations. Then it was given to the specialist who should independently evaluate the results. And it appeared that she is not able to perform the following tasks, and I was to write every step on paper:
- to redirect the output of the program to some file with ">"
- to use Windows "find.exe" to extract some specific output lines from the loooooooong listing
- again to redirect the output of "find.exe"
- to load the results to Excel.
And she's NOT the only such specialist here. They all behave similarly, and they all have experience with Unix in 1980-th years and MS-DOS in 1990-s. But they all spent 22 years from 1995 (Windows-95) to today in Windows and as a result they degraded totally.

Well, I also have a similar policy. But I depend on Trackpoint.

I think I should not buy this specific model (Which does NOT mean I should not buy Lenovo).
1) Trackpoint should have 3 normal buttons, not 3 areas on Trackpad. So you can disable Trackpad and have no problems when your hands rest on it.
2) I think that the simple book for work should have Intel HD graphics, the normal book for work should have NVidia graphics, that the double graphics is a way to disaster and that the cool computer for games is stationary.
It's a place to remember a FreeBSD KMS disaster which basically excludes everything except NVidia if you want KOI8-r (I am Russian).
3) The book with numpad is just too big to be a book.

In 2003, I had a choice of buying a used Fujitsu or used Thinkpad since I needed it for my sysadmin activity. The prices were comparable. I have found a Thinkpad service manual. I have found nothing about the Fujitsu. So I asked Fujitsu service about any docs. Answer was formulated very politely and was the following:

1) We disclose NO service info, it's a commercial secret, we are very-very sorry.
2) This specific book is a Japan-specific model. It's not sold outside Japan, we are very-very sorry. We can supply you with an user manual but it's in Japanese and in printed form, you should pay for it in Yens, we are very-very sorry.
3) No, we shall NOT tell you what is the model of similar model for the US market, it's a commercial secret, we are very-very sorry.

I answered that I am a sysadmin in some org of 2000 persons of staff and I'll prefer IBM for all this staff and I am very-very sorry.

So I am very-very sorry but my choice is IBM and Lenovo and shall be while service manuals are available (Which means that I am not a fanatic and if/when Lenovo stops supplying the service manuals I shall migrate to other supplier immediately)