And I stopped reading here. Calling something a "pest" is an opinion. While they may annoy you, cockroaches fill a biological niches, just like anything else that annoys you (from virii to noxious bacteria to your mother-in-law). They have a purpose, whether or not you choose to recognize it. Calling something a pest is akin to saying "I like purple!" It is devoid of actual meaning or constructive argument. Please reconstruct your argument and try again.

...is that it will attract the Eddorians.

if by locked down, you mean on by default, but you can still turn off, you begin to have a point.

I'm not sure why hardware won't work on other systems since it on'y there to tell windows it's a certified piece of hardware. If the OS doesn't care about it, then it won't matter.

The case discussed here, as well as the extremely similar issues that continue to plague the AT&T uVerse rollout here in the states, underscore why I STILL believe it is necessary to have a separate INDEPENDENT data infrastructure.

It's so obvious and simple yet the entrenched providers and clueless, self-serving politicians make it seemingly impossible to achieve.

My ideal setup would be the creation of a not-for-profit entity to build and manage a FTTP last mile infrastructure. This entity would be responsible for maintaining the lines themselves as well as the regional nodes (sized based on population density). This organization would be explicitly forbidden from offering any actual services to the end users. They would be paid out of fees to the companies which can "light up" the connections at the regional nodes. I'm ready and willing to pay for the creation of this network via my public taxes, as long as it provides open and shared access in terms of selecting providers (anyone willing to put kit in the regional node office).

You get a nice fat fibre connection to your premises (house, business, apartment complex, whatever) and then you can purchase services from anyone willing to install kit into the regional nodes, including multiple separate services over the same line. Technically this is extremely easy to implement, politically not so much.

That would foster TRUE COMPETITION so you know it will never happen.

As a Virgin Media customer in Kensington, I can say that's a load of horsesh

Wrong. not even the right country.

Cue the people in that area complaining ...

There is a difference between paying someone to do something and pointing a gun at them and telling them to do something.
*snip*
B. mercenaries with training and equipment from rifles to nuclear submarines complete with nuclear deterrent are available for hire.

My experience with dell laptops is that they cook themselves. I think the problem is specific to high end / discrete gpu's, but the point remains. Not a fan of them since.

>Yeah it costs more, but I'll put money down that it will last longer

The physical Mac hardware may (or may not) last logger than the typical PC counterparts, however there are two issue with the Apple OS release schedule that when combined may lead to early obsolesce of their hardware.

1). Apple only supports the current and previous OS version.

2). Apple seems to be decreasing the time time between OS releases. They now appear to be on a yearly schedule.

This could render new Mac's unsupported within a 3 year window.

How did you manage to fix armed FBI storming your servers located in another country problem?

A retail copy of Windows costs $300? I guess you're including the price of the netbook?

I was wondering the same thing. Then I remembered a few years back when my provider, replacing a modem that had taken a power surge, tried to pawn off one of those "NAT router/modems" on me.

If they're being used as such, for internal DHCP, that might be a problem, I guess...

I wonder if they will work on your mobile devices.

They'll be all like, "Yo Dawg, I put an app in your app so you can facebook while you facebook."

Dead horse, stick, go.