"Steam's always running...."

Huh? How does it hide from top?

When I start it via Desktop shortcut, it shows up in taskbar and system monitor process tab. When I right-click and exit it from taskbar, it's gone. Do you mean to say it's hidden or masked as another process?

"/home/myusername/.cxoffice/Steam/desktopdata/cxmenu/Desktop.C^5E3A^5Fusers^5FPublic^5FDesktop/Steam.lnk" is the command for the shortcut. Is there something in there that I should be leery of? [sorry 'bout the control codes, didn't edit or look them up]

Thanks, guys.

I'm getting killed by user agent (1 in 46k), plugins (unique), and system fonts (1 in 82k). Were I to switch to, for example, Win7, the big three browsers, and a small common set of plugins I'm guessing it'd be a lot better. Instead, like a thorough-going idiot, I run 64-bit Linux, Opera, and what I had thought to be a standard set of media plugins. I hadn't intended this to be useful for some un-bidden data miner. I've been totally naive about fonts; so far as I knew I just had the standard package that came with Ubuntu.

Sheesh, this is kinda weirding me out. Ah, well, life on the modern Web, eh?

Thank you for a candid reply; I can see where you're coming from. My intentions were honorable also, if clumsy. I wish you well in your quest.

Had I a simple answer, particularly something as simple as a book list, I'd give it. I read through the entire thread before writing this to see what others thought. Oddly enough, I've read all but maybe a dozen of the non-tech books (and only a few of them) given and found something of worth (even if it was just simple enjoyment at the story-telling) in many of them. Finding something that would jog your creativity without risking upset of your 'center' is beyond me. (I've a personal stake also - if I could find a book that gave me a recipe I could execute to lift me above the poverty level in my 'golden retirement years' I'd use it.)

I'll not single out the handful of posts that struck me as relevant to your situation - I believe you can do that.

I'd be curious to know, in six months, what you found, how it worked, for your situation and for you.

The recipe for chocolate-chip cookies isn't so bad either. While I agree with you, my biggest takeaway was that I liked the way his mind worked.

Links?

Morality and the like are used as PR to sell a war to populace; this doesn't negate the reasons korgitser gave.

Thanks for the link - I'd forgotten about this. Took the test:

"Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 2,452,354 tested so far."

Short conclusion: I'm screwed.

Amen.

Unless gspec is really asking about books in his field that will provide him inspiration or whatnot, seems to me that along with simple enjoyment and possible edification that the benefit of reading books is to gain perspective.

@gspec - You didn't mention if you're single or supporting a large family, which would somewhat affect my view, but seems to me that clearing roughly twice median wage, earning promotions every few years, living in a reasonably congenial area, ought to be just fine. Bonus if you like what you do, and don't have illusions concerning the difference between want and need.