It's time to stop buying these game consoles that cannot be hacked and these DVD's they don't want us to watch.

I have resisted setting up the DVD player since we moved (4 months ago) because the restrictions placed on me (Macrovision!) by the manufacturer inconveniences me. If I could buy a DVD without previews that I could have playing within 10 seconds of loading into the drive, I might be interested in spending money, but it just annoys me and I would rather not support an industry that treats their customers this way.

I just paid $80 to change a rim on my truck because it was rusty and leaking. ($40 for the rim from a junk yard, $40 to mount and balance). 35 years old, 25% failure rate. Not too bad.

My truck is old-school. New, problematic, overly complicated technology is unwelcome. This new technology sounds new, overly complicated, and problematic.

I just wish there was an AM station to listen to on the way to work...

That's funny because... my new commute is 2.4 km (yay!) and I do live in the Rockies (Cranbrook, BC).

Even though I have the option to bring a company vehicle home, I choose to either drive my own truck, or ride my bicycle. I've been pretty good at taking the bike to and from work. It's a fairly gentle ride home, but my biggest complaint is that my ride is directly south and every day last week there has been a strong wind blowing north while I'm riding home.

I can't think that I'll be riding much once the snow starts flying though.

Thanks! Up... er... Downgraded.

Yeah, I live in a mountain climate, so it aint likely happening. There's just too much snow to even bother. People that live in this region park their bikes for half the year. It's really nice driving a truck when there's a good 10cm of slushy muck for weeks on end, then it freezes and just gets silly.

My lifestyle dictates that I have a truck. Sure I could move to high density housing and give up fishing, hunting, exploring, firewood getting, boating, camping, etc, but I'm not interested in even considering that. I moved to a small mountain town because I want to live in a small mountain town and enjoy it.

If I drive my truck to work every day, an aerodynamic bed cap won't make much of a difference at the speeds my commute will allow. I'm on other side of town (tried to live closer, but this side of town has houses...) and won't hit much more than 50km/h on a good day.

The idea of bicycling is great, and I'll likely get a bicycle soon, but the weather here is only good enough for riding maybe 4 months of the year. Pretty much the same as with a motorcycle, but at least you're out of the rain sooner than if you ride.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the government auto insurance agency (ICBC) has no interest in encouraging me to have a second, more efficient vehicle by allowing me split the insurance. If there was a steep discount on additional vehicles though, I'd probably fill the yard... maybe it's better this way.

Easy there big guy. He's clearly not complaining about the price of a second plate itself.

I have a new job that will soon be within 4 km of home. I need my pickup (horribly inefficient), but not for commuting. It costs me about $900 a year to have my truck insured. I'd LOVE to buy/build an electric car to commute to work in, but the reality is it would probably cost another $900 a year to insure it. Here in British Columbia it's a lot more than just the cost of the plate. I'll need to do the math to see whether it would save me money or not,and I might just wind up buying a motorcycle for the summer as that insurance is a lot cheaper.

At a previous job we had some custom build night navigation camera equipment that was supposedly high end. I had to open a controller once because it was acting up and I nearly died at the poor quality of construction. For wires, they had used a piece of ribbon cable plugged into a PCB, then split the individual conductors off the ribbon and connected them where necessary. The solder "blobs" were almost all cold joints or had spikes protruding from the sides. I was appalled that I was supposed to integrate this into our system with our name on it, and install it in a fairly high vibration environment that was going into an area that would be extremely difficult to service (high end yachts).

I have no patience for poor quality soldering, and have no problem stating that I am better then average at soldering only because the idea of sending something out with a bad solder joint is unacceptable.

I also stockpiled 60/40 solder when I had the chance.

Are you telling me to expect problems with SAP?

A few (dozen?) years back a chemistry prof was writing the lab manuals and wanted to change "protective gloves" to "protective clothing". He did a find and replace gloves with clothing.

Various lab instructions included the phrase "It is not necessary to wear clothing in this lab".

Hilarity ensued.

Thanks for your pleasant vote of confidence...

I have a '77 Chevy truck. What I love about it is the simplicity. Minimal plastic (upholstery), AM radio, simplicity of service.

What I don't like is that it's old and everything needs to be replaced.

My wife has an '05 Xterra, and work just gave me a 2012 F150. I appreciate the smooth suspension and handling of the newer vehicles, but I prefer the lack of complexity in my old truck.

I guess my dream vehicle would be a small SUV, 4X4, solid front axle, exposed metal interior. Something like the old Samurai. Diesel would be a nice option. Perhaps I should go buy a jeep.

If I could buy a car today with no features, minimal upholstery, nothing more than a chassis, powertrain, and seat... available in flat black paint... I'd buy one so fast your head would spin.

I picked up an Acer Revo a while back because it had a fiber optic audio connection to the amp, and sat nice and quiet next to the TV.

Fast forward a year, and now I'm surfing the web reclined on the couch.

I could go 6 feet that way and sit at a more powerful computer on a desk, or sit up and use a more powerful laptop, but... I'm sitting at the lowest powered machine in the house whining when it chokes on something. Sucks to be lazy...

If I didn't know any better, I'd guess Microsoft is trying to realize their dream of owning a closed platform. The only thing they're missing now is an "office" package.

Do it. That will make it a whole lot easier to drum up some outrage at the next election.

I'm jealous. That'd be so much easier and cooler than finishing my renovations and selling my house. My insurance policy says I'm covered for "acts of God". As long as nobody's hurt of course.