*That's obviously supposed to be "the LCD's on the market can't match it's picture.

Sigh.

TV's arn't going anywhere. If I were a single apartment dweller who never entertained, I'd be inclined to agree that I might never need a big TV and would watch everything on my laptop and/or tablet. But I'm not. The family watches TV together. Groups come over to watch games. Not to mention, hooked up to my 7.1 Onkyo system, I have my own little theater that just isn't replicated by my laptop in my lap. TV's have a long, long future ahead of them.

9 years ago, we shelled out 4-figures for a 43" Pioneer Plasma. Today, I swing through a Best Buy and HH Gregg once every month or so, and glance at the TV's, and simply put, the LCD's on the market that can match it's picture. (I couldn't care less about 3D). It's the perfect size for our den (sure, it could take a 48", or even a 52", but the 43" doesn't leave me wanting for any more picture).

Got what we paid for: Awesomeness and longevity.

I'm going to go knock on some wood now.

FBI Surveillance Van #7

I live on a large tract of land in the middle of freaking nowhere, and if you're close enough to pick up my network, you're within my range for me to legally shoot you. And even if the legality is questionable, there's plenty of acreage for them to never find your body.

Did we just get NeXTcubed?

I wish I had mod points right now for this. It's very true - end user support staff are asked to support a massively wide range of applications and end user environments. Rebooting is almost always a go-to to make sure something the user has done during the session isn't causing the issue. It gives you a fresh instance of the computer to try and recreate and troubleshoot the issue. I suggest gstoddart get in the trenches one day and allow us all to laugh as he languishes with backlogged tickets as he tries to "figure out why something doesn't work" instead of just rebooting the damn thing.

Actually no, all you needed was a dumb phone with text messaging. Some of us have no desire for a smartphone... I hate touch screens... I hate the size of the smartphones themselves... all I needed was my little dumbphone and a text messaging plan to, gasp, make phone calls, and send/receive text messages. Now, I lose a lot of functionality for finding basic address/phone number information with my phone because this service is gone. I have no problem with people who want/use smartphones. However, I for one, like many others, have no desire for their size/expense.

Exactly. I have been using my Samsung Alias 2 for 4 years now. I LOVE this phone. I don't WANT a smartphone, with it's larger size and attached data plan I won't use. I'd actually have gladly paid maybe $1.99/month to have SMS search from google, because I use it at least once a week. It was so simple - Send a text with "business/city/state" and it sends you a text back with the address and phone number. Very efficient, simple, and I don't need a "f*ing handheld computer" to do it.

And I'm not talking about this article. I'm talking about Slashdot as a whole.

You are implying that MS Office & Open Office are equals. They simply are not. To use your analogy of lawyers, Open Office is like sending a firm sending junior attorney's into this poor neighborhood, and counting the "value" of their service at the senior partner's $500/hour rate, instead of the junior attorney's $100/hour rate. The value of Open Office is less than the value of MS Office, therefore, the argument grossly inflates the "value" of Open Office.

But, if Office was valued at $150, and Open Office is valued at $150 ($139 for the home edition, +tax), regular office would win over MOST of the purchases. A doctor going into a poor neighborhood is providing the SAME service to those people as he/she would to the paying public. I dare say that Open Office does NOT provide the same functionality that regular Office does. Similar, but not identical. Using your analogy, changing it to a lawyer, this is like sending a 2nd year law grad into the poor neighborhood and counting his billing time at the senior partner's $500 an hour, instead of the junior attorney's $100 an hour.

I would buy the real Office... I wouldn't pay half that for Open Office. Most of the reason people DL Open Office is that it is free. I dare say they wouldn't have 1% of their download numbers if it was $150 a pop. Propaganda post. Not that I don't support the OO effort, but this is about as good an article as a Fox News report.

A lot of business-model PCs (namely HP) come with Windows 7 downgrade already. Try looking for laptops like the 4540s that have been factory downgraded.