Do ya'll buy commercial NAS systems, or does anyone here do the FreeNAS type thing as a full custom solution?

he should consider modifying his personality to be more attractive to what the larger numbers of women feel they want in a man.
I noticed you used "feel" instead of "say" if this guy were independently wealthy, I am sure he could have his pick of potential mates, but since he isn't, he's trying to increase his chances of success by casting a wide net. Seeing as how the typical courtship pattern involves the man making the first move, obtaining that first date is a successful strategy.
his (later, but maybe not much later) divorce lawyer will also be suitably grateful.
Given the success rates of marriage w/out data mining, I am not sure how he could do worse.

I never had a "free" account, but I remember when we had good interest rates. My first CD, in the mid to late 80s, paid 8%, and IIRC, my regular savings was 2-3%. Even my checking gave me 1%. Nowdays, most long-term CDs aren't even 1%. :(

But, what will I use to buy my bitcoins?

Ok, so it is between ME dying of fever, or someone else.

That's a pretty easy choice to make...no?

First, a disclaimer: Yes, I understand that the "cloud" means nothing more than playing Buzzword Bingo with the same old crap hosted by someone else, with a shiny new billing model that lets the service providers rub their hands while cackling with glee over all the idiot CEOs out there willing to pay more for what they don't recognize as the same ol'.

That said, if your resume says you've worked in the trenches with VPSs and hosted solutions, you can expect the HR drone's eyes to glaze over because it doesn't match any of the buzzwords on their pre-screening checklist. If, however, you say that you've "Deployed critical corporate assets to the Azure cloud", well now, you may well have yourself a job!

Just make sure when you actually get to interview with a real IT manager, you know the difference between the PR bullshit and reality; the pain of trying to integrate between different "clouds" you don't control; how to code in C# and Javascript and SQL. The rest just gets you in the door, you still need to do the same old job as ever.

...because a large segment of them are kids coming out of high school that want to play video games for a living...

Seriously?

How does a kid make an adult living sitting and playing video games?

The reality is that it really, REALLY depends on where the poster lives. Some states and/or municipalities have seriously reigned in the power of HOAs and put limits on what covenants can and can't restrict. In other parts of the country, you can be fined hundreds of dollars a day for having the wrong kind of flower garden or putting up a flagpole.

I hope so...I'm so happy I've never had to live where there are HOA's or covenants, etc.

I'd be seriously pissed at being so limited as to what I could do with my own fscking property I'd bought.

That's one of my peeves. When I see a comment like that, I scream (usually silently) that I know you're assigning foo to x. I want to know WHY you're assigning foo to x!

I am Not posting this as Anonymous Coward. It didn't give me the option to post as "radio" guy. Last Monday I turned my cpu on and Windows 8 decided without giving me the option of saying no. It proceeded to wipe out my restore point so I couldn't undo the mess it caused me. It wiped out all of my personal files including 2 years of weather data I collected from my back yard weather station, all of my pictures including a once in a lifetime trip to Las Vegas, all of my music which was 2 carousels of cd's from my centurian cd units, all of my saved model train information and most programs. A restore program couldn't help, almost 2 hours with Microsoft tech support till they finally said we cannot retrieve your information, good luck. I reinstalled Windows 8.1 pro, the tried to download a Nvidia update for my video card. It proceeded to restart then lock up the cpu giving me a blank screed. I could not get to the sign on screen. I have now had to trash my cpu. It's now a boat anchor and I don't own a boat. I'd start a class action lawsuit against Microsoft, but my limited income from disability keeps me from affording a lawyer. Once again it seems to be just another "plan by the brothers to keep the man down"!

I'm guessing next time, you're going to at least invest in 1or more external drives to back up your important files to???

Geez, no one should rely on their single internal drive to keep all their important stuff on "forever".

Repeat these two words for me as a mantra:

Back Up.

The big problem with Vista is, it hit the "sour spot" for memory. If you had less than 2GB, it was slow. If you had more than 2GB Vista 32 couldn't see the extra, and it was slow.

That, and I have a fully stocked bar in my house near the home theater. And...if you have a date over to watch movies at your home, you're MUCH closer to the bedroom than at a movie theater.

:)

I'm wondering WFT the Feds were called in for??? I mean..is filming a movie in a theater now a fucking federal crime?!?!

I thought copyright infringement was more of a civil crime than a criminal one, and when did it become a federal one?

Still...I think that any point, I'd have been shutting up, asking for my attorney and not saying a fscking thing to them.

Maybe so...but the 'smart' minority, and hopefully, after all the NSA scandal, and news about how corporations are vacuuming up personal info, and sometimes losing it (Target), perhaps more people are more inclined to start being a little more anonymous.

And wow...I didn't know you were required on Skype to give real, honest, personally identifying information?!?! My account is under a pseudonym under a throw away email account...

Sure it is traceable, but not readily without some decent effort.

How about they go the easy route, and just let the companies set up poles and run the wires that way?

What's the big deal? Most areas I know of have utility poles.