I just built a new computer for my parents with an Intel boxdg41ty, E6300, 4 gigs of Patriot DDR2, a 1 terabyte Seagate drive, and a Corsair 400 watt power supply for about 275 after rebates and shipping. It isn't a gaming machine, but it works beautifully for just about anything the average non gamer will throw at it.

I've had this job, and you don't want it. I'm not kidding, you really don't want it.

That's why you make your encryption passwords something like: ThereIsNoWayI'mGivingYouMyPasswords!

Hmm, I have a math co-processor I'd like to sell you...

Seriously, I just can't bring myself to throw it out for some reason.

Depends on the press outlets. I'm happy with Windows 7 because my expectations were so ridiculously low. I was just hoping for a 64 bit Windows OS that would install without a ridiculous amount of errors and would have a little bit of driver and software support. I got that and as a bonus it's installation environment has finally surpassed that of Suse 7.1. Finally, I can, if I want to boot out of Linux to play games, take advantage of more than 3 gigs of memory and get full use out of my CPU.

Some outlets will be happy because it isn't quite as much of a steaming pile as Vista was. Others, well, I'm assuming they're happy because of the pay-checks they're receiving.

The same user can do the exact same thing in OSX or linux. It's right there in the menu. System Menu > Preferences > Display for me here, and I have a gui to change my resolution and adjust both my monitors.

In Windows 7, a very similar menu is available under Start Menu > Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Display > Adjust Resolution

My gui seems if anything slightly easier for someone to find, and I'm running linux here. If you can find it under Windows, you can find it under linux.

Android isn't on AT&T yet, I wouldn't be surprised if they hold off as long as they possibly can. I know Apple would like that, and the two have a pretty sweet deal together at the moment.

That said, my next phone will be on Android, and that'll be enough to switch me from AT&T if they don't get one in the near future.

Just no.

The history of dictatorships and religion is full of examples of just this. Traditionally we do ask society to change, but only if the person with the illness has enough power.

I agree with you to a large extent. I had a horrible time installing Vista originally, on an amazingly powerful machine I had custom built to take full advantage of the 64bit architecture and increased ram limits... However, Vista wouldn't run properly due to driver issues, and XP 64bit was problematic as it created some software issues... so I ended up running a 32bit version of Vista on it, essentially wasting a couple of grand...

However, I do most of my work on my old laptop (Intel T1350/GMA 950/3 Gigs of ram), which isn't even rated to run Vista, but it runs Windows 7 decently inside VirtualBox running on Debian, even seamlessly at 1920x1200. So, I can't speak for (non virtual) driver issues, but as far as running on old hardware, it seems perfectly capable.

Ask a lazy person, or even better, a serial procrastinator. They may want to steal your idea, but will never get around to it.

A sound system for 17 people isn't ridiculous at all. I have frequently put up a sound system for parties just involving a few people. Mainly because many of my friends are musical. A party of just 17 friends can easily include a couple bands or a few DJ's without any difficulty at all.

And $1,300 dollars is easily reachable for 17 people for a little party like that. The generator rental can be about $200, high quality liquor with a variety of mixers and decent beer can be an additional $500, good food for 17 people can be an additional $600 if you bring some steaks or something equivalent. That might be a bit excessive, but that assumes you didn't have to pay for the location, rent a large tent, or buy any additional gear or equipment. All it would take is the purchase of an additional speaker or a large grill to bring the costs down from excessive to pretty minimal.

I know, as I've spent that much on parties even smaller than that even when I've already had the venue. Plus an event with 17 people confirmed will be lucky to have that many people show up due to cancellations, an event with 75 people confirmed might get larger, but still nowhere near what I would consider to be a rave.

This is really interesting, and would solve casual observing to a large extent, but I wouldn't consider it a high security solution as it could be fairly trivially defeated by a video camera.

I could see where it could be useful for a doctor's office/hospital though to keep medical records secure, or a reception area to automatically screen out snoopers.

Vista sucks badly mainly because of the way human brains work. This is a perfect example.

We don't make logical evaluations and then come up with an answer. We come up with answers and then collect logical evidence to support it. That is why first impressions are so important. Unfortunately, due to incompatible drivers and binary compatibilities Vista sucked out of the box, and they're going to have an impossible time changing that in the minds of people who already know that.

Everyone is guilty of thinking this way, because it's the way our brains are wired. There are all kinds of reasons why Vista sucks, but even if they fixed all of those things, it would take something drastic to change the conclusions that we've reached.

And how exactly are we supposed to believe her study?