If Linux (or any other platform) gains in popularity so much that it becomes the target of most viruses, then the "cost of training" will go down, because every high school and community college will be showing their students how to use Open Office on Linux... and MS software would become "niche software" that requires extra training.

Maybe that will work, but you'll have to turn Aero 5 off. And, of course, you'll be limited to 3 apps.

I think you've misnamed a couple seasons.

I believe the seasons are Allergy, Mudslide, and Fire.

And, of course, Apple pays full retail for its own hardware and software.

Even if they're not editing the final product, I'd be surprised if a video crew wouldn't want to patch together "dailys" to see whether the day's footage was usable. iMovie (included with OSX) on a $1200 MacBook might be sufficient for that purpose; a windows machine would probably end up costing more after purchasing usable video editing software.

Are those nuts water cooled?

You could almost call it the "Windows XP tax". Like the Microsoft ad says, "I guess I'm not cool enough to run Windows XP."

Yeah, it's crazy that book authors should want to make a few bucks to eat and pay rent. They're just greedy bastards.

How much do you make at your job? How much do you you expect to be paid for a year's worth of work? An author who spends a year of their life writing a book is just greedy if they hope to make more than, say, $10 bucks for their work?

Obviously, though, the sky's the limit for your chosen profession; surely the world would be a wasteland without your work, so you should get paid generously, even if you're just spending the day playing minesweeper.

Exactly. A-freakin-men. Bingo. Dead-on.

The compensation of a Fortune 500 CEO generally has no relation to their performance. And, what's even worse, the compensation for most companies that is tied to performance is usually only gauged in the shortest of terms. The US taxpayers are footing bills in the trillions of dollars to bail out the whiz kids at our "premier financial institutions" who were paid "performance bonuses" for their short-term gains. These financial geniuses sold piles of crap that carried immense risk -- risking thousand of times more money than their company could ever conceivably pay -- for a relative pittance in short term cash. They got their multi-million dollar bonuses, the company (and now the taxpayers)got the risk.

I think that any million-dollar bonuses should be required to be tied to long-term performance. Tax the crap out of any compensation over a million bucks, but give a favorable rate to compensation that carries some risk. Like stock options that can't be cashed in for 5-10 years, or long-term ownership of the company by some other agreement. Otherwise, we're going to continue to support the profitable trade of long-term health for short-term quick cash.

Another option, for similar reasons: Statistics. There's a lot of places where the two intersect, and if you've got the stomach for stats, it's a powerful combination.

Hey, someone has to release the mosquitoes. They dont get out of the jar by themselves.

Perhaps the poster (and you) could consult with Michael Phelps about the aerodynamics experiments he was working on. Something about acceleration of hot gasses through a water-air interface? The "bong effect", I think it's called. I think such experiments would be very inspiring for many undergraduates.

I suspect he's thinking of Jennifer Beals, the star of the groundbreaking motion picture, Flashdance. Written by Joe Esterhaus (before he got cancer and became religious), produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. Jennifer Beals was a "welder by day, stripper by night" who wanted to go to dance school. You can't beat that for plot. After this movie, Jennifer Beals' fine performance led many young women to prance around in ripped up sweatshirts and leg warmers. Good stuff.

A Syllabus is not enough. The teacher should make the students sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement and a Non-Compete clause. Unethical, ineffective, and inane rules need legal jargon to be effective.