Have you ever worn a tin foil hat that close to a tower? I assume the result would be something similar to aluminum foil in a microwave, probably bad news for any surrounding tissue. I suggest starting with an appendage less critical to your survival, like a non-dominant arm. If after 10 minutes of use your skin begins to sear, discontinue use.

I have roughly 50 users I support, of varying technical capacity. Yet 99% of them are completely comfortable capturing screen images of items they are unsure of. I suggest installing a simple to use print screen utility. My personal favorite for ease of use is FastStone Capture, which would require licensing, but it allows them to quickly capture part or all of the screen and attach it to an email in a few simple clicks. Since the error itself is almost more valuable then the log data, it could be relatively easy to justify the cost. It also may be beneficial to any users that update business processes or other documentation with screenshots. Hope that helps, and good luck. I'll be keeping an eye on the thread to see if anyone else has any great suggestions.

I can't believe this is a legitimate post. Console gaming will never die. The direct association with console gaming to sales of consoles is ridiculous. At his point in time there are close to hundreds (only a handful of mainstream) of consoles to choose from. I myself had a great blast from the past playing some Tiger Heli and Jackal on an old Nintendo over the weekend. I think the concept of needing the latest and greatest console is wearing off. Nostalgia wins out sometimes, my PS2 still runs like a champ. Of course I've also logged a few hours in the past few days with MW2 on the Xbox 360. The Wii has done wonders for introducing console gaming to a new market. Of course at the same time, I used to complain that PC gamers had a natural bias based on the machines of the gamers they were playing against. I still see connection speed as the biggest factor hurting multiplayer gaming, that is, the one with the fastest connection, always seems to win.

Yup, a rather disappointing selection of things that probably wont get used. All but that copy of Windows 7, needed to do something with my Vista Media Center. Unfortunately (insert random plug for FOSS), Mythbuntu isn't quite ready for primetime. I will say that I do appreciate the free copy of Windows 7, thanks MS. I will have people over and hold up to my contractual obligations for receiving it (if there are any). Of course we'll probably just open a bottle and forget completely about Windows 7, we may just use that Xbox 360, assuming that it doesn't choose to receive an E-74 error that night.

The key is "if done right", the problem is, marketing and sales people rarely think about how to do it right, they just think about how to sell their product. Commercials no longer describe product features or even the products their advertising, they just come up with something likely to get stuck in the consumers head. For instance, I myself am waiting for the game Pogo the Monkey. Yes we do listen to commercials in games, pay attention to the advertising, but the game type also dictates what could be acceptable. A small level of intelligence would be necessary to derive which adds would be good for what games. Sports drink ad's might be acceptable in sporting games but maybe not a racing game. We just have to hope the guy pushing the ad's doesn't have his own agenda or receive kickbacks for cross marketing attempts. If you keep it in good taste, I probably won't argue. If your product sucks, I probably won't buy it. Advertise away, but when I feel their intrusive (i.e. spam/pop-under(see x10)) I will loose faith in the product/company. A good product can sell itself. A great product doesn't need to be sold (www.ubuntu.com).

As a past employee of a Retail store, I know for a fact that they always find a way to make customers pay much more then is necessary for everything they can, up to and including OS's. I don't know how many people were sold on "Media Center" functionality they never used and that's just scratching the surface. As for the Obligatory Open Source comment, our licensing is much more simple. http://www.ubuntu.com/community/ubuntustory/licensing

In a short time frame like that I believe a lot of the topics suggested above require more time then you'll have. My suggestions, which falls right into yours, is to teach them how to learn. While it seems like it's implied, very few people in society these days have the ability to learn on their own. In the DIY community this is extremely easy, given the plethora of how-to's and guides out there. I would say your first topic should be effective search techniques, part of learning is weeding out all the bad information and knowing where to find it. I myself believe the concept of "Teaching" is a dying art, as the true goal of it is to promote "Learning" which can be done any place at any time. Unleash the power of the Internet and the global community and maybe they'll go far. "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime." Some good resources for the job, howstuffworks.com, ehow.com, wikihow.com, about.com and google.com. From those, one could amass the knowledge our ancestors only dreamed of. Hope that helps and good luck.

As an IT administrator in these tough times, you might as well give up on always having nice shiny toys to play with. You end up supporting legacy systems and trying to get more out of the old rust buckets that used to end up curbside years ago. As for glory, IT has always been the bastard child of every organization, all we do is spend money with very little ways to generate revenue for the organization. That's unlikely to change anytime soon. If your getting into a career in IT, be prepared to be under-appreciated by everyone around you. But don't let it get you down, you know that what you do is important, otherwise logic would have led you to another career.

Isn't motivation a key component to Intelligence? I mean would we have even become intelligent if it wasn't for our motivation to survive in an ever growing complex world?

So humor me, if my name is on that list, and I didn't authorize the dissemination of said information (adding further that it was most likely obtained in a manner which violates a law or two, i.e. stolen). Wouldn't that put Mr. Holder in possession of stolen property?

I've always used pinouts.ru, but for some reason it doesn't appear to be available today. Maybe we do need a more reliable location for this type of information.

Find an extra computer, hopefully not too old, install Windows Home Server. Browse around at what all you can do with it.

How come I never heard anything else about the virus stolen from the US Army research facility? I saw it on the news about a week prior to any news about the Swine flu. From what I recall it had a mortality rate of about 1 in 100, and flu like symptoms. Did anyone else hear of this?

What about other stats regarding email use. Here within my office I respond to numerous email issues and observe the different ways people treat email, some users have over 1000 unread emails in their Inbox, blatantly ignoring spam and daily announcements. They ignore them and allow them to be archived creating digital waste on the file server. I myself check emails as they come in, deleting those I know do not pertain to business functions (which are required to be retained). I also know users that will open an email item and leave it open until they can respond, putting them in a difficult situation should they experience a power failure. What does everyone else see in the workplace?

In the defense of TPB and "Making Available". Google makes available majority of the internet, including pages with questionable content. When do we get to take them to court? I mean how many users have received a virus from a bad search term and not properly screening the results... in fact, without google would the RIAA even know of TPB? would half the users? lets stop wasting time and take the one really responsible to court. I kid, and I like Google. I just think that the time wasted could be better spent. RIAA, you dropped the ball, what we have here is a FAILURE to INNOVATE. Someone is getting the job done for you, because we are tired of waiting. I still am willing to bet that I go buy a CD from Best Buy and it still lacks that technology from 1996, CD-Text. Every CD I own had to be copied to add that data, thanks Nero!