AT&T won't provide the services or will do so at triple the prices paid now. This is also a very convenient way of shorting the school system what they need, and thus have more ammo to go after them for not providing what our kids need. Thus making schools the root of all evil again. Most voters will go along with it, and the GOP in Wisconsin gets more of what it wants.

Good enough is already many IT "professionals" operate. They don't look for the best solution but the bare minimum. And often times they don't consider any other options but the "good enough" one.

Bit twiddlers vs technologists.

And a reason why the MS empire is what it is. : )

The meaning changes depending on who you're talking to, what they're representing and what seems to be convenient at the time.

Is it the OS? The hardware? The protocols implemented? Please.

I get this all the time in the enterprise systems space. "Industry standard servers" based on "open standards" really? Intel chips are open? Windows is open? You'll give me the source code & designs for those?

Or hey "open systems" storage. I.E. everything that's WinTel. Oh but hey UNIX is supposed to be open too, right? Oh wait, unless it's running on something other than x86 hardware, then it's the evil "proprietary."

Whatever. It's gone from being a legitimate technology premise to politics as usual. And of course Microsoft would try to spin this their way.

What's idiocy is thinking how you like to use a device is how everyone else will want to use one. GPS on my phone might be nice but so is my Garmin. It has a much larger screen, doesn't depend on a cell network to function and I can easily mount it forward in the vehicle to see while driving.

I just love it when some fool reporter tries to push an agenda or tell me how I'm supposed to use a product.

The three consoles: Wii, Xbox, PS all use IBM chips. The Wii's version isn't as powerful as the CellBE used in the PS for example...and the video of the Wii isn't quite as high end.

But then again, it's a different device. Why does it need to be the same as the others? If you think it's watered down, then go use something else. Pretty simple.

When you really position IT as a solution provider to the business, in addition to not being an elitist arse.

There will always be aholes in an organization who treat IT as scum. Mainly that's because IT has treated their customers (user base) as ignorant scum for years.

Policy is fine, but it needs support from on high. If you have that, then have the upper ups send out the notes on IT policy if you have to.

If you're cordial, offer solutions and value, and still get treated like crap then fine...BOFH it is then.

You can be nice while being treated like crap for only so long. Then look for another job.

Ethanol isn't the problem. How we're making it, is.

It cracks me up how quickly some folks want to dismiss it. Like it has to be 100% perfect the first time out. Gee, gasoline has what a 100 year head start?

You don't have to mod the whole engine. Just from the injector rails on back. Mainly the supply feed. Otherwise it'll run it fine. And I anticipate the 10 vs 15% thing is BS too, other than the supply side of it.

I talked to the Chevy engineer who worked on the Corvette pace car at Indy last year. It ran E85. I asked him what all needed to be changed and that was it. Injector rails on back. Things that would have direct contact with the fuel for extended periods of time. They happened to use neoprene to get the job done.

And oh by the way, methanol has been an additive in gasoline for years. Also an alcohol based product. It would have the same "issues" - or not - as ethanol as a fuel additive.

Oh and the stuff you put in your tank to eliminate fuel line freeze up? Alcohol based.

Oink, Oink.

It takes forever to boot up, which is my primary issue. And this is on a T61 Thinkpad, 3gig memory and a T8300 chip. Yes there are apps there but honestly it goes to the OS itself at the end of the day.

And if we're just going to discount any os issues by saying it's all the apps fault then well that just does well for this whole "open systems" thing now doesn't it.

Just means if it's open then it sucks because it can be screwed by other's apps. Gee, how nice.

For folks who want everyone to move to Linux, well show me all the apps that look, feel and have all the functions of what Joe User would have in his blessed WinDOHs world and ok maybe it would work.

You just can't expect the average Joe to have any patience with that.

Some have moved to Mac because honestly at this point you can be totally MS free on there, and have the app function you want. All in what would be much easier for Joe to use than trying to run with Linux.

I've downloaded Windows 7 and will try it on a couple boxes here both in 32 and 64 bit mode. We'll see.

Go visit sites like UltimateWhiteBox.com

My personal setup is two systems with Q6600 CPUs, 8 GB memory, intel 1000GT nic. I use a NAS box with an NFS share for shared storage in between them so I can do VMotion.

The big caveat I've found is that most desktop boards embedded eth won't work.

Use a lower end or cheap video card. I picked up some 128meg ATIs for $16 on ebay.

If the mainframe system is so good then why do you need to move off of it? Why is it a waste of taxpayer dollars when it works?

What I've seen on LED bulbs is that they tend to be rather directional in nature. They don't produce as much of an omnidirectional light as other bulbs do. I also don't much care for the "white" lights having more of a blue spectrum quality to them, vs the incandescent yellow spectrum glow. The reason I haven't bothered to use them in any of my holiday lights.

Ok so Exchange/Outlook because you have it in org today. I can see that, assuming that you also believe that's the best platform or the one that you prefer to use. Thing is though, and I know this to be true, that I can find folks who are ticked they have to use Notes and folks who are ticked they have to use Outlook. My last org switched to Exchange/Outlook from Notes/Domino and it set off a firestorm of protests from workers because they lost a TON of functionality. Productivity went into the toilet because Outlook simply couldn't keep up with the business.

Your comments alone indicate what little you know about the ND marketplace or even the collaborative application space. The entire Fortune 1000 is not going to Exchange my friend, no matter how much you want it to.

And what would you rather use? And state a product, not "anything."

I'll rephrase say what I posted when Gene passed: May she live long and prosper in a better place.