Hi-Res? It's the same length as retina but has less syllables.

First off, don't worry about it.

But also, what seems to be largely forgotten in the comments is the application and interview process itself. Applying for positions that are out of your league may seem a waste of effort but if you stumble across a company who is looking more for enthusiasm than absolute raw skill, although doesn't mention it, then you could be wild-carded an interview.

It's all about how you put yourself across and selling the fact that you learnt by yourself and the proof is the First at the end.

To me, a company simply looking for 'raw skill' is not a company I want as my first employer anyway.

You sir, are my virtual doppelgänger. I think you've just written my own life story. I'm about to graduate as an 'Electronic Engineer' but prefer the software development side. Thankfully though, I've just managed to get a small internship by the skin of my teeth, but if I didn't have that I would have no development experience outside of academic projects. Personally, if I don't finish with a job to walk into I would happily settle for the 'best job I can get at the time' then make the effort to take part in all the types of projects already mentioned in the comments.

Now my Beta version of Chrome no longer feels very Beta-like :(

It's Mini-ITX.

Erm, forgive me but I think it's time you bite the bullet and get a new lappy if that's your main. Your saying that after 10 years, you still haven't been able to scrape together enough cash for a relatively modern second-hand computer? I don't believe it's "saved you hundreds of dollars" but actually cost you in everything else, including time.

Been with Telewest -> NTL/Telewest -> Virgin Media for donkey's years now, with not a single problem.

Recently, though (in just my area, bah), they've started to throttle download speeds during 'peak times', granted only as a test basis, but still. If you download something at full speed for a given period (very short period), download speeds goes from 1.1MB/sec to ~400kB/sec. Not ALL bad, but when you have an 8gig game to download (CnC3), it gets a little annoying.

When is this 'peak time' you may ask? That would be from 4pm to 12am. In other words, most of the time I spend on the goddamn internet. :(