I've been an oracle dev/dba for coming up for 20 years and I find what "locks" people into oracle is the features in the db. I've used most of the popular dbs and oracle still out-features them all. Less code for me to write and that's a good thing. It's horses for courses and for some jobs oracle is the way to go. I may no comment about Oracle's non-db products as a lot of them are rubbish.

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/windows-7/2441-windows-7-ultimate-solid-state-drive-speed-tweaks.html has a list of tweaks for windows on a SSD. Amongst them is disabling hibernate on the assumption that you're start up time is good enough.

Disclaimer: I've came across this researching SSD's before I buy & haven't tried it yet. Thought it might help you.

One thing that's been interesting watchint the your election from over here is the media coverage Palin recieves. We get shown report after report of "middle" Americans gushing about how much they connect with Palin. The coverage is factual, but you don't have to look between the lines to much to read "can you beleive this shit!".

When I studied law (I switched to IT in 2nd year) one of our lectures made the point that in representative democracy we get the government we deserve. McCain picked her. If McCain & Palin is elected, over the most thoughtful, balanced, unifying statesman I've seen in any presidential race, you deserve them.

Good luck.

I daresay this will be another US-only release. I just wish everything was global, but it's still so dreadfully segmented. Of course it'll be available by other means on the days it is released.