I hate answering the door on Halloween. Therefore, I leave the lights off in the front of my house and retreat to the back, where I keep the lights down low so nobody stops by.

Yeah, I'm a halloween scrooge.

Same here. Mate is awesome.

I started with RedHat 5.1 (no, not RHEL) and then moved to Mandrake (which was essentially RH + patches and UI upgrades). Next came Debian (slink, potato, woody), followed by Gentoo. After 2+ years of rebuilding my entire OS every time I wanted to update the installed system, I got lazy and switched to Ubuntu. I've tried other distros since, but I've always come back to Ubuntu. I haven't been a big fan of Unity, and with Mate Desktop, I'm back in lazy-arsed end-user heaven.

I must note though, that I switched to OSX full-time for a while there, and eventually Windows (7, not Vista) actually got usable - and became my full-time OS (games, games, games!), but now I'm back using Linux mostly.

Absolutely! Bicycles are definitely the way to go.

Or less.

My commute by bicycle (preferred method) is 10k and takes me about 20 minutes in the morning. It takes me about 15 in the evening because work is at a higher elevation than home, so the return trip is easier.

Sadly, the times are reversed when I commute via car; 15 minutes in the morning, 20-25 in the evening.

For those of you who don't speak metric, that's roughly six miles. Yes, I live in the USA, and I speak metric as a matter of choice. (It really throws people for a loop!)

Why, I have indeed been up to the world's largest rodeo... which just so happens to be in Canada (and not Texas).

I've been using Dvorak on the PC for over 10 years now. Until I got my Android phone, all my texting has been done in QWERTY. On my new phone, I decided to try out Dvorak for a bit and I found something horrifying: dvorak on the phone is not as easy as using qwerty.

MOST insurance policies do NOT cover hearing aides. As a person who's been wearing hearing aides for the last 30+ years, I can guarantee you this. Only if you work for a much larger corporation with a VERY nice benefits package, will you find an insurance policy that will cover your hearing aides - or even a portion of it.

My last pair cost me just shy of $4000. I paid out of pocket since my insurance at the time didn't cover this expense. This is, to date, the second biggest expense I've ever paid, after my car. They were top of the range 11 years ago. I can buy an equivalent model now with the same features from Costco's hearing center now for about $500 each.

Maybe your mum doesn't need the top of the range aides? Try looking for some with fewer features - say only six channels and two or three programs each (one program for normal environment, one for noisy environment, and one for telephone use if she should so desire). You'll save a ton of money.

The other reason why hearing aides are usually so expensive is that not everybody has the same ear shape. All in-the-ear aides are made from a custom mold, which does increase the cost. My dad recently got a behind-the-ear pair that didn't include a custom mold. The tips fit into the canal, similar to a pair of newer earbud headphones. (They still cost him $1200 for the pair though.)

Your mileage may vary. I highly suggest you shop around. Just remember though - you get what you pay for, and always buy the insurance plan on the li'l buggers.

No, it's called Gridiron Football, you dumb foreigner. ;-)

Seriously, I believe we should shift away from NFL to Rugby. It's a far better sport and Rugby athletes are in FAR better shape. Every seen a 320-lb Rugby player? They don't exist.

Best of luck with this new endeavor! =)

I've always thought (and I would abide by this if it were reality) that all drivers should go through driver's ed every 2 years and re-take driver certification classes every 4. I just think it makes common sense. (YMMV)

I have the WRVS4400N-RF ... and my experience is very very mixed with this device. I have to reboot it at least once a month, and configuring it via the web interface isn't as easy as using Cisco IOS' CLI. It also only does 2.4ghz N, so if you want the 5ghz speeds, you'll need either a seperate AP or router running in AP mode. (I actually have a WRT610N in AP mode for my 5ghz needs.)

Just my 2c worth.

Hand sanitizer is your friend. That aside, I feel for you. I work desktop support and hate touching other people's keyboards. My skin is horribly dry from repeated handwashings daily...

Need a +1 for this post, you insensitive old codger. :-b

I've had my iTunes account hacked and money siphoned off from my PayPal account via "Allowances". Fortunately, PayPal reversed the charges. Sadly, iTunes was very very quick to shift the blame to other sources (me). My password wasn't a weak password, but it could have been better; it is now. Now I only use gift cards in small amounts on my iTunes account.

I had no viruses, malware, or trojans on my computers (windows OR mac), and this wasn't an in-app purchase. So where'd they get my information? Don't know. *shrug* But this report does make me wonder how secure and stable the iCloud service is going to be.

Heh, I used kermit until zmodem became available. Yeah, I'm fairly saddened by this as well.