So having laws that regulate ISPs and force Net Neutrality to be in place isn't a bad thing.

Yea, I have to call bullshit on this one. I have been building PC's for years, since the end of the 1980's. On only 3 or 4 occasions since I have started building machines have I had spinning platter drives die on me while I am still trying to use them (typically 2-3 year replacement cycle for me). Since I have been purchasing SSD's, I have lost one a year, consistently, because the NAND fails. I have bought SSD drives manufactured by Corsair, WD, OCZ, and most recently a Samsung. Only the Samsung is still alive, but it's only 2 months old. All of the others stopped working at right around a year, you get a replacement under warranty, and then that one dies within a year. These drives have gone into both my machines and those of my kids. These drives are heavily used, there are a bunch of read/write, but with these new claims of the drives lasting a "normal user" like 70 years, it's bullshit for them to die for ANY user within a year consistently. These claims appearing on tech blogs is complete marketing spin and a disservice to normal users, as only ONE of the drives made it more than 12 months, my OCZ, which lasted 14. I live in an air conditioned condo with no water problems, normal humidity, and the drives are positioned so as to allow proper cooling (with a fan blowing over them). It isn't an environmental issue killing them, it's the fact that these things aren't made to last. I still have had the same Caviar Green platter drive for data for 4 years now, and while it isn't as fast as an SSD, it hasn't died either. Until the in practice life expectancy gets up for these thins, users who want better speed will be forced to continually replace them year after year (I now use a mirrored setup to prevent data loss). The performance is great, but it's a shame that the longevity is awful.

I have been working in IT for about a decade now, and I have experienced a range of policies on training. Currently I work at a private university in Boston, if the certification is something the department wants you to get they will pay you, provide all training materials, and provide time for you to study. However it if is not related to our job, or something we wish to get on our own, they WILL reimburse us for a passed exam, but the training materials and time spent studying is on our own dime.

OK, I don't really post all that much, but this post seems like it needs another reply. I have purchased SEVERAL SSD hard drives for the bunch of machines I have. The performance on them is awesome (which is why I still use them), but early on (and still a problem) I learned that their lifespan is crap. I haven't gotten more than 10 months out of any SSD, and I'm not defragging them or buying knock off brands that may or may not have fallen off the back of some production line. I have bought ones from Crucial, from WD, from IBM, and most recently (and the one that died last Tuesday) from Mushkin. It is to the point where I don't install anything except the OS on them, and still use a 7200RP platter drive and my Google Drive for all my data. That said...the performance alone is worth this annoyance, I figure it's not the end of the world to rebuild my pc once a year or so, and to do so with a freshly RMA'd hard drive. That said...I would ALWAYS suggest that people buy the "extended" warranties with these drives and keep important data elsewhere. The performance is great, but they don't last long at all.

Hm...people complaining about GUI changes....AHHH I found it "A totally new screen design begins with a desktop even less useful than the one on the Mac, whose icons, folders and document orientation have been "borrowed," lock, stock and subdirectory. Desktop icons let you explore files on My Computer and in the Network Neighborhood. You can also click on a Recycle Bin, where deleted files are stored until you empty them; a Briefcase, which lets you pack files for travel; an electronic Inbox, which stores your mail and faxes, and, unless the Justice Department intervenes, the Microsoft Network on-line service. The Start button at the bottom left of the screen launches a list of programs and documents. A Taskbar beside it shows what programs are currently running and is supposed to be visible at all times. But in just one of many maddening inconsistencies, multimedia programs often make the Taskbar mysteriously disappear." This was taken from the windows 95 UI review....back in AUGUST OF 1995. Seriously people...idiots who are afraid of change shouldn't be reviewing new software. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/01/science/personal-computers-personal-computers-what-is-windows-95-really-like.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

I'm not sure, as someone who embraces technology (and can remember how people bitched and moaned about the change in UI when windows 98 dropped) I really like the new interface. I don't use a touch-screen (which I've heard makes it even better), instead I use a pair of large monitors just like many others. My only problem with the new interface is the lack of an easy way to shut it down without using keyboard commands (windows i). It's a PITA to have to logout and then shut down. I love the new news feed streams, and the ability to plug into social networking sites and aggregate all of my messaging in a single place. Those who are bitching and moaning about the change in interface are probably those who are still clinging desperately to Windows XP.

I've been out of school for about a decade now, and the giving up of Ramen was one of the things to which I've always been committed. As far as your lack of spending money...do you have an extra large family, or perhaps a significant other who has chosen not to work?

So you actually have a few choices for gaming with one hand. You can either simplfy your gaming style to games that can be played with one hand only, or you can find alternative input devices. One of my good friends lost his right hand in an accident at work a few years ago, and he was also an avid PC gamer. For him, he wasn't willing to throw in the towel (similarly to how you sound). A few of us chipped in and bought him a Jedi Mind Trick (now rebranded as Emotiv since Lucas Arts sued them). It took a significant amount of time for him to essentially relearn how to use his computer (much longer than is suggested on the Emotiv website,) but now several years later, you would be hard pressed to guess that he played with one hand if you were gaming with him online. He plays with a mouse, his emotiv headset, and a bluetooth earpiece from a cell phone, but bound to his PC. We play Eve Online regularly and recently we have been playing Borderlands 2, and after overcomming the learning curve, he is still as good a gamer as before.

Depending on what you're going for, make people get up and become part of your presentation. I used to be the sole IT person for a company with a small army of minimum wage employees, and in order to get them to understand computer security, and the need for it, I turned our yearly meetings into one of those who-dunnit dinner parties (with pizza cut into tiny squares like orderves and soda). I used Clue (the board game) as a model and just wrote parts for people and they got handed out randomly at the beginning. I was told every year by the new employees that it was the most fun anyone had ever had during an office meeting. Throughout the "meeting" I basically gave mini presentations to people that they had to read as their parts of the show. I would then answer any questions on them or elaborate on the concepts if people seemed extra engaged. There was an immedaite reduction in the volume of sketchy website traffic blocked by my filters after that, and a vastly improved overall awareness of computer security. It was also a great way to run a meet and greet for all of the people involved. I understand that you have 30 minutes, perhaps you could push for some more time, ours typically ran 2 hours but we had over 150 people, and at the beginning when we were smaller they were closer to an hour.

There is a simple and SUPER fun way to combat this. Get the google toolbar with auto fill for forms, and sign up for every free thing on the market you can with their address. This was done to a spammer a couple years back in the US and I guess once your postal mail volume reaches a certain ammount they stop delivering it, and bill you if you dont pick it up. If 10000 people sign them up for 1000 deliveries of junk real mail, they might get the picture. Maybe....

""I am currently enrolled at a very well-known online school. I was hesitant when I enrolled; now more than a year has gone by, and I am regretting my decision. The main problem is that I am not learning anything. I have several years' experience with Web design, yet I was not allowed to bypass Intro to Web Design 1. Similarly, there are other classes on my list that will teach me very little I don't already know, yet will cost me money all the same. Now, I do have a great desire to learn and to further myself academically, but I just don't see much value in continuing to take classes I could have aced in ninth grade. It is also difficult when fellow classmates clearly have very little intelligent input to offer and our online discussions are reminiscent of an AOL chat room. While it is possible simply to attend a local school in person, I would much prefer an online environment as it seems to be a more natural medium considering the content of my studies. I am interested specifically in Information Security programs. What online education programs have Slashdot readers been happy with and considered successful?"" I had exactly the same experience. I first enrolled at the University of Phoenix's online program in January of 2008, determined to get my degree while I kept working full time. I kept with it for 2 years until I had achieved an associates degree, (with a 3.97 final GPA) but my experiences with the program caused me to become completely disillusioned with online education. I was faced with a plethora of unqualified teachers. Some didn't know the material; others would suggest corrections to a paper (especially in early communications classes) and then when the final paper was turned in with those "corrections" in place, they would be marked off, and wording very similar to the original content was suggested instead. I had a teacher actually take points off an assignment because she (her words) "didn't agree with the viewpoint from which I wrote." According to her syllabus, assignment wasn't one in which the side of the argument mattered; rather the effectiveness of the persuasive portion of the paper was to be graded. Now she took no points off for my argument, it was well constructed, supported with credibile facts, and she even noted as much! The class participation portion of the classes was a joke too. We were to have a forum discussion on specific topics. That is all fine and good so long as the people with whom you are having the discussion have more than a fifth grade education. How did these people get into college? Their writing is reminiscent of the papers I turned in to my middle school teachers. It was always filled with incomplete sentences, piss poor grammar, and clearly plagiarized materials with no references given. I figured that this would go away once I had gotten through the first couple classes, after all there HAD to be some sort of system in place to filter out those who really shouldn't have college degrees right? Totally wrong...in fact, the overall quality of the education was steadily plodding downwards as I progressed through the courses. Group projects were the last draw for me. Once a student completes an associate’s degree, he or she is transferred into the bachelor's program. In that program, a good portion of a student's grade has to do with group projects. Be prepared to get grouped with people who are absolutely useless. Not only will you be plagued with members who can't write past a 5th grade level, but you will have people who just don't do anything. It was a regular occurrence for me to have to do nearly the entire group project myself, to ensure my GPA didn't suffer. Now not every student in these classes are idiots, there were a few with whom you could have GREAT discussions, and not all of the teachers were useless, but the majority of both groups were. By time I had made the decision to withdraw, I had realized that while online education does have potential, it requires those involved to care about more than getting a paycheck for it to become successful. -Chris