I had a 3 year old Seagate1 TB drive shit the bed this week and I had to shell out $180 for a new 2TB, indeed bad timing.
I am waiting to purchase a SSD drive as well.

The SSD manufacturers seem to be updating the firmware almost monthly to fine tune for errors,problems, read and write speed and other compatibility tweaks. Users still need to set up the operating system and settings to use the SSD correctly; they aren't quite at the plug in and forget it level yet...

The value of a SSD is speed, not lifetime. I have read that it is still best to store large and frequently written data on spinners?
SSD's have a limited lifetime write capacity and if used as a normal platter drive the life is sucked out of them all that much faster.

I may pick up a 80GB SSD for operating system in the next year and try my luck, I have heard that the speed gain is miraculous.

On the Windows 7 site, there were over 500 gadgets a year ago.

"The Windows Live Gallery has been retired. In order to focus support on the much richer set of opportunities available for the newest version of Windows, Microsoft no longer supports uploading new gadgets. However, some of the most popular and highest-rated gadgets are still available on this page."
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/personalize/gadgets

It looks like they are lubing us up for "Metro" by removing features from win 7. I know many of the gadgets were/are memory pigs but taking away features from a current operating system to force users to pine for the same functionality in Win8 is greed and... probably smart considering what I have seen of Win 8 so far..

I noticed the same thing.

I don't really need jerseys, but if I did, I know which price seems reasonable between these two.

$109.99 and that's 15% off. http://www.nflshop.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2237430&cp=2237409
$23.99 cheap knockoff http://www.nfljerseys-b2c.com/Cheap-NFL-Jerseys/denver-broncos-c-1_13.html?page=2&sort=2d

Its all the greed of licencing fees. I'm sure someone just got a nice VIP suite for a season or two!

Agreed. e-books should be significantly cheaper than the printed versions for all the reasons you mentioned.

In some cases, when the books are popular the e-books are MORE than the cheap mass market paperbacks.

Kindle E book at $29.99 was at $35.96 last week grrrrr http://www.amazon.com/George-Martins-Thrones-4-Book-ebook/dp/B004JN1D2I/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1320526616&sr=8-8

Paperback at $21.03 http://www.amazon.com/George-Martins-Thrones-4-Book-Boxed/dp/0345529057/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1320526616&sr=8-8

I see greedy people.

On another note, I love my Nook Color. I have a nook color that is hacked with ManualNooter and it is a sweet little android tablet + e-book reader for all B&N books, Kindle Books, E-pubs(library), Calibre, google books, really anything. It has a micro SD card reader so I can store 32GB of stuff on there like movies, more books, music etc.

The Fire will be locked down pretty hard, No micro SD, Nook Color wins hands down IMHO.

While not 100% renewable, Geothermal heat pumps would represent a 60-70+% reduction in fossil fuel/electricity use YEAR ROUND for heating and cooling homes and businesses plus free hot water in the summer.Geothermal heat pump technology can be used (almost) anywhere in the US. Installing these systems in new homes and businesses when they are built would be much more cost effective. Closed loop systems don't pollute and most have lifespans of 30-50 years. Seems like everyone should be using it NOW!! http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/heatpumps.html

Bio diesel has promise and can be made from organics in your garage, it is quite possible NOW to ramp up production commercially and use of this fuel for transportation? http://www.cubiodiesel.org/how_to_make_biodiesel.php

Solar and battery technology are quickly improving, the more we use the technology the better(cheaper, more efficient) it becomes. We should install more solar electricity and hot water systems NOW.

But...we are currently sitting on our hands waiting for petroleum to hit catastrophic price levels before fully embracing these technologies, I hope we can start aggressively using these now?

Great.. So in ten years we will all be sitting in our dark un-air conditioned /un-heated homes while billion dollar bombers try to force the last of the worlds oil from the middle east. I don't think we have the luxury of canceling ANY energy research projects.

NASA..well It's difficult to justify the space program at this point, some wonderful advancements in technology have come from this sector, but I would rather have sustainable energy and transportation on Earth first.

I decided look around again for better pricing. The best pricing I can find with limited searching on the blizzard site and on Amazon is $85

Amazon
Battle Chest original game + Burning crusade-$25.22
Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack-$19.99
Cataclysm-$39.99

I checked out the 10 day trial a year ago and enjoyed the game but If I decide to go "all in" this is what it will cost me.
I guess my real point was that I'm cheap, and I don't want to spend money on game + subs anymore.

You are correct, FFXIV is very bad, It's the first game I have ever been angry the entire time I played from day 1 until I rage quit and canceled 1 1/2 months later. I wanted to enjoy playing but I believe there are irreconcilable problems that cannot ever be fixed.

I played the WOW beta and ended up playing EQ2 for many years instead. (2 high level EQ2 raid toons sit collecting dust for the last 2 years). I have never purchased any version of WOW and just to check it out will cost me around $100 plus a 14.99 sub...so no thank you! I might have even checked it out if they included all the previous expansions for free with cataclysm ...meh

LOTRO is is working out very well for me, The game download is free, F2P if you want, or sub for $10 month. The graphics are nice and game-play is fun.(fun being the key word) with plenty to do.

I think WOW will be the last MMORPG game to go F2P, but they will someday! Many people are tiring of spending the money on this stuff.

Same boat as many people with DA

I have the Dragon Age: Origins game and never purchased any of the DLC. I really enjoyed the game, but not enough to pay more for "extra content" that really should have been part of the game or been free.

Now they have a GOTY or "ultimate" version that has the game I already OWN! + the DLC for $50! meh...

They should release a complete DLC pack for $10 or include ALL OF IT now for pre-ordering the Dragon Age II game.

What about Biometric USB with truecrypt? I think it would be a good way to go. The fingerprint reader w/ a password could unlock the master password file? What are the weaknesses with this?

I was at first kind of miffed that the EFF gave them 100k for this. I'm glad it wasn't from the general fund and instead came from a private individual. I donate to the EFF to help protect digital rights, not figure out prime numbers.

http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/vaccination/pregnant_qa.htm

"Does the 2009 H1N1 flu shot have an adjuvant or squalene in it?"
"Adjuvants are agents that are sometimes added to a vaccine to make it more effective. There are no adjuvants (such as squalene) in either the 2009 H1N1 or seasonal flu shot used in the United States."

Disney does NOTHING for free. I fear for Hulu, I watch an assortment of shows every week at my convenience in HD and I really like it. Adding shows from Disney/ABC is a great addition to the service, however I am afraid that now they may try adding a premium pay service. I use Hulu because it is free, if it is no longer free, I will not use it. I'll quit watching the shows or I'll torrent them. Most people wont pay either; Hulu, Don't shoot yourself in the head and start charging.