I was troubleshooting a lack of network connectivity to a cash register in a department store. I substituted my laptop for the cash register in order to run BACS cable analysis on the network drop. I set the laptop on the cashwrap. I failed to notice that I'd set it on top of the Really Strong Magnet that deactivates antitheft tags. The laptop bluescreened. I had apparently degaussed the HDD while it was running. Was not a happy camper.

Anyone know a source for PATA SSDs in the laptop form factor?

At age ~45 I finally gave in to glasses. The optometrist told me that I had chosen an appropriate set of readers for my condition. Since my employer would pay for them, I went for prescription bifocals. I tried progressives at first, but found (as you did) that the field of vision was not sufficient to see one monitor clearly, let alone two. Within a few days I went back to the eyeglass store and told them to heck with vanity, give me the ones with the lines. Those worked well.

Fast forward 10 years: I seem to need a stronger lens these days, and no longer have vision benefits. I just buy readers of the least strength that feels usable at the cheap stuff store, and take them off or look over them when I need to see far away. The frames are not as well constructed as the prescription glasses were, but at 99 cents per pair at my local hardware store I don't cry when a cheap set gets scratched, broken, or lost. And if I need to do close-up work such as soldering, I put on 2 pair at once.

POTS works when the power goes out. It uses power supplied from the central office. I don't have to resort to extraordinary measures to keep it working when the lights go off. When the remnants of Hurricane Ike hit us in Cincinnati, my lights were off for days. But my POTS line kept working. We were without service for a while a day or two after the storm hit, when the batteries in the LEC's remote terminal ran down. But Cincinnati Bell parked a generator outside it and the service came back up.

The entire family have mobile phones, but I'll keep my POTS line until they pry it from my cold, dead fingers. I don't use any cordless phones. I keep a couple of Western Electric phones in service, including 2500-series touch-tone and 500-series rotary-dial sets. They were designed for 40-year service life, and will continue to work long after the newer phones with their needless features have died.

On top of that, I'm a ham radio operator. Our stuff keeps working when the infrastructure fails. For intrafamilial communication we have FRS/GMRS rigs that the nonlicensed members of the family know how to use.

The sue-your-customer mentality of the **AA has put me off buying CDs. The last ones I bought were from a Goodwill store. And I don't download music, either. BTW much of the music I've bought over the years has been from the performer, at the concert.

1) ISTR that there's something wacky about US smog regulations, such that many European automotive Diesel engines fail to meet them. But ISTR reading that progress is being made in harmonizing these regulations with those of Europe.

2) Petrol is priced lower than Diesel here, typically by 20%. Diesel is not favorably taxed, as it is in Europe.

3) After the 1973 oil crisis the US carmakers made some attempts to sell Diesel-engine cars. But they were based on their petrol engine designs of the time, and most of them sucked. That left Diesels with a bad reputation in the minds of US carbuyers.