About 9 months ago I decided that I wanted to be more health conscious. I looked for ways to work out a little while on the job, and ultimately decided that it wasn't really feasible with my desk job. So I made some changes in my life style.

I downloaded the MyFitnessPal app on my android phone and started to record everything I was eating. I was gestapo about recording everything. While you do not need to be completely anal about it, I recommend that you do it until you have a clear picture of just how many calories you consume through out a day. Some of my favorite meals I avoid now simply because [the Chili's Bacon Chicken Ranch Quesadilla has] TONS of calories. This is really all about awareness of what your putting into your body, and just how high the calories are.

I researched the amount of water that I should be drinking, and instead of reaching for a soda, or coffee I drink the same amount of water now. I use the same app to track my water intake. In the morning I put a minimal amount of sugar in my coffee. If I drink tea instead I use a small splash of fruit juice to lightly sweeten it. Just enough to take the bitter taste out of either.

I avoid the elevator like its a zombie plague zone. I go up and down the stairs probably a dozen plus times a day, and while that amount of exercise isn't a lot it still is exercise in my book. I also looked around where I work to find restaurants with in a 10 minute walking distance, and walk to and from lunch. Instead of calling people on the phone, I try to walk to their office to ask them questions. The point is to be more active than you have been. I also stopped eating snacks at work.

I've since found the time to go the gym about 2x a week for about an hour, and although I have been slacking off on the gym I've lost over 40lbs. Most of what I do at the gym however can easily be done in the privacy of your own home, its just convincing yourself that you have the 30-60 minutes and sticking to it.

Good luck.

Every charity is different and has different guidelines for donations. Your best bet is to find a local non-profit [501(c)3] agency that does work in your community that you support and contact them directly. They often have minimum specs much lower then most people would consider usable as many non-profits do not even have technology budgets. Some of the smaller non-profits would be thrilled for receiving a donation of even single core 2+ Ghz machines. This is especially true of organizations that deal with the homeless populations in any area. I work for a medium to large non-profit in NH that provides services to the homeless, mentally ill, as well as provide transitional housing for veterans and we routinely donate our older machines that we take out of circulation to our clients. Lastly if you donate them to a 501(c)3 you will receive a receipt that you can use for tax purposes, because your donation tax deductible.

I'm consider myself a long time fan of Dr. Who. I started watching some time during the fourth doctor (Tom Baker). I have fond memories when I was really young watching the show with my father in the late 70s and early 80s. I continued to watch the who up until 89 when it died. I was thrilled when I hear that they were making a made for TV Dr Who movie. I wasn't as thrilled when I finally saw it. I was also thrilled when I heard that BBC was rebooting the series in like 2004ish.

I've given some thought to where I would tell people where to start with Dr Who, and I feel that it is dependent on the person in question. If you can tolerate old black and white low budget TV shows then by all means start at the beginning. If you can't, but can tolerate color low budget TV shows with better, but still cheesetastic special effects then I recommend one of the most popular Dr's of all time Tom Baker (1974). If you want modern special effects then start with Eccleston (aka season 1) from 2005. The show is semi self referencing though, so starting earlier you have more background for the things that you learn in the newer series. The later in the series that you start the less nostalgia you will have. Of course since your just getting around to watching it now I don't think that the nostalgia factor would really do much anyway. You do not have to have watched earlier seasons to understand what is going on though. Dr Who is episodic enough to stand on it's own.

This type of software schema has been in effect in MMO's for years... Although the microtransactions that you are referring to are usually called "expansions" (sarc) ala EQ, EQ2, WOW, GW, etc.

I've been a member of Freecycle (http://www.freecycle.org/) for a while now, and I've gotten rid of a lot of my older technology that way. I totally recommend it. :)

The new trailer says "New Character Progression: Path of the Titans" What does this mean, and how will it be implemented?

I think that the World of Warcraft example really hits home for many people. (Partially due to it's market saturation.) We don't have to like it, but this sort of things is routinely included in EULAs and has been for a long time. Maybe people should learn to read them, and maybe companies should make them less legalese and more readable by the common folk. :)

Although not specifically mentioned in the article hopefully they mention Zork and Kings Quest.

We've secretly replaced their regular Office software with a special software that only reads characters from the source code out loud instead of running the real executable. Let's see if they can tell the difference!

#include
#include /rolls eyes

As an IT professional currently working for a medium sized non-profit company, I can say that most if not all non-profit agencies would be more then happy to accept them as donations and be more then happy to also pay for the shipping of the items. You get a tax write off, and don't have to pay to ship them, and the non-profit gets some decent servers to help run their agencies. IANATA (I Am Not A Tax Accountant) but I'm pretty sure the value of the item is what it would cost to buy a new one identical to the unit now. Generally the person donating sets the value of the item for the receipt you would receive.

ps I'd be happy to take some of them. :)