Thanks, I'll check the link out. Re the possible source of the voltage, there's no hard drive in the box, but what look like hard drive lights come on anyway when it boots. I wonder if something got wired up that shouldn't have been. I'll have to check if cracking the case voids the warranty. If not...

Fried, as in very warm to the touch and not even recognized by another machine.

Just bought a new barebones PC on-line, paid extra to have it assembled. It boots OK off CD and connects to the web, but it fries my USB sticks. Probably should send it back but shipping is $50 - 60 each way. Think it's worth it to bag the warranty and try get it fixed locally? Is this likely to be ...

"cloud computing is for people who do not deserve to own a computer in the first place". Yeah, if you don't want to own a car, walk! How dare you take a bus or a taxi! It seems like for a lot of what's being talked about here a centralized server actually is the best solution from a system...

I'm very impressed with Eben Moglen. It's just not clear to me how (in the world he envisions) anyone could make a living developing software, or anything else that can be copied at no cost. I'm not against a creative commons. I'm benefiting from it as I type on a thrown-away computer running a free...

A few times, watching a sunset while waiting by my wife's church for mass to finish, I've been tempted to scream "God's out here, not in there!". But I guess if I did I would need psychiatric help.

Doesn't look like this is getting much action, so I'll jump in. If I had a choice at this point in my life, I'd go to the laundromat rather than have a washer/dryer that sits around idle most of the time. I'd take the bus rather than drive a car that costs hundreds a month and exposes me to danger a...

For some answers, start here:

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/

Yeah, where'd all the crap about Obama being a socialist come from? He's more conservative than Nixon. I wish Obama had stuck it in the conservatives' eyes from day 1. Had Jeremiah Wright give the inaugural invocation. Expanded Medicare to cover everybody and put the health insurance companies out o...

My wife now uses the Windows box, mainly to exchange e-mails. I use Windows at the office but we have a tech support section so software installation isn't my problem.

For personal use I've switched to Linux.

I once installed a McAfee feature on a Windows box, decided I didn't like it, and tried to remove it. Had to spend all day on the phone with Microsoft tech support reinstalling Windows (at least TS in those days it was still in Texas, I think now it's in India or something). Part of the long process...

That's "Contract ON America".

Not a gun owner or expert by any means either, but: I saw a TV demo of a smooth-bore musket (I think on the History Channel) and almost literally you couldn't hit the broad side of a barn; and it's ugly to think about, but one of the ideas behind using a light caliber bullet such as the .223 (M-16) ...

"that's a good leftist solution: create a bureaucracy to manage the problem" out_fisherman didn't propose that, only that the primary responsibility for preventing viruses should be on ISPs. And it actually makes more sense to have it that way, since ISPs presumably have superior expertise...

DMcCunney is probably correct about people who don't engage in political action other than voting (and maybe blogging) not having to worry, but I suspect that if you participate in anything beyond that (especially on the left) you will draw at least cursory attention. There are some alarming reports...

Plenty of Democrats have criticized Obama for continuing Bush policies, and for acting more like a Republican than a Democrat on health care and economic reform. Obama hasn't gotten a "pass".

"corporate executives are going to go along with our Masters" It's more a case of our 'Masters' (who in a democracy are supposed to be our servants) going along with corporate executives. If the average citizen can't be bothered with government and politics (or even voting), there are alwa...

Great link! Worthy of The Onion...

Is there a technical reason you couldn't have free, open source cloud computing? Isn't it just a matter of where the code resides and executes? I'm not arguing for cloud computing per se; the web apps I use or have tried (Gmail, Google Docs, various pdf viewers, and games) still seem clunky and of c...

Obama was born in Hawaii. He's a U.S. citizen. And a Muslim wouldn't have spent all that time attending Jeremiah Wright's church (until it got to be politically inconvenient, that is). All the stuff about Kenya and Islam is a lot of Republican sore-loser BS. And why they feel that way I don't know. ...