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I'll spend extra on a dependable product. Apple computers have shown to not be dependable

Perhaps not in your experience. For other people, including me, the opposite has shown to be true.

But you know what? Everyone has their own version of the plural of anecdote being data, so we will all work from our own individual experiences and be justified in doing so. But I wouldn't be so certain about identifying macro trends in your personal experience here.

AMD will probabably leave the tablet market:
http://www.pcworld.com/article...

The tablet market is in a price battle and profit margins for chip makers are minuscule, said Kevin Lensing, senior director for mobility solutions at AMD.

âoeWeâ(TM)re evaluating [tablets] closely. Itâ(TM)s not our priority,â Lensing said.

This seems fair to me...
http://www.pcworld.com/article...
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/n...

what's good for the goose is good for the gander

This is the big question. Because, to riff off the 14 years old discussion, wireless has progressed leaps and bounds since then. So simply putting the PC inside a waterproof chest and using a combination of WiFi, Bluetooth, and a few wireless display technologies. This is what is presently on Intel's product roadmap anyway.

Your biggest problem is likely to be the monitor. Every means we have to produce significant amount of light (especially required for outdoor viewing), requires dissipation of heat. That means venting. Which means air holes. Which can get spray in it.

So really the question can't be answered unless you explain the purpose of the PC. Is it there to do things like take measurements? Can it be controlled from a mobile phone? (they're much easier to seal) This is what is needed to know how to give further advice.

C:\> choco install VisualStudioExpress2013WindowsDesktop

http://www.pcworld.com/article...

From what Ive seen in the press recently it looks like the phones might come out of vapourware. I'm still quite a fan of Ubuntu, even with Unity, I think it would make a nice UI for a phone.

Vista, which is the lowest currently supported version of Windows.

That's actually not true, strictly speaking... XP is still supported, for those (usually governments and large companies) who are willing to pay Microsoft for it...

The 10 Worst PC Keyboards of All Time

only one edge of the screen needs to be a straight line

Take a look at the examples on this page. Notice that three sides are straight. Only one side has any variation. Could it be that the drivers for one axis must be at the edge?

Google turned up this incident.

I still don't really get what happened. Their system is supposed to be architected such that stealing all the data on their servers shouldn't get you much - everything is encrypted.

You must have missed:

This Or This (or countless others), any one of which is vastly worse than the things you list - only one of the items you list is a security issue. And the last one you list affects Android devices also (wow, a large flat object can be bent! How amazing!), not to mention the iCloud brute-force attempt was not even used to gather data, meanwhile Android has no real backup solution for users AT ALL. Way to spend a hideous weakness into a strength.

Simply put, using Android is noting the very real threats to security faced on that platform, recommending it to a non-technical person is ethically the same as giving them walking directions through the worst part of town and laughing at they head off.

I'll let you have the last response as you are blind to all weaknesses in your platform, just as lemmings are blind to the cliff ahead...

We already have the technology to preserve the data: http://www.pcworld.com/article...

LOL, copycat's fanbois trying to compensate for something? This is what your android phone would look like today if iphone had not been created.

With you :)

Light on details but I thought you might be slightly interested:
http://www.pcworld.com/article...

Pertinent point: "Now, Intel’s next NUCs are taking aim at the 14-nm Broadwell generation. No, not the Core M, the chip that Intel just announced for tablets and some notebooks. Intel designed the Broadwell-U derivative for NUCs, a 15-watt dual-core chip for ultrabooks and NUCs that should arrive with a slower graphics core than Intel’s more mainstream chips."

Stor

The last time I had any trouble with Intel graphics was with kernel 2.2 on a 700MHz Celeron with an i810. It was right after I first got into Linux, and I needed to compile an external kernel module for it or something. I think I still have the printout of Intel's mini-manual on how to do that somewhere. That computer came with Windows Me; XP might have been too much for it.

Broadcom turned over a new leaf four years ago: http://www.pcworld.com/article...

I've never had any problems with touchpads. Don't they just look like USB mice to the OS if you don't take advantage of Synaptics-specific features?

You're right that it's hard for me to put myself in a newbie's shoes at this point. I don't use the same distros as they do and I compile my own kernels (although it's getting harder and harder because the number of configuration options keeps growing), so "easy to set up" isn't something I see on a daily basis. But my experiences with Knoppix, king of hardware auto-configuration, have always been positive and seem to be getting better with time.

Still, thanks for responding. It's interesting to hear other people's experiences with this.

Like this MIPS attempt ? http://www.pcworld.com/article...
Or any other or wannabe rpi competitors.

The answer is pretty easy. Eliminate the ability of cities, counties or states to create monopolies. In jurisdictions where there is no monopoly and multiple offerings exist; prices are lower, service is better and customers are more satisfied.
http://www.pcworld.com/article...
http://cbpp.georgetown.edu/wp-...
http://www.uspirg.org/reports/...

So I have multiple servers in different locations all using 3TB external USB3 Seagate drives (powered by AC adapter). At least 12 in total, one for each server used for BMR backups. In less than a year, ALL DRIVES FAILED!!! Either they started out with bad blocks and progressively got worse, or just died.

Seagate, never again! The article below doesn't show just how bad Seagate drives are when used every day.

http://www.pcworld.com/article...

Re ". . . if you're that paranoid."
We saw the free UK offer of wifi to attempt get to phones of interest under
"UK spy agency reportedly intercepted email of delegates at G20 meetings in 2009" (Jun 17, 2013)
http://www.pcworld.com/article...
"... set up Internet cafes at the G20 meetings in order to extract key logging information and credentials from foreign delegates, giving the agencies “sustained intelligence options” against the targets even after the events ended."
"...allowing the reading of people’s emails before or at the same time as they do"
A few sites kept open to herd the press too, with CCTV and dat collection? All other easy to find sites closed thanks to tame telco help?
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/... 17 June 2013
"Setting up internet cafes where they used an email interception programme and key-logging software to spy on delegates' use of computers"
"Penetrating the security on delegates' BlackBerrys to monitor their email messages and phone calls"
"Supplying 45 analysts with a live round-the-clock summary of who was phoning who at the summit"
In any city for local police work soon :) You connect, the gov pushes some extra software out too.

If the warrant had been a conventional search warrant Microsoft could have been right since there are territorial restrictions on those warrants, [magistrate judge James Francis of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York] said.

However, a search warrant on electronic communications is not conventional but rather a hybrid: part search warrant and part subpoena, he said.

“It is executed like a subpoena in that it is served on the ISP in possession of the information and does not involve government agents entering the premises of the ISP to search its servers and seize the email account in question,” he said.

...

Moreover, if treated like a conventional warrant, “the burden on the government would be substantial, and law enforcement efforts would be seriously impeded,” Francis said. To obtain the contents of emails stored abroad, U.S. law enforcement would have to comply with treaties that require the cooperation of two governments. Such requests could be time consuming or even denied, Francis said, adding that the U.S. does not have such treaties with all countries.

Source: PCworld

To move data across jurisdictions is trivial. If it were made this easy to stymie law enforcement whenever the evidence in question is electronic data, we'd end up with much bigger problems. They should at least have to go through the trouble of setting up a shell company...

The one valid concern I've seen raised regarding this issue (which I have not seen raised in this specific case) is when such a warrant would be at odds with data privacy laws in the other jurisdiction; this is a lose-lose situation for the party on whom the warrant is served. I'd feel bad for them, but it was their choice to operate across jurisdictions in the firs place, and their responsibility to be in compliance with all parties; if that's not possible, and they choose to operate anyway, I don't pity them at all.

You are 100% right in criticizing me. Actually, I wasn't expecting this to get to the frontpage.Nonetheless, I thought Slashdot was the best place to ask. Many times I've seen pieces of news about Amigas and usually they're warmly received (are they not outdated?). I'm wondering why so many people are saying stuff like "let it go", "it's useless", "learn a language." Other people are linking me to LMGTFY as if I haven't spent hours looking for working links.

Don't get me wrong, maybe they're right and I shouldn't spend/waste my time learning about a dead platform, but at least I'd like to hear their rationale.

Because Amiga, C64, Early DOS and UNIX's were great and successful. For me, all that stuff was my childhood and messing around with it is like going to a garage sale and finding my old favorite GI Joe figure or something. PalmOS5 failed right out of the gate. There's nothing to be nostalgic about.

If you want to do some cool hobby stuff (and I don't blame you, I do that sort of thing all the time) I recommend the following:
RaspberryPI or one of the several 3rd party variants out there: It's basically a small PC with a UART (hardware interface with buttons) You can turn it into a media player, an Audio DSP, a "car computer" whatever you can think of.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
http://www.pcworld.com/article...

Arduino is a micro controller. Not to be confused with the RPI. An arduino will teach you how to solder :-)
You can run scripts written in C, and control lights, relays, sensors, etc... You can build something that automatically waters your garden, turns on your lights, feeds your pets... basically anything you can script.
http://www.arduino.cc/

AX84 is a website that has a host of amplifier projects. They are all tube based. Why tube? Well a lot of us think it sounds better, but that's a long argument. Even if they don't, it's how electronics started and if you want to know how things were done originally... and why that lead to how things are done now, Tubes are a great way to start. It's like learning to build a campfire by rubbing 2 sticks together. Yea, you could just throw a road flare on a dead tree, but somethings are just worth doing the old way. If you're not a musician, there's a Stereo amp near the bottom.
http://www.ax84.com/sel.html

Then there's steam engines... There's no collective site for that, but I've done them and they are fun. No codding involved unless you count the valves ;-)
These are super fun though. Imagine a device that can generate power from any source of heat. Even mirrors reflecting the sun. I recommend starting on youtube.

Anyways, there are lots of "useless" projects you can do that will have a far larger community and be far less of a waste of time in the end. Good luck.

There's a registry hack that I've applied to Windows XP and I'm getting security updates ...

Of course, the FBI has way too many people that need to deal with technology that really don't understand it in the slightest. Years ago I had to disappoint an FBI agent that I was helping by explaining to him how things really worked. He was getting samples from all the different printers so that they could make a database to identify what printer printed something like they used to do with typewriters. I had to explain to him that the fonts are totally programmable and have no unique characteristics to that printer. Also, that the inks and toners are actually made by only a handful of companies, and are again, not unique to the printer. He was very disappointing with the information.

Maybe that's why some printers add secret watermarks to their output?

http://www.pcworld.com/article... http://www.instructables.com/i...

The basic defense from them is.. how ARE they liable?

Kickstarter's claim is that they're merely providing a platform, that they conditionally charge for the use of that platform, but that what it's actually used for is not really any of their concern. They also carefully word that backers aren't really investing, that they're basically just throwing money at a person at the hopes of getting something - while at the same time saying that getting that something is required, but that they're no party in it and that backers will just have to fall back to plain ol' contract law with the contract being between the backers and the project creators.
( Also keep in mind that recently they actually dropped a bunch of their rules - though that's more from pressure of other crowdfunding sites and all the bad press Kickstarter has gotten lately for actually policing their rules, than that they wanted to. )

I can think of 3 lawsuits that have happened that involved KickStarter in one way or another:

1. Hanfree - a sort of iPad stand, in which a backer who also happened to be an attorney sued on principle because the project creator burnt through the money (on what? no idea), stopped communicating, and then buggered off. I don't think Kickstarter was named as a defendant. If I recall correctly, that lawsuit also went nowhere fast because the project creator defaulted into bankruptcy.
http://venturebeat.com/2013/01...

2. The WA AG's case (complaint handling) against a project creator. That's ongoing, but as far as I know Kickstarter hasn't been named a defendant there either.
http://www.pcworld.com/article...

3. The 3D Systems case. This was a patent case brought against Formlabs, but initially also named Kickstarter as a defendant because Kickstarter took a 5% cut and promoted the project through their site. Kickstarter was later dropped as a defendant, however.
http://www.insidecounsel.com/2...

So I'm afraid your 5-step program probably isn't going to work on account of Kickstarter absolving themselves from any responsibility, and apparently having the law on their side (until proven otherwise).

On the up side, your 5-step program really only needs to be 3 steps.
1. post not entirely obviously crap Kickstarter but just something that's popular.. like wallets, multitools, iThing covers, 3D printers, custom pens, etc. for which you already know there exists an eager audience.
2. make goal (helps setting it to a realistic level)
3. run off with the money aka profit!!!

Or even two steps, if you don't mind setting up a crowdfunding website and going head-to-head with Kickstarter/indiegogo/rockethub/etc.

Did you mean something like this?

Really, apart from the soundbites given by evangelicals such as Cook, how many actual pieces of malware have slipped through the Play Store?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2099421/report-malwareinfected-android-apps-spike-in-the-google-play-store.html - By 2013, more than 42,000 apps in Google’s store contained spyware and information-stealing Trojan programs, researchers said.

Yes

there have also been multiple proofs of concept that don't rely on hardware implants, like this one.

That's what she does. Writes high level non informative articles a lot so her name comes up a lot and she can say she is an expert.

She has never actually said anything that has any rigor what so ever. She needs to just make it look like she is knowledgeable to which every writer she is selling her tripe to.

Of course, the first time you call her on her 'facts' IT's suddenly becasue shes a woman and not because she makes crap up.
http://www.pcworld.com/author/...

http://www.cio.com.au/author/1...

Stick her in the corner with Jon Katz and ignore her.

Microsoft had an epiphany. That epiphany was called iTunes and later spun off as the App Store. You see Apple gets a cut of EVERY APP SOLD via their marketplace and I believe they might even share in revenue from ads in ad supported apps as well. Since it is impossible to sideload apps without jailbreaking an iOS device they have ISV's over a barrel if they want to sell to Apple's customers. Microsoft decided they liked Steve Job's decidedly Gatesesque business model. They knew their mobile devices would be a hard sell given the saturation of iOS/Android so they decided they could back door their model into their desktop OS. It has been a multi-tiered approach but non of their vectors has gotten much traction. Surface RT was DOA and Surface Pro and desktop users continue to use traditional Windows apps. If Microsoft brings the start menu back it would delay even further Metro App adoption and Microsoft's newest revenue stream. So they will continue to promise to bring it back so people won't just throw Windows 7 on their new PC but keep delaying it as long as they can in hopes Metro App use continues to climb.

Samsung just released a 4k monitor for $700. A guy at work just got one. That's still too much than I'd pay for a monitor for the home (considering the options now available), but it is much less than all the other 4k monitors I've seen.

You mean this: Adobe Creative Cloud suffering extended outage

Open Source Advocates Angry at German Gov't Decision
May 13, 2011

The German Foreign Office first started using Linux as a server platform in 2001 before making Linux and open source software their default desktop choice in 2005. Most observers thought the move a success. However, the government will now transition back to Windows XP, to be followed by Windows 7, also dropping OpenOffice and Thunderbird in favor of MS Office and Outlook.

http://www.pcworld.com/article...

EMET is good idea for companies that are tied to IE/Windows. It's no panacea of course, but raises the time-cost of breaking in.

FYI -A team of researchers publically announced they broke through all EMET's defenses. Per the article:

The real question is not whether EMET can be bypassed, but whether it sufficiently raises the cost of exploitation, the Bromium researchers said in their paper. “The answer to that is likely dependent upon the value of the data being protected. For organizations with data of significant value, we submit that EMET does not sufficiently stop customized exploits.”

Good day for the EFF to release the alpha of privacy badger that blocks tracking cookies http://www.pcworld.com/article... https://www.eff.org/privacybad...

I was recently looking to get a new router to replace my old D-Link DWL-2100AP & DI-604 combo and I saw that WRT1900AC and wished it was available.

I ended up getting a refurbed D-Link DIR-651 for $12.

The WRT1900AC is on $250 on the Linksys store site. And PCWorld gives it a pretty decent review, with caveats, and out of the box firmware.

Showing yet again that there is a reason why I like Comodo when it comes to security when Comodo found out their certs were vulnerable thanks to heartbleed Comodo got on the ball replacing certs ASAP.

No company is perfect, every company will fuck up now and then, but the nice thing about Comodo is when they see a problem they don't try to bury it or play the blame game. Instead they announce "here is the problem and here is what we are doing about it" and then they DO IT, no stalling or bullshitting. In the case of heartbleed as companies patch their sites they can get a fresh key, no muss no fuss.

And installing a graphics card is even worse if your PC is a laptop, if this article by Christopher Null is to be believed.

Microsoft SHOULD have taken MVC design to its next logical level, and built upon .net instead of throwing it all away in the blighted name of Metro... common model and controller code across all Windows platforms, with different views for desktop, tablet, and maybe mobile devices whose displays are too small to treat like a tablet. They could have compiled the code to CLR, then had the installer itself compile it to native code optimized for the local platform. But no... they just *had* to ruin a good thing, and try to ram touch down everybody's throats.

This does not make sense to me at all. While I agree that's the way they should have taken (IMHO using MVVM instead of MVC), it is almost exactly the way they took. They didn't have all the ducks in row at the first iteration, but it was the plan all the way. They said so at the time.

You did not belive the FUD about Microsoft abandoning .NET did you? .NET is very, very much in the game. At /Build// Microsoft just announced Universal Apps.

MSDN has documentation

With universal apps you build one app for phone, tablets and laptops/desktops. The same app can share views and viewmodels (MVVM) across the form factors, or they can have completely different view/viewmodels. A view/viewmodel can also "adapt" to the formfactor - showing only primary and essential information on phones, more on tablets and include secondary/tertiary information on desktops.

When deployed, the universal apps are deployed as IL/CLR code. When a device installs an app, the cloud service will perform the compilation and serve a native app to the device, compiled for the architecture, memory requirements and core count. The delivery system will only serve resources used by the specific device, i.e. even if the universal app is distributed with extensive resources for desktop users, the package that is downloaded to a phone will strip those resources.

Metro was never mutually exclusive with .NET. Microsoft made plenty of blunders both with their messaging on Metro as well as the initial Dr. Jekyll-and-Hyde two-personality Windows 8. But they have been consistent on their messaging on .NET and apps.

Facebook explicitly says they do not allow you to delete your account. They simply DO NOT ALLOW IT. And all data you post on facebook is theirs, they claim ownership of it. So no wonder they don't allow you to delete it.

Google allows you to delete your account and tells you exactly what happens when that occurs. http://www.pcworld.com/article... . And they claim ownership of nothing.

The companies attitude toward privacy and accountability are so different it is not even in the same hemisphere.

22% of U.S. School Districts using Chromebooks

Why Half of Our Company is Using Chromebooks

Chromebooks capture 20% of commercial notebooks

The iPhone UI was rather good, and was Apple's last showing of what it did really well.

A fact that is only emphasised by the fact that Google redesigned their phones and the Android UI from aping BlackBerry to aping the iPhone and it's OS. I'm not sure the iPhone and it's UI is the last time Apple will demonstrate how it does UI and design very well but it is the latest.

I've had no direct experience with OneNote before, but I have used Evernote off and on - in case anyone was wondering which one was more useful, there's a good (though year old) comparison here.

To summarize, since I've been using Evernote already I'll probably stick with that. Sure OneNote is free but even taking the time to really try it out means something.

If anyone else has practical experience with why you would use OneNote over Evernote, I'd love to hear it...

Even if that's what he meant, at the end of the day it gets us to exactly the same place -- he's effectively ordering Apple to assign an arbitrary value to its patent portfolio that may not reflect its actual value, apparently based on a distorted understanding of how patent valuation and licensing actually works.

Here's a little thought experiment. For the sake of the hypothetical, please assume all patents are in the same or similar technology space:

Scenario 1: I'm a company with 5 patents. I approach Samsung and say "hey -- I've seen all those 'small price + cross licensing agreement' deals you've done with other companies.* I want the same deal. Here's my 5 patents and a "small price" -- cough up your 100,000 patents." Proper result?

Scenario 2: I'm a company with 1,000,000 patents, including a broad, pioneering patent on logic circuits made from room-temperature superconductors. Samsung approaches me and offers its 100,000 patents and a "small price," and demands a cross-license to my 1,000,000 patents, including the superconductor patent. Proper result?

Big companies have disagreements about the actual value of their patents all the time. Companies decide to cross-license -- or not -- with other companies all the time. The OP presented no evidence that Apple is doing anything fundamentally different.

* Which I probably haven't, because many companies tend to be highly secretive of the exact terms of these agreements -- for obvious reasons.

I am not a bit coin fan boy by any stretch. I have no vested interest in it whatsoever. From a cultural perspective I find the phenomenon fascinating and I follow it closely along those lines. The government has been kicked from behind enough that I would not put it past them to come up with multiple projections for how the bitcoin situation could play out over a long time period. The US Government has been short sighted in the past, I think they have learned and if just one projection is negative, they will say fuck it lets bring it down now just in case. In case you have been sleeping under a rock, the United States government is beyond out of control and it's only getting more extreme.

This lawmaker wants it banned

Seems here that the government is over all apprehensive about it

Further Googling reveals we are seeing an about face from this article.

At least we may see some form of sensible regulation. even if not 100% official

The biggest? Really? I'm hope your using humor.

Yes, really, in terms of percentage of user base infected. It infected 1% of OSX users. Second biggest was Windows Conficker, infecting 0.7% of Windows users. Now someone will say that this is more users, of course it is, but percentage of user base affected is the relevant metric for assessing infection risk for users of that platform.

Now, I'm not saying that Mac users have higher infection risk than Windows users in total, because Windows still have significant more malware adding to the risk. But that Mac users still think it hardly happens to their platform after a massive outbreak like Flashback is very naive.

Btw. versions of Mac Flashback infected with completely drive-by infection, no users intervention or notice, something many Mac users still believe can't happen on OSX.

Yeah, that one piece of malware is a real pain.

Yes, malware for OSX and iOS does exist. It is very possible. But the problem seems to be about the same size as malware for Linux at this stage. By that I mean there is very little of anecdotal evidence of widespread, active malware in the wild targeting OSX, iOS and Linux. The same can't be said for Windows.

So far I've never been hit on OSX, iOS or Linux. I've had plenty of Windows machines go down in flames though. I still have friends of family for which this is a fairly regular occurrence. Even myself, I had a fully patched Windows VM just for testing websites in IE. No antivirus installed. Visited some legitimate news and html/css sites... Boom. Malware installed.

Mac Malware Outbreak Is Bigger than 'Conficker'

The reason why USAian broadband is so "slow" is because vendors (all vendors, everywhere) only supply a product that is "good enough", and no more, for people to pay the price they're paying. In the USA broadband is very cheap for what is being supplied.

In other countries around the world people can only dream of having that amount of bandwidth for that price. Suppliers outside of North America simply don't offer packages that cheaply.

While I agree with you that they (providers) usually only give us a little bit of bandwidth when they could easily provide more, I can not agree with your second paragraph. It might be true in a small percentage of countries, but the great majority have been putting in Fiber To The Home and giving their customers fantastic bandwidths (100Mb/100Mb or 1Gb/1GB) for less than what most cable internet providers charge their customers in America.

This was not true in 2007 and is not true today. Americans do NOT have it better with respects to Internet bandwidth. As of 2010, broadband penetration dropped to 25th place worldwide. We are not even on the chart any more, we have dropped that far, however we still pay more for less, no its not better in the US.

We, USA, dropped to 17th from 15th in 2008, but at least the US is on the chart

Wish it were not true, but it is.

"Broadband service here (Japan) is eight to 30 times as fast as (faster) in the United State..." and cheaper as well.

In the year 2000, most Japanese had 100Mb/100Mb, symmetrical FTTH, for less than $52 per month. Most American Cable providers charge well over $50 per month for a promise of 20Mb/2Mb that is throttled (except during the speedtest) to less than 300Kbps/40Kpbs. So in reality Americans pay a heck of allot more for a heck of allot less.

1GB/1GB; And this from 2008, thanks to the Fiber To The Home investment started in the year 2000 with the de-regulation of NTT in Japan, "The Hikari One Home Gigabit service will cost 5,460 (US$51.40) per month and provide an upstream and downstream connection at 1G bps"

Since most cable providers push customers to the $100 to $150 per month range, well it only is worse for Americans, not better. If you think its better, well their marketing works doesn't it.

If you can not get FTTH, only purchase DSL, do NOT purchase cable internet as they have always and will continue to always rip off consumers with higher prices for less service...its their business model, no matter what promises they have made over the years to provide Fiber. They will not unless forced to.

One day we may have it cheaper, but that day is not today...nor has it been for the last two decades. Here is a map that shows you were you can move to in order to get Fiber To The Home (FTTH). Well worth it if the bank took your home as those communities are creating better paying jobs faster than other communities in the US.

There are various ways to monitor your bandwidth. PC World had this article about it. A few moments on Google will reveal lots of other ways depending on exactly what you are looking to measure. It's interesting to find out how much one actually really needs. Most of the time you'll need far less than you have but what you really need to worry about is the times when you are close to your peak need. Take the activity that has the peak need for your particular situation (voip or maybe some games for instance) and see what that takes. Give yourself a bit of a safety margin. If you are bumping into your speed cap with some regularity, that can mean that you need to consider upgrading your service if your budget permits. Obviously if the cost to bump up to the next tier of service is prohibitive (it is for me right now) then of course it's best to live with what you have for the present.

Netflix is having all these problems because they use Cogent, the cut-rate morons of the transit world...

This has happened hundreds of times, long before they carried Netflix streaming video:

http://www.pcworld.com/article...

https://secure.dslreports.com/...

https://secure.dslreports.com/...

https://secure.dslreports.com/...

http://www.complaints.com/2008...

http://publicpolicy.verizon.co...

http://www.prnewswire.com/news...

http://www.fiercetelecom.com/s...

https://www.datacenterknowledg...

etc., etc.

I'm quoting the Director of the NSA nearly word for word how the system operates, and how the data is used. If he's lying, then he's on public record and there are Intelligence committees in the US Senate and House which will call him to task for lying to either the public (the news piece I'm quoting from) or them (the House or Senate).

You're talking about James Clapper, right? Here's his words:

To me, collection of U.S. persons’ data would mean taking the book off the shelf and opening it up and reading it And this has to do with of course somewhat of a semantic, perhaps some would say too – too cute by half [definition]. But it is – there are honest differences on the semantics of what, when someone says ‘collection’ to me, that has a specific meaning, which may have a different meaning to [Sen. Wyden].

So you're right, he's not lying, because he gets to make up the meanings of the words he uses, so when he says under oath that the NSA does not "wittingly" collect Americans' data (despite collecting - English as she is spoke - data in the US), he's not lying because all they're doing it is putting it in a book and putting it on the shelf and just not opening the book and reading it, therefore in Bizzaro Clapperverse it is not collected. This despite the fact that the NSA has acknowledged that its powers have been used to spy on lovers. "Accidentally" of course.