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I'm in tech support - so I've seen plenty of XP boxes due to the inevitable accumulation of eight gazillion programs, spyware, trojans, and Bill Gates knows what else, have had to be re-imaged since it was faster than waiting for XP to do something while the hard drive was too small, not defragged, etc. That being said, I like XP. Keep it up to date, anti-virus up to date too, practice safe surfing, and it just works.

I like my Mac because I don't have to deal with the exploits in XP, and because, for me, it has been relatively problem-free.

BTW, just bought and Airport Extreme to replace a Cisco/Linksys wireless router. No more restarting the frickin' router every other minute. The Airport was easy to setup, and configure WPA Personal. The flippin' Cisco/Linksys always had problems with whatever security I chose. So I settled for MAC filtering. I have one PC to and two Macs on my home network.

We had a specific budget for a PC, so got a basic one. It'll be fine once I put XP on it. My point was that what about that average Joe User does when he thinks he's buying a 'state of the art system" with Vista, and it runs like a dog. He's stuck or very angry at Microsoft. Every Mac I've used recently has seemed refined and quick. From my son's Mac Mini to a G5 (non-Intel) I used at work, they seem to be reliable and workhorses. I was also using a 5 year old G4 with Tiger - the thing would not die.

I have used time machine and it seems to work for me. So, there might be issues with encryption. Don't use it. Don't care.

I haven't looked that closely at the Firewall or java, but I don't worry too much about those things. No national security stored on this cool toy.

Leopard and Java works on this old school HTML page - http://poconopcdoctor.com/BigJimmyStyle/

But this is a really old example of a Java Applet.

So I'm happy.

I, for one, choose not to anger the overlords with too many requests for perfection. I'm not perfect, so why should they be?

B-)

I had only a minor glitch. Just popping the DVD in produced a lot of whirring noises on my MacBook Pro. Hmmm.... what to do, what to do....

Corrected permissions, ran disk verify, wiped the DVD off on my t-shirt for good luck (I noticed some little blemishes from what I think was the effect of the cardboard packaging.), and it was Leopard in 36 minutes!

Just did the upgrade yesterday, still playing with it.

Read all the gory details on DA BLOG!

Rockies in 7!

Agreed - let's do that!

I have one name and two numbers for you -

Obama '08

If you think this will be the same country when we elect the first African-American President, then I guess nothing will shake your beliefs.

Read his book - "The Audacity of Hope."

He is different. Give him a chance.

Peace.

Dang it. My hopes were momentarily raised when I read the summary. Thanks for reading the article. I wish I could switch to a provider that was not Verizon, but they are the only ones whose coverage includes my area - the mountainous cell-tower blocking Poconos in NE Pennsylvania.

I even wrote a post about this feature blocking. I e-mailed the text to Verizon and got a response that was basically, "sorry, not gonna do it."

Struck a nerve, have we? By your sig, I can tell you're a gun-totin' NRA dude that only wishes he could stand a post in Iraq - that place where Saddam was hidin' all them terrorists -

NOT!

This country has been hijacked by right-wing neo-cons, who care nothing about the Constitution, or anything else that makes you want to be proud to be an American.

I'm doing my best to get it back, in November 2006 and November 2008.

This dog can hunt.

Oops - the link to my brainstorm did not work.

My Prius is a looker! So far, an average of 45.3 MPG on a 140 mile per day round trip commute. I suspect my mileage would be higher, but I live in the Pocono mountains, and my commute goes through some other steep hills in New Jersey. I have been impressed with the car's mileage for another reason, since most people average around 80 miles per hour on the aptly named Route 80, I am forced to drive likewise or be run over by a typical humungous GM/Ford/Chrysler "World Destroyer" SUV.

The Prius and other hybrids are also unoficially the geeks dream vehicle, with LCD displays, GPS mapping which can be updated with a DVD - the list goes on and on and I haven't even RTFM, which explains even more features I have yet to try out.

Howard Stern fan are ya? I used to listen to HS on free radio in NYC, but haven't popped for a Sirius or XM receiver just yet.

Why haven't more of my fans followed me to Sirius, asks Howard Stern recently?

Maybe it's because I have a great FM radio in my geeky Prius, with a six CD-Changer that also plays MP3's, WMA, etc. I have way more than enough stuff to listen to in the car during my commute, and (are you listening, Sirius and XM?), it's FREE.

When they start charging for air, I'm outta here! gasp!!!

I posted similar sentiments on my blog - "But this President's time in office will pass, and we will elect another in his stead. I can only hope that when the next President swears to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.," that Constitution will still be worth defending."

I sense someone with Juris Doctor credentials! B-)

I'm married to a lawyer, so please don't take offense. I have also had a run-in with copyright laws, but the ruling on Google might keep the page I am being asked to remove alive after all.

This ruling comes as I have been asked to remove a web page from my personal web site. The page was a copy of an obituary that appeared in January of 2002. It was a touching tribute to Michell Robotham, who was killed on 9/11 in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

The newspaper deleted all the memorials, so had I chosen to just link to the newspaper web site, the link would have not worked. I have agreed to remove the copyrighted material, but let them know that I cannot control what Google has cached, and that they would have to contact Google to removed their cache of the page.

I wrote about my run-in with copyright laws on my blog.

The link will be removed tomorrow, but will live on in Google.

Ah...the young. You've got that nailed. We see life stretching out before us, never thinking that the next second we could be sliding off the road into a tree.

BTW, my other car is a 2005 Hyundai Tucson.

It was weird, but the car felt as if it were driving itself

Last winter I had an experience using ABS, and it seemed to me that it was knowing how and when to use ABS is a skill still sorely lacking in most drivers. You can read the entire quote on my blog, but here are the pertinent points...

Today's commute was quite an experience, as the Poconos, as well as most of the Northeast United States, were graced with 12 or so inches of the white stuff - snow, in layman's terms.

As I headed down the mountain, I spy a snowy white Range Rover, England's answer to the Hummer, creeping along the other side of the road. I assumed the road was blocked - I stopped and we both rolled down our windows - I asked the gentleman was the road ahead blocked by a car, was that why he was turning back? He replied in a Russian accent, "Is terrible road conditions - my wehicle can't make it - I'm goink home."

He rolled his window up and I mine, and I considered his words. Let's add this up. This man has a 2005 Range Rover, costing about $84,085 (Ichecked this price on the web later) - basically a car designed to scale Mt. Everest without shifting out of 1st gear, and I, on the other hand, am leasing a 2001 Toyota Rav4, list price about $20,000. He is going back to his safe, warm house, and I am attempting to drive down the mountain. The voice inside me says - go for it, (please note I have scheduled my inner voice for a visit to a good therapist) and proceed. Sure enough, the Rav starts to emit the familiar sound of the ABS brakes kicking in, but I find it relatively easy to keep it headed around the the steep curve and make it past the most challenging portion of what qualifies as our little Mt. Everest in these parts. Note to inner voice - you were right and I'm canceling that therapist's appointment.

The Moral Of The Story? - Thinking of buying a Range Rover? Buy a Rav4, save $64,000.00 and STILL be safe.

Arriving at the Park and Ride, I find that my bus company decided it was a tad too dangerous to venture forth into the elements, and so I was faced with a decision to either wait until they felt conditions improved, or drive in by my lonesome.

Lonesome won. The roads were actually fairly clear of snow, thanks to the road plow crews in PA and NJ, and since it was quite possible that the remainder of all timid Range Rover drivers had opted to decline descending the incline, remarkably free of traffic as well. Although I had phoned in earlier and given an estimate of at least a 2 to 3 hour delay in my arrival at work, I was only about 5 minutes late, and my boss was quite pleased!

Is THIS what your computer looks like? You must work in the British Museum!

I submitted the same link yesterday. Got rejected. Again. Sigh. Mod me down. Whatever. IS THERE NO JUSTICE? OH, THE HUMANITY OF IT ALL!!!

Umm..maybe Linux Instant Messaging IS the next killer app? Check out the spelling of the Linux article.... http://www.poconopcdoctor.com/nextkillerapp.JPG