I don't think your either thinking about this from the right angle, or your not being fair. There is a "value" to work. McDonalds folks get what they get based on the job's "value". IT workers get what they get based on their job's value.
The problem is that corporations are deliberately de-valuating many parts of the IT sector as a means to control one part of the corporate budget pie and impress stockholders.
I'll go you one more in that with what I've been going through, its more like both really low wage workers, and very *youthful* workers. Not only does business not want to pay us a livable earning, but they want kids to work because they can get away with cheaper insurance, and "yank the cranks" of the workers to put in many more hours for the same base salary. All this for the interest of the share-holders and corporate exec perks.
In the town that I'm living in right now, I know of two major corporations that are exploiting this issue en-masse, and this doesn't even factor in the huge numbers of H1-B's that are there as well. If this isn't stopped sometime soon, won't be that much longer before the tech industry employee will become the next "fast food" like worker earning minimum wage. Unfortunately I think congress has given big business carte-blanche to use any means within the law to do business and show profits. Right now I'm only doing temp job employment in the IT sector with no benefits, or insurance because that's all thats available, and the wages are not much over earnings from working in a restaurant!
I thought I heard Dell was bringing the help desk stuff back to the US because they recognized their customer base was falling off due to customers having to work with people that had English as a 3rd language (not slamming on our friends from India). I have myself gotten fed up with calling manufacturers on home appliance problems, only to have to speak with someone who couldn't understand half my words, and I definately couldn't understand them. I got on the phone with one manufacturer's corporate offices, and began demanding a full refund of my purchase price because the product's quality and service didn't match up to what their advertising claims were!
I sure do hope this is a sign that things are beginning to come back around.
Frankly I'm surprised that they're complaining of this, as this issue is well known now for some time. Microsoft has never ever wanted to play ball with anyone outside of their circle. Sheesh, why do you think they had all that hoopla going on over anti-competitive behavior???!!! I had a friend of mine who I watched Microcrap drive them out of business back in the early 90's over simply wanting to carry and sell Redhat Linux. And we all know and remember Mr Gates only giving Netscape the other half of the carving up of the net~!!!!
If they want to run a decent server, you have to get away from Microsoft and at least stay with the Mac, or look at a managable server platform such as Sun, Linux, et al.
I only use it to watch something internal to my house network. My firewall (IPCop) is configured to block everything that WMP uses port-wise in and out, and can only open links to stuff on my LAN as I have a media server that does produce Windows media from one device (Beyond TV3).
Knowing both Micro$oft's history, and the fact that much of Windows is still akin to swiss cheeze, I don't want to risk it. My kids are predominantly using Winamp and I even shudder with it sometimes.
You bet your bippie!!! Yes indeed. I have a brain, and can remember most of my logins. The ones that I have trouble with, are noted in a secure application on my palm-pilot.
Sorry, but the numbers of nefarious web sites, advertisers, et al., have made me decide that cookies, and all that comes with them, are not worth the headaches.
That nifty new browser called Firefox, has a easily accessible feature in the tools menu to kill off all cookies, cache and other items with the swift stroke of just one button!!! It makes it so easy!! Plus the pop-up blocking abilities are just neat too. I've made it a point to expressly distain any site that uses large pop-over screens and adverts. An even bigger deterrent to sites are those that require "registration" just to view news and assorted items.
I started doing this regularly back when I was an Internet Explorer user and discovered that when I have to dump the cookies and such, I discovered that I wasn't killing off all of them. The machines would strangely keep all the old stuff. That's when I discovered Microsoft's trick of keeping several folders with copies of this stuff. After this, I thought that was really bad taste on Microsoft's part to be doing this. So now I'm a Firefox user!!
I know... I know... I was only pontificating...:-) The fact is that "Life" in prison is really only 30 years, and usually less than this for good behavior. Then they get out and do it again... and again...:-)
Hmm... Apparently we all must have pissed off the hackers and now they're targeting the big fish. Apparently those of us in IT and the programmers writing browsers, firewalls, and other tools, might have sufficiently locked down the typical users system to prevent this sort of thing. Now since the only two choices are direct social engineering of the end-users out of their data, or go after the warehouses that contain what they want, I wonder if this kind of thing is now expected to only escallate in a really big way.They should now go after a congressional law change that makes this kind of major hacking a death-penalty punishable offense... Hmmm... Just thinking...
This might not be that obvious but all of this "hoopla" could be perpetuated by non other than Microsoft themselves as an attempt to lock the market up and make it difficult for "competition". For example, the spec's could be made available... for a small fee. Say; $2 mil or so!. Only large corporations; ie Micro$oft would be able to handle that fee in order to author underlying code in an OS to support that hardware.
I'm still amazed however at the blatent monopolistic tactics that are going on right now, and mostly being handled by corporate litigators and where most of it is quietly kept under the tables. But it isn't just Mr's Balmer's doings alone. I see Sun, Apple, and many others doing "just like Mr. Bill".
This is all going to fall apart in a really big way in a year or two. I hope to Not have a whole lot of percentages to these companies in my portfolio! A market shift is on the horizon, and it does involve open source.
If you can't see all the desparate moves that the likes of Mr Balmer (el stupido), Mr. Bill (el desparado), and some of the other corporation heads are doing to lock in their industry, you've got to be blind,.. or your reading this entirely out of random hit!:-)
I don't think so. Fact is that even on the laptop I'm using now, which has Windbloz XP Pro on it, I am composing this using Firefox. My next generation box for my Snapstream stuff and all, will be Windows 2000 based as it makes no sense to pay Microsoft a ton of money for something they want exclusive control over. I have 3 licenses for Windows 2000 Pro, and I'll use them way past when Microsoft drops support for them. (unless there are extenuating circumstances:-))
Frankly it's rather silly too to consider an OS upgrade just so I can get a lousy copy of a broken internet browser!!???!! I gave up on IE some time ago and since there are still skads and skads of web sites that only talk IE; Why on earth?? Too bad for them, as my rule that I tell everyone is that if they only cater to IE users, they can have em'. They have nothing that I need to see or read. Why would I want to upgrade to another copy of IE?
Sorry. we are good parents. Since we do not have drug problem, that right there is major hurdle and success since step-kid turns 17 in July. In fact, because of community involvement and our families participation in these programs, yea, I can say that our community is very very low amount of drug use!! We have stats to prove it! Research Columbia Heights/Hilltop MN and you can find out!
We already have spoken with all involved parents about issue(s), and all parents have been in touch with police, investigators, etc.
In Minnesota, if the government even gets a moniker of a hint that you spanked or mentally abused your kid in any way, they can come in and take all your kids away for as much as a year while they sort out your parenting skills. Government intervention at it's most extreme! It's not a very family friendly place here at all of late, but we'll eventually get rid of the liberals that put these laws on the books in the first place. But right now, there is only so much one can do to or with your own kid(s).
As to how your asking if I can afford a new computer; it is part smart economic survival planning on my part, and the fact that I'm working temp and part time jobs, and occasionally some contract jobs while I search and wait for permenant digs. Plus, my new machine will be partially funded by money directly from my 16 year old's savings account!
Gads... You guys got to get off the soap boxes. We're all different people, not cookie-cut robots following some fixed doctrine. Lighten up!:-)
This is another oxymoron that potentially will be a bomb for them economically. Fact is that if you still have legacy hardware with a legacy OS on it, you are not likely to upgrade or repair any of it in the first place. It's the old addage of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Microsoft's not going to trudge on that.
In my opinion, based on Mr. Balmer's personal history, and Microsoft's history as a whole, anything Mr. Balmer has to say about technology and such with competitors is pure bunk. The man needs a bar of soap in his mouth for some of the things he's said.
In a way, thats more or less very true. There is one more issue to the play too. Discrimination and this is more or less predominant with school aged workers... those still in the universities, et al.
I actually saw one company who had a long running opening for an IT support tech, of which many qualified easily, turn the job into an internship after about 6 months of not finding anyone willing to work their ass's off for $12 an hour. Turns out that someone who worked at this company said they were really looking to hire a kid but their contracts obligated them to workers who had at least a 2 year cert. What was really funny is that it's a medical device company and they're profits were going through the roof. I guess we know where the loyalty is...
We are fairly sure my 16 year old knows full well who got it as we believe that she participcated. Since my 16 year old also recently got busted for kyping a CD from a local Wal-Mart, we know that she's not above doing this sort of thing. The both of them have been with others who have been doing trivial crimes such as busting mailbox doors, and breaking car windows. (They had to go testify against the people that did the actual damage). We know whats going on. I just can't go off and do stuff without a firm legal ground to do it.
They even have a version that can run (buggy) on Wintel equipped hardware if you don't want to putz with installs. I do however recommend any good Linux flavor install, and then bugz, mysql, php, et al. Much much more stable and reliable. Plus if you need it, the box can serve up other tasks such as a glorified workstation or be a file server... all kinds of possibilities.
We already checked for drug problems. Found none. We're not in that kind of neighborhood.
As to dealing with the kid(s). I cannot morally, ethically or LEGALLY go after either child unless there is physical proof. Then if I had the proof, I am required by law to go through the process with them about it.
Fact is we don't know where any of the computer parts are, nor the computer as a whole. We do know that they are the "Most likely suspects" in the machines disappearance, and they've developed timelines for when the machine left the house. We just cannot say conclusively who definately took the hardware. The police ARE investigating but no news.
I actually have a machine without a cover! Then, I also have a poster from the old Linux Online thing.
I have the Wife 2.0 which I believe supercedes Girlfriend 6.0, especially since Wife 2.0's inception date was well over 15 years ago, and has become quite stable:-)
I have literally a 14lb box full of cables... hmmm pounds to kilograms....
I had to leave town for two weeks and go to Indiana. I was getting some "training" for a temp job that I was doing. I had not programmed anything on the unit so it was shut down while I was gone. This way if any thunderstorms came through, my wife wouldn't have to race through the house unplugging everything. I left up only what was used and she knew how to turn off or on.
Sometime while my wife was out of the house; probably at church on one of the Sunday's, is when we suspect the machine developed legs and left. My 16 year old stepdaughter has an 18 year old boyfriend that comes around every so often. This all against my better wishes, but I'm only step-dad.
The boyfriend is unemployed, and didn't finish high school and everyone is thinking he's the prime suspect. Fortunately we don't have issue with drugs in the house, nor with the boyfriend... (I know, I've looked and I've researched. They're clean). The boy is not allowed in the house, however when nobody's home, and the step-daughter is in the rebellion period, she doesn't go to church... so... you can kind of put the pieces of the puzzle together here.
We all suspect that they've canabalized the box, and gotten rid of the case. Routine checks of pawn shops, and small-build shops turned up nothing. The boyfriend is a hard-core gamer, and probably has no use for the special cards in the machine. We think they only wanted a fast game machine. They're currently trying to find where he is staying since he has no "official" address so they can serve a search warrant. He's suspect in some other trivial crimes in the community.
I am watching Ebay looking for any telltale signs of my Hauppauge's from it, or the twin Midiman Delta 1010's that were in the machine as well. Don't think they'd know what to do with those as they left the breakout boxes behind when they took the machine.
All I'll say is to sit down and think about it a while. Think about the laws of reciprocity. I might mention that I'm a believer in faith and God, and one of the things we're taught is to let this kind of thing go as the perp will get theirs in the end 10 fold, and I; the victim will get mine 10 fold in the end.
I bet that probably means a whopper of an even better machine or.. machine(s)...:-)
I'm not teaching anyone anything. Thefts go on all the time. The kid(s) that did this will ultimately get caught and have to do some time. Remember that this kind of thing only escalates. They figure hay I got away with this; how much more can I do and get away with. So; like I said, it will eventually catch up to them.
I'm not quite that mean and desparate. I can rest securely on the knowledge that this kid will ultimately get it in the end.
Besides, all the boards, drives, ect, all have my name and such scribed into them. The police are watching and if any of it shows up on various markets, it can be traced back.
Additionally, my suspicions are that my 16 year old step-daughter was probably partly culpable in this. I'm letting the police figure it out.
In the mean time, once I can get my income stablized, I'll probably order a new Dell Dimension or something such, and populate the thing again with dual TV cards again. I also have a spare IR Emitter device for the Dish box. And I still own my licenses to Snapstream/BeyondTV, so I can reload it again.
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I don't think your either thinking about this from the right angle, or your not being fair. There is a "value" to work. McDonalds folks get what they get based on the job's "value". IT workers get what they get based on their job's value.
The problem is that corporations are deliberately de-valuating many parts of the IT sector as a means to control one part of the corporate budget pie and impress stockholders.
Cheers
I'll go you one more in that with what I've been going through, its more like both really low wage workers, and very *youthful* workers. Not only does business not want to pay us a livable earning, but they want kids to work because they can get away with cheaper insurance, and "yank the cranks" of the workers to put in many more hours for the same base salary. All this for the interest of the share-holders and corporate exec perks.
In the town that I'm living in right now, I know of two major corporations that are exploiting this issue en-masse, and this doesn't even factor in the huge numbers of H1-B's that are there as well. If this isn't stopped sometime soon, won't be that much longer before the tech industry employee will become the next "fast food" like worker earning minimum wage. Unfortunately I think congress has given big business carte-blanche to use any means within the law to do business and show profits. Right now I'm only doing temp job employment in the IT sector with no benefits, or insurance because that's all thats available, and the wages are not much over earnings from working in a restaurant!
I thought I heard Dell was bringing the help desk stuff back to the US because they recognized their customer base was falling off due to customers having to work with people that had English as a 3rd language (not slamming on our friends from India). I have myself gotten fed up with calling manufacturers on home appliance problems, only to have to speak with someone who couldn't understand half my words, and I definately couldn't understand them. I got on the phone with one manufacturer's corporate offices, and began demanding a full refund of my purchase price because the product's quality and service didn't match up to what their advertising claims were!
I sure do hope this is a sign that things are beginning to come back around.
Cheers
Frankly I'm surprised that they're complaining of this, as this issue is well known now for some time. Microsoft has never ever wanted to play ball with anyone outside of their circle. Sheesh, why do you think they had all that hoopla going on over anti-competitive behavior???!!! I had a friend of mine who I watched Microcrap drive them out of business back in the early 90's over simply wanting to carry and sell Redhat Linux. And we all know and remember Mr Gates only giving Netscape the other half of the carving up of the net~!!!!
If they want to run a decent server, you have to get away from Microsoft and at least stay with the Mac, or look at a managable server platform such as Sun, Linux, et al.
Cheers
Damn...
An honest-to-goodness, dyed-in-the-wool Microsoft zealot!! Cool. Ain't never seen one of them up this close before...
Yes sir. Gotta tow that line for Mr. Balmer and Mr. Bill...
Cheers
I only use it to watch something internal to my house network. My firewall (IPCop) is configured to block everything that WMP uses port-wise in and out, and can only open links to stuff on my LAN as I have a media server that does produce Windows media from one device (Beyond TV3).
Knowing both Micro$oft's history, and the fact that much of Windows is still akin to swiss cheeze, I don't want to risk it. My kids are predominantly using Winamp and I even shudder with it sometimes.
Cheers
You bet your bippie!!! Yes indeed. I have a brain, and can remember most of my logins. The ones that I have trouble with, are noted in a secure application on my palm-pilot.
Sorry, but the numbers of nefarious web sites, advertisers, et al., have made me decide that cookies, and all that comes with them, are not worth the headaches.
That nifty new browser called Firefox, has a easily accessible feature in the tools menu to kill off all cookies, cache and other items with the swift stroke of just one button!!! It makes it so easy!! Plus the pop-up blocking abilities are just neat too. I've made it a point to expressly distain any site that uses large pop-over screens and adverts. An even bigger deterrent to sites are those that require "registration" just to view news and assorted items.
I started doing this regularly back when I was an Internet Explorer user and discovered that when I have to dump the cookies and such, I discovered that I wasn't killing off all of them. The machines would strangely keep all the old stuff. That's when I discovered Microsoft's trick of keeping several folders with copies of this stuff. After this, I thought that was really bad taste on Microsoft's part to be doing this. So now I'm a Firefox user!!
Firefox/Mozilla Rocks!!!
I'm sorry...
I really was being somewhat silly...
Would have been nice to see some spacing in that line so you could more easily discern where the spaces are between words... ;-)
hehe... jibberish.
Cheers
KC0NIB
I know... I know... I was only pontificating... :-) The fact is that "Life" in prison is really only 30 years, and usually less than this for good behavior. Then they get out and do it again... and again... :-)
Cheers;
Hmm... Apparently we all must have pissed off the hackers and now they're targeting the big fish. Apparently those of us in IT and the programmers writing browsers, firewalls, and other tools, might have sufficiently locked down the typical users system to prevent this sort of thing.
Now since the only two choices are direct social engineering of the end-users out of their data, or go after the warehouses that contain what they want, I wonder if this kind of thing is now expected to only escallate in a really big way.They should now go after a congressional law change that makes this kind of major hacking a death-penalty punishable offense... Hmmm...
Just thinking...
This might not be that obvious but all of this "hoopla" could be perpetuated by non other than Microsoft themselves as an attempt to lock the market up and make it difficult for "competition". For example, the spec's could be made available... for a small fee. Say; $2 mil or so!. Only large corporations; ie Micro$oft would be able to handle that fee in order to author underlying code in an OS to support that hardware.
:-)
I'm still amazed however at the blatent monopolistic tactics that are going on right now, and mostly being handled by corporate litigators and where most of it is quietly kept under the tables. But it isn't just Mr's Balmer's doings alone. I see Sun, Apple, and many others doing "just like Mr. Bill".
This is all going to fall apart in a really big way in a year or two. I hope to Not have a whole lot of percentages to these companies in my portfolio! A market shift is on the horizon, and it does involve open source.
If you can't see all the desparate moves that the likes of Mr Balmer (el stupido), Mr. Bill (el desparado), and some of the other corporation heads are doing to lock in their industry, you've got to be blind,.. or your reading this entirely out of random hit!
Cheers.
I don't think so. Fact is that even on the laptop I'm using now, which has Windbloz XP Pro on it, I am composing this using Firefox. My next generation box for my Snapstream stuff and all, will be Windows 2000 based as it makes no sense to pay Microsoft a ton of money for something they want exclusive control over. I have 3 licenses for Windows 2000 Pro, and I'll use them way past when Microsoft drops support for them. (unless there are extenuating circumstances :-))
Frankly it's rather silly too to consider an OS upgrade just so I can get a lousy copy of a broken internet browser!!???!! I gave up on IE some time ago and since there are still skads and skads of web sites that only talk IE; Why on earth?? Too bad for them, as my rule that I tell everyone is that if they only cater to IE users, they can have em'. They have nothing that I need to see or read. Why would I want to upgrade to another copy of IE?
Mozilla, Firefox and Netscape rule!!
Cheers!
First off...
:-)
Sorry. we are good parents. Since we do not have drug problem, that right there is major hurdle and success since step-kid turns 17 in July. In fact, because of community involvement and our families participation in these programs, yea, I can say that our community is very very low amount of drug use!! We have stats to prove it! Research Columbia Heights/Hilltop MN and you can find out!
We already have spoken with all involved parents about issue(s), and all parents have been in touch with police, investigators, etc.
In Minnesota, if the government even gets a moniker of a hint that you spanked or mentally abused your kid in any way, they can come in and take all your kids away for as much as a year while they sort out your parenting skills. Government intervention at it's most extreme! It's not a very family friendly place here at all of late, but we'll eventually get rid of the liberals that put these laws on the books in the first place. But right now, there is only so much one can do to or with your own kid(s).
As to how your asking if I can afford a new computer; it is part smart economic survival planning on my part, and the fact that I'm working temp and part time jobs, and occasionally some contract jobs while I search and wait for permenant digs. Plus, my new machine will be partially funded by money directly from my 16 year old's savings account!
Gads... You guys got to get off the soap boxes. We're all different people, not cookie-cut robots following some fixed doctrine. Lighten up!
This is another oxymoron that potentially will be a bomb for them economically. Fact is that if you still have legacy hardware with a legacy OS on it, you are not likely to upgrade or repair any of it in the first place. It's the old addage of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Microsoft's not going to trudge on that.
In my opinion, based on Mr. Balmer's personal history, and Microsoft's history as a whole, anything Mr. Balmer has to say about technology and such with competitors is pure bunk. The man needs a bar of soap in his mouth for some of the things he's said.
I like that. So I'm guilty by association just because when I was 17 I got arrested on an unpaid parking ticket...
Hmmm...
So much for the creedence part.
LOL
In a way, thats more or less very true. There is one more issue to the play too. Discrimination and this is more or less predominant with school aged workers... those still in the universities, et al.
I actually saw one company who had a long running opening for an IT support tech, of which many qualified easily, turn the job into an internship after about 6 months of not finding anyone willing to work their ass's off for $12 an hour. Turns out that someone who worked at this company said they were really looking to hire a kid but their contracts obligated them to workers who had at least a 2 year cert. What was really funny is that it's a medical device company and they're profits were going through the roof. I guess we know where the loyalty is...
We are fairly sure my 16 year old knows full well who got it as we believe that she participcated. Since my 16 year old also recently got busted for kyping a CD from a local Wal-Mart, we know that she's not above doing this sort of thing. The both of them have been with others who have been doing trivial crimes such as busting mailbox doors, and breaking car windows. (They had to go testify against the people that did the actual damage). We know whats going on. I just can't go off and do stuff without a firm legal ground to do it.
I agree on this one.
They even have a version that can run (buggy) on Wintel equipped hardware if you don't want to putz with installs. I do however recommend any good Linux flavor install, and then bugz, mysql, php, et al. Much much more stable and reliable. Plus if you need it, the box can serve up other tasks such as a glorified workstation or be a file server... all kinds of possibilities.
Cheers
Hmmm... another that may not have read.
We already checked for drug problems. Found none. We're not in that kind of neighborhood.
As to dealing with the kid(s). I cannot morally, ethically or LEGALLY go after either child unless there is physical proof. Then if I had the proof, I am required by law to go through the process with them about it.
Fact is we don't know where any of the computer parts are, nor the computer as a whole. We do know that they are the "Most likely suspects" in the machines disappearance, and they've developed timelines for when the machine left the house. We just cannot say conclusively who definately took the hardware. The police ARE investigating but no news.
I can only do, what I'm allowed by law to do.
I guess the root question got lost in the mess.
From a law enforcement perspective, unless you have physical and tangible proof, you cannot "bust". You must first prove your case before you arrest.
Its a slow cog, but it's a cog that will turn a full 360 eventually.
Cheers
hehe...
:-)
I actually have a machine without a cover! Then, I also have a poster from the old Linux Online thing.
I have the Wife 2.0 which I believe supercedes Girlfriend 6.0, especially since Wife 2.0's inception date was well over 15 years ago, and has become quite stable
I have literally a 14lb box full of cables... hmmm pounds to kilograms....
LOL..
In a nutshell;
I had to leave town for two weeks and go to Indiana. I was getting some "training" for a temp job that I was doing. I had not programmed anything on the unit so it was shut down while I was gone. This way if any thunderstorms came through, my wife wouldn't have to race through the house unplugging everything. I left up only what was used and she knew how to turn off or on.
Sometime while my wife was out of the house; probably at church on one of the Sunday's, is when we suspect the machine developed legs and left. My 16 year old stepdaughter has an 18 year old boyfriend that comes around every so often. This all against my better wishes, but I'm only step-dad.
The boyfriend is unemployed, and didn't finish high school and everyone is thinking he's the prime suspect. Fortunately we don't have issue with drugs in the house, nor with the boyfriend... (I know, I've looked and I've researched. They're clean). The boy is not allowed in the house, however when nobody's home, and the step-daughter is in the rebellion period, she doesn't go to church... so... you can kind of put the pieces of the puzzle together here.
We all suspect that they've canabalized the box, and gotten rid of the case. Routine checks of pawn shops, and small-build shops turned up nothing. The boyfriend is a hard-core gamer, and probably has no use for the special cards in the machine. We think they only wanted a fast game machine. They're currently trying to find where he is staying since he has no "official" address so they can serve a search warrant. He's suspect in some other trivial crimes in the community.
I am watching Ebay looking for any telltale signs of my Hauppauge's from it, or the twin Midiman Delta 1010's that were in the machine as well. Don't think they'd know what to do with those as they left the breakout boxes behind when they took the machine.
All I'll say is to sit down and think about it a while. Think about the laws of reciprocity. I might mention that I'm a believer in faith and God, and one of the things we're taught is to let this kind of thing go as the perp will get theirs in the end 10 fold, and I; the victim will get mine 10 fold in the end.
:-)
I bet that probably means a whopper of an even better machine or.. machine(s)...
I'm not teaching anyone anything. Thefts go on all the time. The kid(s) that did this will ultimately get caught and have to do some time. Remember that this kind of thing only escalates. They figure hay I got away with this; how much more can I do and get away with. So; like I said, it will eventually catch up to them.
I'm not quite that mean and desparate. I can rest securely on the knowledge that this kid will ultimately get it in the end.
Besides, all the boards, drives, ect, all have my name and such scribed into them. The police are watching and if any of it shows up on various markets, it can be traced back.
Additionally, my suspicions are that my 16 year old step-daughter was probably partly culpable in this. I'm letting the police figure it out.
In the mean time, once I can get my income stablized, I'll probably order a new Dell Dimension or something such, and populate the thing again with dual TV cards again. I also have a spare IR Emitter device for the Dish box. And I still own my licenses to Snapstream/BeyondTV, so I can reload it again.