I file copies of bills/statements for up to three years, tax returns for up to five(make so little no real point), and I keep them in a floor bolted safe. I love the fact it has money/passport/SS card drawers up to, and a file folder tray on the bottom.
Sometimes I burn bills/statements sooner, and that's if the space runs low. My system is new things in front so it's easy to trim the last 12.
Store receipts vary wildly. Once something is out of warranty, is not needed for insurance, or was groceries/gas that I just verified on the statement I burn them.
I live in a small town, and about ten years ago I shadowed the offices at the board of ed in high school. I got to see some of the financial sheets at the accountant, and the school system was costing about $2 million then (pop 12K at the time over a large land area.)
If teachers are paid $40-60K a year, then costs can add up, and principles cost more in salary. Just ten teachers at a high-school can cost $400K- 1.2 Mil. It's the reason my text books in 2001 were 10+ years old. We didn't have all the funds needed for new ones.
Consider things like paying for public works(plowing, winter damage repair to roads, etc), and other operating expenses; then $6 million is about right if it's a smaller town. Otherwise it could get higher than that.
Yet after they had been doing that, Gamestop posted over a billion in profits from used games. The penalties don't stop people like me because, well, no free DLC or a $10 online pass?
If I play a game, I go for the cheapest option, and even take the risk of eBay (since I can get a game for half retail.) Sometimes those penalties are not much at all for the amount I saved. So companies will have to get tougher to kill second hand sales.
Along with some accountant using GAAP in the way that makes it cost the most(three legal ways to record almost everything: to show lowest income for lower tax, highest income to impress the share holders, and a middle-of-the-road approach.)
Companies these days care less about the shareholder it seems(just look at how few dividends go out), and more about cutting the tax burden down.
In some ways this is like Activision-Blizzard. I looked at their financials, and they pull in 100 Mil in Net Income with over 4 Bill in profits(even showed a loss of 1-2 hundred thousand in the last few years.)
Also, you can bet your butt that every last computer associated with anyone behind the paywall was fully depreciated for the project: just to add its depreciation expense. I wonder if all the developers and managers needed $2,000 computers too.
Otherwise, having a BS in Info Sys(having worked in IT over four years) and nearly done with an AS Accounting, know that it doesn't cost that much in reality. I worked IT at the college I got my degree at, and then at a corp that liked to spend as little as possible on IT systems. Had NYT done it right, the costs would not have hit $1 Mil.
So it's like the poster above you said, our comment, and cost accounting. There may have been some other factors in it too they used to get that high of a cost.
At least I think the judge would be guilty of an ethics violation, and they are punished for it in Texas at least. So Amazon could make it clear that they will file a complaint if a judge with monetary, board, or a position of interest in the music industry presided over the case. To me they have the money to risk if they are fined for just making that threat.
If it's just for web surfing and document editing, then buying something cheap won't be obsolete in two years. As I don't buy Office every time a new version comes out. Only once every five years or more.
Since Windows 7 hasn't been out that long support for it won't die in a couple of years. So her laptop will run the same in two years as it does now if there aren't tons of programs loaded onto it(due to the extra programs themselves rather than age.)
To be on the safe side, anything with 6GB+ of ram will be more than enough to last a long time.
Netbooks tend to be on the slow side, and have a small keyboard. A 15" laptop screen should be fine unless she wants a good built in number-pad.
My desktop with XP home on it has been running since 2006, and it still runs office and firefox with zero problems. It may be considered obsolete in age, but not in it's function to me. So don't buy into the "obsolete" marketing. If it still does it's intended job in two years it's fine.
The problem is US emission standards have banned the import of Jeep Grand Cherokees WITH a diesel engine. Otherwise those would be practically flying off the dealer lots.
I know my brother would have grabbed one(pre 2011 design.)
I have to agree. My High School was a joint one for two towns, and had ~800 students total. My junior and senior year I applied for the VB course. I was told to pick another because there wasn't enough interest, and with all my other college(school had general, college, honors difficulty levels) preparation classes I had no time at home. College English 12 had four ~15 page papers with one a summary analysis of three works by an author(I was able to do mine on Arthur C Clarke at least) you analyzed. Of course, since I couldn't take VB I had honors French(I had two study halls used to get most of the general HW done to work on my papers at home.)
So I went into college having experience with computers, and being good with math and science. I just had not gotten a chance to program due to school budget and personal time constraints.
To be honest, you don't need to program in HS. If you come out with solid math and science skills you do fine. Programming is very easy, but requires math and logic skills.
Similar(means it may contain some, but not all of the listed factors), and yes there was a plot to it: although not as deep as others. It was the search for paradise, and the futility of it: then the element of them being led there without realizing it. Unless I also imagined the imagery about the cycles of society, time, and the balance of good and evil(the remaining eye causing a slow poison of evil to spread across the new paradise.)
So it may not have had the best laid out plot, and it was felt it was rushed, yet I still liked it(still doesn't top Cowboy Bebop in my list, and bottoms below NGA.)
I liked GITS: SAC and Wolfs Rain for similar reasons. With NGA I wasn't sure if it wasn't all just a dream(that's really the impression I got from the series as it seemed like something a boy stressed about family, school, and dealing with puberty feelings towards his best friend.)
Unlike shows such as: Bleach, Naruto, DBZ, etc.
Firefly was a great series, though I didn't see it as having the same plot depth, but it's also been a long time since I last had a chance to watch it: good character depth though. The movie was great, and didn't have sound in space. As for the sequence firing their makeshift gun, if there was sound(can't recall) it was only the sound of the vibrations you would hear on the ships interior(my brain could have just imagined those.)
Hence why it remains in the coveted Thursday at 9PM slot, the reason I do watch it periodically, and why CSI: NY is in the death slot on Fri nights. Broadcast is terrible on Fri nights, therefore I assume it's the death slot.
Miami and NY are the ones the writers give the indefinite resolution pictures too. I also noticed CSI itself has adjusted to keep images blurry zoomed int: with investigators trying to pick out something useful from it to give them a clue. Even if CSI makes mistakes, I do like the fact they make an effort, and after all these years still do plot arcs occasionally.
Yeah, my state is now fully controlled by Dems, all of whom seem to think raising taxes, and not cutting services is the answer. Even though their continued raising of said taxes is driving the very young, young, and now middle aged people out of the state: that can afford to move.
It's really sad that my parents,who can't afford to move yet, have to drive over the state line in order to get groceries at an affordable rate: filling up their gas tank with the lower taxed gas. Yes, even with the added driving distance, they still save money.
Once they finishing paying off their mortgage in a few years they will be able to save enough to move out of the state.
On the town level: We almost had a Walmart. It would not have saved local businesses because it doesn't compete with them. Jobs and products townsfolk need to drive thirty minutes for would have been within ten minutes. No, Walmart is an "evil" corp: something I don't believe. So now that all the mills and factories are full on employees we have squat left. I can get my major medical still, and it *shock* would cost the same. People forget that medical benefits are payed for largely by the employee. So that's the dumbest reason for Walmart to be evil. Oh noes! They don't provide something someone can get privately, and often at lower price!
More traffic? Sure thing! It would be right on the main state highway running through the town; that just so happens to be the same one all the towns businesses that would BENEFIT from it are.
So you are right. Stupid decisions can happen on the state and local levels. At least there is some ability to move.
All-in-one printers. It's better to just scan the document files, archive them to a zip(if you have to use.jpg instead of.zip.)
This is how I get and sign documents for my insurance agent(versus driving sixty minutes to his office, parking, and waiting.) Since, under contract law, a scanned copy of my contract is considered valid.
Yeah, I scan the headlines daily. It's rare for me to find more than five stories a week: more at times state legislature, Congress in session.
Anything that invloves a celebrity gets counted as non news.
Most international news only counts if it's something like Libya, Egypt, etc. I don't count bad earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other natural disasters: only for places that are known for that. A major earthquake in New England is rare so that counts(major faultline in the CT river valley.)
The 24 hour news stations need to come up with things to try and sell ads.
In days past, with just newspapers, the daily paper was very small. Here in the rural area we get a weekly paper that mostly has events, meetings, etc.
I think that it might not be a problem so long as they do slight incrments.
I.E.
Add a minor feature go from 4.0 to 4.0.5 Add a major feature go from 4.0.5 to 4.1.5
This would be the same for minor or major updates for bug fixes. It would keep the version number in control, while making the change to version 5.0 just a matter of releaseing a feature or set of bug fixes.
I might notice these things if I still watched TV. Since I can get the same stories in a book I'll still read, and get something better that gives me more control over the world it takes place in.
Oh wow! So why did my ACCOUNTING professor TELL me to push my database knowledge for accounting jobs?
It's because it's not "flavor of the week" and neither is UML or OOD. C# is heavily based on OOD, and so is Java. UML is something business and system analysts are still taught, and as a programmer I would need to be able to understand so I could write modules that met the design.
Those are the foundations, and knowing C# and Java is half the battle. I saw a requirement that I have more than four years experience with lotus notes. Later I got work at a company with Lotus Notes, and much to my non surprise it was really simple to use with a half days training.
In order to program in a new language or learn one quickly I know that the knowledge foundation I spoke of made it a matter of learning the syntax. Once I got to the sections on inheritance(important part of OOD) I breezed through them because I KNEW the basic concepts alreay so I just needed the syntax to implement it.
Why does an IS program teach me basic architecutre and networking(in addition to psychology, management, marketing, accounting, and business comms)? So I have a firm grasp of the various protocols around, and can pick up new ones fast.
OOD, UML, and Databases are not flavor of the week. They are still the core around most languages out there. Anyone can make a table in SQL server, but if you don't understand things like normal forms or integretiy it's a disaster in the making: duplicate entries make it hard to generate quality info from the data.
You have someone that knows C#, but has no design training then you get a bunch of spaghetti code that is more complicated than needed: along with little documentation for the next programmer as not even the names may make sense. A programmer NEEDS to understand design docs for business programming.
For general IT work a few certs are needed for things like A++, Cisco, etc. Those are easy to get in school if you are working in IT part time: money for the books and then the tests.
I completely agree. The program I came out of emphazied learning new technologies, programs, and programming languages quickly. Now, almost four years after graduating, I'm going into accounting because of all the insane job requirements.
Each company has 50 million different combinations of programs and programming languages. They should be looking for someone with a solid understanding of object oriented design, UML, database design, etc. Those are the things my school taught me in the limited time they had.
So here I am unable to get work in the field because some old idiots think we have enough time to learn all their antiquated systems. They NEED to train us on their particular systems because they don't have the same combination as others.
Did I mention that Windows Servers are so freakin easy that as A STUDENT at my college the asst director of IT spent five days with each student employee playing with a particular aspect of Windows Server 2003 each day? Yeah, that easy we were familiar with it in less than seven days, and a few of us trusted enough to be allowed to work on live servers.
The following week was replicating it on Linux with some mix and match work. So two weeks of hands on training. Imaging discs isn't hard either.
No, a company has to have someone with ONLY their skillset. So I'm out! That's the reason I moved towards accounting. A field with work AND reasonable job requirements.
My 160GB hard drive is plenty too. Will I need to replace it in the next few years of my laptops life?
Only if Word, Excel, and Access files become excessive in file size. As it stands 12GB is used as the HP recovery partion, but tons of space is still left: especially after quitting WoW a couple of months ago.
That's the main reason I would be fine with a SSD that's not to expenssive at 80GB.
I should note I don't have a digital camera as I hate taking pictures and I tend to be a move on type: to me pictures hinder that.
I have to agree. My desktop is circa 2006, and needed the power supply replaced a few months ago so it is still running. Now, should any other part besides ram or the hard drive fail, then I would need a new system as I can't find a video card compatible for the motherboard anywhere (also my last PC gaming system as I'm going console since it's cheaper for the system that lasts longer.) The gaming situation on PC could be part of the issue. Since there are more people like me that prefer to just game on the console; we got fed up with the amount we need to spend on upgrades to play newer games: money that can be spent saved for a rainy day, a good movie, or an excess of good game releases.
As for the laptop I got in 2008, once I went back to school, it still runs great for its task. Vista is only slow on it until I drop it to best performance under the classic windows theme: with an integrated graphics chip. It loads my office programs and internet explorer fast. It's the only system I would replace for accounting practice (need the 17 inch ones for the good number pad and excel screen width) with excel, surfing the net, and using word for resumes, comment proofing or loss prevention, etc.
In IT it's best to set the icons based on the domain group of the user. So the icon set is small, and only shows the applications the user needs for that row.
On my laptop I just have the recycle bin on the desktop, and the quick launch with my most common programs(IE Excel, Word, Access.)
As for the bubbles I imagine they will have a classic icon option like in Vista. I'm sure that could be set to a global policy. I'm a classic interface with no background image person: I don't stare at the background image so why bother?
At home I use it to browse the web, do finances in Excel, train up any new skills(Office, VB, and Databases), and the PS3 is for Netflix Streaming: I use the notebook for some Hulu/Channel site shows.
I'm an accountant. My work can't be done on a surface PC. So I'll be using laptops for many years to come. I don't think they are going away because we need them(unlike CNN Money that said they were last year.)
Slashdot Mirror
I file copies of bills/statements for up to three years, tax returns for up to five(make so little no real point), and I keep them in a floor bolted safe. I love the fact it has money/passport/SS card drawers up to, and a file folder tray on the bottom.
Sometimes I burn bills/statements sooner, and that's if the space runs low. My system is new things in front so it's easy to trim the last 12.
Store receipts vary wildly. Once something is out of warranty, is not needed for insurance, or was groceries/gas that I just verified on the statement I burn them.
I live in a small town, and about ten years ago I shadowed the offices at the board of ed in high school. I got to see some of the financial sheets at the accountant, and the school system was costing about $2 million then (pop 12K at the time over a large land area.)
If teachers are paid $40-60K a year, then costs can add up, and principles cost more in salary. Just ten teachers at a high-school can cost $400K- 1.2 Mil. It's the reason my text books in 2001 were 10+ years old. We didn't have all the funds needed for new ones.
Consider things like paying for public works(plowing, winter damage repair to roads, etc), and other operating expenses; then $6 million is about right if it's a smaller town. Otherwise it could get higher than that.
Yet after they had been doing that, Gamestop posted over a billion in profits from used games. The penalties don't stop people like me because, well, no free DLC or a $10 online pass?
If I play a game, I go for the cheapest option, and even take the risk of eBay (since I can get a game for half retail.) Sometimes those penalties are not much at all for the amount I saved. So companies will have to get tougher to kill second hand sales.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20055622-17.html
Along with some accountant using GAAP in the way that makes it cost the most(three legal ways to record almost everything: to show lowest income for lower tax, highest income to impress the share holders, and a middle-of-the-road approach.)
Companies these days care less about the shareholder it seems(just look at how few dividends go out), and more about cutting the tax burden down.
In some ways this is like Activision-Blizzard. I looked at their financials, and they pull in 100 Mil in Net Income with over 4 Bill in profits(even showed a loss of 1-2 hundred thousand in the last few years.)
Also, you can bet your butt that every last computer associated with anyone behind the paywall was fully depreciated for the project: just to add its depreciation expense. I wonder if all the developers and managers needed $2,000 computers too.
Otherwise, having a BS in Info Sys(having worked in IT over four years) and nearly done with an AS Accounting, know that it doesn't cost that much in reality. I worked IT at the college I got my degree at, and then at a corp that liked to spend as little as possible on IT systems. Had NYT done it right, the costs would not have hit $1 Mil.
So it's like the poster above you said, our comment, and cost accounting. There may have been some other factors in it too they used to get that high of a cost.
At least I think the judge would be guilty of an ethics violation, and they are punished for it in Texas at least. So Amazon could make it clear that they will file a complaint if a judge with monetary, board, or a position of interest in the music industry presided over the case. To me they have the money to risk if they are fined for just making that threat.
http://www.texascivilrightsproject.org/?p=2312
If it's just for web surfing and document editing, then buying something cheap won't be obsolete in two years. As I don't buy Office every time a new version comes out. Only once every five years or more.
Since Windows 7 hasn't been out that long support for it won't die in a couple of years. So her laptop will run the same in two years as it does now if there aren't tons of programs loaded onto it(due to the extra programs themselves rather than age.)
To be on the safe side, anything with 6GB+ of ram will be more than enough to last a long time.
Netbooks tend to be on the slow side, and have a small keyboard. A 15" laptop screen should be fine unless she wants a good built in number-pad.
My desktop with XP home on it has been running since 2006, and it still runs office and firefox with zero problems. It may be considered obsolete in age, but not in it's function to me. So don't buy into the "obsolete" marketing. If it still does it's intended job in two years it's fine.
The problem is US emission standards have banned the import of Jeep Grand Cherokees WITH a diesel engine. Otherwise those would be practically flying off the dealer lots.
I know my brother would have grabbed one(pre 2011 design.)
I have to agree. My High School was a joint one for two towns, and had ~800 students total. My junior and senior year I applied for the VB course. I was told to pick another because there wasn't enough interest, and with all my other college(school had general, college, honors difficulty levels) preparation classes I had no time at home. College English 12 had four ~15 page papers with one a summary analysis of three works by an author(I was able to do mine on Arthur C Clarke at least) you analyzed. Of course, since I couldn't take VB I had honors French(I had two study halls used to get most of the general HW done to work on my papers at home.)
So I went into college having experience with computers, and being good with math and science. I just had not gotten a chance to program due to school budget and personal time constraints.
To be honest, you don't need to program in HS. If you come out with solid math and science skills you do fine. Programming is very easy, but requires math and logic skills.
The G Men want to remove your last line of defense protecting your thoughts and free will.
Similar(means it may contain some, but not all of the listed factors), and yes there was a plot to it: although not as deep as others. It was the search for paradise, and the futility of it: then the element of them being led there without realizing it. Unless I also imagined the imagery about the cycles of society, time, and the balance of good and evil(the remaining eye causing a slow poison of evil to spread across the new paradise.)
So it may not have had the best laid out plot, and it was felt it was rushed, yet I still liked it(still doesn't top Cowboy Bebop in my list, and bottoms below NGA.)
It's one of the few Anime series that I will watch, and for a few good reasons.
1) Finite length
2) Broad characters (with depth!)
3) Plot
4) Plausible Sci-Fi
5) Great voice acting.
I liked GITS: SAC and Wolfs Rain for similar reasons. With NGA I wasn't sure if it wasn't all just a dream(that's really the impression I got from the series as it seemed like something a boy stressed about family, school, and dealing with puberty feelings towards his best friend.)
Unlike shows such as: Bleach, Naruto, DBZ, etc.
Firefly was a great series, though I didn't see it as having the same plot depth, but it's also been a long time since I last had a chance to watch it: good character depth though. The movie was great, and didn't have sound in space. As for the sequence firing their makeshift gun, if there was sound(can't recall) it was only the sound of the vibrations you would hear on the ships interior(my brain could have just imagined those.)
To assassinate Dennis Leary?
Hence why it remains in the coveted Thursday at 9PM slot, the reason I do watch it periodically, and why CSI: NY is in the death slot on Fri nights. Broadcast is terrible on Fri nights, therefore I assume it's the death slot.
Miami and NY are the ones the writers give the indefinite resolution pictures too. I also noticed CSI itself has adjusted to keep images blurry zoomed int: with investigators trying to pick out something useful from it to give them a clue. Even if CSI makes mistakes, I do like the fact they make an effort, and after all these years still do plot arcs occasionally.
Yeah, if you consider the fact they had to get into the mother ship to even plant it: using a captured ship with the blinds down to hide.
I imagine they would not have been able to send the signal to the mother ship from the outside.
Yeah, my state is now fully controlled by Dems, all of whom seem to think raising taxes, and not cutting services is the answer. Even though their continued raising of said taxes is driving the very young, young, and now middle aged people out of the state: that can afford to move.
It's really sad that my parents,who can't afford to move yet, have to drive over the state line in order to get groceries at an affordable rate: filling up their gas tank with the lower taxed gas. Yes, even with the added driving distance, they still save money.
Once they finishing paying off their mortgage in a few years they will be able to save enough to move out of the state.
On the town level: We almost had a Walmart. It would not have saved local businesses because it doesn't compete with them. Jobs and products townsfolk need to drive thirty minutes for would have been within ten minutes. No, Walmart is an "evil" corp: something I don't believe. So now that all the mills and factories are full on employees we have squat left. I can get my major medical still, and it *shock* would cost the same. People forget that medical benefits are payed for largely by the employee. So that's the dumbest reason for Walmart to be evil. Oh noes! They don't provide something someone can get privately, and often at lower price!
More traffic? Sure thing! It would be right on the main state highway running through the town; that just so happens to be the same one all the towns businesses that would BENEFIT from it are.
So you are right. Stupid decisions can happen on the state and local levels. At least there is some ability to move.
Yeah, faxing IS NOT necessary AT ALL.
Why?
All-in-one printers. It's better to just scan the document files, archive them to a zip(if you have to use .jpg instead of .zip.)
This is how I get and sign documents for my insurance agent(versus driving sixty minutes to his office, parking, and waiting.) Since, under contract law, a scanned copy of my contract is considered valid.
Yeah, I scan the headlines daily. It's rare for me to find more than five stories a week: more at times state legislature, Congress in session.
Anything that invloves a celebrity gets counted as non news.
Most international news only counts if it's something like Libya, Egypt, etc. I don't count bad earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other natural disasters: only for places that are known for that. A major earthquake in New England is rare so that counts(major faultline in the CT river valley.)
The 24 hour news stations need to come up with things to try and sell ads.
In days past, with just newspapers, the daily paper was very small. Here in the rural area we get a weekly paper that mostly has events, meetings, etc.
I think that it might not be a problem so long as they do slight incrments.
I.E.
Add a minor feature go from 4.0 to 4.0.5
Add a major feature go from 4.0.5 to 4.1.5
This would be the same for minor or major updates for bug fixes. It would keep the version number in control, while making the change to version 5.0 just a matter of releaseing a feature or set of bug fixes.
I might notice these things if I still watched TV. Since I can get the same stories in a book I'll still read, and get something better that gives me more control over the world it takes place in.
Oh wow! So why did my ACCOUNTING professor TELL me to push my database knowledge for accounting jobs?
It's because it's not "flavor of the week" and neither is UML or OOD. C# is heavily based on OOD, and so is Java. UML is something business and system analysts are still taught, and as a programmer I would need to be able to understand so I could write modules that met the design.
Those are the foundations, and knowing C# and Java is half the battle. I saw a requirement that I have more than four years experience with lotus notes. Later I got work at a company with Lotus Notes, and much to my non surprise it was really simple to use with a half days training.
In order to program in a new language or learn one quickly I know that the knowledge foundation I spoke of made it a matter of learning the syntax. Once I got to the sections on inheritance(important part of OOD) I breezed through them because I KNEW the basic concepts alreay so I just needed the syntax to implement it.
Why does an IS program teach me basic architecutre and networking(in addition to psychology, management, marketing, accounting, and business comms)? So I have a firm grasp of the various protocols around, and can pick up new ones fast.
OOD, UML, and Databases are not flavor of the week. They are still the core around most languages out there. Anyone can make a table in SQL server, but if you don't understand things like normal forms or integretiy it's a disaster in the making: duplicate entries make it hard to generate quality info from the data.
You have someone that knows C#, but has no design training then you get a bunch of spaghetti code that is more complicated than needed: along with little documentation for the next programmer as not even the names may make sense. A programmer NEEDS to understand design docs for business programming.
For general IT work a few certs are needed for things like A++, Cisco, etc. Those are easy to get in school if you are working in IT part time: money for the books and then the tests.
I completely agree. The program I came out of emphazied learning new technologies, programs, and programming languages quickly. Now, almost four years after graduating, I'm going into accounting because of all the insane job requirements.
Each company has 50 million different combinations of programs and programming languages. They should be looking for someone with a solid understanding of object oriented design, UML, database design, etc. Those are the things my school taught me in the limited time they had.
So here I am unable to get work in the field because some old idiots think we have enough time to learn all their antiquated systems. They NEED to train us on their particular systems because they don't have the same combination as others.
Did I mention that Windows Servers are so freakin easy that as A STUDENT at my college the asst director of IT spent five days with each student employee playing with a particular aspect of Windows Server 2003 each day? Yeah, that easy we were familiar with it in less than seven days, and a few of us trusted enough to be allowed to work on live servers.
The following week was replicating it on Linux with some mix and match work. So two weeks of hands on training. Imaging discs isn't hard either.
No, a company has to have someone with ONLY their skillset. So I'm out! That's the reason I moved towards accounting. A field with work AND reasonable job requirements.
My 160GB hard drive is plenty too. Will I need to replace it in the next few years of my laptops life?
Only if Word, Excel, and Access files become excessive in file size. As it stands 12GB is used as the HP recovery partion, but tons of space is still left: especially after quitting WoW a couple of months ago.
That's the main reason I would be fine with a SSD that's not to expenssive at 80GB.
I should note I don't have a digital camera as I hate taking pictures and I tend to be a move on type: to me pictures hinder that.
I have to agree. My desktop is circa 2006, and needed the power supply replaced a few months ago so it is still running. Now, should any other part besides ram or the hard drive fail, then I would need a new system as I can't find a video card compatible for the motherboard anywhere (also my last PC gaming system as I'm going console since it's cheaper for the system that lasts longer.) The gaming situation on PC could be part of the issue. Since there are more people like me that prefer to just game on the console; we got fed up with the amount we need to spend on upgrades to play newer games: money that can be spent saved for a rainy day, a good movie, or an excess of good game releases.
As for the laptop I got in 2008, once I went back to school, it still runs great for its task. Vista is only slow on it until I drop it to best performance under the classic windows theme: with an integrated graphics chip. It loads my office programs and internet explorer fast. It's the only system I would replace for accounting practice (need the 17 inch ones for the good number pad and excel screen width) with excel, surfing the net, and using word for resumes, comment proofing or loss prevention, etc.
In IT it's best to set the icons based on the domain group of the user. So the icon set is small, and only shows the applications the user needs for that row.
On my laptop I just have the recycle bin on the desktop, and the quick launch with my most common programs(IE Excel, Word, Access.)
As for the bubbles I imagine they will have a classic icon option like in Vista. I'm sure that could be set to a global policy. I'm a classic interface with no background image person: I don't stare at the background image so why bother?
At home I use it to browse the web, do finances in Excel, train up any new skills(Office, VB, and Databases), and the PS3 is for Netflix Streaming: I use the notebook for some Hulu/Channel site shows.
I'm an accountant. My work can't be done on a surface PC. So I'll be using laptops for many years to come. I don't think they are going away because we need them(unlike CNN Money that said they were last year.)
At least IE 9 still has the status bar. You have to enable it(hold alt menu), but it's still there.