My fiancee is obsessed with coffee, the roasting, the brewing, everything. We have some good titles at home and if I remember when I get home, I will post what they are.

It does, as others say have a lot to due with the brew. When I said "most coffee" perhaps I should've said "potable coffee". This means that coffee that's done properly (AKA not that sludge in the break room) has less caffeine. If coffee tastes bitter, then it wasn't roasted or brewed properly and the methods used most likely do extract a lot of caffeine.

Not to get too off topic, but check out the caffine levels in traditional (non-herbal) teas. They're actually much higher than most coffee. Oh, and contrary to what you might think, those dark roasts and even espresso are lower per part in caffine than their lighter roast counterparts. It's all very interesting and there are many good reads on the topic if you're interested.

I agree it sounds ridiculous, but you need to read the fine print. The Supreme Court was smart enough in this case to say something along the lines of "they are liable if they actively promote infringement of copyright law". This means that P2P tools made without infringement intent or promotion there of should still be ok. I still there's a matter of personal responsibility missing here, but it's not as bad as it sounds. Remember, the gun and bullet manufacturer's don't promote people to murder each other. They promote defense and hunting, both of which are legal (to varying degrees, depending on the locale).

My fiance and I used freevo for a while. It worked great, but we used it mostly for playing music, downloaded videos, and view pictures. We never hooked it up the DVR functionality. We really liked it in general. The UI was nice and things worked easily. This was about two years ago, so things have probably only gotten better. We don't use it anymore becaue we got TiVo for the great program guide and the HMO allows us to stream music, pics, etc. Plus, for $99, it was worth the price. At any rate, freevo gets a thumbs up from my experience. I recommend a small wireless keyboard and mouse to go along with it.

I'm curious as to why people keep saying Windows is easy to set up. The proverbial parental unit's parent would not be able to install Windows either. Mention the term driver to one of them and they'll ask why you're talking about golf when you're working on the computer. For myself, I find Linux easier to set up, especially on hardware that's 6 months+ old. At that point, nearly all the drivers you need are built into a current distro, and you're off and running. With Windows, I wind up using another PC to download an ethernet driver. Then I can get online to download my video driver, but the screen's still in some ridiculously low resolution so web surfing is oh so fun. Then I can get everything else normally. Oh, but then I still have to install all my programs, which under Linux I could've done as part of the base install. I'm not saying Linux is the end all be all (that's OS X j/k, sort-of ;-) ), but I do think you need to really compare it without the preset mind of how things "should be" based on using Windows (*cough* white cursor *cough* :-D ). Look at Linux from the point of view of someone who doesn't know Windows computers inside and out, then look at Windows the same way, and I'll bet your opinions might change a bit.

Should be pretty painless. I put my fiance's mother through it last Christmas and she did exceptionally well, as did my roommate the year before. Just remember that your Windows programs won't run on it, you will need to get Mac versions. Your documents/pictures/music etc. should move over seemlessly. One caveat on music, you will need Windows Media Player for OS X if you have music/video encoded in Windows Media formats. Also, remember that it is a bit of a learning process. Most people have the biggest problem because they try to do things the XP way on a Mac. Remember that the Mac will be more intuitive so you'll find yourself not having to jump through hoops anymore, which is a bit of a shock to new Mac users. Oh, and enjoy the switch, everyone who I know that's done it is much happier and actually now use their computers for useful things other than just trying to keep them virus-free.

Easy there, don't get your knickers in a twist. :) My guess is that if you're a citizen of the U.S. and have a driver's license that was issued in the last 5-10 years (maybe more), you've already got an ID that meets these criteria. All Real ID stipulates is that there is "machine readable" information. This could be a bar code, a magnetic stripe, or some kind of smart card (RFID or contact). My guess is that most of you out there already have a license with a bar code and/or magnetic stripe. Smart cards have yet to take off in the U.S. one of the main reasons is that they are very expensive - several dollars for the card itself as opposed to cents. Plus, there's the whole reader infrastructure. Oh, and don't get concerned about being able to be tracked by an RFID card, all the ones I've seen have a reading range of <6". Oh, and they're surprisingly secure (not to say that any security is perfect). BTW - If you're concerned about the fact that all state DMVs need to now be linked together, let me give you a hint - they already were. The FBI and presumably all forms of federal intelligence have been able to search all state DBs for a long time. I think this is a good thing when you're trying to find some sleezeball criminal. The other main focus of Real ID is to prevent illegal aliens from getting driver's licenses and IDs. Since they're already ILLEGAL aliens, I really don't have a problem with this.

If your beef with PDF is Adobe Acrobat's load time, then your beef is with Adobe Acrobat, not the PDF format. In general, I think PDF is great. It's totally multi-platform, you don't depend on people having MS Office installed, and with a good PDF reader, it takes a mere second to read. Have I mentioned I love my Macs with native PDF support? Oh, and my peeve is people sending me attachments for personal stuff (i.e. at home) in an MS Office format. I happen to love LaTeX for writing documents and have no need for Office. :)

I do agree that there are a lot of extras to add, namely bluetooth+wireless ethernet for $99, or a DVD burner. However, you really need to check around before you say it costs more than a "loaded PC". There were MANY comparisons done with the Mac mini when it was first announced. Two pieces of advice to try to compare "Apples to apples" (pun intended ;) ). 1 - The Megahertz Myth - do NOT compare speed to speed of the processor and think it's a fair comparison. PowerPC architecture is very different, and pure rate to rate comparisons to x86 don't really mean anything. The basic reason (if you are unaware) is that a PowerPC chip often takes far fewer steps to process a statement. There's a lot more to than that involving pipelines, etc. but I thought I'd keep it simple. 2 - Software - do NOT forget the cost of software to the PC to make it capable of everything the Mac can do out of the box. For example, the entire iLife suite, especially Movie and DVD making. I believe current minis come with AppleWorks which is akin to MS Office, so add on the price of that. Not to mention the cost of firewalls, virus scanners, spyware cleaners, etc. Just my $0.02 on the whole thing.

While I haven't yet had occasion to use it, I have seen VERY impressive demos of XCode which comes with Macs. Plus, all your standard Unix/GCC combinations should work, at least for non-Cocoa stuff. For example, I've been a big fan of VI with your own make file and running it through gcc from command line.

Suzanne Boyle wrote: There is an emulator called Pear PC that allows you to run OS/X on a PC. Don't get too excited about it, it really doesn't work well from what I've heard. However, Mac minis start at $499, making Macs affordable. I personally have 2 (a PowerBook, and a PowerMac) and I wouldn't trade them for anything. For those of you who were turned away from Mac OS 9 or under, you really need to forget what you knew about a Mac and give OS X a try from a fresh point of view. It is definitely leaps and bounds ahead of anything else out there.

Interesting... I'm in Wakefield RI at the moment and had a similar experience when moving into the new apartment. Cox came right away and set it up but it was slower than molasses. We even paid more for higher bandwith and it was still bad. They placed us on a new beta program and it still stunk. Then, we had enough with Cox (which was living up to its name :cool: ) and called Verizon. When we moved in, the management said Verizon wasn't really coming to the building so your mileage would vary. Within a week we had Verizon all set up and going great. The only problem we had was miswired phone lines (in a new building) which the Verizon tech fixed for us. Oh, and yeah, it's cheaper than even basic Cox while being a metric butt-load faster, yes that's a techincal term :). Plus, we got a letter in the mail yesterday to inform us that they were lowering their rate $8/month. From a technical point of view, DSL is a better structure if you're within distance of a switching station. You will not wind up losing bandwith because youre neighbors are on, like you do with cable. Think about it, cable lines were designed to mostly push data down to the home, where telephone lines are designed to be more bidirectional.

Newport and Narragansett are definitely the best places to see in the state. Beavertail is one of my favorite spots as well. Check out this site for information on places to stay in South County (the county Narragansett is in). There are many beautiful New England B&Bs. PS - Be careful when you come here for two reasons. First, be prepared for bad drivers. In all seriousness they do not always stop for red lights and nearly no one knows how to navigate a 4-way stop. I really wish someone had warned me of this before I came and nearly got into a bunch of accidents. Also watch out for the "RI Road Block" which is where a driver will block one lane of traffic and wait for the other to clear while making a left turn. Second, for some reason it's hard to leave. I came for college and didn't intend to stay, yet two years later I'm still here... Oh, and enjoy, it's a really beautiful place full of great people and loaded with quaint New England charm.

BrockVnm wrote: The only thing that stinks about not having a tuner is that you miss out on talk radio. There's always audible.com and the Griffin RadioShark to suit your needs. Audible carries many talk shows as well as printed periodicals that you can download and play (subscription fees apply). The Griffin RadioShark is $70 for the hardware, and uses regular radio. It will record radio shows on AM/FM at specified times and let you transfer them to your MP3 player.

Depends on what you want. The shuffle is durable, sounds great, and is very simple to use. If you want something that allows you to use playlists and search through your songs, you'll need a screen and may want to go for $250 on an iPod mini 4GB which is also durable, sounds great, and is easy to use. IMO - if you're using an MP3 player, there's no need for an FM tuner since you have all your good music with you and most radio stations stink this day in age. As far as batteries go, an iPod is one of your best options. Changable batteries wind up just being a pain. The per-charge battery life on the new models of iPods is amazing (and by many accounts longer than Apple reports).

Somedays I'm reminded of a seriously politically incorrect quote. Today is one of those days, and I thought I would share, so enjoy. "Arguing on the internet is like competing in the Special Olympics. No matter who wins, you're all still retards." :)

bookpool.com has great prices on technical books and super-fast shipping (at least to New England).

You know what, if you're the kind of person who takes IE to be the defacto standard, then you probably also take MS Office as a defacto standard and thus have no qualms with vendor lock-in or compatibility anyway. I completely disagree with your entire first paragraph, and am sorry that you see things that way. Hopefully you don't get bit by those words later - good luck to you. On the second point, I agree that most users don't care, they just want things to work. To me that says "Use the standards" so that everything will work.

You can make a webpage that is standards compliant and works in IE. I do it all the time. The only problem is that you can't use all the newest standars. Also, stay away from things that are specific "features" of IE (as in things it happens to render in a certain way. Oh, and if people did start complaining to Microsoft that standards compliant websites didn't work with IE, then maybe they would change it.